Sweet potato lentil stew

This stew turned beyond delightful, hearty and mellow.

In the crock pot mix:

• one of those huge cans of Bruce's Yams, 2/3 of the liquid poured off

• one cup dry uncooked lentils 

• one cup water

• 4 cups beef broth

• 1.5 cups cooked black beans

• 1.5 cups garbanzo beans

• about 1 tablespoon garlic powder

• about 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• about 1.5 tablespoons cumin

• about 1 tablespoon chili powder

• about 1 tablespoon ras el hanout 

Cook about 4-6 hours on high 

Archer Farms Bacon Wrapped Roast Beef

This was my impulse buy at the store last night. Not make up or candy or a little something for the cats (cone shaped sisal scratching post, anyone?). Meat.

Discounted meat. Bacon wrapped roast beef, peppered. 

Serves about five if you go by the package. Three if you feed my family. The regular price is between $9.25 and $9.75 based on the weight of the roast.

The directions suggest tossing it in the crockpot with 1/4 cup water on low for 6-8 hours. We cooked ours about 6 1/2. It had reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

I tossed it Yukon gold potatoes, fresh broccoli and baby carrots.

The meat came out like this:

The vegetables like this:

Both were divinely succulent. 

Tropical Ginger Crock Pot Pork

This is one of those meals made from what I had on hand. While it didn't turn out as scrumptious as some of my favorites, I did want seconds.

In the crock pot on high until tender:

(I started this around 11 a.m. with a frozen chunk of meat and we ate at 4 p.m.)

- the leftover pork loin from Christmas which at most was two pounds

- two cups frozen butternut squash

- 8 ounces apple juice

- about 12 ounces Simply Balanced organic mango lemonade

- about 1/4 cup Dijon mustard

- about 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

- one packet ginger honey crystals 

Maraq (Somali style chicken stew)

I wanted something African last night and around here, the options are rather limited. We do have an Ethiopian restaurant in Allentown and my request to visit it for dinner baffled my husband.

We were too hungry after a long day. It was farther than he really wanted to go. I don't really like Ethiopian food.

He's right. I'm not fond of Ethiopian food. I don't dislike it, but it doesn't interest me like other cuisines. I realized this while dining on Ethiopian in Djibouti and grappling with what to do since my right hand was broken leaving me no choice but to eat with my left.

In Yemen, they gave me a plastic spoon. I have never been so happy to see a plastic spoon.

Today, I am hoping to avoid yesterday's drama (and there was plenty. The ten-year-old stomped off to her room and refused to come down. I was screaming. Husband was trying to make dinner and used my secret stash of spicy vegetarian "buffalo wings" that I got on clearance at Target.).

I researched Somali stews on the internet and found something for chicken... Because A. I don't have a goat and B. Chicken thighs work well in the crock pot.

I decided on Maraq. My variation of course. Because I never have the required ingredients. Yet, that never stops me. 

This is what I threw into the crockpot at 8 a.m. I started it on high but may adjust it later. I also hope to stop at the store and buy green pepper. Because the recipe asked for that and I think it will be needed.

In the crockpot:

- 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock, on the bottom of the crock, plus an additional 1/2 cup on top of the chicken before putting the lid on. I freeze my chicken stock in 1/2 cup discs (Noosa yogurt containers) and drop them into the crock pot like that.

- garlic. I didn't have fresh cloves so I sprinkled in hearty amounts of garlic powder and added a touch of garlic pepper. I also sprinkled garlic pepper on the chicken before adding the lid to the crock pot.

- cumin. Recipe called for two tablespoons. I apparently only have one. Just found cumin. Bought some at Indian grocer. Perhaps more than a tablespoon added. For a total of about 2.5 tablespoons.

- tomato purée. The recipe called for some high amount of tomato paste and 2 fresh tomatoes. I thought I had tomato paste. I don't. I had a 28 ounce can of tomato purée. Which since the original recipe was stove top and mine is crock pot, I hope the additional liquid will burn off. When I opened the can, I was shocked to see *how much* 28 ounces of tomato purée is. A lot. I did not add tomatoes. My family is not overly find of them, so I may or may not add them later in the day.

- spices: pepper, paprika, lots of parsley and a pinch of chili powder. Recipe asked for cilantro. Don't have any. May add coriander. Yes, need to do that. Nope. Don't have that. Thought I did. 

- squash. Recipe called for butternut but I had this hacking huge yellow squash from the farmer's market.

- baby carrots. About a pound. Husband chopped them. I wouldn't have. The squash depleted my desire to chop.

- I stirred all this and plopped a frozen pile of about 2 pounds chicken thighs (skinless) on top. I seasoned with garlic pepper (as mentioned above) and placed a disc of chicken stock on top (also as mentioned earlier).

- After talking to my husband, we have decided to add a can of chick peas (in part because I had this incredible tomato based chick pea stew at Camp Mosey Wood this summer and this looks similar). So chick peas. Two 15.5 ounce cans. Drained.

Verdict: this was incredibly delightful

Beef stew

Today we're making some beef stew. I pulled some beef cubes from the freezer and coated them with garlic pepper, barbeque rub, parsley and Italian seasoning. I poured the a few dollops of oil and some strawberry basil vinegar into the bottom of my cast iron skillet.

I seared the meat on high heat and then added some tomato and store bought beef broth. I transferred it to the crock pot, added more broth, and dumped in about 3/4 pound of baby carrots.

After a few hours, my husband will probably lower the heat and add peas.

I don't have red wine to really do it right.

Kedjenou

I can get adventurous in my cuisine. I recently added a character who is French of Ivory Coast origins to my fictional universe and thought to give Ivory Coast cuisine a try.

Kedjenou is a chicken vegetable stew.

I found many recipes, all similar, like this one: http://africanbites.com/?p=1560

But of course, following a recipe is not my way so this is what I did based on what I had in hand:

In my crockpot, on high

- two cloves garlic thinly sliced

- a dollop of extra virgin olive oil

- generous amounts of paprika (2 tablespoons?)

- about 2 teaspoons ginger 

- 3 small tomatoes diced

- about 1/2 cup sliced jalapeños

- about 3/4 cup black olives

Stir that nicely so it blends and gets aromatic.

To that base I added my vegetables

- about 8 ounces carrots

- one crown broccoli chopped into bite size florets

Stir to coat.

Plop 2 frozen chicken thighs on top of that. 

Sprinkle with more paprika and ginger. I covered and plan to cook on high for seven hours. I don't intend to stir or disturb it so the chicken juices infuse into the vegetables and make a stew.

It looks and smells good. Hubby says he added about six hours of water...

Individual plates with rice:

The verdict:

I think it's nicely seasoned and just spicy enough. The child isn't complaining that it's too spicy. Very yummy and comforting for a winter night.

Chicken stock

As directed by several friends, I left my chicken bones and uneaten parts in my crockpot, adding lots of water.

For two days.

I don't have a sieve or cheese cloth so I took my colander, lined it with a thin disg towel and strained it that way.

My yield was 8 cups, which I poured into yogurt containers to freeze.

Real Food's Chicken in the Crock Pot

I'm making a variation of this today:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/02/25/recipe-the-best-whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/

And hope to attempt my own stock tonight.

Roaster chicken

My daughter gutted a roaster chicken for me this morning. I was too squeamish to do it. This chicken was on sale for $5.

We prepared it with a rub of garlic powder, oregano, parsley, paprika, salt and four color pepper and dropped it into the crock pot with about a cup of water.

Apple butter, part 2

So if you read Saturday's post, you know I left off with a crock pot full of local apples.

Three hours later I had the best applesauce ever.

Five hours later I had runny apple butter.

At that point, I transferred it to the stove to boil off some of the liquid for an hour.

I processed in a hot water bath for ten minutes and have the equivalent of four pints of apple butter.

Really incredible stuff.

Today, I filled half the crock pot with apples with the same basic honey/spice recipe to get some more apple goodness.

Some spiced apples. Maybe applesauce. If some remain, apple butter.

Yield: 2 pints spiced apples and turkey sausage with apples in the crockpot for dinner.

Crock pot stuffed peppers

A friend brought groceries so I prepped stuffed peppers. In the crockpot.

I filled the crock pot with pungent vegetable stock and diluted with water.

Placed three very large red peppers standing up inside with a whole in the bottom to let the stock in.

Made rice. Chicken flavored Uncle Bens and prepped turkey sausage. Diced and mixed it into the rice.

Stuffed the peppers and added enough potatoes to keep it from falling over.

Chicken white chili in the crock pot

I adapted this from a recipe on food.com.

The original:
http://www.food.com/recipe/amazing-crock-pot-white-chili-w-chicken-194585

In the crock pot, on high, about four hours:
- one can chicken noodle soup
- three cans water
- one box Archer Farms butternut squash soup
(I didn't have chicken stock)
- about 2 cups diced leftover chicken
- 2 really big cloves garlic, minced
- 3 peppers from my garden, diced (one green, one jalapeño, and one spicy green)
- about 45 ounces white beans
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons parsley
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano from my garden
- 1/2 teaspoon country herb seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

At 2:30 (about 80 minutes after I set the crockpot up), I tasted the broth and found the peppers had kick but the broth was a tad plain and runny and I saw way more chicken than beans.

So I went into my freezer and added another bag of beans. Each bag is roughly 15 ounces/1 can. Then I added maybe a 1/2-3/4 teaspoon more cumin and about 1/2 teaspoon chili powder.

Then I still wasn't happy so I added a can of creamed corn for more body. Might add fresh broccoli later.

Snack of rice and tomatoes

I have to eat something before work. I have cube steak in vegetable stock in the crock pot with carrots and Brussels sprouts.

So, I made a cheese and broccoli rice mix and added extra broccoli and tomato from my garden

Chicken curry in the crock pot

From crockpot 365:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-indian-curry-recipe.html?m=1

I didn't have all the ingredients, so I used:
- 1 can organic coconut milk
- a splash half and half
- 2 TBS curry
- 1 TBS cumin
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 splash Franks Red Hot sauce
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic

- chicken
- red potatoes chopped into chunks
- 1 can sweet peas
- 1/2 bag frozen California blend

Ginger candy chicken and swimming cookies

After working on my economics homework for an hour and a half, I took a break to prepare dinner.

Once again I veered from the candy chicken recipe, but let's hope it works.

In the crockpot:
- 3 chicken breasts
- about 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- about 1/2 cup apple raspberry juice
- about 4 tablespoons spicy teriyaki sauce
- 2 tablespoons lemon lime soda syrup
- about 1 cup seltzer
- about 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon diced crystallized ginger
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 small apples, cored and quartered

For the swimming cookies dessert:
In a glass casserole dish
Layer eight lemonade girl scout cookies
Prepare one package instant vanilla pudding with 1-and-a-half cups whole milk and pour over cookies. Chill.

Cherry Coke Chicken

*WARNING* this is untested. It is a crock pot experiment--but it's a variation of Crock Pot 365's Candy Chicken. THAT is a fabulous recipe.

Ingredients:
- about six pieces of chicken breast (my husband cut them, so I'm not sure how big they are. It looks like six breast halves)
- about 16 ounces leftover cherry coke from Target café
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- about 1/4 cup maraschino cherries with juice
- 2/3 cup Archer Farm strawberry basil balsamic vinegar
- 2-3 tablespoons Wegmans cherry raspberry vinaigrette dressing
- between 2 teaspoons and 1 tablespoon dried basil

Crock pot. Low. About 8 hours.

After 2 hours, something sweet had, well, congealed. I'm hoping it will melt as the heat increases over time. To help it, I added about eight ounces water and upon tasting it, I tossed in

- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Because it was sickly sweet and a little slimy. Experiments can be risky.

At 12:30 I have deemed this a failure. Congealing got worse. Chicken VERY sweet. Removed to baking pan. Husband has said it's not so bad.

I'm glad I won't be home for dinner.

Mash Up Turkey Soup

We got the leftover turkey out of the freezer and then I made last minute arrangements to cover someone's shift tonight.

I whipped out the crock pot and threw in:
(this could be nasty)
- one cup rice, unprepared, which I then steamed and ended up using about 1.5 cups prepared rice
- one can Campbell's cream of chicken soup
- one can broccoli cheese soup
- 1.5 cans unsweetened soy milk (then it ran out)
- 1/2 can vanilla almond milk
- shredded turkey
- 1/2 cup pickled mixed vegetables
- frozen white beans
- turkey
- 1 can green chiles
- 1 can petit diced tomatoes
- about 1/4 teaspoon country herb blend
- about 1/2 teaspoon each of chili powder, cumin and black pepper

Okay... One hour later. I cook by smell, I can't eat something if it smells bad. And this smells putrid.

I upped the chili powder, added a pinch of Indian chili powder, garlic powder, minced garlic and paprika. I tasted a piece of the turkey and it was edible- just smelled gross.

After the seasoning melded in the crock pot for a couple hours, my mother-in-law and other family members commented that it smelled delicious. My husband went shopping, and the soup evaporated into a pâté, or so he described it.

He filled tortillas with turkey and the leftover soup and they were FABULOUS!

Mighty Green Pork Soup

It's raining and I wanted to make this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2011/01/pork-soup-part-one.html?m=1
But as usual I don't have the ingredients. So I made a similar soup.

INGREDIENTS (in crock pot)
- about two cups chopped and browned pork

(I browned mine in my Le Creuset cast iron skillet with two parts canola oil to one part walnut oil, adding fresh ground pepper and minced garlic while it fried)
- 32 ounces Kitchen Basics unsalted vegetable stock
- 16 ounces Pacific foods Organic butternut squash soup
- 36 ounces water
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 1/2 cups frozen greenbeans

- 1 can Great Northern Beans
- 1 crown fresh broccoli
- 1/4 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen corn

Hurricane Chicken (in lemon butter sauce)

To get ready for the storm, we put the following in the crock pot:
- 3 pounds chicken thighs
- 2 pounds drumsticks
- juice of 2.5 large lemons
- drizzle of olive oil
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 bag snow peas
- fresh ground pepper
- water to fill crockpot

My husband liked it as is, but I would have preferred the water greatly reduced for better butter flavor.

Black beans in the crockpot

Sometimes I can be so efficient and organized that I make every meal and all our bread from
scratch. I bargain shop and freeze. I stay on top of my school work and slay the laundry pile. That's the genius in me.

But then there are the days I can't speak straight. It takes two hours to make a 30-minutes-or-less meal. I can't find my shoes, my glasses or my umbrella. And I overslept. Yup. That's the idiot in me.

I have made beans in the crockpot before, at least twice, but now I can't find the recipe. Here or online at large. I swore it was Crock Pot 365.

So, I'm moving forward.

I took two pounds of Mi Casa black beans and 16 cups of water and brought it to a boil while stirring. I have this one really bad pot that everything sticks to if you don't stir. This is the rapid method of bean soaking.

Boil 2 minutes.

Now if you're me, you'll spill stuff all over your pants the second the water finally boils. And if you're me, while the beans are boiling for two minutes you'll run upstairs to change your pants and your kid will chase you around explaining why she had to pull dolls in your bed in addition to her bed...

Then you'll rush downstairs to find bean-foamy boiling water about to bubble out of the pot, so you cut the heat, grab the pot, remove from the burner and cover.

The official direction is cover and let stand for an hour.

At this point, I had to run down to the basement and start a load of wash because you remember those dirty jeans? Well, they're the only jeans I have that fit since I lost weight having broken several teeth in that walking accident in May. I have a dentist appt today to talk about more dental work I need but can't afford, and if I go in baggy clothes they comment how thin I've gotten. The office is mostly women, and their compliments annoy me because if their office had fixed my teeth I could eat more easily!

But the beans...

I'm going to rinse and sort them, and I never do a thorough job. I pick out the obvious nasty ones.

Then they all go in the crockpot. With water to cover. On low. Probably 5-8 hours.