Days 9 & 10: Calico Beans and Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal

Wednesday, we had a meal the kids really like to eat.  I actually originally made this as a side dish for a potluck, but have since been making it as a main dish.  You can serve it with rice.  There are things you can do to make it healthier, too, which I will add below. I always double this one.

Day 9: Calico Beans

Ingredients:
1 lb. bacon, diced
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3-1/2 brown sugar, according to taste
3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
28-oz. can pork and beans, drained
16-oz. can kidney beans, drained
16-oz. can butter beans, drained

Instructions:

  1. Brown bacon in skillet.  Drain, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings.  Saute onion in bacon drippings.
  2. Mix together ketchup, sugar, and vinegar.
  3. Combine al ingredients in cooker.
  4. Cover.  Cook on Low 3-4 hours.

NOTES:  You can use turkey bacon or omit the bacon.  You can also cut down on the brown sugar.  1/4 cup would work fine, or you can substitute raw sugar or molasses mixed with xylitol crystals.  To cut down on sodium, use dry beans, soaking overnight beforehand.  If you use dry beans, you will need to double the cooking time or cook the beans before adding to slow cooker.  You can use dry pinto beans in place of the pork and beans, if desired.

Day 10: Overnight Pumpkin Oatmeal

I LOVE making breakfast in the crock pot!  It is awesome waking up and not having to worry about cooking something for breakfast.  My children wake up starving and ready to eat, so breakfast in the crock pot is fabulous!  This is a delicious, vegan oatmeal recipe and it is perfect for this time of year, but we enjoy it any time of year.  I have to make 5 times the recipe to feed my family.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 cups unsweetened vanilla-flavored almond milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (store-bought or homemade), just plain pumpkin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
Brown sugar, agave, or other sweetener, for serving, if desired
Chopped pecans, for serving, if desired

Instructions:
Night before: Oil the crock of your slow cooker.  Combine the oats, milk, pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

In the morning:
Stir the oatmeal to get a consistent texture.  Serve in bowls topped with brown sugar and chopped pecans.

Day 8: Delicious Crockpot Quinoa and Lentil Tacos

Oh, my goodness! I am so excited to share this recipe! This is one of those meals that I was making because I knew it was healthy, but I wasn’t expecting it to taste too great. I was fairly certain most of my children wouldn’t like it too well, either. I made it anyway, deciding that Todd and I would have healthy leftovers for lunches and the kids would have tried something new. I told everyone they had to at least try a few bites before deciding they didn’t want any. We are following our Advent wreath/Jesse Tree tradition every night, and we often enjoy hot chocolate while we are reading the evening’s installment, so I told the kids they had to eat at least one taco in order to be allowed to have some hot chocolate. So, bribe in place, we dug in. Most everyone was pleasantly surprised! This meal was so delicious! Something about the spices and texture was very pleasing, and we all really enjoyed it. I doubled this, and we had a little leftover for lunches.

Crockpot Quinoa Lentil Tacos (serves 6)

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup dry lentils
1/2 cup dry quinoa
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Bragg’s Amino Acids or Tamari
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin

For tacos:
Tortillas
Avocado
Shredded Lettuce
Sour Cream and/or cheese
Salsa
Hot Sauce
Fresh Cilantro

Instructions:
Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Assemble tacos as desired and enjoy!

Day 7: Broccoli Corn Bread

We had a lot of leftovers from the stew I made for the church dinner, so we planned to have that as our main dish yesterday.  I decided to make a side dish in the crock pot.  I chose a cornbread, because I particularly love how cornbread goes with stews and soups.  This bread is easy and simple, but very tasty.  It takes about 15 minutes to assemble, and then cooks on low for 6 hours.  This is another recipe that I don’t recommend trying to cook on high for a shorter time because I would be afraid that the outside would cook too quickly and burn.  My old faithful crock pot from over 20 years ago (wedding gift) may have been able to cook it on high for a couple of hours to perfection, but sadly that one was broken over Labor Day this year.  My new crock pot is large and wonderful, but they just don’t make them like they used to!

Everyone seemed to like this cornbread a lot.  I loved it, and Todd thought it was really good, too.  I think next time I could add some cooked bacon, cut into small pieces for a little added flavor.  But it was wonderful just like this!

Broccoli Corn Bread

Ingredients:
1 stick butter or margarine, melted
10-oz. package chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
1 onion, chopped
1 box cornbread mix
4 eggs, well-beaten
8-oz. cottage cheese (I used fat free, and it was fine)
1 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.
2. Pour into greased crock pot.  Cook on Low for 6 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
3. Serve like spoon bread, or invert the pot, remove the bread, and cut into wedges.

Tomorrow, Lentil and Quinoa Tacos!

Days 5& 6: Two Dinners and a Dessert

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I had some computer problems.  So, here it is!  Later today I will post today’s installment and a new recipe.

We had a super busy weekend!  Of course, we have entered the holiday season, which brings lots of activity, not to mention all of the adoption stuff we have going on, and speech and debate, which is just about to get rolling as well.  Friday, we had a practice tournament all day.  We had the sausage, potato and green bean meal waiting for us when we got home.  So nice!  I have to admit, however, I was exhausted and didn’t clean the kitchen a whole lot that evening, nor did I put on my drill sergeant hat and make the kids to their jobs.  So, needless to say, by Saturday afternoon, things were quite a mess over here.  My day Saturday didn’t go as planned, either.  I thought I would have all day to clean and get some decorating done as well as prepare for a church event we were hosting at our home Sunday.  However, Todd was out of town all weekend with our oldest son at a soccer tournament, our oldest at home daughter was gone also for the weekend, and our 13-year-old daughter who helps me a lot and babysits for me some was occupied Saturday as well.  I have gotten pretty spoiled by having older children around to help me out with things.  When they are all not home at the same time, I feel like I’m back in my earlier days of parenting, when I had lots of little children and no help.  I took everyone shopping for Christmas decorations, and we spent about twice as long as I had anticipated we would to finish and check out.  Everyone was sweet and pretty well-behaved at the store; we were just s-l-o-w between choosing what we wanted at the best prices and juggling the stroller and two shopping carts.  This was with a 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 1-year-old.  At least the three oldest of the group could help push carts and stroller!  Ahhh, the adventures we have!

Thankfully, I had chosen a meal that could be made quickly and cooked in just a couple of hours in the crock pot.  Some of the ingredients are “interesting” in this one, but everyone actually really liked this one!  I doubled the recipe, and we had plenty plus leftovers.  I cooked this on High and it was perfect in a couple of hours.  Note:  If you double or triple this recipe, I would cut down on the flour, instead of doubling or tripling flour.  I doubled it, and it was a bit pasty, though it didn’t affect the flavor.

Sausage Bean Quickie

Ingredients:
4-6 cooked brown ‘n serve sausage links, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp. cider vinegar
2 16-oz. cans red kidney or baked, beans, drained
7-oz. can pineapple chunks, undrained
2 tsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. flour (if doubling or tripling recipe, I would not double or triple flour…maybe do 4 Tbsp. for doubled recipe and 5 for tripled)

Instructions:
1. Combine sausage, vinegar, beans and pineapple in slow-cooker.  Stir well.
2. Combine brown sugar with flour. Add to slow cooker.  Stir well.
3. Cover.  Cook on Low 5-10 hours, or High 1-2 hours.

Sunday evening, we hosted the last leg of our church’s “progressive dinner,” where you travel from house to house for appetizers, soups, salads, main dish, and dessert.  We actually had main dish and dessert both at our house since we live a little ways out.  We were so excited to open our home, as we haven’t been ready to do so very often since we began to be able to use the added space to our home.  Things still aren’t completely finished out, but it’s improving all the time, and we were excited to decorate and have friends from church over.  After Saturday’s busyness and excitement, including spending several hours going to get my college daughter from school and bringing her home, then running her to the ER to find out she had mono (!), needless to say, the house was a wreck.  We hadn’t finished decorating, and the kitchen was in need of some serious attention!!  I was so thankful to be able to put our dinner and dessert into two crock pots before we left for church so that when we got home, we could focus on cleaning and decorating.  Everything turned out great, and the house was pretty by the time our guests arrived!  Have I ever said how much I love crock pot cooking!? 🙂

For the main dish, I made a Beef stew that I have made before using venison and it is divine!  I must say that I prefer this recipe with venison.  I didn’t have enough venison cuts left in my freezer this time, so I used beef, which also turned out wonderful.  Time to send the son out hunting again so we can fill our freezer with more venison!!

Venison OR Beef Stew
(I double this recipe and it just fits into my 7-quart Crock Pot)

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. venison or beef cubes
2 Tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (I slice in my Cuisinart)
1 rib celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
12-oz. can whole tomatoes, undrained (I cut these up a little when I add to pot)
10 1/2-oz. can beef froth
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Tbsp. quick-cooking tapioca

Instructions:
1. Brown meat cubes in skillet in oil over medium heat.  (I always cook the onions with the meat, too). Transfer to slow cooker.
2. Add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.
3.  Cover.  Cook on Low 8-9 hours.  (In a pinch, I have started this on high for an hour or two and then reduced to low and cooked for 5-6 more hours).

Variations:
1. Substitute 1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt and 1 tsp. salt for 2 1/2 tsp. salt.  Or reduce salt if you are trying to cut down on sodium intake.
2. For added color and flavor, add 1 cup frozen peas 5 minutes before end of cooking time.

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Pie Pudding
This is heavenly!  It’s pretty rich, though, so you don’t need a lot to satisfy that pumpkin pie urge!  I doubled this since we were having guests but I would probably still double it just for our family if it were going to be the only dessert served.  We can put away a lot of dessert.  😉  It fit just perfectly into a 4-quart crock pot.

Ingredients:
15-oz. can solid pack pumpkin
12-oz. can evaporated milk (fat free worked fine)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk baking mix
2 eggs. beaten
2 Tbsp. melted butter, or margarine
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. vanilla
whipped cream for serving

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except whipped cream .
2. Cover and cook on Low 6-7 hours, or until thermometer reads 160 degrees.  I would not recommend trying to cook this on high for a shorter amount of time.
3. Serve in bowls topped with whipped cream.

Since we had so much food leftover, tomorrow’s installment will be a side dish.  Happy crocking!  🙂

Day 4: Sausage, Potato and Green Bean Bake

This is a family favorite that I have been making for years in the crock pot.  It is truly the simplest, easiest meal to throw in the crock pot and then let cook all day.  It requires a good 10-12 hours, so it’s great for days when you need to leave the house early or have things going on all day and are too busy to worry about dinner.  My children all adore this meal.  It’s not Todd’s favorite meal, but he will eat it without complaining.  He likes it better if I substitute the red potatoes for sweet potatoes, but then the kids don’t like it as much.  I make it both ways every other week or at least once per month.  This is designed to fill a big crock pot, but you can adjust it to make less, if you wish.

Sausage, Potato and Green Bean Bake

Ingredients
3-4 packages Lil’ Smokies Sausages (I use the turkey sausages)
Red Potatoes (Cubed, not peeled)–enough for your family
2 large cans French Cut Green Beans, one drained, one undrained
1 stick butter

Instructions:
1. Cut potatoes and place in bottom of crock pot.
2. Pour green beans on top, and spread out to cover evenly.
3. Place Lil’ Smokies on top of the green beans.
4. Slice the stick of butter into squares, and place them on top of the Lil’ Smokies.
5. Cover with lid of crock pot.  Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

That’s it!  Simple and tasty!

Day 3: Red Beans and Rice

Yesterday’s meal was one that everyone in the family enjoys.  For several years, I made a recipe for Red Beans and Rice in the crock pot that everyone liked, but it was kind of dry, without a sauce.  I was looking for a change, and I came across this recipe, which is still very simple, yet pleased everyone.  I double this one as well to feed my large family.  Personally, I always double and triple recipes so we will have leftovers for Todd to take to work and for us to eat for lunch.  I also will freeze leftovers to get another meal out of an evening’s offerings.  I love to stock up my freezer in order to have things I can easily take out and serve if I’m in a pinch.  These beans freeze very well, and it’s simple to take out, thaw, heat and serve over freshly steamed rice.

NOTE:  By the way, I like using dry beans for this, but you can actually use canned, if you prefer not having to soak the beans overnight.  If I ever forget to soak the beans overnight, however, I rinse the beans, and cover with about 2 inches of water in a saucepan.  Then I bring the beans to a boil for 1 minute, remove from heat, cover and allow the beans to soak for one hour.  After that, I rinse the beans and they are ready to go into the recipe, just as if I had soaked them overnight.  Overnight soaking is still preferable, though.

Red Beans and Rice

Ingredients:
1 pound dry red beans (or 4 cans of red/kidney beans–see note below)
water
salt pork, ham hocks, or sausage, cut into small chunks (I like using the salt pork–I just cut off most of the fat)
2 tsp salt (you can cut this out or reduce if you like)
1 tsp pepper
3-4 cups water
6-oz can tomato paste
8-oz. can tomato sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced

Instructions:
1. Soak beans for 8 hours (overnight) or use quick- soak method.  Drain, discard soaking water.
2.  Mix together all of the ingredients in slow cooker.
3. Cover.  Cook on low 10-12 hours, or until beans are soft.  Serve over rice.

Note:  If using canned beans, cook 1 hour on high, then reduce heat to low, and cook for 3 more hours.

Hope you enjoy!

31 Days of Slow Cooking

Here is a fun thing I did a few years ago on my old blog. Last time, I challenged myself to cook at least one meal (or even side dish or drink) per day in my crock pot for 30 days. It could be anything, including breakfast. Sometimes I even made more than one meal a day in the crock pot, at times using multiple crock pots (I own more than one). This time around, I will be challenging myself to cook one or more recipe in the crock pot for the entire month of December. I will post daily updates with recipes, suggestions for modifying recipes, as well as my family’s (and my) reaction to each meal.

Before I begin by posting the recipes for Days 1 and 2, I must mention the fact that I just love my crock pot. I have thought about writing a little poem entitled “Ode to My Crock Pot,” but I haven’t come up with all the verses yet. My oldest daughter makes fun of my fondness for my crock pot, but the truth is, I truly love that thing! I use mine most days, even when I am not challenging myself to cook something in it for a month straight. As a busy mom, I just love putting something in the crock pot in the morning and just letting it simmer away all day while I teach school, run errands, or do whatever may be on my plate on any given day. So, join me on this crock pot adventure. Try the recipes and let me know what you think. Of course, always feel free to share my blog with anyone you think might be interested in it.

Day 1: Calico Beans
I have a large family and a somewhat tight budget, so lately I have been trying to stretch the old grocery budget as much as possible. Beans are a great way to do that! People talk about living on rice and beans when times are tough economically, and I’m here to tell you that eating beans can be delicious AND beans can be easily put in the crock pot in the morning and turned into a scrumptious meal while you get on with your busy day. My children love this meal, and it’s just so quick and easy to make! It’s a hit over here, so it often appears on our weekly menu! I double this to feed my family of 12.

Ingredients:
1 pound bacon, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3-1/2 cup brown sugar, according to taste
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
28-oz. can pork and beans, drained
16 oz. can kidney beans
16 oz. can butter beans

Instructions:
1. Brown bacon in skillet. Drain, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings. Saute onion in bacon dripping.
2. Mix together ketchup, sugar, and vinegar.
3. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.
4. Cover and Cook on low 3-4 hours.

Day 2: Split Pea Soup
OK, I know some of you will not even want to try this one.  But trust me, it’s actually really good!  My husband loves split pea soup.  It is rich in vitamins and is listed as one of the helthiest legumes one can eat.  I love this recipe.  It is a huge hit with my husband, and more than half of the kids like it, too :).  You can vary this recipe by using turkey sausage for your meat or just taking the meat out and making it vegetarian.  It is a bit spicy with the sausage, so if you have kids, you may want to use a breakfast sausage or something a little milder, or just plain ground meat.  Admittedly, my kids don’t all like this.  In fact, I have a couple who act like they might just die if I make this dish again, but everyone eats it when I make it (at our house, that’s the only choice).  I’m hoping they will all grow to actually like it in time.  I’ve only made this recipe a handful of times.  Again, I double this recipe even though not everyone adores this one.  Todd and I eat the leftovers for lunch for a few days.

Ingredients:
1 pound bulk sausage (pork, turkey, or ground meat of your choice…or omit)
6 cups water
1 bag (2 1/4 cups) dry split peas
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram, or thyme
1/2 tsp. pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash and sort dried peas, removing any stones.  Then combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
2. Cover.  Cook on Low 12 hours (or you can start it on high for a couple of hours and then cook on low for 5-6 hours more).

Today, I will be making a family favorite–Red Beans and Rice!  Stay tuned for the recipe!