If you’ve got a household of pizza and pasta lovers, this slow-cooker pizza pasta recipe is the perfect mashup of everyone’s favorite foods. This easy, kid-friendly dinner is loaded with tender egg noodles, hearty meat sauce, zippy pepperoni and, of course, plenty of ooey-gooey cheese. Simply boil a package of noodles and brown the ground meat and veggies on the stovetop. Then, layer everything in the slow cooker and let it work its magic for the few hours leading up to dinnertime.

Ingredients for Slow-Cooker Pizza Pasta

• Noodles: Tender egg noodles hold up beautifully in the slow cooker without getting mushy. You can use another pasta shape, like rotini or penne, but be sure to slightly undercook them so they finish cooking in the slow cooker.
• Ground meat: Use ground beef for rich, meaty flavor, or opt for ground turkey if you prefer a leaner option. You could also use bulk Italian sausage for added savoriness.
• Veggies: Saute chopped green bell pepper and onion with the meat for added texture and aromatics. This recipe also calls for jarred mushrooms, but you can use fresh sliced mushrooms for a meatier texture and fresher flavor.
• Spaghetti sauce: Classic red sauce adds tanginess and keeps the meat and pasta tender. Use homemade spaghetti sauce to control the seasoning or your favorite store-bought sauce for convenience.
• Italian seasoning: This blend of dried herbs adds depth and a fragrant aroma.
• Pepperoni: Zesty pepperoni brings a salty, slightly spicy kick and fun pizza-inspired flavor to the dish. Cut each slice in half for even layering and easier mouthfuls.
• Shredded cheese: A mix of shredded cheddar and mozzarella creates plenty of ooey-gooey meltiness throughout the dish with both sharp and mild flavors. Feel free to use other melting cheeses, like provolone or Monterey Jack.

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Whether you’re looking to feed a crowd or whip up an easy weeknight meal for the family, sloppy joe casserole is a comforting one-pot meal that’s packed with flavor. Requiring just 20 minutes of prep time, the mostly hands-off dish gets piled into a slow cooker, where the juices of the meat soak into crispy Tater Tots. Whether you enjoy it on its own or serve it with a simple salad, this nourishing casserole is easy to prep, serve and store.

We start by browning ground beef, then combine it with the sweet and tangy flavors sloppy joes are known for—tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Next, the meat gets layered into a slow cooker with Tater Tots and topped with shredded cheese and sprinkle of paprika. It’s an easy way to get dinner on the table with minimal prep or cleanup.

Sloppy Joe Casserole Ingredients

• Frozen Tater Tots: These little pops of shredded potato are so versatile, they’re a great ingredient to keep in your freezer. In this recipe, we start by lining the slow cooker with a layer of tots to act as a sturdy base for the slow cooker Tater Tot casserole. They hold everything together while soaking in the juices and flavor from the meat mixture.
• Ground beef or turkey: While ground beef is a really rich addition to this dish, you could easily swap it out for lighter ground turkey. Either protein will bulk up this dish with hearty flavor, so you can’t go wrong no matter which you choose. Be sure to break the meat into smaller crumbles to help it disperse evenly throughout the casserole.
• Tomato sauce: Sweet and acidic at the same time, canned tomato sauce is a great way to add moisture and flavor to this sloppy joe casserole. We add it to the cooked ground beef and let it simmer for a few minutes before pouring it over the tots.
• Sweet chili sauce: This can be a really rich dish, so adding a bit of tangy spice is a great way to offset any leftover grease from the beef and tots. Bottled sweet chili sauce combines with the meat and tomato sauce to add vibrant flavor that’s equally sweet, acidic, spicy and savory.
• Brown sugar: Adding a bit of brown sugar is a great way to accentuate the savory flavors in this recipe. Brown sugar also has a more caramelized flavor than white sugar, so it adds a deep complexity that pairs nicely with the ground beef.
• Worcestershire sauce: Tangy, peppery, salty and just a tiny bit sweet, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce go a long way in this recipe. The umami flavor complements the richness of the beef and adds complexity throughout the dish.
• Minced garlic: Dried minced garlic has a slightly milder flavor than the fresh version, and it’s a convenient way to add quick flavor to soups and meat sauces. However, you can certainly swap in the fresh version if you prefer it.
• Minced onion: This rich, slightly nutty dried spice is packed with sweet and savory flavor. Using the dried version also saves a ton of time. It delivers a powerful punch of flavor without the need to spend time mincing a fresh onion by hand.
• Colby-Monterey Jack cheese: This pleasantly mild cheese melts easily and consistently, so it’s a great choice for casserole recipes like this one. We finish this sloppy joe casserole with a handful of shredded cheese and let it melt gently before serving.
• Paprika: A few dashes of paprika make for a flavorful and colorful topping here. It’s a warm and vibrant spice that helps add smoky, sweet flavor to whatever dish it’s used in.

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Cue the Italian music, and prepare for a cozy night in with a shrimp marinara recipe that’s savory, satisfying and delightfully simple. Our homemade sauce for shrimp comes together in your slow cooker and tastes like you’ve been tending to it all day. The marinara is a no-fuss, tomato-based sauce with aromatics like garlic and herbs. Its bright, straightforward flavor complements the tender shrimp, which are added near the end of cooking.

As a great alternative to a heavy, red meat-based Italian gravy, shrimp marinara makes for a delicious weeknight dish or a weekend spread. Just add crusty bread and a Caesar salad. One bite, and this pasta dish will surely make your list of favorite Italian recipes.

Ingredients for Shrimp Marinara

• Shrimp: Make sure your shrimp is fresh before you buy it. Avoid shrimp with a strong ammonia smell or shrimp that smells overly fishy. Pass on shrimp with shells that appear slimy or cloudy. Buying frozen shrimp is generally a safe bet as they are usually frozen immediately after harvesting, which preserves their fresh-from-the-sea flavor. Buy peeled and deveined shrimp to save time, or learn how to clean shrimp yourself.
• Tomatoes: Canned Italian diced tomatoes are often steam-packed fresh and include aromatics like basil, oregano and garlic. You can even use the best San Marzano tomatoes and dice them up yourself.
• Tomato paste: With its depth of umami flavor and thickening qualities, tomato paste adds richness to this slow-cooked sauce for shrimp.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic is key to any great tomato sauce. Its pungent raw flavor softens after a few hours in the slow cooker, so feel free to add another clove or two if you’re a garlic lover. Make garlic prep a breeze with our hacks for peeling garlic.
• Herbs: Parsley, oregano and basil are common herbs in Italian and Mediterranean cooking. This recipe uses a combination of fresh and dried. Fresh herbs are generally milder than their dried cousins, but you can usually use them interchangeably; our fresh-to-dried herb conversion guide can help.
• Seasonings: Traditional marinara seasonings are very simple. This recipe is no different, as it only uses salt and pepper. For the best results, use kosher salt, which has a clean flavor, and freshly cracked black pepper.
• Pasta: This recipe calls for easy-to-find spaghetti, but the sauce for shrimp would work over almost any pasta.
• Parmesan cheese: The sprinkle of cheese is totally optional but highly recommended. That nutty, salty finish on warm, tomato-y sauce is the stuff dinner dreams are made of.

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Come in from the cold and sit down to slow-simmered pot roast, loaded chili and breakfast-for-dinner, too. Even on the snowiest day, these winter slow-cooker recipes warm you from your toes to your nose.

• Slow-Cooker Swiss Steak
• Slow-Cooker Monkey Bread
• Sloppy Joe Tater Tot Casserole
• Spaghetti & Meatball Soup

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For many families, rotisserie chickens are a grocery store staple that makes it easy to assemble well-rounded meals in a snap. That said, very few Americans have access to a rotisserie, a rotating roaster that bastes the meat in its own drippings as it turns.

To make a chicken with the same sticky skin and tenderness at home, we employ the help of a slow cooker. The long cooking time in the appliance’s steady warmth softens the meat to an almost silky texture. You won’t get the same crispy edges as a rotisserie chicken, but adding a robust seasoning blend both under the chicken skin and on top of it ensures a juicy roast with a great backbone of sweet and savory flavor. And don’t skip the carrots and onions slow-cooked in the chicken drippings until they’re meltingly tender—they’re the best!

Serve your slow-cooker rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes and peas for a classic roast dinner, then shred the leftover chicken to make any number of other rotisserie chicken recipes.

Ingredients for Slow-Cooker Rotisserie Chicken

• Seasoning blend: Besides carving the meat at the end, the most time-intensive part of this slow-cooker rotisserie chicken recipe is measuring out the elements of the sweet and savory spice blend. The mixture is a comprehensive blend that starts with a base of seasoned salt, poultry seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder. Paprika helps burnish the chicken an amber color, while the addition of brown sugar helps the chicken to brown. A little lemon-pepper seasoning balances the sweet and smoky flavors with a tart edge.
• Chicken: The star of this recipe is, of course, a whole, bone-in chicken rubbed with spices and slow-cooked to juicy tenderness in the steady heat of a slow cooker. Aim to buy a broiler or fryer chicken that weighs about 4 pounds. Larger than that, and you may have trouble fitting the bird into the slow cooker without crowding it. Make sure to remove any giblets from the cavity of your chicken before adding it to the slow cooker.
• Carrots and onions: Chopped vegetables line the bottom of the slow cooker and cook to nearly melting tenderness in the chicken drippings.
• Cornstarch: Tossing the vegetables in a little cornstarch helps thicken the chicken drippings slightly into a velvety pouring texture.

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