Super Bowl Super Food – Slow cooker diaries

Posted on February 25, 2013 by chatty

shrimp and chicken jambalaya

I am a nervous nelly when it comes to watching my favorite teams play in big games. I fret. I groan. I yell. And I cheer, but sometime not too loud for fear of jinxing the next play. Husband hates this. So he didn’t watch the AFC championship game when my Pats were playing (pretty terribly). The Seahawks, too, when they were rockin’ the playoffs, but we did tune into the Super Bowl together. I was much more relaxed. Didn’t have much vested in the game, except to root against th 49ers. Division rivals! No way am I cheering for that team!

Enjoyed a cheat meal for Super Bowl. Paying homage to the New Orleans locale I made slow cooker shrimp & chicken jambalaya. The rice was not fully cooked at kick off, though the shrimp was just right. Of course, it being a slow cooker, by halftime the rice was just right, and the shrimp a bit overdone. Was pretty much full by then anyway. Next time I’ll either cook the rice separate, time the brown rice better, or go with traditional white rice.

Next time, Seahawks!

slow cooker diaries: meat loaf!

Posted on February 2, 2013 by chatty

I was a little nervous about this one. The recipe I was following called for saltine crackers (it was old-school), among other things. Plus, the husband does a wonderful meat loaf, so would mine pass the husband test? I combined ground beef with pork and lamb, and did away with the crackers, but did for some reason sprinkly in some coconut flour. I put in only a little because the combined scents of coconut and ground meat was not appealing. Adding in a saucy mixture of mustard/bbq sauce gave it a nice flavor. The beauty of this slow cooker recipe was that it called to place the loaf on top of a bed of potatoes and onions in the slow cooker. I changed that from several russet potatoes to one russet, plus parsnips, carrots & sweet potato (and threw the rest into a pan with olive oil and salt/pepper to roast just before dinner)

meat and potatoes, and stuff

Verdict was a positive (and fun and easy to prepare). Although no grains were in the loaf, it came out binded together (my concern) and moist. I enjoy having a ton of vegetables as the side to enjoy.

slow cooker diaries: curry chicken

Posted on February 2, 2013 by chatty

My challenge these days are finding great recipes that I can do in the slow cooker, that are also paleo-friendly. Curry tends to do the trick. This one is tomato-based with cauliflower, peas and onions. I edited the recipe from my new favorite resource to avoid any flour/grains. Um, I think I did. It’s been a few weeks. But it tasted great and we had leftovers, which meant I’m getting the hang of portions for family cooking. No small feat for me, mind you. The family enjoyed it, that’s my litmus test right there.

curry chicken in the slow cooker

Growing up we didn’t do tomato-based curries. It was … what was the base?

slow cooker diaries: chicken cacciatorre

Posted on January 28, 2013 by chatty

I always sing that Billy Joel song in my head when I think of this dish. This was super easy. I just lightly browned the chicken and went with the flow. Must be before Paleo because no doubt I used a little flour to get the sauce so thick. I passed on the rotini but went for the lightly toasted rosemary bread instead.

some goodness right there

here is Lily’s plate, the meal deconstructed for higher probability of eating:

aka pasta and chicken

Another slow cooker win!

slow cooker diaries: pot roast

Posted on January 26, 2013 by chatty

The first crock pot recipe I can remember making was a pot roast, made with Lipton onion soup mix, among other ingredients. Delicious, if I recall. This version uses some less processed stuff: beef broth, paprika, ground pepper and a lot of root vegetables. So many, actually, that we tooka bunch of the chopped carrots, parsnips and onions into the oven for separate roasting.

Delicious, again.

Thanks to Sue & fam, for the cookbook gift and countless ne recipes to try

Slow Cooker Diaries: Husband’s Red Sauce

Posted on November 10, 2012 by chatty

Are you going to make the good noodles, Mommy?

Um, I hadn’t planned on it. But now that you mention it …

So, is there a co-relation between me gaining a few pounds and us digging into a slow cooker meal every week? Perhaps. I’ve definitely enjoyed more pasta lately. Maybe I’m fattening up for winter. Well, golly I hope not. But before I go off to South Beach again for the 11 days before Thanksgiving (really? Only 11?) let me indulge us with another rich meal.

I took the husband’s red sauce ingredients and made a meaty sauce in the slowcooker to top over “the good noodles” (fresh parpadelle). The husband also had bought a loaf of rosemary bread (what’s with the carbs?), and that was our meal. Oh yeah, some salad, too.

soo good, yet sooo bad.

This stuff is good. Really good, but it made us feeling pretty cruddy afterwards. I think it’s the saturated fat glut that puts our normal diets in an unbalanced state. As fun as it was to make, as amazing as it was to smell all day, as delcious asd it was over the good noodles, I don’t think we’ll be pulling this one out for a while.

Ingredients:

ground lamb and pork, equivalent to 1 lb

1 carrot, finely shredded

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

sliced sweet onion, to your preference

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

6 oz can tomato paste

garlic flakes (or real garlic. we do’nt use much of the real stuff because it doesn’t sit well, but i may as well have)

Italian Seasonings, salt, pepper

Red Wine

Brown the onions and meat in some olive oil. Deglaze the pan with some red wine and throw it all in the SC. Add the crucshed tomatoes and half of the tomato paste. Vegetables, more red wine, herbs and spices. Mix it up. Turn the SC to High and cook for 4-ish hours. At the 4 hour mark add in and mix well the rest of the tomato paste. Cover and notch it down to low for another hour or so. Served on top of fresh parpadelle noodles. Yum.

Slow Cooker Diaries: Beef Stroganoff

Posted on October 28, 2012 by chatty

Woot! We have a winner! Lots of good words for this one. I’ve been trying to avoid SC recipes that contain cream of mushroom soup and stuff like Italian dressing, ranch dressing, etc etc. This one is sort of skirting that policy but now I’m beginning to see why everyone uses these easy ingredients. This one used “golden mushroom” soup, plus sour cream and cream cheese. At the husband’s recommendation I used fresh noodles (Parpadelle) from the refrigerated section.

This one is a keeper.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat
1 can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup
1 C of red wine (I used Cab Sauv … and filled the empty coup can with wine, used some of that to deglaze the pan)
8 oz fresh sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 c or so sour cream (reduced-fat ok)
4 oz cream cheese (reduced-fat ok)

Instructions:

Brown beef in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. (Next time I might dredge in flour first)
Deglaze the pan with some of the red wine, and add the good stuff into the SC with the beef.
Cover with onions and mushrooms. Add golden mushroom soup, Worcestershire sauce, season with additional salt and pepper
Cook on high, 4ish hours. At 4 hours take some of the sauce from the SC and combine with sour cream and cream cheese in a sauce pan over low-medium heat. When smooth add in a little flour to thicken sauce. Try to remove the lumps and think about that gravy commercial from my childhood (“just like ma used to make, but no lumps!”)
Add sauce back in and mix it up. Turn the SC to low for another 30 minutes.

Slow cooker diaries: Beef with noodles

Posted on October 16, 2012 by chatty

Me: how does beef with noodles sound?
Husband: as long as I don’t have to cook it, founds great to me!
That’s not quit how the conversation went, but it could have.

I varied slightly from the recipe I found. The original recipe called for adding egg noodles into the SC at the end but too many reviewers complained of the noodles turning to mush, so I jut cooked separate and spooned on top.
I also made too much pasta. I’ve really reduced the amount of pasta I’ve cooked/eaten in the past couple years, so a bit rusty on how much to cook. Oh we’ll. good thing the kid likes fusilli.

The veggies were what we had (well, I bought the mushrooms, but everything else we already had. In fact the onion & potatoes were from the previous SC meal)

2lbs beef stew meat
Beef broth
Baby carrots
Onion
Mushrooms
Potatoes
Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
Oil for browning meat
Flour for thickening the sauce

Season then Brown meat. Place over chopped vegetables in the SC. Deglaze pan (i used the broth)and a add that in, too. Season, season. Pour in a good amount of beef broth. More vegetables. Cook on low for 8 hours.

The books mostly say to not open he lid. I always do. If only o check and stir. I want to make sure it’s all cooking ok. Never hurt nobody.

Forgot to snap a pic until I was packing up the leftovers

Result were good. Next day leftover beef was hard as a rock. Taking a break, as l’ll be in Cali this weekend. Last time I visited with my cousins we ate some amazing homemade chinese food. yay! Pics to come.

Slow cooker diaries 10.7: Irish lamb stew

Posted on October 8, 2012 by chatty

Tried an Irish Stew this week, using lamb (Icelandic lamb, if you must know). For the first time I browned the meat before adding to the slow cooker. Verdict … S’okay. I accidentally bought cilantro not flat leaf parsley. Rookie mistake, but then lost the final garnish. I also forgot to take a pic until after I put the leftovers away.

Forgot to take a pic! Whoops. There is a single piece of lamb there. See it?

I did an Irish soda bread experiment, halving the allrecipes recipe and making individual muffins instead of a loaf.

I asked the husband, who has a little Irish blood in him, if these tasted like Irish soda bread and he shrugged his shoulders. Who knows? Well, I thought they tasted really good. Lightly sweetened with a subtle tang to them.

Overall, not bad. But I hoped for more from the stew, what with the fancy meat and all…

Irresistible Irish Soda Bread from AllRecipes.com

Slow cooker diaries 10.1: Chicken Pot Pie with biscuits

Posted on October 8, 2012 by chatty

Good recipe courtesy of the Betty Crocker app. I am choosy about slow cooker recipes. Seems the recipes I find on Pinterest or Allrecipes consist of packets of “seasonings” and other processed ingredients (I.e. ranch dressing! French onion soup mix! a cup of brown sugar!) trying to avoid that but then gave in and used half a jar of “chicken gravy” and damned if it didn’t taste good. Bisquick biscuits completed this fun meal.