Crock Pot Potatoes

I love my crock pot.  Especially since returning to work, it's so lovely to have meals ready to be eaten at the end of the day.  I've used it for a lot of purposes.  I've made pudding cakes, carrot cake, bread puddings, pea soups, stews, roasts, lasagnas, mac n cheese, apple sauce, etc., in it - but I've never thought of using it to make baked potatoes before! 

Our challenge at the end of the day is always to sit down to eat dinner in a timely fashion so that our little guy won't have to go straight from the dinner table into bed, which means that things we used to enjoy for dinner, like baked potatoes, were off the menu.  I know, you can microwave 'baked potatoes,' but I don't like how the skin turns out with that method. 

The crock pot got a wee bit messy from the sweet potato juices.

 Pinterest, as always, inspired me to give something new a try - I found this recipe on the Budget Savvy Diva's blog.  (I love her!  Such good recipes!)  Anyhow, after breakfast yesterday morning, I scrubbed 3 potatoes and 1 sweet potato (I wanted to see if it worked for the sweet potato, too!).  I rubbed each of them with a little olive oil, and sprinkled some sea salt on them.  After pricking each one with a fork, I wrapped them individually in aluminum foil and placed them in the slow cooker.  My crock pot cooks on a timer, so I hit the "Low, 10 hour" button, and headed out the door to take my son to the babysitter.

I should mention that I also took a half a pack of bacon out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge during the day. 

Upon returning home, I took out my baking sheet and prepared my bacon in the oven, as described in this post.  By the time my bacon was finished cooking, I had the cheese shredded, sour cream on the table, and our side of green beans steamed and ready to go - dinner was ready within 25 minutes of stepping in the door - and in that time I actually had time to load the dishwasher and wipe down the counters! 

The sweet potato leaked quite a bit of liquid - and due to it's sweet nature, the juices burned and made a bit of a mess in the crock pot.  However, my son was a big fan of the sweet potato without anything added to it - soft, fluffy, and mushy!  (I know, right?  Sounds so appetizing.)

I personally enjoyed my less-than-artisticly-arranged baked potato with crispy bacon and sharp cheddar cheese - so good, so easy, and so quick!