Chili

Well it has been a little while since I posted about some things I have made in my crock pot. Things have become a little more hectic in the last couple of week at home making meals a little bit harder. But that is what is so great about crock pots! You practically through all the ingredients in, turn it on, do what you need to do, and then come back to a delicious hot meal! A favorite of mine is chili.

Recipe
   2 lbs Ground Beef
   1 Qt Tomato Juice
   1 (29oz) Can Tomato Puree
   1 (15oz) Can Red Beans, drained
   1 Medium Onion, chopped
   1/2 Cup Celery, diced
   1/4 Cup Green Pepper, diced
   1/4 Cup Chili Powder
   1 tsp Cumin (or more for extra flavor)
   1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
   1 tsp Salt
   1/2 tsp Black Pepper
   1/2 tsp Oregano
   1/2 tsp Sugar
   1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper


In a frying pan, brown the ground beef; drain. Put the drained beef and the remaining ingredients into a 6-quart pot. Cover the pot and let simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

This is all to the recipe. You can cook this on the stove or just prepare it all and put into your crock pot and put it on low and let it slowly warm up and blend all together for a few good hours, stirring occassionally. When I make it, I usually use less than a quart of tomato juice or none at all and will substitute a small can of tomato paste or sauce. Just something similar to add some liquid. I also really like a thick and hearty, spicy, chili so I also use at least 2 cans of drained beans and about 1/4 cup of cayenne pepper. That is just me though. I really like chili and I always do a little variation just to try different things.

After its been cooking on low in your slow cooker for a few hours and is nice and hot, scoop yourself some into a bowl with some shredded cheese on top, with a nice hot roll and enjoy!

Spaghetti Sauce

So, I decided to make a spaghetti sauce for the first time last week for my boyfriend one night since he really wanted pasta. We were going to have dinner on tuesday, which is also the night my roommates and I watch Glee and I invite a couple of my friends over. And normally we make something in the Crock Pot for everyone but this week I didn't feel like it and nothing was planned. So I decided to just do something for my boyfriend and I. We both like onions and peppers but when I finished chopping them and starting cooking them, it was clear that this was becoming a Crock Pot dinner since our biggest pot would not have held all the peppers and onions I wanted to put in it. So slow cooked spaghetti sauce it was!

Recipe
   1 Green Pepper
   1 Red Pepper
   2 Medium Onions
   1 Can of Mushrooms
   1 Package of Sausage
   Salt and Pepper
   Cayenne Pepper (optional)
   Small Can Tomato Paste
   Large Can Tomato Sauce
   Large Can Tomato Chunks
   Oregano
   5 Cloves Garlic
 
I started this the night before. First, I cut up my onions, peppers, garlic and opened the can of mushrooms. Saute this all together in a large frying pan. At this point I realized that this was going to turn into a Crock Pot dinner. I could have finished cooking the vegetables before I decided to put the sausage in but I just put it the pan with the vegetables.

I cooked the sausage all the way because I didn't want to worry about making sure it cooked all the way in the Crock Pot although I am sure it would have. At this point, I put the tomato paste, tomato sauce, and tomato chunks in the Crock Pot with the cut up pieces of sausage and sauteed vegetables. Mix it all together, throw in some oregano as desired, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper if you like a little spice and stir. Put on low and let simmer for a few hours. 

I was always told that spaghetti sauce tastes better the next day. So I turned it off after a few hours and put in the fridge until the next day. A few hours before we were going to have supper the next day, I put the sauce back in the Crock Pot and slowly started to heat it up. It was a very delicious sauce for my first one!

Chicken Pot Pie

So... for the first blog I decided to try something I hadn't already done in my crock pot and my roommates and I really wanted to have chicken pot pie. But how to do a pot pie in a crock pot, and not an oven. We searched, and found a recipe for it to be done in a crock pot. We modified it a little bit to better fit our needs and this is how it went

Recipe
   2 medium minced onions (my roommate doesn't like the texture of onions, so I mince them but chopped onions would be fine)
   1 red pepper - chopped
   1-2 cups carrots - I didn't measure how many carrots I used, it was somewhere between 1 or 2 cups, closer to 2 cups. I stopped cutting them up when I thought it looked like enough

   1-2 cups broccoli - Same thing as carrots, I chopped them up until it looked like it would be enough (we were serving 8 people so I put more in the recipe called for.)

   Garlic - I like garlic, so I minced 5 or 6 cloves but you can have less or more depending on what you or your family likes)

   4-6 chicken breasts cubed - This doesn't need to be cooked ahead of time. We cut them into small cubes and mixed them right in with the vegetables.

   2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup

   1 cup celery - Or more, if you like celery

   Pre-made roll out pie crust - You can get this at any grocery store

   Salt and Pepper

Add all your vegetables and chicken into a big bowl and add the cans of cream of chicken soup and mix very well. Sprinkle some salt and pepper in as well.

Place into a crock pot that has been sprayed with cooking spray and roll pre-made pie crust on top.

Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-5 hours. We were short on time to make this before we had planned to eat so we set it on high and it went for about 3ish hours.

How It Tasted

   The pot pie itself kind of came out more like a stew... but... it was a very delicious stew! We were short on time so we didn't let the crust harden up as much as it needed to and the cream of chicken soup didn't stay as thick as we thought. But good news is I have another pre-made pie crust and we want to try it with gravy or do something to thicken up the cream of chicken soup. I also was going to add in a chicken bouillon packet or two to the mix vegetables but it slipped my mind before I put it all together in the crock pot. I made homemade yeast rolls to go with it and those were delicious! This is a picture of them from my annual bake sale for Relay For Life.