CrockPot App Recipe Review

I mentioned earlier that I downloaded a new app for the iPhone, the Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Finder app. I’ve been toodling around with it a lot. I’ve built a list of favorite recipes from it. The best thing I like about the app is the ability to save a recipe, and the app with include all the ingredients into a shopping list. It’s make meal planning SO SO easy. I think it’s the best thing about the app. I’m looking for more apps that do similar things. I’ll let you know when I find them) and if you know of any, please let me know!).

Well, I tried the Beef Stroganoff recipe last night. It was “OK.” I’m not a big fan of cream sauces, but the kids like stroganoff. Stroganoff is, I believe, a Russian dish. I find it bland…. I wonder if the Russians really made it as bland, it’s like eating the leather from ugg boots, to me. It always needs more salt and LOTS more spices.

The recipe is a basic Beef Stroganoff (you use beef strips and not ground beef). It has onions, mushrooms, beef broth, Worcestershir sauce, etc. The recipe called for white wine, but I had none so I skipped that. I also usually add some of my own ideas when cooking– I was tempted to add paprika to this recipe to give it some kick, but I decided not to. I wanted to see how this would taste if I made it straight by the recipe. Again, just “OK.”

The recipe also calls for sour cream (another bland ingredient, I think). I added it very carefully, but it still curdled from the heat a little. (I haven’t been able to stop sour cream from doing that for any of my crockpot recipes! I’m going to avoid sour cream altogether next time).

The kids liked it, enough to eat it all! The beef was nice, but a little strong (always is in crockpot). The gravy consistency was good, but bland. I would make this recipe again, but I would spice it up a bit.

I’ll have more from this app (and any future app) to come. I’m looking forward to making some of the chicken recipes, especially a lemon-herb chicken dish that looks great! Stay tuned…

Beans, Perfect Autumn Comfort Food

Now that autumn is here (and now that we are finally cooking in the house again!), we’re cooking a little bit more. I actually roasted a chicken last night!! It was SOOO good to do that. And it was yummy. I am looking forward to roasting a turkey again.

Lately, however, a big favorite for meals is some kind of bean stew, with rice or grilled bread. Beans is such an easy meal, and with rice, it’s a “complete” protein that is extremely healthful. My Basic Bean Recipe is very versatile: we may try different beans or different variations of meat, but the technique is always the same. The kids love the bean dishes. And if the beans are soaked overnight and allowed to cook very VERY thoroughly, the beans don’t give your digestive system that unpleasant side effect. Also, the more frequently you eat beans, the less gastric issues you have with them. And who knows, maybe eating beans is even a best acne treatment or something…. So eating beans with rice is a win-win no matter how you look at it.

Basic Bean Recipe

1 bag of beans, any kind
1 pound of meat (ham, cooked sausage, leftover roast beef)
1 can chicken broth or your own stock
2 cups water
1 medium white onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
seasonings (I use Salamida’s Hickory Pinch seasoning– wow, it’s good)

Read the direction on the bag of beans to add water to the beans; soak overnight. (Remember to sift through them first! I have found gravel in the bag from time to time).

Next morning, drain the water. Place the beans in a large stock pot or crock pot. Add the meat (pre-cook it and drain it if necessary) and all the other ingredients. Allow to slowly simmer all day long, at least 5 hours. The smell will fill the house and drive your neighbors batty.

Serve with fresh rice or grilled garlic bread.

This meal is SO easy to make, costs very little, and is basically no-maintenance. Couple all that with the fact that it’s highly nutritious, and it’s a GREAT meal.

Notes:
You can experiment with the bean dish by adding other interesting ingredients: diced red peppers; minced garlic; pork chops; horseradish; etc.

If your kids are unhappy with bean dishes, add extra meat and fewer beans. Offer it regularly, and each time, add less meat and more beans. The kids will slowly become accustomed to the beans, and may even eventually cook the soup FOR you! (Mine do, anyway! Thanks, Alice!)

Pinch Hickory Smoke is Great With Stew

I’ve been experimenting with the new Pinch seasoning from Salamida. It’s such good stuff– a touch of peppery spice but it’s not overwhelming– no allergy relief needed. (Pepper makes me sneeze like mad). I love the Salamida Pinch! I sprinkle it on chicken before I roast it, and I’ve already used it in a few soups. This time, I decided to use it as my only seasoning for beef stew.

YUM! I probably used too little. I didn’t want to overdo it, so I was sparse. I needn’t have worried. This stuff is goooooood!

Tonight I’m going to roast a small chicken, and I plan on doing a little experiment with some Salamida marinade. I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

Like Grandma’s Chicken Dumplings?

A recipe titled “Like Grandma’s Chicken Dumplings” is a loaded one, for me. My grandmother never cooked (not that I remember; she was always busy shifting through mounds of paperwork, perhaps life insurance rates and retirement benefits?). But seemed to always serve Campbell’s tomato soup and tuna fish sandwiches. It was fine with me, because I loved tomato soup and disliked Chicken Dumplings. Yuk.

Buuuut…. I couldn’t let my kids grow up without once trying Chicken Dumplings, now could I? What kind of mother would I be?! So I found a recipe that made it easy. I can’t say it’s very tasty… they liked it OK, but I didn’t care for it. It is certainly palatable, but I don’t like cream sauces… and this had more sauce then chicken. The original recipe is at Disney Family Food (a new recipe website I’ve discovered). I altered it a little. Here’s what I did.

Like Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 soup cans water
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients, except biscuits, in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters and gently stir into mixture. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours.

Tip
Don’t add water to the CROCK-POT® slow cooker, unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Foods don’t lose as much moisture during slow cooking as they can during conventional cooking, so follow the recipe guidelines for best results.

OK, I doubled the recipe. The “2 cans” soup water made for a LOT of water. I did it anyway….

Looks… interesting….

It was just too watery. So I added potatoes. And carrots. All the Chicken and Dumpling recipes I ever saw had potatoes and carrots. This was turning more into a Chicken Stew…. but I wasn’t going to eat canned cream of chicken soup and chicken cubes! It just didn’t seem enough. Adding the potatoes probably diluted a little of the saltiness from the “bouillon” granules (I used Ramen packets). So more salt is necessary.

End result?

Not TOO bad. I skipped the refrigerated biscuits and served fresh rolls instead. The kids liked dipping the rolls into the soup. And the chicken was marvelously tender and moist. But the overall taste….. eh. OK. It’s always the creamy sauce stuff that I don’t care for.

So this was an OK recipe. I don’t intend to make it again, unless the kids beg me. And they probably won’t. The WILL beg me for Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa, which I am going to make again.

Terrific Black Bean & Ham Soup

I cannot believe my kids eat this. I mean— it’s good! But when I was a kid, I hated anything with beans in it. My kids devour this soup. It’s so easy to make, and it’s perfect with my Bread Machine Flax Bread. The ingredients are simple; you probably have everything in your pantry. I serve a big crowd, so this recipe is a little large. Reduce (or double) as you wish.

Wow Chow Black Bean & Ham Soup

4 15oz. cans black beans
2 15oz. cans chicken broth (or use your own)
2 Tablespoons minced garlic, chopped fresh or prepared in the jar (optional)
1 Tablespoon horseradish (optional)
1 Tablespoon olive oil or pat of butter
1 white onion, diced into small pieces
6 cups of diced ham or turkey ham

In a large stock pot, put in the olive oil or butter, and then the onions. Saute lightly, just until the onion is barely translucent. Toss in all your ham or turkey ham (I use turkey ham), and stir well to heat.

Now, drain your canned beans and dump them in the pot. Dump the broth into the pot. Add the garlic and horseradish if you include them.

Stir it well, and cook on low/medium for about 3 hours. I guess it would be technically cooked in 1 or 2 hours, but cooking longer thickens the soup and blends the ingredients more. This is a GREAT cold weather meal. It’s also a terrific “quickie” meal, for days when you’re too busy fooling around, doing housework and bills, blogging, making vacation plans and checking out www.goodsamesp.com, etc etc. Heh heh. It takes about 20 minutes to have everything ready to throw in the pot. The key is stirring it every once in a while. to make sure the beans don’t stick as the soup thickens. Alternatively, if you will be out of the house all day, you can throw these same ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. The Flax Seed Bread is perfect with this!

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