Saturday, March 31, 2007

Chicken Sloppy Joes

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes


Ingredients:
ground turkey
celery
onion
coke
dry mustard
salt & pepper
cayenne pepper
hamburger buns

Comments:
Another simple recipe - I don't think there's a difficult one in this whole book. Just combine and cook for hours and hours. I let this one sit on the warm mode for a while though since I made this on a day where we ended up going to look at a house. We went out for dinner with Adam's parents afterwards but we ate this as leftovers for lunch. It reheats well, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Cheese & Herb Breadstick Twists

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
dried tomatoes
romano cheese
water
rosemary
pepper
pizza dough

Comments:
I didn't have any tomatoes and Adam doesn't like them anyway so I left them out. It still turned out just fine. Yes, it's from a slow cooker cook book but this is not a slow cooker recipe. This one takes about 15 minutes. It won Adam's seal of approval so that's good.

Tangy Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
chili powder
celery seeds
salt & pepper
beef brisket
onions
barbecue sauce
beer or ginger ale
kaiser rolls

Comments:
I altered this recipe a little since I didn't have the chili powder or celery seeds and I wasn't about to go buy them just for this recipe. It also says to top the meat with hot sauce and a mango slice and I just ignored that part. I think it turned out ok anyway. I don't like barbecue at all but I could eat this because the slow cooking and other flavors tone the barbecue flavor way down. Even Adam liked it which is good since he chose the recipe! :)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Lemony Pork & Vegetables

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
pork shoulder
flour
pepper
oil
baby carrots
parsnips
shallots
lemon
basil
chicken broth
couscous

Comments:
I'm not a fan of pork but this was actually pretty good. It requires more prep than just throwing things in the pot (you have to brown the meat) but it's still pretty simple. I substituted potatoes for the parsnips. I figured they were both starchy root vegetables so it couldn't hurt the recipe too much. The lemon definately gets all through the meat and veggies. Adam wasn't a fan, but that's ok. More leftovers for me! :)

Brats in Beer

From howstuffworks.com



Ingredients:
brats
beer
onion
brown sugar
cider vinegar

Comments:
Aah, how much more Wisconsin can you get than brats and beer? We have bought brats when they were on sale a while back and decided to throw them in the slow cooker. I'm not generally a brat person, but even I ate them. The sugar and vinegar have all day to permeate the meat and it becomes so tender and isn't so spicy. It does have a rather unappealing gray color though, but that's really my only complaint.

Chicken Caprese Club Rolls

From Rachael Ray's Open House Cookbook



Ingredients:
bacon
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt & pepper
EVOO
sub rolls
tomatoes
fresh mozzarella
basil

Comments:
Adam chose this recipe. It was pretty simple to make, the only prep required being cooking the meats and slicing veggies. I used frozen chicken breasts and cooked them in my George Foreman grill so I didn't exactly follow the recipe. And I skipped the basil - it all looked questionable when I went grocery shopping. They seem totally huge, but they really squish down when you take a bite so even I could get one in my mouth.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Slow Cooked Meatballs With Gravy

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
eggs
bread crumbs
onion
celery
parsley
pepper
garlic powder
ground turkey
oil
cream soup
water
gravy mix
bay leaf
thyme

Comments:
I was going to make this during the week but it had too much prep time required for a morning I had to go to work. So I made it this morning instead. The meatballs are made separately and brown them and then pour a gravy-like mixture over them before cooking them for a while in the crockpot. They turned out quite well and the different seasonings in the meatballs and gravy go well together. There isn't any salt (except for what's in the soup and gravy mix) and it kind of surprised me that it really doesn't need any.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Smokin' Joe Robinson

From Rachael Ray's Open House Cookbook



Ingredients:
pizza dough
bacon
onions
fresh mozzarella
pepper
EVOO

Comments:
This recipe is from a book Rachael put out before she was "famous" and it's full of all kinds of good things for entertaining as well as a whole bunch of her 30 minutes meals at the back section. Adam made this pizza and it turned out great. The fresh mozzarella melts a lot differently than the shredded stuff does and the bacon and onions and cheese together were awesome.

As you can see, I look forward to making a lot more of these recipes in the future (and this is before Adam got his hands on the book!)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Meaty Spaghetti Sauce

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
ground beef
Italian sausage
green pepper
onion
diced tomatoes
tomato paste
tomato sauce
sugar
Italian seasoning
basil
marjoram
salt
pepper

Comments:
This is the excellent pasta sauce recipe I found that simmers all day long in the crockpot. I made it with the green pepper for the first time today and I'm not sure if I like it or not. I also always have used all ground beef since I'm not a sausage fan. It's so good. I just make a batch and throw it in the freezer for later.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Peanut Butter Cookies

From allrecipes.com



Ingredients:
flour
baking soda
salt
brown sugar
white sugar
butter
eggs
creamy peanut butter
vanilla

Comments:
We finished Adam's grandma's cookies so I asked him if he wanted me to bake some other cookies this morning. He requested peanut butter. Just peanut butter though. Nothing else! (Last time I made them I snuck chocolate chips in them. He wasn't amused.) Anyway, I ran out of brown sugar so I substituted additional white. The first thing he said when he tasted one was "they're not chewy." Never pleased, this one. Anywho, I thought they were good. :)

Rosemary Scented Red Potatoes

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
red potatoes
water
butter
lemon juice
rosemary
salt
pepper
garlic
parsley

Comments:
I intended to make the incredible slow cooked pasta sauce I love so much today but discovered I was one can short on the diced tomatoes. So I noticed I had red potatoes and decided to make this recipe instead. Pretty simple chopping and combining and then sit back and smell it cook. The potatoes cook for so long they just fall apart when you're ready to eat them. They also get carmelized and get a great taste to them. Yum.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Beef & Tortellini Soup

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
round steak
flour
salt
pepper
onion
butter
beef broth
pasta sauce
carrots
water
Italian seasoning
zucchini
cheese-filled tortellini

Comments:
Another awesome crockpot recipe! I've been really bad at following recipes lately. In this one I swapped out some olive oil for the butter (it's used to brown the meat before it gets thrown in the crockpot), didn't have any carrots or Italian seasoning so I left the carrots out and just threw in some stuff that sounded like it belonged in an Italian blend (oregano, thyme, basil, parsely, rosemary, etc.) I think it turned out just fine in spite of my improvisations. And Adam liked it (with the exception of the cut of meat which wasn't my choice - I just followed the recipe.) I don't think it's possible to have a difficult crockpot recipe. Yay!

Slow Cooker Chicken & Noodles

From Better Homes & Gardens Simple Slow Cooker Recipes



Ingredients:
carrots
onion
celery
parsley
bay leaf
chicken legs
cream of chicken soup
water
dried thyme
pepper
egg noodles
frozen peas

Comments:
I actually used the bay leaf in this one although I did use my bscb (boneless, skinless chicken breasts) rather than legs. Who needs to be picking meat off bones when you can buy it already done for you? Anywho, another classic crockpot recipe involving chopping, waiting for 8 hours, and enjoying the yummyness. Have I mentioned how much I love the crockpot? And since Adam most likely won't touch this one (something about chicken and noodles together in a dish grosses him out) there are lots of leftovers for this coming week!