Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I'm baaaaaaa-aaaaack!

Well, I'm back from California, and with a tan!  (As tan as a super duper white girl gets anyway!)  We had a great time.  A lot of first for our family.  It was our first family vacation with Ella, Ella's first time flying (she did fantastic!!!!  LOVE it!), mine and Ella's first time at Disneyland, our first trip to the ocean together, mine and Ella's first time at the SanDiego Zoo and our first time trying to adjust Ella back to Eastern time zone!  LOL 

I've missed my Crock Pot while we were gone.  Ella barely ate a thing while on vacation and I'm looking forward to making some more tasty dishes that she'll want to sink her teeth into!  I think it's awesome that she did not want to indulge in french fries and sweets while on vacation.  You know what she asked for the most?  "Veggies please!"  My child wanted veggies!  I LOVE it!  It's so hard to eat a well balanced diet while on vacation.  We did the best we could, but if only the hotel had a crock pot!!!  LOL

I don't have a plan for the rest of the week yet, but as soon as I do, I'll be sure to post it!  For tonight, I am defrosting a Calico Bean Soup in the Crock Pot because it was ready to go in the freezer!  I'll post the recipe and picture later!

Happy Crock-Potting!
Hope Print Friendly and PDF

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sloppy Joes

Wow!  These were VERY tasty!  They were sweet, savory, tangy and delicious!  Our 2-year-old daughter had second helpings tonight!  Sloppy joes were a HUGE hit in my house!  These Sloppy Joes were easy to make and packed a lot of great flavor!  I can't wait for you to try them!  WE can't wait for leftovers tomorrow! :)

Sloppy Joes
 (the Orzo salad on the left I did not make!)

Ingredients:
1.5 lb. lean ground beef
16 oz. Mild pork sausage
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1/2 Green bell pepper, chopped
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. Yellow Mustard
1 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
1 Tbsp.Chili Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Hamburger buns

Directions:

Brown ground beef and sausage in a pan.  Drain all grease.

In Slow cooker insert, mix together everything else.  Add the beef/sausage mixture and stir.

Cook on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.  Enjoy!!!!!!

Tips: I prepared everything the night before and stuck the liner in the fridge.  All I had to do was plug in the Slow Cooker and voila! Print Friendly and PDF

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

This Week's Plan 6-15-10

Sorry for my lateness!  My husband and I are DONE with school for the year (we're teachers!) so we've been just enjoying our time with our daughter!  I haven't even been home to cook!  I will be making only ONE Crock Pot meal this week due to our crazy schedule and will take all of next week off as well.  Sorry!!!  I promise I will get back on the horse, but I need a little down time around here!

Tomorrow I will be making Sloppy Joes!  I've actually never made them before, well, except for out of a can, so here's to hoping they turn out good! 

Here's this week's plan:
Monday : Leftovers
Tuesday : Dinner out
Wednesday : Sloppy Joes
Thursday : Leftovers
Friday : Not sure yet!


Happy Crock-Potting!
Hope Print Friendly and PDF

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Italian Sausage Meatball Soup

Mmmmm mmmmm Good!!!!  I honestly didn't think this soup was going to turn out very well, but by gosh by golly, it did!  I do have to warn you, it's spicy!  The Italian Sausage makes this dish into a "nose-runner," but I promise it's worth it!

I do have one complaint with this soup.  The marble sized meatballs (which I was SO excited for my daughter to see) took FOREVER to make!  I spent at least 45 minutes last night rolling them and browning them.  So, when I make this recipe again, I will definitely do it when I have much more time on my hands in the evening!  The last week of school, when I'm exhausted was just not the best time!  Oh well, you live and learn!  Oh, and my daughter.......didn't even try a single meatball! :(  SO sad!

Here's the good stuff:

Italian Sausage Meatball Soup

Meatball Ingredients:
1 lb. Italian Sausage, removed from the casing
1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 Tbsp. dried onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Soup Ingredients:
8 cups Chicken Broth
4 cups water
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Other Ingredients to add later:
1 1/2 cups mini shell noodles
8 oz. bag spinach
grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
Mix all of the Meatball ingredients for the meatballs together except the Olive Oil.  Roll into marble sized meatballs.  Heat Olive Oil in a pan and brown meatballs.  

In the Slow Cooker, mix all the soup ingredients.  Add the meatballs.  Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.
1/2 hour before you are ready to serve, add the noodles.  When noodles are tender, add the spinach, stir and serve your soup with a little grated Parmesan on top!  Voila!  Bon Appetit!

Tips:
Make the meatballs ahead of time.  I made the meatballs and then stored them overnight in the fridge.  You could make these meatballs and freeze them, then pull them out of the freezer when you were ready to use them.  I also assembled all the soup ingredients into the Slow Cooker insert the night before.  In the morning, all I had to do was put the liner into the Slow Cooker, add the Meatballs and turn it on! 

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Chicken Piccata

Well, this will be the first time I won't post a recipe after I've made something.  Don't get me wrong, this tasted wonderful, but there was definitely not enough sauce for the pasta and I needed more capers, etc.  I'm determined to get this one right because I love it so!!!  I'll try this again in a few weeks and make it spectacular!  Here's a little teaser for you.....just a picture of what it looked like!

Chicken Piccata
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Monday, June 7, 2010

This Week's Plan 6-7-10

Sorry Folks!  Tried to post last night, but Blogger wasn't letting me.

This is going to be a fantastic week!  It's the last week of the school year for me and I'm looking forward to staying home with my daughter and husband, and Crock-Potting of course!

I have three recipes this week and I'm really excited to try them!  The first is Chicken Piccata.  This is one of my favorite dishes at a restaurant, so I'm hoping it turns out well!  I thought I'd give it a go!

The second recipe is Italian Sausage Soup.  I'm excited to make little tiny sausage meatballs with the little tiny shell noodles.  I'm thinking this will be a BIG hit with my 2-year-old!

The third is good ole' Sloppy Joes!  What a great way to end the school year!  I'm going to serve these with some homemade coleslaw too!  Don't worry, I'll post that recipe as well!

So, here's this week's plan:

Monday (today) - Leftover Indian Chicken (was pretty darn good the second time!)
Tuesday - Chicken Piccata with Angel hair pasta
Wednesday - Italian Sausage Soup
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Sloppy Joes with Coleslaw

I can't wait to get cooking!

Happy Crock-Potting!
Hope Print Friendly and PDF

Friday, June 4, 2010

Easy Indian Chicken

Next to Easy Chicken, this is the easiest!  All it takes is 3 ingredients folks!  JUST 3!  Pretty darn cool!  For only having 3 ingredients, this is packed with flavor!  Making my sides of rice and steamed green beans and carrots took longer than the Easy Indian Chicken!  I haven't had very much Indian food in my life, but this turned out really good!  The sauce was really yummy and not spicy at all.  The onions added a lot of sweet flavor.  It was delicious!

This is an easy one, so here it is....

Easy Indian Chicken

Ingredients:
2 large or 3 small Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cubed(or if you can find lamb, god bless you! I couldn't!)
1/2 Red Onion, roughly chopped into large chunks
1 jar Rogan Josh Curry Cooking Sauce (found it pretty easily in the Ethnic aisle at Meijer)

Directions:
Place all ingredients into the Slow Cooker and stir.  Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours.

Serve with Rice.

Enjoy!
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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

French Dip

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!  This was SOOOOOO good!  When I walked in the house after work today, the aroma was AMAZING!  Mmmmmmmm!!!  It took total willpower to not have seconds tonight!  I'm not gonna lie, I think this was the best French Dip I've ever had!  I've had some pretty darn good French dips in my life, but this tops it for sure!  The au jous was PERFECT!  I am definitely making this recipe for company!  They will be totally impressed and it's SOOOO easy!!!  I served my French Dip with Carrots just to be healthy, but I would definitely recommend fries with this!  If I had had the time tonight, some homemade baked fries would have really hit the spot!

I have to tell you, this French Dip almost didn't happen today!  We didn't have a blender snaphoo this morning like last Wednesday, but I did have a child crying for her mommy when it was time to leave.  It threw me off and I didn't get the meal into the Slow Cooker base before I left for work this morning.  I'd like to thank Maja and Ruth for taking their kiddos on a field trip today which made it possible for me to drive home and put my French Dip into the Slow Cooker.  Instead of cooking it on low, I just cooked it on High for 6 hours.  It was perfect!

Just a heads up, I searched EVERYWHERE for lamb for tomorrow's Indian Lamb, but no luck :(  I will make it into Indian Chicken and I'm going to push it to Friday.  I have to have French dip again tomorrow!  My mouth is watering just talking about the prospect of it!!!!!

This recipe is golden folks, and here it is.....

French Dip

Ingredients:
3-4 lb. Chuck Roast (or any other type of boneless roast)
1 can Progresso French Onion Soup
1 can Campbell's Beef Consumme
1 bottle/can beer
1 onion, chopped into rings
8 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. onion powder
6 French Rolls
butter
shredded mozerella cheese

Directions:
In the Slow Cooker, pour the French Onion Soup, Beef Consumme, beer and Worchestershire sauce in.  Add the onion, garlic powder and onion powder.  Put the Chuck Roast on top.

Cook on LOW 7-9 hours or on HIGH 5-6 hours.

When ready to serve, heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut rolls in half, butter them and add a sprinkle of Mozerella on one side of each Roll.  Cook in the over for 10 minutes.

Shred your Beef and put it onto your buns.  Serve with the au jous on the side for yummy dipping!  Enjoy!

TIPS:  I did all the prep work the night before so all I had to do in the morning was put the insert into the Slow Cooker and turn it on.....well, mid afternoon for me!  LOL 

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