Hearty Hash Brown Dinner

With my stove broken, I have been trying to find crock pot recipes that will utilize the current ingredients I have on hand until my range gets fixed. The original recipe was one I found on 'allrecipes.com', and I only modified the ingredient amounts to suit our needs. It looked great going into the crock pot, and smelled great while it was cooking, but it did not look appetizing at all once it was finished. Frankly, it looks like slop. We were all prepared to hate it, and I even apologized in advance to everyone for the awful supper. We all reluctantly took a bite, and we were shocked to find that it's actually quite delicious. In fact my kids raved about it the rest of the time, and all but two went back for seconds. The following recipe is my version and it makes enough to feed all nine of us with no leftovers.

Hearty Hash Brown Dinner

1 (32 oz.) bag frozen hash browns
2 (16 oz.) bags frozen California style vegetable mix
1 lb. ground turkey or beef, browned and drained
1 (26 oz.) can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 - 2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
few shakes each onion powder and garlic powder
16 oz. Velveeta, cubed
1 large can french fried onions

Place the hash browns, veggies and browned ground turkey into a 6 quart slow cooker sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, whisk together the soup, milk, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. Pour over top of the mixture in the crock pot. Cover and cook in 'High' for 4-6 hours. Stir. About 30 minutes before serving top with the cubed Velveeta, and replace the cover. Once its melted, top with the french fried onions, cover and let sit for about 10 minutes. Serve.
Makes about 8 servings