#25: Slow-Cooker Scalloped Potatoes

Dear Tiffany,


I used to have another recipe for scalloped potatoes that I always used, and it was bookmarked on my old laptop...which is no longer working.  Since I couldn't find the other one, I decided to come up with a (sort of) new one!  This is partway adapted from this recipe, but I changed some things around- had some ingredients I wanted to use. 


This recipe is easy to double.


The Basics:
Prep time: About 20 minutes, then in the crockpot all day.
Good for leftovers: yes!
cost: About $5-$10
servings: 10


The ingredients:
4-5 cups potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 -1/2 tsp black pepper
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
1/2 cup buttermilk (or even a little more if you need to finish off the container).


Grease your crockpot with butter, oil, or nonstick spray.  This recipe will work in a 4 quart slow cooker, or doubled in a 5-6 quart cooker.


Place about 1/2 the potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Cover them with half the onion slices, half the flour, half the salt and pepper, half the basil.  Cut half the butter into chunks and scatter them over the top, and then spoon about a fourth of the mushroom soup over the top.  Add the rest of the potatoes, and repeat with the rest of the onion, salt and pepper, flour, basil, and butter.  Spoon the rest of the mushroom soup over the top, and then pour the buttermilk all over.  Cover and cook for 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.  About 30 minutes before serving, you can sprinkle some cheese of your choice over the top if you so desire.


Serve and enjoy- but careful!  It will be hot!


I forgot to take pictures again...but maybe there will be a good one from dinner last night.  If so, I'll add it here later.


-Joy

#24: Slow-Cooker Ribs 2

Hi Tiffany!


This recipe will be first of my 5 ingredient recipes- for the 5x5x5 challenge.  I've already shared one way to do ribs in the crock pot (your basic barbecue ribs), but here's another.  Today I did most of the moving out of my old apartment.  I wanted to make dinner for my helping hands,  and since it was going to be a crazy, tiring, long day, a simple crock pot recipe sounded perfect.  It helped that country style pork ribs were $1.99/lb at Safeway.

The Basics:
Prep time: About 5 minutes, then in the crockpot all day.
Good for leftovers: yes!
cost: depends on what kind of meat and how much.  Slow cooking makes even the cheap cuts of meat tender, so go ahead and go for the cheap on this one.
servings: 4-8


The ingredients:

beef or pork ribs- as much as you want.  just make sure it will fit in your crockpot

1 onion, chopped

1 can beer (a regular sized can if you're doing about 4 servings, or one of the big pint cans for a larger crowd

dried thyme

salt

The Process: Oh, by the way.  While today's recipe has 5 ingredients including salt, I've decided that since you are always going to have salt/pepper in your house, salt/black pepper won't count toward the 5 ingredient limit.

Layer the meat in the crock pot.  On top of each layer, sprinkle salt and thyme.  Add chopped onion and beer.  Cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4.  Remove from liquid to serve.

Each person will want to salt to taste.  I hadn't unpacked the salt yet when we ate, so ours was a little less salty than I would have preferred, but the meat was very tender and had a good flavor.  It would be great to add garlic to this one too.


Enjoy!  There are leftovers if you want some tomorrow.


love,
Joy

#23: Honey Baked Beans! (Vegetarian and diabetic friendly, but still super yummy!)

Dear Tiffany,

Tonight we celebrated my birthday which is coming up on Monday (I missed you, by the way!) by having a potluck.  I was looking for a way to use the epic amounts of beans I have in my kitchen, to not have to go to the grocery store, and also make something that my vegetarian friend AND my borderline diabetic friend could enjoy.  I came up with these yummy baked beans!

The Basics:
Prep time: About 5 minutes, then in the crockpot all day or the oven for about 6 hours.
Good for leftovers: yes!
cost: about $5 or less
servings: 8 to 10


The ingredients:

1lb beans (I used small white beans, but lima beans, great northern, or really any kind of beans would work great)

1 onion, chopped

1 cup honey

1-2 cups chopped pineapple (optional)

The Process:

Soak the beans overnight, then drain and rinse them.  Place half of the chopped onion in the bottom of a crock pot or dutch oven (or even just a deep baking dish).  Add the beans, then the rest of the onion, and pour the honey over the top.  Add enough water to cover an inch or two above the beans.  Then bake at 375 degrees F for 6 hours (if using the oven), or cook in the crockpot for 4-6 hours on high, or 8-10 hours on low.  Check on it every few hours and add a little water if the beans on top are starting to get dry.  Towards the end, add the pineapple.

This recipe is great because...

1) its super yummy

2) super simple

3) no salt added...and in my opinion it didn't need any on serving either.

4) honey is a healthier sweetener, and a much better option for diabetics (for some interesting thoughts on honey,  see here).

5) the absence of bacon or ham fat means that this recipe is overall very low fat.

6) oh. and its really really yummy too!

If you want a less healthy, non-vegetarian version, you can take add bacon with the onions.  There's a similar recipe here that uses bacon.

Enjoy!

#20: Minister's Delight! (dessert)

Dear Tiffany,
 Sorry I haven't been posted in awhile- you've been almost as busy as I have.  But when I went over and found you shopping the freezer section again, I got a little worried!

Though I will say, I was very proud to see you show up with your crock pots at church sunday. Your group's food was amazing!

This is the easiest dessert you will ever make.  Its also amazing, and super sugary.  I found it on allrecipes.com and adapted it a bit.  It uses canned pie filling, but the next time I make it I want to see if I can do it cheaper/healthier with fresh fruit, or regular canned fruit. 

The Basics:
Prep time: About 5 minutes, then 2-3 hours in the crock pot.
Good for leftovers: if there are any.
servings:  10-15
cost: about $10-$15

Ingredients:
2 cans fruit pie filling (such as apple or cherry, maybe even blueberry.  You will find these with the cake mixes, not with the regular canned goods).  You could stretch it further and do even 3 or 4 cans.
1 box cake mix
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup butter, melted

The Process:
Dump the pie filling into the crockpot.  In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the melted butter into the cake mix.  It will be crumbly.  Pour the cake mix- butter-mixture evenly over the pie filling in the pot, but don't worry if it doesn't look too even or pretty.  Its not going to look pretty but it will taste fantastic.  Sprinkle your nuts over the top, put the lid on, and cook on low for 2-3 hours.

This is really great with ice cream on top too.  It will look like mush.  It will smell wonderful.  And it will taste even better.  Just ask all the kids that came to basketball/tae kwon do camp.  or MattyK.  I told them they couldn't have seconds because if I gave them too much sugar I'd get in trouble with Teacher Matt.  There were definitely no leftovers.

We will have another sister-date soon!
Love,
Joy

#17: Stir-Fry is crock-pot-able!

Sorry, this picture is kind of dark!

Dear Tiffany,


Stir-fry is one of the first things I learned how to make as a kid, other than macaroni and cheese and scrambled eggs.  My mom grew up in Japan, so a lot of what we ate was Japanese (or other Asian)- influenced.  This week I wanted to make stir fry, but I was going to be where there wasn't a stove to use, so...yay for the crock pot!  I will list both methods below.  This kind of thing is so easy, its pretty tough to ruin!  The nice thing about using your crockpot (other than the convenience factor) is that the meat absorbs all the sauce flavors...yum!  You can also do without the oil (though I used a little) when you use your slow cooker.


I used yakisoba noodles (Japanese style "fried noodles") this time, but you can also use rice, or another asian frying-type noodle (such as chow mein or lo mein noodles- cooked soft, not crunchy).  In a pinch, angel hair spaghetti is an ok substitute as well.


The Basics:
Prep time: About 10 minutes to chop your meat and veggies, then about 10-15 minutes laboring over the stove or all day in the crockpot
Good for leftovers: yes.
servings:  8-10
cost: $10-$15


Ingredients:
1 package Yakisoba noodles (sometimes available at Safeway, but Berkeley Bowl Marketplace always carries them, as well as Koreana Plaza and other Asian markets).  Or you can substitute rice or another noodle (see above).
1-2 lbs chicken, beef, or pork, cut into small strips or chunks
tofu, cut into small 1-2 inch chunks (optional)
splash of vegetable oil
soy sauce
4-6 carrots, cut longways into 3 inch strips
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic (optional)
1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
stir-fry sauce, teriyaki sauce, or other asian sauce such as Yoshida's - they carry it at Costco
1 can baby corn (available at Safeway or asian markets)
1 can water chestnuts (available at Safeway or asian markets)
12 oz bag of broccoli (or just chop it yourself)
handful of chinese peas
OR you can just get a bag of the frozen stir fry mix in place of the veggies above, and add your own onions and whatever else the bag is missing


The Process: 
Stovetop method:
Saute meat, onions, garlic and oil in a wok or large (Very large!) skillet until the meat is mostly done.  If you have them, use a long pair of cooking chopsticks to stir.  It makes you feel special.  Remove the meat, and add the rest of the veggies, tofu, and sauce, and saute until veggies are almost crisp-tender, then add back the meat, add soy sauce to taste and cook a few more minutes.  Prepare noodles according to package directions, and enjoy!


Slow-cooker method:
Place meat, onion, garlic, ginger, and carrot in slow cooker; cover with stir-fry sauce.  Cook on low for about 6-7 hours, or on high for 3.  Add other veggies, and more stir-fry sauce or soy sauce if you need more liquid. Stir together and cook for another hour or 2. Prepare noodles according to package directions, and serve.  Add soy sauce as needed to taste.


Noodle notes: You can stir your noodles into your meat and veggies before serving, but my family has always found it easier to divide portions if you serve the noodles separately (this way, one person doesn't take all the noodles!  Or end up with only veggies.) and then each person stirs their own noodles into their stir-fry.


Make it Vegetarian: just use tofu instead of meat!  If you do this, make sure you get a "harder" variety of Japanese-style tofu, the softer ones will fall apart on you.

#15 Tomato Basil Bisque

Tomato Basil Bisque!

Dear Tiffany,
You know those premade soups they have at Safeway?  You know, in the little tupperware, or you can serve it yourself hot?  Someone brought a few of them to Phyllis's birthday dinner the other night, and the tomato basil bisque was amazing.  Everyone kept commenting on it, until there wasn't any left, and I went home determined to find out how to make it myself.  After scouring google, I found this recipe for a lightened up version.  The surprise ingredient?  Butternut squash.




Wait! Don't run away.  Or switch over to facebook and ignore this post.  Butternut squash is actually very simple to work with.  It doesn't have the super tough skin like other winter squashes, and it was easier than I expected to include in this soup.


What is a "bisque?"  (Or "beeeeesk" as someone called it the other night)  A bisque is simply a soup with milk or cream.  Not nearly so complicated as it sounds.  I mostly followed Carol's recipe, but I adapted it for my slow cooker, and went the less healthy route since I had cream from a previous adventure that I needed to use up.  I'll list both the high fat and low fat versions below.


The Basics: 
Prep time: About 30 minutes, plus several hours in the crock pot, OR a little over an hour (stove method)
Good for leftovers: yes.  If there is any left.
servings: 12 1-cup servings
cost: under $10


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter or extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced (1.5 tsp)
2 (24.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, with liquid
1 can (6 oz) roasted garlic tomato paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2-2 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 to 1 1/4 cups cream OR nonfat half-and-half or nonfat yogurt OR milk
Several dashes of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

Several shakes of red pepper flakes

The Process (Slow-cooker version)

Saute butter or oil, onions, and garlic until the onions and garlic are golden.  Add the butter first and let it warm up while you chop the onions, then add the onions and garlic (if you add the garlic without the onions, its really easy to burn your garlic! yikes!  For some reason the garlic does better at not burning when its not lonely).  Make sure to stir once in awhile!

While the onions and garlic are cooking, prepare your butternut squash.  Cut off the ends, slice it down the middle (if its really long you may want to cut it in half short-ways before slicing down the middle).  Remove the peel with a vegetable peeler, and dice the squash as you would any other veggie.  Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, basil, thyme, butternut squash, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the crock pot, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4-6.

Puree the soup in a blender (or use an immersion blender).  Return soup to the crock pot, stir in cream or milk, and add Tabasco sauce to taste.  Cover and let it cook until soup is hot.  Serve with Parmesan or fresh basil or parsley as a garnish.

Stove-top Version

Same as above, but saute the garlic and onions in a large saucepan instead of a skillet, and just add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan once the onions are done.  Cover partly and cook for 30-35 minutes until the squash is fork-tender. Puree the soup, add cream or milk and hot sauce, and return to heat and bring just to a boil before serving.

Notes

In the Crock When I doubled this recipe, it filled my 6 quart crock pot.  Make sure your crock is big enough to fit the amount you want to make, before you start!

Freeze! If you made your own chicken broth and froze it, don't worry about thawing it before adding it to the slow cooker.  Just run the bag under warm water to loosen it up a bit, cut it open with scissors or a knife, and drop the entire ice cube in the crock.  It'll be ok, I promise.

To make it vegetarian: just use veggie broth instead of chicken broth.
Don't want to get a skillet dirty? Its probably ok to just dump your butter, onions, and garlic in the pot.  It won't taste quite as good (though still pretty yummy!), and you have to take the time to cut the squash anyways so to me it made more sense to get the skillet dirty.  But that's just me.

You might think this recipe has a lot of prep time, but think about how much you would spend for one of those little containers at Safeway.  You can make a whole bunch, and freeze or refrigerate the containers.

-joy

#14: BBQ Ribs (slow cooker)

Dear Tiffany,
In case you didn't know, barbecue still tastes good in January.  Its just...its cold outside.  And me, I'd rather come home to my house smelling wonderful and barbecuey and dinner ready to eat, than coming home and having to babysit the barbecue in the cold.
I put these ribs in the crock pot before work today, and then I was thinking about them all afternoon.  Mouthwatering.  Imagining the smell that would fill up my nose as I walked in the door.  Ahhh...
Of course, then I got home and reality hit, right after that smell.  See, my newest attempt at creating a good habit is "no Bible, no dinner."  You know, "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3).  Spiritual food is more important than physical food, right?  The idea is that if I do my Bible reading earlier in the day, I'll be more alert for it and actually be able to absorb what I'm reading.  So today I got home, realized I hadn't done my Bible reading, and spent my time in God's word with my tummy rumbling.  And then, thanked God for providing me with some great food, and sat down to eat my ribs.

I got this idea from Stephanie O'Dea's blog, and I made it her way the first few times, but I like mine with a little more zip so I added more pepper and the chipotle chili pepper to spice it up.  Of course, she has kids so that wouldn't work so well for her!  (when you have a bunch of little Sams and Tiffanys someday you may want to set the pepper to the side and have 
Sam add his own).  The chipotle pepper really gives it a flavor boost, not just a spicy boost.


The Basics: 
Prep time: About 5 minutes, then several hours in the crock pot.
Good for leftovers: yes
servings: 4-6
cost: under $10


Ingredients:
1 bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
2 lbs beef or pork ribs
1 tsp chipotle chili pepper (or more if you like it spicier!)
1 medium-small onion
2 heaping spoonfuls minced garlic
dash of black pepper (I actually use more like a 1/8 of a teaspoon or something, but I didn't measure it)


The Process:

Arrange your ribs in the crock pot.  Its ok if you haven't thawed them yet.  Chop your onion and add it, along with the garlic, pepper, and chipotle pepper.  Drown everything in Barbecue sauce.  Put the lid on and cook for 5-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.  Mix it up really well so all the ribs are coated with sauce before serving- you may want to mix in some salt as well, or just let each person add salt to taste.   It will need it, but I'm kind of a salt-it-yourself person.  Your ribs will be falling off the bone; unless, like mine, they were boneless, in which case they'll just be falling apart.  This goes really great with corn on the cob, baked potatoes, or a yummy bread.  


These are so good, its just kind of ridiculous how easy they are.  You can do the same thing with barbecue chicken; it just absorbs the sauce so well after cooking all day.


Enjoy!
-Joy

#11: Banana Oat Bread (oven or slow-cooker)

Banana-Oat Bread

Hi Tiffany,
I had a few bananas left that were getting mushy, and I needed to use them soon, so I made Banana Bread today.  Apparently you can bake in a crock pot!  Who would've known?  I got the idea from the crock pot lady.


Now, why would someone want to bake in a slow cooker, you might ask?  You might want to bake in your slow cooker if:
1) you don't have an oven
2) your oven is broken
3) your oven is already full of other goodies for holiday dinners
4) you don't want to stay near your kitchen while your appliances are at work
5) its too hot to run your oven.
6) you think slow cookers are the bomb.


#1 applies to me.  and #6.
Anyways...I adapted a recipe from cooks.com.  I wanted to try some with orange marmalade, but didn't have orange juice as most of those recipes call for, so I just added a little orange marmalade to this one, along with some chopped walnuts.  


The Basics:
Prep time: About 20 minutes, then 45-50 min. in the oven or about 4 hours in the slow cooker.
Good for leftovers: of course!
servings: about 10 slices
cost: less than $5. I didn't have to go to the store for this recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter/margarine OR 1/2 cup shortening OR about 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  But Butter will taste Better.
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed, plus extra for sprinkling on top
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 to 3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/3 cup old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1/3 cup chopped (but still chunky) walnuts, almonds, or pecans (optional)


The Process:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees OR get out your slow cooker.  Grease a bread pan.  If you are using the slow cooker method and don't have a bread pan that will fit inside your slow cooker, you can either use a different pan or just grease your slow-cooker and cook directly inside it, but the cook time will be less (about 2 hours)
Mash your bananas- I sliced mine in a bowl before mashing them with a fork until they were super mushy.  Mix all wet ingredients (eggs, bananas, orange marmalade, milk, and butter/shortening/oil.  Gradually stir in the dry ingredients a little bit at a time.  If you have a mixer, use it and it will be better stirred and won't take so long.  I don't have a mixer so I had to use my strong-woman-muscles to mix mine.
Spoon it all into your pan or crock pot.  Sprinkle a little oatmeal and brown sugar on top.  Cook in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or in the crockpot (pan method) for 4 hours on high, or 2 hours if you're cooking directly in the crock (don't open and check until its been at least 2 hours in the crockpot!).  It's done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Carefully remove the pan and let it cool 10-20 minutes before taking the bread out of the pan.


Its not super sweet, but pretty yummy.  It would have tasted better with real butter, but I didn't have any so I used margarine and vegetable oil instead.  I think I like my mom's banana bread even more, so I will try to find out what recipe she's using and hopefully get that up here as well.  


Notes:

With your Crock Pot: According to Stephanie the Crock pot lady, you're supposed to use something to prop the lid up a little to let the steam out when using a pan inside the crock.  She (and I) used a chopstick.  Others have suggested placing a stack of paper towels over the pan before putting the lid on, but I used the chopstick method and mine turned out fine. 

Slow-cooker Apple Cider!

Hi Tiff,
At tonight's dinner, you missed out on homemade hot apple cider!  Wish you could have made it- we had fun making meatballs and shrimp cocktail, and laughed a lot.  My house smells yummy.  
This was really super simple, but Stephanie asked me to post it because after a few sips she decided she wanted to make it herself.  I just filled the slow cooker (my small one is 3.5 quarts, but you could also just use your larger one and only fill with as much as you want to make) with apple juice, and dropped in about a teaspoon of whole cloves and two cinnamon sticks, and let it cook on high for 4 or 5 hours.  You could do it on low all day; I just did it on high because at first I forgot to plug the slow cooker in (uh, oops?), and just keep cooking it until the spices have absorbed to your liking.  If you don't want as much spice flavor, take them out after a couple of hours- I left mine in the whole time and it turned out great.  Too bad the picture didn't turn out as good...

This is a great party drink!  It feels kind of fancy to ladle your cider into a cup like you'd do with punch at a wedding.  Plus you can set your crockpot on its "keep warm" setting and your cider will stay hot as long as you need it to.  When mine finishes cooling, I'm going to pour what's left over back into the bottle and refrigerate it so I can have cider the rest of this week.


Enjoy!  (we must work out a cooking date soon since you missed this one!)
-joy

#10: Fall-on-a-Spoon Sweet Potato Soup (slow-cooker)

Dear Tiff,
I haven't posted for awhile, because I was eating through my leftovers to make more fridge space before I cooked anything that would create more leftovers. This is what happens when you live alone (less people to eat the food) and have a tiny fridge.

Anyways. I love sweet potatoes. Growing up, we pretty much only had them in the candied style, during the holidays. But I just adore them, and I've been trying them out in different less-desserty ways because I think they're just amazing, and pretty good for you too, and thus should not be relegated to the holidays. At some point I'll have to put up my sweet potato chili recipe that you've been asking for for awhile now, but today I made a delicious sweet potato soup.

Fall-on-a-Spoon Sweet Potato Soup

This was inspired by/adapted from a great post by Kristen Swensson Sturt (and she, of course, adapted it from another blogger). I like adaptable food. I like Kristen too, and I recommend you read her post because it was a very entertaining and informative read, and I'm likely to follow her for further inspiration. She made me smile :). It was actually Kristen who gave me the phrase "Fall on a Spoon" with which I decided to name this recipe. Credit where credit is due; that phrase perfectly describes this soup. Ahhh. Yum.

The Basics:
Prep time: About 10 minutes, then in the slow cooker all day
Good for leftovers: yes! You can even freeze some for a rainy day when you don't feel like cooking.
servings: At least 8 meal-sized servings. If you are using it as a side-dish, serve smaller portions to stretch it further
cost: less than $5

Ingredients:
2 medium or large sweet potatoes (yams will work fine as well), peeled and cut into small chunks
1 smallish onion or 1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 cup baby carrots or 2-3 small-medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
a shake of red pepper flakes (optional for some extra zip)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
4 cups (1 quart) chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
brown sugar to taste

The Process:
Peel/chop your carrots, sweet potatoes, and onions. (Celery would be good too but I didn't have any). Add all ingredients except for milk, brown sugar, and maple syrup to the slow cooker. If you made your own chicken broth and its still frozen, that's fine! Just thaw it in the microwave a couple minutes while you're chopping so that you can cut the bag off, and dump the whole frozen chunk in your slow cooker. I store my chicken broth in quart size bags so I didn't even have to measure.

Cook on low all day. If you're around, you can stir it every once in awhile, but it won't be the end of the world. I put mine in around 9am this morning, came back after work around 6:30pm and it was great! What have I said before about soups? They are usually safe to just keep on cooking; in fact, they will often taste better the longer they cook!

Puree your mixture in the blender - usually doing 1-2 cups at a time works best. You could also use an immersion blender if you have one (I don't. But I did finally rectify my blender situation so I do have a blender now). Pour it back into the slow cooker; stir in the milk and syrup and let it cook on high for a few more minutes. (This last step isn't necessary, but your milk was likely cold, and you want your soup to be hot, so if you taste it and its lukewarm you should probably let it heat up for a few more minutes.) Test taste and add brown sugar to get it to your preferred level of sweetness. Serve hot with maple syrup drizzled over bowl. (I didn't do this to mine so you won't see it in the picture).

This was delicious, and filling enough to stand alone as a meal, but you could also serve it as a side dish. It has a very nice fall-winter-holiday feel that goes great with all this rain we've been getting.

Notes/Variations:
Not enough sweet potatoes? Today I used one smallish regular potato as well, and it worked out ok but I had to add more brown sugar to get the flavor balance right since regular potatoes...well they aren't sweet. Shocking, huh?
No blender? (Or don't feel like getting it out?) No problem. You can also serve it as a chunky type soup, and it will still taste great. On the chunky version I would nix the milk. Kristen's version had no milk, but did include brown rice. I didn't have brown rice on hand but this sounds really yummy too, I'll have to try it out next time.
Vegetarian version: just substitute veggie broth for the chicken broth.
Don't have all day? You can also do this on the stove; it should take about 40-60 minutes with only light babysitting (I've hopped in the shower while cooking my sweet potatoes and they were fine, but don't leave the house lest you burn it down!).  But you know me: why would I want to babysit my food when I have a crock-pot to do that for me?

-Joy

#9: Stretch your Dollar Chicken Broth (slow cooker, or not)

Dear Tiff,
Chicken broth at Safeway usually costs about $2-$3 for a 1 quart container.  You can use it in all sorts of things: soups, curries, casseroles, roasts, etc.  And I'm all for buying the shortcut (the store version) if you need it and its a good price.  But making your own is incredibly easy, and costs basically nothing: you're using something you would otherwise throw away.  With the bones from last night's roast chicken, I made about 5 quarts of chicken stock- which cost me nothing beyond what I had already paid for the chicken!  That would have cost me between $10 and $15 at the store, depending on the current sale price!  I actually could've made more if I'd used my giant slow cooker- or split this between the two smaller ones- but I didn't feel like getting any more dishes dirty.


Thanks to Trent from The Simple Dollar for reminding me about this great way to stretch your dollar!


Ingredients:
the chicken bones/skin/giblets from your latest chicken adventure OR you can also use the carcass from when you cheated and bought a precooked Safeway chicken :P
some veggies: an onion and a handful of baby carrots, maybe some celery or green onion if you have them on hand
Italian seasoning
salt (optional)
water


I did mine in the crockpot because I had no desire to babysit it on the stove all day...
In fact, if you cooked your chicken in the crock pot, don't even worry about pouring out the juices and stuff.  Be sure to pick all the usable meat off first, and then dump your bones, giblets, and skin, add the veggies, and fill your pot with water.  For a lower-fat version, leave out the skin.  Let it cook on low all day, or overnight.  OR you can do it on the stove for at least 4 hours.  But honestly, who wants to be chained to their kitchen for that long if it can be avoided?


Next, remove the pot from the heating element to let it cool, scoop out the bones, strain the liquid, and store in tupperware or freezer bags.  The crockpot lady suggests running it through the blender rather than straining it- then you don't waste any meat or veggie pieces in there.  But its not essential- I don't have a blender so I just strained it and it turned out fine.


Try to stack your bags flat in the freezer (or lay them on a baking sheet in the freezer) until they are frozen; this will keep them in a more manageable shape for storage.


You can look forward to a bunch of recipes that use chicken broth as I put all this good stuff to use!

#8: One-Dish Wonder Roast Chicken and Baked Potatoes

Dear Tiffany,


Today you have a long day at work, and so does Sam.  How would it feel to come home to a feast?  Now, how would it feel to come home to a feast...without either a) slaving in the kitchen for hours, b)paying for takeout, or c) blowing your budget on an in-home chef?


This one-dish meal is inspired by a few different recipes that Stephanie O'Dhea shares on her blog, and there are variations galore to keep it from ever getting old.  Chicken is pretty cheap, and even though you're paying for the weight of the bones and such, its still a really good deal to buy a whole chicken verses the boneless skinless breasts.  Check out this great post on The Simple Dollar to see what you're really paying for.

The basics:

Prep time: About 10 minutes, then in the slow cooker all day

Good for leftovers: yes!  See below for how to use them.

servings: about 8 depending on the size of your chicken

cost: about $8 total.

Ingredients:

whole chicken (about 4-5lb), thawed

Italian seasoning

1 onion, quartered

4 cloves garlic or about 2-3 tablespoons minced garlic

several medium potatoes

The Process:

there's no wrong way to
eat a baked potato

Wash and dry your potatoes, and wrap them in aluminum foil.  Place them along the bottom of your slow cooker (I used a 6 quart; if you are using one smaller than 5 quarts you may have trouble fitting your potatoes in).

This bird is ready to cook!

Remove the giblets from the cavity of your chicken.  I saved mine in a ziplock in the fridge so I can stretch your dollar a little more and make an easy chicken stock later to use in other recipes.  If you're not fond of eating chicken skin, you can remove it at this point too and save it for your stock.  Shake Italian seasoning all over your chicken and rub it in.  Place your garlic and quartered onion in the cavity, and place in the crock on top of your potatoes, breast-side down.  Propping it up on the potatoes keeps the chicken from stewing in its own juices- that method tastes good too, but won't have as much of a "roast" effect.  It will also be lower in fat because the fats have a place to drip down to.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 5.

To serve, remove the chicken to a platter and cut off the meat you want.  The chicken was literally falling apart, so if you care if it looks pretty (have company coming over?) you might want to place a cheesecloth underneath the chicken before cooking so you can just lift the cheesecloth out rather than taking it out in pieces as I did.  Just leave the drippings in the pot, so you can use them to make your stock later.  Remove your potatoes (I suggest using tongs or a big fork so you don't burn yourself! Cut open your potatoes and top them with whatever suits your fancy: today I have butter, grated cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, green onions, etc.

The upside to doing the potatoes this way is that they don't get cooked with the chicken, so my vegetarian friend won't have a problem eating the potatoes at small group tonight.  For other ways to do potatoes, check out my potato post.

Variations:  This is the basic-basic of seasonings, but there are a lot of ways you can do a roast chicken! Barbecue sauce and lemon pepper are just two that I can think of off the top of my head; as I come up with more I'll be sure to post them here.

This chicken was literally falling off the bone- Joey tried to eat a drumstick in drumstick form and it fell to pieces.  I cooked 8 potatoes; we only had 5 people show up but they managed to make all the leftover potatoes (and most of the chicken!) disappear.  I do have a picture, but its on Amy's camera so it may be awhile before I can post it.


I used the chicken bones, skin, and giblets to make chicken broth, which I'll freeze so I can use it in recipes to come.  See how here.