Crock Pot Mondays

I'm not a fan of Dijon mustard. In fact, it hasn't been granted any space in my refrigerator until now. A lot of the slow cooker recipes I've used lately have called for Dijon mustard. Yuck. I don't like the taste nor the smell. I like to ignore the Dijon mustard requirement and replace it with traditional North American yellow mustard. Yum! However, I have since learned that some people may not consider yellow mustard real mustard. And since most recipes I'm using call for the Dijon stuff, I broke down and bought some last week.

I wanted to try Stephanie O'Dea's margarita chicken recipe, which calls for Dijon mustard. When I was putting the sauce together yesterday, I could detect the tangy smell from the Dijon. I wanted to kick my butt. I really, really don't like Dijon mustard and at the time I thought I should have gone with my gut and substituted yellow mustard.

But I'm glad I decided to experiment as this recipe is the most tasty dish I've made, to date, from the recipes on Stephanie's blog. There were absolutely no leftovers and I really wanted to make it again, as in today. It was super yummy and it was a huge hit. As I didn't have any margarita mix, I substituted three tablespoons of lime juice. I bet this sauce would taste wonderful with pork tenderloin.

I've decided that I will no longer ignore the Dijon mustard requirements of any recipes. Although I have granted some room for a bottle of Dijon in my refrigerator, none of this mustard will grace any sandwich I make.

Crock Pot Mondays

Orange chicken anyone?

I've been waiting to try Stephanie O'Dea's orange chicken recipe for awhile now. I bought the ingredients a couple of weeks ago. It has only been out of sheer laziness on my part that I haven't made this recipe earlier. As I've said before, I like assembling meals. I hate cooking. The chicken requires a bit of cooking prep before everything goes into the slow cooker.

I'll preface my comments by saying I did like the recipe, but it was a tad too sweet for my taste buds. I think the next time I make this recipe, I'll forget dredging the chicken in flour and browning it because it didn't seem to work for me, plus I hate cooking. I'll reduce either the amount of brown sugar or orange juice concentrate and add a bit of five spice. Since discovering five spice, I like to add it to some dishes that need a bit of zing.

If you are like me and don't have juice in the house, I scooped out about half of the orange juice concentrate from the can, zapped it in the microwave for about 40 seconds to thaw it out and left the remainder of the concentrate in the can and placed it a freezer bag. Now, the next time I make this recipe I don't have to go out and buy orange juice. What can I say? I'm cheap that way.

Crock Pot Mondays

Although it is one day late (sorry, it is turning into that kind of week) here is this recipe: slow cooker lasagna. This is a Kraft Foods recipe. I've made this recipe before. This time, I tweaked it with the ingredients I had on hand. I replaced the shredded mozzarella cheese with cheese I already had. Opted to leave out the Parmesan cheese because I had none, and added green pepper and mushrooms. But I added less water to compensate for the amount of veggies I added.

I cooked this in my large oval family Crock Pot and it was done in about 3 1/2 hours. It was a hit with darling daughter. We had to cut her off after she asked for a third helping of "sa."

Crock Pot Mondays

In the world of slow cookers, size does matter. And this recipe proves it.

I've made this sweet mustard roast recipe twice: once in my five quart slow cooker and again yesterday in my three quart slow cooker. The smaller pot made all the difference. If you do use a bigger crock pot, you will have to reduce the cooking time. Just to note, I bought a 2 pound roast on sale at Sobey's this week for $5, so this recipe could be budget-friendly if you take advantage of the sale.

Sorry, no photo this week. When I got home from the gym, darling daughter and dear husband were in the middle of dinner and I snagged the last piece. There was no time to take a photo because I was starving. Without further ado, here's the recipe.

Sweet mustard roast

The ingredients:
* 3 pounds beef or pork roast
* 1/3 cup molasses
* 1/3 cup Dijon mustard (I used regular mustard as I don't like Dijon)
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder (I got fancy and crush a couple of cloves of real garlic)
* 2 tablespoons white vinegar

The Method:
Place meat in the crock pot. Mix molasses, mustard, garlic and white vinegar. Pour on top of meat. Using tongs, flip the meat over a few times to coat it nicely with the sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Crock Pot Mondays

Happy Thanksgiving Monday to all my readers.

This week's Crock Pot Monday somewhat inspired by Thanksgiving. If you have some leftover cranberry sauce and frozen cooked meatballs hanging out in your freezer, I suggest making meatballs with cranberry barbecue sauce.

I deviated from Stephanie O'Dea's original recipe. Instead of using turkey meatballs, I used 1 pound of meatballs that I had previously made from a recipe that can be found in the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. Then I followed Stephanie's instructions of cutting up jellied cranberry sauce, laying it flat in the Crock Pot stoneware and adding a 1/2 cup barbecue sauce and a tablespoon of soy sauce. I cooked it on high for about four hours.

This recipe did not disappoint as I ate the leftovers for breakfast. However, the next time I make this recipe, I will be using whole cranberry sauce and reducing the amount of a barbecue sauce as I'd think I would enjoy these meatballs more if they had more a cranberry taste to them.

Crock Pot Mondays

Welcome back to another edition of Crock Pot Mondays. This week, it is a tale of two recipes -- the one that was a hit and the second that was a total disastrous messy miss.

The hit this week was hamburger stew. I've never made hamburger stew, but it is super easy. Regardless of the concern I had about the amount of canned condensed creamy soups this recipe calls for, I made it anyway. I'm sure you could tweak this recipe to suit your own taste buds and concerns about sodium intake. I can't remember exactly where I got the recipe, but I do believe it was off one of the message boards on Ravelry.

Hamburger stew

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (feel free to use less. I used 1 1/2 pounds).
1 can of cream of celery soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of cheddar cheese soup
1 1/2 cups water. (The next time I make this recipe, I'm going to use a bit less).
5 quartered potatoes
1 small bag of baby carrots
1 sliced onion
1 can corn. (The recipe doesn't call for corn, but I tossed some in anyway. I think you could add in frozen veggies if you like, maybe towards the end of your cooking time).

Method:
Brown ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Put veggies in slow cooker Put ground beef on top of veggies Mix soup and water together in a large bowl. Pour into slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high until 3-4 hours or until veggies are tender. I used my family size crock for this.

Last week's total miss was honey cake. This was a mess. The photos below speak for themselves. I've been meaning to make a cake in the crock pot and when I came across this recipe on Stephanie O'Dea's blog, I thought I'd try it. It was a disaster. I followed the directions, but when the surface of the cake hadn't completely cooked in 2/12 hours after I took the lid off the crock pot, I decided to investigate. The top wasn't cooked at all. I had to scrape it off. The bottom of the cake was a completely different story. In fact, it was charred. I basically had to scoop out the cake from the crock pot and then chip the burnt parts off my stoneware. I had to soak my crock pot for two days, scour it, before placing it in the dishwasher for a good scrubbing.

This is what the cake looked like after I scraped off the uncooked surface. Please take note of the crispy edges. While at first I was a bit daunted after the whole honey cake fiasco from baking in my Crock Pot again, I think I'm going to give it a try again in the very near future. Next time I'll be lining the stoneware with aluminum foil as cooking spray wasn't enough.

Crock Pot Mondays

You can never have enough slow cookers!

This was the declaration I made at a gift opening for a friend yesterday. She and her new husband were opening gifts and they were the lucky recipients of a slow cooker. What a thoughtful gift! When they were unwrapping the present, I commented that you can't have enough slow cookers, which a true statement. The acquaintance sitting beside me chuckled, and wondered how many I have. I now have three, four if you include the Little Dipper that came with my largest Crock Pot.

In the slow cooker world, size does matter. I've discovered the truth of this fact in recent weeks. I made pork chops in my 5 quart pot two weeks ago and they were overdone. Last week when shopping, I found a 3 quart Crock Pot for $15. A steal of a deal that quickly ended up in my shopping cart.

Although I love all my slow cookers, I particularly love the 3 quart Crock Pot. It is the perfect size for the slow cooker meals I've been making lately. However, the 5 quart pot and the family size pots haven't been forgotten. They are both useful in their own right. The 5 quart pot is perfect for cooking small whole chickens and baked beans. I do foresee my family size pot making a lot of taco soup this fall and winter.

The meal we made last night proves that size does matter. Making chicken drumsticks in the family size pot wasn't enjoyable because the chicken would cook extremely fast. Using the 3 quart pot made all the difference in the world. This is an allrecipes.com recipe.

Molly's Chicken

Ingredients:

3 1/2 pounds chicken drumsticks, skins removed

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1- 8 ounce can tomato sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

Method:

Place chicken in the slow cooker. In a bowl, mix soy sauce, sugar, tomato sauce and garlic together. Pour on chicken. Cover. Cook low for eight hours.

Crock Pot Mondays

Well dear readers, I haven't fallen off the meal planning bandwagon, but I had a bit of a scare on Friday when I was attempting to come up with this week's meal plan as I was struggling to find suitable recipes. Luckily, I came up with seven meals that I can live with.

To ensure I don't encounter the same issue this coming Friday, I went to the library and picked up three cook books, including the Biggest Loser Family Cook Book. (Disclaimer: I don't watch the Biggest Loser. The only reason I chose this book was because it was staring me in the face in the express reads section. I usually get all my library books in the express reads as I'm too lazy to look for actual books).

This book, surprisingly, is wonderful. I've found a lot of easy, healthy recipes in this book that I hope to use next week. I'd recommend getting your hands on one if you are stuck for meal ideas.

I used the Crock Pot almost every day last week. One of the recipes that stands is taco soup, a recipe I found on Stephanie O'Dea's crock pot blog.

Slow cooker taco soup

Ingredients:

2 cans of kidney beans
2 cans of pinto beans (I couldn't find them so I used lentils)
2 cans of corn
1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 can tomatoes and chilies
1 package taco seasoning
1 package ranch dressing mix

1 pound browned ground turkey or hamburger (optional.)
shredded cheese and sour cream for embellishment (optional)

The Method:
Brown meat

Drain fat and place meat into the Crock Pot.

Sprinkle both seasoning on top of the meat.

Drain and rinse beans and add to Crock Pot.

Add the entire contents of corn and tomato cans. Then stir.

Cover and cook for low for eight to 10 hours or on high for four to five hours. Stir well and serve with a handful of shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream, if you like.

This is a wonderful recipe if you want to stretch your grocery dollars as it makes leftovers galore. We had this for dinner last Wednesday and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we were still eating leftovers for lunch.

I'd suggest using a large crock pot because I had to downsize this recipe a bit as I couldn't fit the second can of lentils or corn into my five quart Crock Pot. This would also be a great meatless option to serve the family. The next time I make this recipe, I'm going to use half a pound of ground beef, just to stretch my grocery dollar just a bit more.

Back on the meal planning bandwagon (maybe)

It has been a year since I wrote my first meal planning post. To be truthfully honest, nothing has changed. I'm not sure when I fell off the meal planning bandwagon, but it was several months ago. A staple in our meals has been a lot of shake and bake chicken and a lot of ham sandwiches (or hammages as darling daughter calls them) for me.

Today, I decided to take action. I hate cooking. Absolutely hate it. Slow cookers make cooking a bit bearable as I don't actually have to cook. I just assembling. I'm okay with assembling. When dear husband broke our slow cooker earlier this year, he went out and bought the hugest slow cooker he could find. Bigger is not always better as the slow cooker seems to overcook our meals because it is too big. So I bought a smaller slow cooker. Now I have two, I absolutely no more excuses why I can't assemble slow cooker meals.

I have yet to come up with a comprehensive slow cooking/meal plan. It is a work in progress. I've got some ideas, but it remains to be seen if I'll stick with it. Since I have a poor meal planning track record, I'll likely be writing a similar post this time next year.

So are you wondering what is my slow cooker? This recipe, taken from The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook, is a slow cooker staple in my house. I usually tweak my recipes to suit my tastes. When I assemble this recipe, I usually opt using chopped onion rather than using onion flakes. Also, I don't put in the milk and cheese until 30 minutes before I'm ready to dish out the meal.

Wyoming Cowboy Casserole

1 pound lean ground beef

1 cup Colby cheese, cubed

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 can (16 ounce) whole kernel corn

1 can (16 ounce) red kidney beans (I usually drain and wash before throwing them into the pot).

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon dry onion flakes

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet on medium-high heat; drain off grease. Spread beef on paper towels to cool before placing meat into the slow cooker.

2. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for four hours. Serves four.

*Serve over biscuits and with a salad.

Meal planning Mondays

In September, I blogged about my immense dislike of meal planning. I'm not much a big meal planner. In fact, I'm not much of a chef. I like to bake, but I detest cooking. That's what take out is for.

However, take out is not economical feasible or healthy. So someone has to cook meals and that someone is me as barbecue season has now come to a close. Lately, I've been doing okay in the meal making/planning department. Although I didn't plan any meals in advance last week, I made most of them. The only stumble in my new dinner making regime was on Friday. Dear husband decided that he didn't want leftovers and I decided to continue on the bad food day I was having (I had a burger and fries for lunch) that we decided to get some pizza slices for dinner. I hope to redeem myself this week.

So this week I decided it was time to bite the bullet, come up with a meal plan and grocery shop accordingly. Hopefully it will work. Tonight we are having chicken tetrazzini, which is simmering in the slower cooker as I write this. Tomorrow will be slow cooker lasagna. I have even browned the hamburger meat. Also on the list is meat loaf, a good ol' standby in our household. We bought a small whole chicken which will make a delicious meal. I was planning to make almond chicken and rice sometime this week, but I'm not a big fan of frying chicken in a frying pan. Too much work for my taste. Earlier today I found a slow cooker recipe for a chicken dish. I've already got all the ingredients, so I may make that instead. Although I dislike cooking, I'm a big fan of my slow cooker. I like assembling my meals in the slow cooker in the morning and turning it on. Not only does it make my house smell delicious and homey, it takes the pressure off of assembling meals around 3 or 4 p.m.

I'm hoping my new meal planning mantra sticks as I'm tired of opening up the refrigerator door, wondering what's for dinner.