December craziness...

We took last week off due to extra long December to do lists.  This week... who knows what day it is, right?  Well it's Wednesday and I realized as I headed off to bed, "It's Wednesday and I'm making minestrone soup in my crock pot!"  So the good news is that by using my crock pot regularly over the last two months I now use it without planning to use it.  It's no longer an event... it's cooking!

When I wake up tomorrow morning a big batch of Herby Minestrone (from Art of the Slow Cooker) will be waiting.  I'll refrigerate it and we'll enjoy it over the next few days.  Hopefully the rain will let up but if it doesn't at least we'll have some delicious homemade soup.

Week 8: Moroccan Chicken

Liz chose this week... Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken from allrecipes.com.    I usually try to follow the directions exactly the first the time I prepare a recipe.  However I only had the time and energy to go to one grocery store on Tuesday night.  I opted for Henry's even though Liz had texted me that Ralph's had fresh peaches.  Of course Henry's didn't have fresh peaches.  No slivered almonds either.  So I was uneasy from the start.  I bought canned peaches (organic) and used less apricots since canned peaches are sweeter than fresh.

Then today on my way to a meeting I realized I hadn't asked my mom to pull the crock pot out of the fridge and turn it on.  Hmm... it was 11 am so I had two hours to either reach her or get home.  Luckily she called me back just after noon and got the crock pot started.  But I forgot to tell her to add the chicken broth!  I had layered all the ingredients the night before but decided to add the chicken broth just before cooking.  I didn't realize this until much later though, in fact I didn't realize I forgot until after dinner.

So no surprise here - I skipped the cornstarch and water step because it didn't seem to need thickening.  Hmm I wonder why?  Because I left out 2 cups of liquid?  I still didn't realize I forgot the broth.  

Andrew chopped some almonds for me to substitute for "toasted slivered almonds".  We served it into bowls... we reached for the camera to take a picture... the batteries were dead.  So I used my phone which will explain the quality of this picture.

How was Murphy's Law Moroccan Chicken?  It got mixed reviews.  The kids didn't like it - "too spicy". Andrew gave it a thumbs up.  He had seconds and will have more in his lunch tomorrow.  I thought it was ok.  Actually, I did like it but I don't know that I'll make it again.  Although Andrew wants to try it again.  If I do make it again, it will be in the summer time with fresh peaches!

Week 7: Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

Wow! I really can't believe we've kept this up for seven weeks (with a week off for Thanksgiving). Heather's turn to pick this week.  Another good one!  This recipe was very tasty AND really easy.  It didn't make as much as I thought it would so I might double it next time for a crowd or leftovers.

Here's the link to the original recipe on Everyday Food.  Heather read the comments and suggested we soak the beans overnight. I did this and it worked perfectly.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried pinto beans, soaked overnight
most of 1 jar of Frontera Medium Salsa (Andrew loves Rick Bayless)
2 tablespoons of canned chipotle in adobo sauce, chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 package (about 1.25 pounds) organic chicken breast from Costco
Maldon sea salt flakes and fresh ground pepper
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chicken broth (the original recipe calls for water)

Garnish on top: a bit of sour cream and lots of chopped cilantro

Directions:
In crock pot, layer beans, salsa, chiles, flour and 1 cup chicken broth.  Arrange chicken on top of bean mixture, season with salt and pepper.  Scatter onion and bell pepper on top of chicken.

Cook on LOW for 8 hours.  Do not open lid or stir.

With two forks shred chicken by pulling it apart.  Serve with sour cream and cilantro.

I will definitely make this again.  Let me know if you want to come for dinner!

Coming Soon: Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

In case you want to participate this week, here is Heather's pick for the week from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're skipping this Wednesday to go to the desert for Thanksgiving.  La Quinta here we come...

Week 6: Caponata

My week to pick - I decided to choose a recipe the old school way - from an actual cookbook on my bookshelf. I need to start using the cookbooks I own instead of looking for new recipes online.  Otherwise what's the point of owning so many cookbooks?

The downside of this method is that I can't post the recipe due to copyright infringement laws!  I chose Caponata from Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss.  It was really good!  Eggplant, celery, green bell pepper, tomato... and a few surprise ingredients.  Anchovy paste! Capers and olives, yum.

I'll loan you the book if you want to make it.  Andrew-my-husband-not-Andrew-the-author gave me this cookbook for Christmas last year.  It is not your typical crock pot cookbook - lots of variety and some prep work compared to the usual open cans of stuff to make chili or stew.  But based on the few recipes I've tried, I'm excited to try more.  In fact the caponata was so good that I forgot to take a picture until dinner was over and the scarce leftovers were put away.  So here's all that was left:

Week 5: Quinoa Chili

I was really looking forward to this recipe.  Until I was prepping on Tuesday night and I discovered how poorly written the recipe was.  For example:

It lists onion in the ingredients but never mentions onion again.
Ginger makes a surprise appearance in the instructions.
It calls for both "2 tbl minced jalapeno pepper" and "1/2 jalapeno pepper seeded"
What? I'm confused.

I had very low expectations.  I came home from work and peered into the crock pot with concern. Uh oh.  Looks too watery.  Isn't chili supposed to be hearty?  But it was good!  Really good.

I liked the texture of the quinoa and the chili was not too "soupy" as I first thought.  I realize now I left out the last step of adding soy sauce and molasses, probably because at that point I had mentally given up on the recipe and was already trying to figure out what we could eat.  I added some Maldon salt, Cholula and red pepper flakes. Andrew added shredded cheese to his.

Special shout out to mom for adding the water and quinoa and then starting the crock pot for me.  I was worried about letting the quinoa soak all morning before the cooking started.  Just another benefit to living next door to mom.  (Although hands down the best thing about it is the babysitting.  FREE babysitting!)

Another tip:  Take your contact lens out before slicing jalapeno.  Although it had been hours and I washed my hands repeatedly before removing my contacts, there must have been some extra strength jalapeno juice aka capsaicum on my fingers.  Because when I put my contacts in this morning there was some serious burning. I had to throw them out and use a new pair.   Google confirmed this is a common phenomenon.

I won't list the recipe here since it was so confusing but it can be found here on Savvy Vegetarian. It also gives stove top directions.  I might try that next time. I will definitely make this again, but I'll think of the recipe as a guide rather than a blueprint.