LBurt -- sounds like a terrific variation. Glad you enjoyed it!

And thanks for the tip about meat too! I'm sure I'll be cooking meat in there too, I just don't eat it very often at home.

Thanks everyone! I'm planning on trying the soup & chili in the next week or two.

Amanda- I just had the oats for breakfast....fabulous! I was out of regular milk, so I used soy and then switched the honey for maple syrup and used the roasted cinnamon maple almond butter I made last week....YUM.

I'm not offering a recipe but for meatarians, consider that you will need to brown meats before submitting them to the slow cooker; that goes for beef, pork or poultry or even sausage. Also, season those meat pieces well. Slow cookers are great up to a point but before you drop the stuff in you still need to do the prep. Now if you want to talk about red beans and rice or else feijoada...

Here's a chili-like main dish I often made for my kids when they were little and I was an insanely busy commercial litigator:
Dump into a crockpot that's on the "high" setting:
1 12-ounce container of fresh salsa (store-bought)
2 cans (total) of red and/or white kidney beans and/or black beans, rinsed
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 tablespoon of chili powder (more or less, to taste)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Stir well to mix in the tomato paste. Leave it on ''high'' for about 4 hours, then turn it down to low until you're ready to eat. About an hour before you plan to stop cooking the chili, squeeze the juice of a lime into it.Stir in 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped (don't worry about getting a few small stems in it). Check for salt and correct if necessary. Add freshly grated black pepper to taste. Serve with freshly grated cheddar or jack, or with sour cream; accompany with rice, corn muffins or cornbread, or with good tortilla chips. (My sons used to eat this stuff dipping it onto large baked/low-salt chips, dispensing with spoons and forks.)

Not to blatantly promote recipes from the site but this oatmeal with almond butter and honey, done in a slow cooker, is out of this world: http://bit.ly/9EepWG

Simple but GREAT - and vegetarian.

Tortilla Soup:
2 cans black beans
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 small can diced green chilies
1 cup whatever salsa you like
Stir together in the crock, cook on Low ~ 8 hours.

To serve, put blue corn tortilla chips in a bowl, ladle over soup, top with grated cheese of your choice (or crumbled cotija) and sour cream, maybe some green onions. Seriously good.