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A Crockpot Recipe that Works

Thanks, everyone.  I'm glad to be back.  :-)

While I was on my hiatus from blogging I took maybe 2 pictures of things I could share.  I'm not proud to say that over the last 2 months we've eaten a lot of quick throw together things as well as a number of take out meals.  When you don't feel good it's hard to get excited about cooking (or anything for that matter).

One of the meals that I actually cooked and we liked came out of the Crockpot cookbook Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes.  It's not very exciting, but it worked.

Yes, it's a pasta sauce recipe.  Unfortunately it's not just a "throw all together in the morning and let it cook all day recipe" but it was nice that it was ready to eat when we were and at 5:00 I didn't have to stand and cook.  The original recipe says you can cook it all day (well, 6 to 8 hours), but in the past I've found if you cook Italian sausage all day in the crockpot it gets, well, mushy and unappetizing.  I opted to throw all the actual sauce ingredients into the crockpot in the early morning and then about 2 hours before dinner throw in the browned sausage (and mushrooms).  All in all something I could happily repeat again.

Another Repeat

Yesterday Adrienne had a doctor's appointment at 4:30 so I knew if I didn't have something ready to eat by the time we got home we'd end up eating who knows what.  (BTW, she's all better now, no sign of strep thankfully.)  So I looked toward the crockpot again.  I know I haven't had the greatest of luck with it recently (the chicken wings being the worst <shudder>) so I went with something I knew we liked:  crockpot lasagne.

This recipe is so simple and has turned out well each time I've made it.  I like to serve it with a simple salad and sometimes some garlic bread.  Think about this recipe when you're short on time in the late afternoon -- just remember that this only cooks for 4-5 hours so you can't start it in the morning.

Stamp Camp Yummies

While I'll post the fun cards we did tonight at stamp camp in tomorrow's post, I thought I'd share with you 2 new recipes I tried for our "eats".  The first is from Nigella Lawson's newest book (I think it's her newest at least),  Nigella Express:  Banana Butterscotch Muffins.  The combination of banana and butterscotch was great and the outside had a really nice crispy crust to it.  No more thrown away bananas in this house -- this recipe is the answer.

The second recipe I tried tonight was a chili cheese dip.  I usually try to have some type of warm crockpot dip and fall back to Buffalo Chicken dip or an artichoke spinach dip.  Tonight I wanted to try something different and really it was a mistake.  It tasted very institutionalized (does that make sense?) and didn't get eaten much.   Back to the old standby next time.

(Just so you don't think we had all junk food I also put out a tray of fresh veggies and fruit -- that's usually what gets eaten first.)

Crockpot Wednesday: The End

While this won't be my last Crockpot post, this will end my "Crockpot Wednesday" here on the blog.  Again, another "um, not quite" recipe .. this time the red beans (for red beans and rice) did not cook by the time dinner came around so we ended up with a combination of leftovers and things we had in the freezer (thank goodness I have a little bit of stock there).  So, I'm sorry there's no recipe to post or even a photo tonight.

As for the rest of us around here, I had 2 sick kids home today.  Adrienne still wasn't well enough to go to school (though she's going tomorrow) and Travis woke me up at 5:45 to tell me his throat hurt and didn't feel good so I let him stay home.  I was going to take him in to the doctor but they had no appointments ... then we were going to take him to Quick Care but late this afternoon he was doing much better.

Let's hope we're all healthy tomorrow.

Crockpot Wednesday: I Give Up

This is going to be a short post but the gist of today is Liam has pneumonia and we didn't get to eat the dinner I had stuck in the crockpot tonight.  (Liam will be fine, we caught it early enough and he's on several different medications now).  As for dinner, I'll let you know tomorrow when we eat it how it was.  :-)

Oh, what is it?  Turkey and stuffing ...   Take a boxed stuffing mix and make it according to the directions.  Place in the bottom of the crockpot and put a turkey breast half on top.  Sprinkle with poultry seasoning and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. 

Crockpot Wednesday: Um, Yuck.

This week's meals have really been out of whack for us.  I had thought I'd have 2 crockpot recipes to share with you tonight but I'm just going to give you 2 bad reviews with photos and leave it at that.

Last night's recipe was from Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Slow Cooker Recipes 2:  Sunset Chicken:

Basically it's a layer of bell peppers (in assorted colors) topped with seasoned chicken tenders and topped with a mixture of Catalina dressing and orange juice concentrate.  I served it with a salad and brown rice.  Not mentioning the fact that it looked bizarre, it had a strange flavor that we all agreed was not to be repeated.

Tonight's recipe I had my doubts about from the start unfortunately -- it's cooking chicken wings in the crockpot.  My biggest issue with that is I don't like chicken wings unless they are CRISPY.  I mean, charred on the grill.  These, well, look for yourself (am putting this after the jump because, well, it's not very appetizing.)

Crockpot Wednesday: Southwestern Beef Stew

Yes, it's Wednesday again and I have for you another Crockpot recipe.  I was hoping to make this a habit and looks like it'll stick.  If anyone is interested in joining me in posting Crockpot recipes, I'd love to have you join in.  Let me know what you think.

Today's recipe again comes from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.  This one is billed as a southwestern beef stew -- beef is browned briefly before going in the crockpot with salsa, vinegar and wine.  It came together fairly quickly this morning (though I have to say it did make quite a mess out of my stove) and it cooked happily all day.

Seeing as it's probably the coldest day of the year so far (it was 38 degrees when I went to get Liam after school...), this warm, slightly spicy stew hit the spot.  Unfortunately no one was thrilled with the recipe so it probably won't get made again.  Votes were:  Don (3), Travis (2), Adrienne (3), Liam (3), Me (3).  So, we'll give it a final 3 score.

I served it with couscous, a salad, and an open faced quesadilla.  Everyone loved the idea of the quesadilla (except for Liam who ate just a plain tortilla -- he doesn't do melted cheese), so I'll have to remember that as a quick side dish instead of cornbread or even bread. 

Crockpot Wednesday: Barbecue Chicken

I have been without a plan this week for meals and it sure shows.  Last night we had leftovers and/or sandwiches for dinner again and let me tell you it's getting a little old.  My goal for today is to get a menu written for next week so we won't have to go though this again.

Tonight, however, I knew I needed a crockpot meal (being it's Wednesday and Travis has tennis from 4 to 5 and Liam has basketball from 6:30 to 7:30) and I really didn't want to head back to the grocery store so it had to be with things already in the house.  I ran across this recipe for Slow-Cooking Barbecue Chicken in my Rotisserie Chickens to the Rescue! cookbook by Carla Fitzgerald Williams.  It's one of those cookbooks that I borrowed from the library one day on a whim and decided it would be a great addition to my collection so I bought it.

I had never heard of (re)cooking a rotisserie chicken in the crockpot before but since I had one in the fridge I thought "why not".  It's a simple homemade BBQ sauce poured over the chicken (pulled into quarters) and the author even suggests using a bottled BBQ sauce instead if you're even shorter on time.  She also wants you to top the quartered chicken with sliced onions and lemons but since I had neither, I opted to just use the sauce.

How did it come out?  Well, I give it high marks for ease -- in 5 minutes it was in the crockpot and ready to roll.  However, as the case with chicken and the crockpot it dried out immensely -- though that was really just a problem with the breast meat I ate.  The sauce was tasty enough but I'm afraid it didn't meet with everyone's approval.  Don?  2.5, Adrienne? 3, Liam?  2.  Me?  I think I'll go with Don and a 2.5.  Travis ate a sandwich when he got home from school and after tennis wasn't hungry so abstained.  So, a 2.5 it is.  Hopefully tomorrow's meal will be a better one.

Crockpot Sloppy Joe's

I'm sure every family has their busiest day of the week and ours just happens to be on Wednesdays.  Travis has tennis and Liam usually has one sport or another (this session it'll be basketball I believe) and it just makes getting dinner on the table an issue.

Thinking of this I've decided to make Wednesdays crockpot days.   Being that my family doesn't care for most crockpot meals this should prove an interesting prospect.  I'm sure we'll find many we don't care for but at least we'll give it a shot.

Tonight's first recipe is for sloppy joe's.

It comes from one of my newer cookbooks:  Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.  I think I'll find a few recipes to cook this year out of it (it boasts over 350 recipes though not all of them are crockpot recipes) and it'll be fun and challenging to find ones we like.  (No, this isn't the only cookbook I have on this subject so it won't be the only one I'm cooking out of).

The verdict on the recipe?  Amazingly Don, Travis and Adrienne voted it a 4 with Travis even declaring it a 4 1/2.  Liam?  He had a Lean Cuisine Fettuccine Alfredo so he doesn't get his vote tonight.  As for me, I went out to dinner with some friends so I did not do more than taste it before I left and it was pretty good.  This is not something you can leave in the pot and go to work, though.  I ended up stirring it a couple of times and switching it from low to warm a few times as well.  Otherwise I think it would have burned and been pretty awful.  So, with the slight modification of stirring we'll settle it in on a 4.

PPN: Crockpot Lasagne

I think I'm coming in under the wire for this week's Presto Pasta Night over at Ruth's wonderful blog Once Upon a Feast.  This week has been so crazy busy that I haven't had much of a chance for cooking let along blogging.  However, I made this recipe last week and wanted to share it with the PPN crowd.

This is one I've blogged about before, but bears repeating.  How great it is that you can make a pretty tasty lasagne in the crockpot?  The recipe comes from Pillsbury's website and is really easy to put together.  The only disadvantage to it is that you can't cook it all day and needs to be started about 5 hours before you want to serve it. 

I think this would be a very versatile recipe as well ... don't like ground beef?  Add sausage or ground chicken.  Don't want Alfredo sauce?  Use ricotta cheese.  Want some veggies?  Go ahead and throw them in too.  Next time (and yes, there WILL be a next time), I think I'm going to add some mushrooms and some spinach and substitute ricotta for the Alfredo.  Warm and tasty it goes great with a simple salad and some garlic bread.