CrockPot Pasta Fagioli Recipe

Day 305.

Happy Halloween! If you're looking for a hearty meal to fill the belly of your little ghost or goblin before they eat their weight in chocolate, you've come to the right place. This is some good soup.

It's based upon Olive Garden's Pasta E. Fagioli which, quite frankly, I've never had, but it sounded good. So I made it. In the crockpot.

This is a crowd-pleasing soup. There's nothing weird in it, and it has a fun kick that isn't spicy as much as it is noticeable.

A Year of CrockPotting, and this recipe, are featured today on The Lil' Peanut Patch.

The Ingredients.

--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth (check label for gluten!)
--1 jar (26-ounce) pasta sauce
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time (I used TJ's brown rice fusilli)

The Directions.

Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of parmesan cheese if you have it.

The Verdict.

Delicious. Amazing. This is a very filling soup, and a great warm-me-up on a chilly evening. The ingredients are everything you'd put in a traditional minestrone, but that bit of Tobasco sauce changes the flavor dramatically. Very yummy. One kid ate a bowl, and the other one fell asleep before dinner. I wasn't about to wake her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was on the news last night in Oklahoma! At the very end when the newscaster says I have a book on this year coming out in March, she is mistaken. The book is Totally Together: An Organizational Journal for the Busy Household.

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Pecan Topped Baked Sweet Potatoes CrockPot Recipe

Day 304.

ssshh. Don't look now, but Thanksgiving is around the corner. Tomorrow is actually Halloween, but I decided to get a move on and test out this sweet potato dish while I had 4 fresh in the house.

This is good. The kids liked it, Adam liked it, and while it was sweet, it wasn't overly sweet. No marshmallows were involved, which is usually how my kids enjoy baked sweet potatoes.

The Ingredients.

--4 peeled and sliced (1/4 inch thick) sweet potatoes
--1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
--1 cup nonfat evaporated milk (in a can in the baking aisle---I don't know how fresh transfers)
--3/4 cup brown sugar
--1 tsp vanilla extract
--4 T butter
--1 cup chopped pecans
--2 cups crumbled pretzels (I used EnerG gluten free)

The Directions.

I used a 4 quart round crockpot, and it was a great size. If you have a bigger one, go ahead and use it, but the cooking time will be quicker.

Peel and slice the sweet potato and stagger-stack in your crockpot. Cover with the 3/4 cup of brown sugar. Open the can of cranberry jelly and squish it out all over the top of the sugar and potatoes.

Mix the 1 tsp of vanilla with the cup of milk, and pour over the entire top.

Slice the butter, and dot it on top.

Crumble the pretzels and mix them with the chopped pecans. Sprinkle over the top.

Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for 5-6. This is done when the sweet potatoes have reached desired tendency. We like ours pretty squishy.

Unplug and uncover. Let sit for 15 minutes before cutting into.

The Verdict.

These are some good sweet potatoes. The pretzels completely disappeared and are probably not necessary. I guess they added a bit of salt, but otherwise the texture was only from the pecans.

I liked the mixture of the tartness of the cranberries with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.

I'd proudly serve these for Thanksgiving dinner.

I adapted this from the Halloween edition of Taste of Home, page 48. The original recipe asked for 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, and a WHOLE cup of butter. Woah.

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CrockPot Sweet and Sour Chicken with Mango Lettuce Wraps

Day 303.

These are so much fun to eat! I'm going to tag it "summer cooking" even though we're at the end of October, because this would have been a welcome treat to eat during the hot months---although you can really make this any time you'd like a lighter meal.

I got the idea from a Cooking Light Magazine, and tweaked it to reflect ingredients we had in the house, and for use with the crockpot.

The Ingredients.

--1 1/2 lbs frozen, skinless breast pieces (I used 3 humongous breast halves)
--10 oz jar mango jam (I couldn't find mango, and used apricot-orange. It was great)
--3 T soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat free are GF)
--1 T sesame oil
--2 chopped garlic cloves
--1 tsp. chili paste (usually found in the ethnic aisle, but you could use red chili flakes)
--1 inch peeled and grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground)
--2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and diced
--1/2 red onion, chopped
--2 whole jalapeno peppers (do NOT cut, just toss in whole)
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper

to add later:
--2 mangoes, peeled and chopped (if you can't find fresh mango, use frozen)
--romaine lettuce leaves
--2 limes
--2 T sesame seeds

The Directions.

I used a 6.5 quart eLume crockpot.

Put the frozen chicken in. Add the jam, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili paste. Chop the garlic, onion, and cucumber. Add that too.
Add spices and ginger. Toss in the whole jalapeno peppers.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5. The meat is done when it shreds easily with a fork.

Cut the mango now while the kitchen is already dirty and put it in a tupperware for later.

When fully cooked, shred the meat with two large forks, and serve 1/2 cup at a time on large romaine lettuce leaves. Add cubed mango, a squeeze of lime, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Enjoy. mmmm.

The Verdict.

3 out of 4 of us liked this a lot. That is a successful meal, by my judgement, and the 4th who didn't like it wouldn't have liked anything last night.

seriously. she was in a funk.

Adam had 3 wraps for dinner, my youngest had 3 plates of meat with some leftover rice, and I had a wrap, then another for a midnight (8:30 pm) snack.

Very tasty. The whole jalapenos lend a bit of spice and smokiness without being overpowering. My little one did wash down every bite with some ice water, but kept digging in for more.

My eldest ended up eating a quesadilla and an artichoke.

If you like lettuce wraps, I made PF Chang copy-cats earlier in the year.

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CrockPot Bacon Wrapped Cornish Game Hens

Day 302.

mmm. bacon. The Internet has a strange love for bacon. Every time I get together with a group of bloggers, the conversation turns to bacon. Since I'm allergic to pork, I don't really get it, but nod along 1) to be polite and 2) to not appear overly weird.

I've bought beef bacon a few times, and after I get over the swimming-in-oil-and-fat-and-cholesterol thing, I enjoy eating it. I wrapped these little cornish game hens in bacon, and they were amazing. The kids ate a whole bunch----which is glorious----especially since the meat kind of fell apart and the hens looked different than the chicken my kids are used to eating.

The Ingredients.

--2 cornish game hens, thawed
--6 slices of bacon * (if you are gluten-free, always check labels thrice, and do your own research.)
--1 tsp kosher salt
--1 tsp thyme
--1 tsp rosemary

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart crockpot; the little birds nestled in nicely.

I did skin the birds; there was no where near as much fat and skin as is on a regular chicken, but I took off as much as I could with poultry shears.

In a small bowl, mix your dry spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the birds, inside and out. Lower the birds into the crockpot. I thought I had put them both breast-side down, but I think only one actually was. Take your strips of bacon, and wrap two one way and one the other on each bird. See if you can tuck an end inside of the cavity.

Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. I cooked ours on low for 4 hours, and then switched it to high for the last hour.

Discard the bacon before serving.

I served rice and roasted veggies with the hens.

The Verdict.

oooh, boy. I like cornish game hens. The meat is very moist and rich----maybe a bit gamey to some, but quite full of flavor. The kids ate all the little drumsticks and a lot of the breast meat.

I look forward to making this again!

The rosemary and thyme were perfect, and the bacon provided a neat smoky flavor to all of the meat.

* because I can not find conclusive evidence that the bacon I used was GF, I'm going to not tag this gluten free. I'll call the company today.

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Save Money By Using Your CrockPot Slow Cooker

The economy is all whacked out right now and it's scary. I'm not watching the news.

I get an email almost every day asking if I am saving money by using my CrockPot daily.

No. What I am doing is not normal. Most people do not try to do what I'm doing in the crockpot. We are pretty much breaking even on the grocery bills, thanks to BlogHerads. I am grocery shopping more than I ever have before, and am cooking way too much food. I am also buying ingredients that cost more than I would normally spend because I'm trying so many new things.

But you can save money. You don't need to cook a different something every single day. You can cook a big pot of beans, stew, or a casserole and eat it for a few days in a row. You can stock your freezer with homemade broth, stock, and cream of something soup. You can freeze your own cooked beans. You can make yogurt. You can make baby food. You can cook a whole chicken and pick off the meat for future meals. You can even make playdough, crayons, or use the crockpot as a footbath (not really. this one is just for fun.)

When I was first married, I stunk at cooking. I still kind of do, but at least the crockpot allows me a bunch of wiggle-room. I would make Taco Soup every other week, and Adam and I would stretch the food to last for days by making burritos, or adding it on top of rice.

I've put together a round-up of money-saving CrockPot ideas for you. I will continue to add more posts when I come up with them.

homemade chicken broth
homemade beef stock
homemade cream of mushroom soup

Myron's famous whole chicken
lemon and herb chicken
rotisserie-style chicken

How to make canned beans
or refried beans
How to make yogurt
How to make babyfood
Playdough recipe
Recycle crayons in your crockpot
Recycle Candles, too!
Use your crockpot as a rice cooker
Make homemade chicken nuggets in the crockpot
Skip the coffee house and make pumpkin spice lattes at home or peppermint mochas.
Having a party? Stretch your wine by turning it into mulled wine.

Extra food? Make fried rice in the crockpot!
You can make applesauce or apple butter, or homemade granola.

And my favorite way to use my crockpot: the lazy way. Plop in a hunk of frozen meat---it really doesn't matter what kind---and cover it with a bottle or jar of your favorite sauce. Cook on low all day, and serve the shredded meat over rice or pasta. I've used spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, A-1, salad dressing, and bottled marinades.

If you are concerned about the amount of energy consumed by using a crockpot (which is a very valid concern!) here is a pamphlet put out by First Energy Corp., in Ohio. The chart on page 5 says that a crockpot uses $0.02 power per hour.
Here's another energy usage list put out by the Northeast Utilities System, that says the monthly cost of using a slow cooker is $1.17.

For more frugal dinner ideas, visit Erin at $5 Dollar Dinners.

Slow Cooking During a Recession
Meal Planning With the CrockPot
Alphabetical Listing of Recipes
Frequently Asked Crock-Pot Questions
Help! My CrockPot Cooks Too Fast!
An Important Note About Safety
My New Year's Resolution

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CrockPot Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Day 301.

Hey! You can roast pumpkin seeds in the crockpot!

but that doesn't mean that you should.

They take a really long time and are kind of a pain, and the end result is the same as it always has been for me when I make them in the oven: mixed. Some are good, some are burnt, and some are squishy.

But, if you have 6 hours on your hands, and want to fool around with this, by all means---go for it.

The Ingredients.

--fresh pumpkin seeds
--1 1/2 T olive oil
--1 tsp salt (I really like Kosher salt, but table salt is fine. Sea Salt might be fun, too.)

The Directions.

I cut and gutted two pumpkins yesterday and they yielded about 2 1/2 cups of seeds.

I tried Elise's method of boiling the seeds first, and then simmering for 10 minutes. The idea is that the inner seed separates a bit from the outer shell resulting in a nice pop when you crunch them. I have issues with using the stove correctly (hence this crockpot thing) and probably over-cooked the seeds. They turned color.

After draining, I tossed the seeds into the crockpot ----I used a 6 quart----and added the olive oil and salt. I stirred well and turned it to high.

For six hours, stirring every hour or so.

And they probably could have gone on for longer, but I got annoyed.

The Verdict.

The kids like these. They munched on them all evening, and have requested a baggie packed in their lunches.

I like about every third seed.
Adam is being polite.

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CrockPot Sweet and Sour Caramelized Onions

Day 300.

It is the 300th day of the year, and the day my youngest turns 4. If it wasn't for writing the day of the year each morning, I'd have no idea that every leap year her birthday falls on the 300th day. That's kind of neat.

She was awake at 5:51 this morning, hopping on her bed. Thankfully her older sister continued to sleep. She and Adam are in the living room playing with her birthday request: a toy barbecue. It has wheels, a little rotisserie complete with plastic chicken, and 'realistic' cooking sounds.

She couldn't be happier.

I made these onions last night on a whim because I had found this recipe in one of the Cooking Light magazines my mom brought over, and I liked the picture. They tasted fantastic and would be great paired with a nice juicy steak.

The Ingredients.
adapted from Jan. 2008 edition of Cooking Light, page 164

--2 pounds tiny onions (sometimes called boiler or pearl onions)
--1/2 cup raisins (one box)
--1 T butter
--2 T balsamic vinegar
--1 T sugar
--1/4 tsp kosher salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/4 cup pine nuts

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart crockpot, but anything 4 quarts and up will work.

Cut the top and bottom off of all of the onions and peel away the skin. If you get some of the onion and peel that off an outer layer, that's okay. It takes a while to peel the onions; make sure you're in a good mood.

Put the onions in the crockpot and toss with balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Add the pat of butter and the raisins. Toss in the pine nuts.

Cover and cook on high for 2-4 hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so. I cooked ours for a bit more than 3 hours, and stirred 3 times. I wanted the onions to get brown and caramely on all sides.

The Verdict.

Adam and I liked this a lot. This would be a great accompaniment to a holiday meal, or to bring as an addition to a potluck dinner.

It looks fancy, and tastes fancy, but is easy to throw together. The raisins plumped and took on the vinegar flavor, and the pine nuts added a bit of crunch and some smokiness.

I'm off to eat a plastic chicken. I can't wait.

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Jamaican Pumpkin Soup CrockPot Recipe

Day 299.

The year is quickly winding down! I've gotten quite a few emails in the past few days wondering what will happen to this blog at the end of the year. Nothing. It's not going anywhere, but I do reserve the right to take a vacation! I'm kind of a bit pooped.


This soup beats the pumpkin out of the disgusting black bean and pumpkin soup that I made last week.

The flavors in here are rich and distinguished. It's completely fat-free until you add the cream, which is optional. To cut back on cream consumption, I measured out 1 tablespoon per family member and we stirred it in ourselves at the table. The kids adored this and renamed the soup "Sunset Soup." Adam and I then tried to sing "Sunrise Sunset" for them, but we only knew those first two words, so we just sang them over and over again. It was dorky and sweet all at the same time.

The Ingredients.


This soup will serve 6 grown-ups.

2 cups of fresh pumpkin, or 1 (15-ounce ) can
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 yams, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon tumeric (this was the first time I bought tumeric, and I do think it's a necessary spice)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

TO ADD LATER:
--heavy whipping cream, 1 tablespoon per family member (optional)
--garnish with chopped green onion (I chose not to at the last minute)

The Directions.


Use a 6-quart slow cooker.

I bought a pumpkin specifically for this recipe. I had huge plans to cut out the flesh, discard the strings and seeds and cook the fresh pumpkin. The kids had other plans, and took the pumpkin from me, wrapped "her" in baby blankets and played house for a few days. When I got "her" back she wasn't quite as hard as she was when I first brought her home from the store. I wasn't terribly worried until I committed pumpkincide and cut into her and found a disgusting black moldy mess.

Mrs. Pumpkin Head is now in the compost bin.

SO! If you have fresh non-squishy and moldy pumpkin, go for it. Otherwise, open a can of pure pumpkin and use that.

Empty it into your crockpot, and add the chopped vegetables. Add the spices and sugar. Stir in the vegetable broth and water. I really don't think it matters one whit what gets added first. It's soup. It's going to cook together all day long.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Carefully use an immersible blender to blend about 3/4 of the soup. If you have littles in the house with texture issues, feel free to blend it all.

Serve with a bit of cream to stir in.

The Verdict.

Gorgeous. This is a gorgeous soup. I love it. The kids enjoyed it (they liked it better when it turned yellow with the cream), and Adam and I liked it an awful lot. I'd most definitely serve this to guests.

Super good.

Are you having a potluck this Halloween? Here are a bunch of Halloween-type slow cooker recipes to please the goblins in your neighborhood! 

have a happy day!!

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Little Dipper CrockPot Chocolate Fondue

Day 298.

It's Friday Fondue Fun Day! You can not not have fun while dipping stuff in chocolate. If you don't have fun dipping stuff in chocolate there is something wrong with you.

Go seek help.

I'll wait.

I needed a basic chocolate fondue recipe that was tried-and-true and perfect. So I turned to the mecca: Simply Recipes. I found exactly what I was looking for. Elise rocks. Garrett from Vanilla Garlic is who actually posted this for her, but I still stand by her rockingness.

The Ingredients.

--1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark, milk, or white. Your choice.)
--1/2 cup heavy cream
--1 tsp vanilla

optional
you can doctor this up with:
--1 T Grand Marnier
--1 T rum
--1 T Peppermint Schnapps
--1 T Bailey's Irish Cream
--1 tsp peppermint, orange, coconut, etc. extract
--pinch of espresso powder

The Directions.

The proportions here fit into a Little Dipper. Although the booklet that comes with the Little Dipper says that it only holds 1 cup of contents, I proved this wrong with my earth-shattering discovery that a whole can of Progresso Clam Chowder fits perfectly.

If you do not have a Little Dipper (psst. the holidays are coming...) you can put an oven-safe dish inside of a larger crockpot. Do not add water. There's no need to create a water bath for melting chocolate in the crockpot. It melts nice and slow. Or! you can quintuple the recipe and have a good ol' time.

Put chocolate chips in the crockpot. Add the heavy cream and teaspoon of vanilla. Cover. Plug in and cook on low (or the ON setting for the LD) for about an hour. Stir.

Serve with apple chunks, banana slices, cubes of pound cake, strawberries, or marshmallows. Or all of them and invite me over.

The Verdict.

Simple and easy and wonderful and amazing.

The kids liked the marshmallows the best, surprise, surprise.

Fondue Friday is becoming a favorite in our house (even though I really do it on Thursday, but whatever. The things I do for you people...) :-D

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You Can Make Yogurt in Your CrockPot!

Day 297.

You can! You really, really can!

Posts like this get me so excited. I love finding new ways to use the crockpot. My friend Jessica has always made homemade yogurt for her kids, and after looking up what a yogurt maker did, I had the idea that a crockpot could work. But I never found a source that would walk me through the steps.

Until Debbie. Debbie (who needs to start a blog because she is an almost-debt-free homeschooling mom to six) came to my rescue and held my hand (virtually) through yogurt-making.

Thank you, Debbie! xoxo

The Ingredients.

--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (Debbie recommends starting with whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt-making)

--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)

--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

--thick bath towel

--slow cooker (scroll down for the ones that I recommend)

The Directions.

This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.

I used a 4 quart crockpot. This is so exciting. My fingers are shaking!

Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add an entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.


Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.



Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.


Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.

In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

Blend in batches with your favorite fruit. I did mango, strawberry, and blueberry. When you blend in the fruit, bubbles will form and might bother you. They aren't a big deal, and will settle eventually.

Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.


The Verdict.

Wowsers! This is awesome! I was completely astonished the next morning that the yogurt thickened. I was so excited to feel the drag on the spoon---and sort of scared the kids with my squealing.

They each ate a huge serving that morning (they added honey to their servings) and have eaten it for every meal for 2 days. I'm actually kind of worried they're over-doing it, but whatever. They're happy and are eating real food.

This is so much more cost-effective than the little things of yo-baby I was buying for them. I haven't run the numbers, because I sort of suck at math, but it's huge. Seriously huge.

Updated 10/23 8:45 pm:
 
I have gotten quite a few emails alerting me that yes, you can use lower-fat content milk with this method. To thicken the best, add one packet of unflavored gelatin to the mix after stirring in the yogurt with active cultures. Some have had good success mixing non-fat milk powder in as well.

The way I created fruit-flavored yogurt was by taking a cup or so of the plain and blending it in the stand blender (vitamix) with frozen fruit. Although this tastes great, the yogurt never thickened back up the way the plain did. I think maybe keeping the plain separate and adding fruit daily is your best bet. Or you can try the gelatin trick.

I was able to achieve a Greek-style yogurt this afternoon by lining a colander with a coffee liner and letting the liquid drip out of the leftover plain I made. The remaining yogurt was as thick as sour cream.
 
updated again: NEAT! Tricia made an allergen-free yogurt, and you can read about it here.


A HUGE honking THANK YOU to Johanna (banana?) for doing the math:

Here’s your milk/yogurt math…you have to add the cost of electricity, starter and fruity stuff:

Where I live (Seattle area):

One 6-pack of yo-baby is $6.50 (24 ounces)
One gallon of almost totally organic milk is $3.00 (128 ounces)
One gallon of yobaby would be $34.67 or 10 times what it cost you to make it, more or less.

THAT’S A BIG DEAL.

	yobaby	milk	yobaby would be
cost	$6.50	$3.00	$34.67
ounces	24	128	128
cost/oz	$0.27	$0.02	$0.27

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CrockPot Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chili, Cumin and Lime

Day 296.

This is a Tyler Florence recipe. He pricks sweet potatoes with a fork, rubs equal parts cumin, chili powder, and kosher salt all over the skin, wraps the potato in foil and throws it on the grill.

This is the same thing. Instead of the grill, you can use your crockpot. I made regular baked potatoes earlier in the year, and was pretty confident that this would work nicely.

The Ingredients.

--4 large sweet potatoes, washed well
--1 tsp cumin
--1 tsp chili powder
--1 tsp kosher salt
--2 to 4 limes

The Directions.

I comfortably fit four sweet potatoes in a 6.5 quart crockpot. I couldn't have fit another.

Scrub the skin of each sweet potato with a vegetable brush under running water. Pat dry. Use a fork to prick the skin of each potato--maybe 6 times.

In a small bowl, combine the dry spices.

Lay out a length of foil big enough to encompass one sweet potato. Put the potato in the middle of the foil, and rub 1/4 of the spice mixture on the potato skin. A bunch will fall off. That's okay.
Wrap the foil all around the sweet potato. Repeat for each of your potatoes.

Put them all into a large crockpot and cover. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. The potatoes are done when a knife inserts easily and the potato flesh is fluffy. Ours cooked for 6.5 hours.

Squeeze lime juice on before eating.

The Verdict.

Delicious. I loved the flavor and the kick of lime. Adam didn't use the lime, because he thought the flavor was so good he didn't want to screw with it.

The chili, salt, and cumin made the skin tasty, but didn't really penetrate through to the inner flesh.

The kids didn't have any.

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CrockPot Rotisserie-Style Chicken Recipe

Day 295.

We love rotisserie chicken in this house. Costco clearly labels their chicken as gluten-free, so I usually pick up 2 when we go.

But I haven't been going.

I find myself grocery shopping a few times a week now with this crazy crockpotting year, and it just isn't feasible to go to Costco. I'm only meal planning a few meals at a time, and since I have Trader Joe's, Safeway, and a produce stand all within walking distance, it seems wasteful to drive to another city to buy a carload of food and other stuff (it's so hard not to impulse-buy at Costco) without truly having a plan.

So I stay away.

To satisfy our rotisserie chicken cravings, I threw a whole chicken in the crockpot last night covered in an awesome seasoning blend. I also took off all of the chicken skin. The result? A moist, delicious rotisserie-want-to-be with virtually no fat.

The Ingredients.

--1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds)
--2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
--1 tsp paprika
--1 tsp onion powder
--1/2 tsp dried thyme
--1 tsp Italian seasoning
--1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)

--4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
--1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

The Directions.

I used a 6 quart crockpot for a 5 pound bird. It fit nicely.

Skin the chicken and get rid of the neck and other stuff from the cavity. This takes a while, and is gross. Keep small children away so you don't freak out about salmonella. I skin whole chickens because I hate the idea of the chicken fat simmering all day in the crock---it also looks disgusting when the chicken is cooked because it's all slimy and icky.

I get it that I'm weird. If chicken skin makes you happy, then by all means, ignore me.

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Plop the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.

If desired, shove 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat.

The Verdict.

Very tasty. I used 2tsp of kosher salt, and the meat was no where near as salty as a store-bought rotisserie chicken. I was surprised at how not-spicy the meat was (even the part coated in the mix) although I added a bunch of pepper. We were pleased with the flavor, and the kids ate their portions without saying anything---which is always good.

The four of us ate almost all of the chicken for dinner last night. There's a bit leftover for today's lunches.

I really like cooking with whole chickens in the crock. If you're looking for other flavors, you can try

--Myron's Whole CrockPot Chicken
--Lemon and Herb CrockPot Chicken

and then keep the bones/carcass to make Homemade Chicken Broth in the CrockPot!

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CrockPot Pumpkin Black Bean Soup Recipe

Day 294.

This soup recipe has been floating around the Internet the past few weeks----Yahoo linked to it on their front page as a good Halloween night dinner to eat before trick-or-treating. I had planned on making this soup anyway but last week I got a few emails pointing it out again, so I pushed it up a few days.

This weekend, Denise posted a pumpkin soup roundup on BlogHer and shared that Smitten Kitchen made a version of pumpkin black bean soup, which really inspired me to get cracking (those Smitten Kitchen people? They work with Martha. They know their stuff.)

So I did.

I made this soup.

I made 6.5 quarts of it. Anyone want any? Because it's still sitting here.

We didn't like it.

At all. It sort of made us gag. We gave it a valiant effort, and I even let it sit overnight, because a lot of times soup tastes better the next day.

This didn't.

The Ingredients.
adapted from All Recipes

--3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can tomatoes and chilies (Rotel)
--1 tsp salt
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--4 cloves chopped garlic
--4 cups gluten free beef broth
--1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
--1 small yellow onion, chopped (didn't make it into the picture)
--1/4 cup sherry
--2 T butter
--crumbled bacon or cooked ham (optional, to add at end of cooking time)
--sour cream to garnish (optional)

The Directions.

I used a 6.5 quart crockpot. If you attempt this soup (you really shouldn't), use at least a 5 quart.

Chop up all the onion and garlic and add to the pot. Dump in the black beans. I used my homemade black beans!
Add the whole can of cooked pumpkin and the beef broth.
Stir in the salt and pepper. It seems like a lot of salt, but you're not going to end up eating it, anyway.
Add a pat of butter.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4. Stir well. If desired, use an immersible blender to puree about half of the soup. I did do this. If you don't have an immersible blender, scoop out about 2 cups and blend carefully in your stand mixer.

If desired, add crumbled bacon or diced ham.

Garnish with sour cream (this was the best part).

The Verdict.

The kids made me open a window in the kitchen and light a candle while this was cooking.

Adam and I tried twice to eat it, and we were not pleased. It reminded us of hot V-8 juice, which we both despise.

After I made it, I read all of the reviews on All Recipes. The positive reviewers added things like salsa, cumin, chili powder, and coriander. I wish I had, too. A few of the reviewers mentioned liking a Jamaican pumpkin soup. I do have a recipe for that, which I think I'll give whirl this week.

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CrockPot Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe

Day 293.

Skip the coffee house today and make pumpkin spice lattes at home. This recipe really does taste like the real thing----even though it doesn't leave a fluorescent orange stain when you dribble it down your sweater.

updated 11/23: I just learned that the coffee house Pumpkin Spice Lattes are not gluten free. Yet another reason to make them at home!


The Ingredients.
adapted from Taste of Home's Halloween 2008 edition

--2 cups milk (I used 1%)
--2 T canned pumpkin
--2 T white sugar
--2 T vanilla (not a typo. it asks for tablespoons)
--1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a teeny tiny pinch of ground ginger
--1/2 cup brewed espresso or 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

--garnish with whipped cream (optional)

The Directions.

This will make enough for 2 people to have a big mug with a bit leftover. If you are having friends over, adjust the recipe accordingly. I used a 4-quart crockpot, but as small as a 1.5 quart will work with these amounts.

Add the coffee/espresso and milk to the crockpot. Whisk in the pumpkin, spices, sugar, and vanilla.

Cover and cook on high for 2 hours if everything is cold. Whisk again.

Ladle into mugs, and garnish with whipped cream and additional cinnamon. I added a cinnamon stick to be fancy.
(if I rinse it off, can I re-use it? It seems wasteful to toss.)

The Verdict.

Adam and I really enjoyed these. We had them for breakfast yesterday, and the kids were jealous.

It would be fun to put this out for the adults at a Halloween party, holiday gift-wrapping party, or to serve guests while you're waiting for the turkey to cook.

I'm thinking of making some pumpkin cookies with the leftover canned pumpkin.

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Cooking Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker

Day 292.

It's day 292. And I finally have cracked the cooking-with-dried vs. cooking-with-canned-beans code.

Why did it take me 292 days?

Sheer laziness. I have no other reason.

1 bag of dried black beans costs $1.89 at the fancy-pants grocery store, and it costs $0.89 at our local produce stand.

1 can of organic black beans at Trader Joe's costs $0.99.

1 dried bag of black beans (16 oz) = 3 cans (15 oz each).

Which means even if you buy over-priced dried black beans you will save some money making them at home yourself.

The Ingredients.

--bag of black beans (or other beans. but remember that kidney beans have that freaky toxin --  see note below.)
--water
--crockpot (4 quarts and up)

The Directions.

Pour the entire bag of dried beans into a colander and rinse under cold water. If you see any beans that have broken in half, or skin that floats to the surface, get rid of it. Also pick out any beans that look shriveled and gross.

Dump all the beans into your crockpot. Add enough water to cover all the beans and an additional 2 inches.

Cover. Do not turn on. Let the beans soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight. If you live in a very warm area, and the crockpot won't be in a room that is climate-controlled, put the stoneware in the fridge. You don't want bacteria to have the opportunity to grow.

In the morning, dump the water, and rinse your beans. The water will be bean-colored.

(NOTE: if you are using red or kidney beans, you need to boil your beans rapidly on the stove for at least 10 minutes to kill a possible toxin lurking in the beans. It's better to be safe than sorry!)

Put the beans back into your crockpot and cover with enough fresh water to completely cover the beans with an extra 2-3 inches.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

The beans are done when they are bite-tender. Don't worry if the water hasn't all absorbed. You're going to dump it, anyway.

Drain the beans.

When cool, put 1 2/3 cups of beans into storage containers or freezer bags (you're adding this amount because you aren't adding filler-liquid like the cans have). The beans will store nicely in the refrigerator for 1 week, or in the freezer for 6 months.

Use as you would canned beans in your favorite recipe.

The Verdict.

I like knowing what is in my food. I like the idea that we can save money and reduce consumption by using dried beans.

This takes a while. When I do this again, I'm going to get quite a few bags of beans and do them all at once in a few crockpots. The kids liked picking through the beans to weed out the undesirables, and they will munch on black beans (and garbanzo and pinto and kidney) for a snack, which makes me happy.

I've found a chart that breaks down the energy consumption of kitchen appliances.

The chart states that the energy consumption is equivalent to a desktop computer---which many of us leave on round-the-clock.


neat!

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