Hello. I've been away for a long time. Illness, but now I'm in pretty good shape. Recently the DH was complaining about how many things we had to do inside of one week, and I got the idea of cooking up a bunch of stuff all at once so we could just get a box out, heat it up and eat it. We made my Midwest Cassoulet, some Greek chicken off the internet, and my mother's bean soup. Here's the recipe for Midwest cassoulet. It's a nice dish for company, yet it's easy to make.

You will notice there are few amounts here. How big you make the batch depends on how many people are coming for dinner.

Saute a chopped yellow onion and some garlic in the oil of your choice.

Line a big slow cooker with a slow cooker liner. (for easy clean-up)

Lay chicken pieces in it. I usually use thighs.

Put the garlic and onion on top of the chicken.

Add Polish sausage cut into 1/2-inch slices.

Put in some carrots cut into 2-inch pieces

Drain, but don't rinse, 1 or 2 cans of Great Northern beans. Add to pot.

Add one can of diced, no-salt tomatoes unless you have garden tomatoes.

Slip in 1-2 bay leaves.

Add black pepper till you get tired of grinding it. My usual amount is 12 grinds.

Slow-cook on low for something like 8 hours till chicken is tender. Obviously chicken breasts will take less time.

Just before serving, stir in 1-2 teaspoons of dried thyme. You can use fresh thyme if it's handy.

People who want more salt can use the salt shaker on the table.

Remove bay leaves and serve cassoulet with French bread and a nice salad.
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FYI: Sometimes I don't bother to saute and onion & garlic.