Munchie Musings: crockpot

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Easter Crockpot Wednesday: Crockpot Quiche

Yes, I have pulled the crockpot out of the closet and blown off the dust in order to bring you a crockpot recipe in time for Easter brunch. Other sites call this a crockpot brunch casserole. I call it a crustless quiche or a fritata done in a slow cooker.

My particular slow cooker runs hot on the Low setting, especially when I use the smallest sized crock (I have three crocks that work on it). The first time I made this I woke up in the middle of the night and could smell it and just knew that it was done. I crawled out of bed, stumbled half asleep into the kitchen and turned it to Warm - or so I thought. Turns out I turned it to High and ended up with a charcoal briquette in the crock. Not good odor-wise or money-wise. My second attempt was much better when I used a technique I've seen mentioned in many other crockpot recipes - I folded aluminum foil several times to create a buffer between the bottom of my crock and the heating element. Much better results this time. But I will say that after trying this way versus baking a quiche in the oven, I prefer the oven.

You will definitely be better off if you have a slow cooker with a timer and varying temperatures. This calls for cooking for about 8 hours and so I needed to wait until at least 10 p.m. before I put it on. That's my one complaint on my cooker - no timer.

Crockpot Tuesday: Irish Lamb Stew

Ms. Munchie March 09, 2012 crockpot , Irish 1 Comments

Irish Lamb Stew

Rating: 4.5/5

Repost for St. Patrick's.

This is an adaptation from several recipes put together in a way that made sense to me with the ingredients I wanted. For instance, I wanted pearl onions but you can just largely dice regular onions too. I also wanted a bit of spice and so I've got thyme in this version. Normally any recipe from the British Isles is pretty void of spice. If you look at many Irish stew recipes they only have the meat and veggies with beer for flavor. Boring and flat in flavor. Even with this version it still required a good bit of salt at the end to promote the flavors more.

Crockpot Wednesday: Spicy Baked Beans

Ms. Munchie June 29, 2011 beans , crockpot 0 Comments

I actually took a great picture for once!

Sometimes cooking is like gambling. If you are trying a new recipe, you don't know if you will like it or not, if it will turn out ok or not, if you're adaptation or tweaking of the recipe will work or not.

I play poker about once a month with a group of guys. I'm the only gal in the bunch. Sometimes I have to choose between poker with the guys (who are mostly husbands) or skip it because the women are going to do girls' night. Most of the time I pick poker. After all, any chance to win a few bucks, especially toward the end of the month, is worth it. And in the two years this group has been playing, I'd say I'm well ahead for amount of money invested.

We rotate hosting and so I volunteered for June. This requires something for dinner. Everyone brings their own snacks and drinks. Unfortunately for me, June turned out to be costly. With the price of dinner and not winning either tourny, I was in the red. Oh well. Better luck next time.

I adapted this recipe from one I found on Allrecipes.com. I was looking for a baked bean recipe for poker night and this one is good and spicy according to the reviews. The original also has a pound of browned ground beef, but I was going to serve this with tri tip and so I decided to leave out the beef. It should be noted that the you can choose to hold back the hot sauce and let people add it at the end, on their own. There's already a bit of kick from the chilis and the chili powder, but for additional heat you will want the hot sauce. So, I guess, the gambling in this recipe is - how hot can you take it?

Spicy Baked Beans

2 large cans of Bush's Baked Beans Original

1 4 oz can of diced green chilis

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup barbeque sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons hot sauce

Mix all together in a slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours.

Crockpot Wednesday: Chick'n & Artichoke Cheesy Pasta

Ms. Munchie May 18, 2011 chicken , crockpot 0 Comments

Rating: 2/5

Coming up with a recipe each week for Crockpot Wednesday has proven to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. First is the fact that a good blogger should test a recipe at least twice before posting. I rarely have the opportunity to do that and therefore appreciate feedback if something did or did not work out for you. Secondly, I'm single and so I end up with a lot of food for little ol' me! Between those reasons I try to pick recipes that will have high success and will be something I'm willing to eat for days. Most of the meals get packaged up and frozen for me to take to work. I still get sick of them, though, even with rotating through them.

This week I wanted something simple and I wanted to try to incorporate a Gardein product as I am still eating vegetarian this May. I chose a cheesy chicken artichoke pasta. Thing is, sometimes you wonder about these so-called slow cooker recipe. Is it something that should be done in a crockpot? Or is it something that is better to be done on the stovetop?

In this case, I'd say the latter, especially if the chicken and the noodles are already cooked. If you use raw chicken breasts, then yes, it does well for the crockpot. But if you use fake chicken (Gardein) or cooked rotisserie chicken leftovers, you might as well just do it on the stove.

So I leave you with this recipe with those little caveats. I will admit that I goofed and put the pasta in to cook the whole day when I was supposed to put it at THE END, thus the rather gloppy mess. It still tasted good. After all, it all ends up in the same place, right?

Note: I'll be busy with a reunion over Memorial Day weekend. So the next two Crockpot Wednesdays are a bit up in the air. They might be reposts or links to other sites.

Chick'n & Artichoke Cheesy Pasta

adapted from about.com

1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breast, cubed or 3 pieces of Gardein Chick'n Scallopini, cubed
4 oz roasted red peppers, chopped
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 can (15oz) artichoke hearts, quartered
8 oz process American cheese
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 can fat free cream of mushroom soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4 cups hot cooked pasta ( 8 to 10 oz)
salt & pepper to taste

Combine chicken, peppers, peas, artichokes, Havarti cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and soup in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. About 15 minutes before serving, add cheddar cheese and hot cooked pasta. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Crockpot Wednesday: Tempeh Chili

Ms. Munchie May 11, 2011 chili , crockpot 0 Comments

Rating: 5/5

I've known about tempeh for some time, wanted to try it, but never had enough urge to actually do it. Now that I'm doing my vegetarian May, I figured this was finally the time. I wanted to see if some of these fake meat products could be put into a crockpot recipe. Luckily, as I was flipping through my new copy of Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen, I found one!

Tempeh is made from fermented soy beans. It becomes firm and is often sold in cake form. It's often used as a meat substitute. Nowadays there are fake meat products that are made of more than just soy beans. The better ones combine soy with hearty grains such as quinoa and amaranth.

Crockpot Wednesday: Spiced Lentil Soup

Ms. Munchie May 04, 2011 crockpot , soup 0 Comments

Rating: 3.5/5

Soup is generally not very photogenic. Especially when it's a bean soup. But looks, luckily, do not reflect on taste. This is a spiced lentil soup. I say spiced because it has spice in it (tumeric), but is not very spicy-hot.

I have adapted this recipe from one I tore out of a magazine. I can't remember which, because I cut it out. Anyway, the recipe called for just taking about a half an hour of time to make whereas I've converted it for the crockpot.

There are many, many types of lentils ranging all the way from yellow to black. Each color will have a different flavor and consistency and therefore, different uses. This recipe calls for red lentils, which are supposed to be good for sauces and soups because they break down with cooking. Green lentils, by comparison, will retain their shape. In my case, I had little bits of this and that. I had about 1/2 cup of green, 1/4 cup of brown, and 1/4 of a different type of red. I had to go and buy some more red, which was a different variety from what I already had. So mine came out to be a mixed lentil soup.

Spiced Lentil Soup

2 c red lentils
1 serrano chili pepper, chopped
1 1 1/2 inch of ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 t tumeric
4 c vegetable broth
2 c water
salt to taste

Put everything but the salt into the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Season with salt to taste at end.

Crockpot Wednesday: Mexican Rice & Carnitas

Ms. Munchie April 20, 2011 crockpot , mexican 1 Comments

Rating: 3.5/5

Most of you know that I'm one of the organizers of SactoMoFo (Sacramento Mobile Food Festival). As we get closer and closer, (10 days to go) it is no wonder that my mind is on pretty much nothing else. Suffice it to say, I'm not guaranteeing any Crockpot Wednesday next week. We will be on a week's run of publicity up to the event. Honestly, as much as I'm championing the food trucks, I'm about food trucked out for a while.

But I'm giving you a two-fer this week anyway. Problem is, with one crockpot, it takes two separate days to make them.

First up is Mexican style brown rice. I decided to use some more of the rice that the California Rice Commission sent me to do another dish. As I mentioned last week, rice does best when it is done on high setting for only 2-3 hours. It is also very important that you pour in boiling, already hot water. You cannot start rice in a crockpot from cold water, it doesn't come out well because it takes forever for the water to heat up. This rice is simple and has few ingredients.

Crockpot Wednesday: Fragrant Long-Life Brown Rice with Sweet Potatoes

Ms. Munchie April 13, 2011 crockpot , mai pham 1 Comments

Rating: 3.5/5

I was contacted by the California Rice Commission and asked if I might consider doing a post about their rice. I said I would be happy to if I could find one that would fit into my Crockpot Wednesdays. They sent me some brown rice and some information about the rice that is grown in California. Contrary to some bloggers, I have no problem with connecting to different food companies and organizations as long as it is a product I use. After all, I often find them to be educational opportunities.

For instance, rice over the decades has changed to be more water efficient. Newer rice varieties, clay soil, and farming innovations have reduced the amount of water needed to grow it. In fact, they have been able to calculate that it takes about 16-25 gallons of water for a serving of rice, the same as for many other crops and even, water per acre, as your front lawn.

Crockpot Wednesdays: Mideastern Lentil Soup

Ms. Munchie April 06, 2011 bean , crockpot 0 Comments

Mideastern Lentil Soup

A few people know that I actually grew up in the Middle East. I'm an oil brat. My dad's an engineer and so for 16 years we lived in Saudi Arabia. This is how I got to travel the world. I thank my dad often for that opportunity - in my head. I'm now realizing that I probably have never actually told my dad that. I'll have to remedy that.

It's this travel that has made me the foodie that I am. I am willing to try a lot of things. Just yesterday I tried jellyfish for the first time. Although not horrible, I think I can live without it.

I also like spice. Don't give me a bland dish. I want flavor. Lentils and beans can be rather flavorless, but are easy enough to doctor up with veggies, broth, and a pinch or two of spices. I knew that this week I wanted to do a lentil soup, but I didn't want something boring. Give me a bit of zing. This is adapted from a Moroccan lentil soup. Throw in some cinnamon, cumin, and nutmeg and you've got something more exotic.

Crockpot Wednesday: Brunswick Stew

Ms. Munchie March 23, 2011 chicken , crockpot 1 Comments

Brunswick Stew

Rating: 5/5

This week I am featuring a recipe from my friend, Ann, over at Sacatomato. Ann has a cookbook out called Hands-off Cooking. Now if you are following these crockpot posts then you are probably looking for easy recipes that require the least amount of effort possible. Ann's cookbook is perfect for you. Although they are not all done in a crockpot, many of them could be. But only two in the book specifically say they are for the crockpot.

I've made quite a few of the recipes and there are definitely some I come back to time and again. One of them is the Lentil Soup with Greens and Sausage. I like to use a hot Italian sausage and kale in mine. That makes it zesty and full of nutrients. One that really surprised me was the Pork Chili with Sweet Potatoes. Not tomato based and made with a bit of maple syrup, this chili will make you realize that you can really think 'out of the box' to use ingredients not normally associated with chili.

Crockpot Wednesday: Soda Shortcuts

Ms. Munchie March 09, 2011 crockpot , 0 Comments

This week I was asked to do a guest post for my friend Kimberly over at Poor Girl Eats Well. She’s in the middle of moving and needed a bit of a break from blogging duties during the move. Welcome to her readers. If you want to see past Crockpot Wednesday posts, do a search for crockpot in the search bar (left column).

I wanted to keep consistent with Kimberly’s theme of easy meals on a budget. I decided that I would share with you a few quick, even desperate, recipes that I learned from my 13+ years selling Pampered Chef. After all, PC says that homemade doesn’t have to mean made from scratch, it just means it is made at home! PC is known for doing what that Sandra Lee chick does way before she showed up on TV. They take shortcuts cooking by using grocery products.

For instance, this week’s recipe comes from my friends, Scott and Michelle. I was over for poker night (I’m the only woman cleaning out the guys) and they had made pulled pork sandwiches. Thing is, all they did was put the pork butt into the slow cooker with a bottle of good quality root beer. Then when you served it you poured on some BBQ sauce. So simple and yet delicious!

That was when I remembered all the other PC shortcut recipes. Sodas are great to have on hand for desperation cooking. Colas, in particular and like the root beer, have the acidity and carbonation to tenderize the meat but also the caramel/molasses flavor used in so many recipes. The key to making the recipes great is adding the veggies and extra spices you want.

Here are some examples:

Pot roast = can of cola + can of cream of mushroom soup (even better, add a package of onion soup mix)

BBQ = can of cola + 2 cups of ketchup

Baked ham = ½ liter of coke

I don’t have children but know it often happens that a child tells their parent at the last minute, “Mom, it’s my turn to bring cupcakes to class tomorrow.” No problem if you have a box of cake mix and a can of soda lying around. You don’t need to do anything else but mix those two things together. The carbonation gives the batter extra lift for a nice fluffy, moist cake. Think about the combos:

Chocolate cake + cola

Chocolate cake + cherry cola

White or yellow cake + lemon lime, grapefruit, or orange soda

Spice cake + Dr. Pepper

For the frosting you can blend together 4 cups of powdered sugar + 6 T butter + 3 T soda

So those were brief descriptions of what is possible when you are either low on cash, ingredients, time or all of the above. Having staples in your pantry including some cans of soda can really come in handy. For those who want a little extra information with doctoring up the above mentioned combos, here are more detailed versions:

PULLED PORK

6-8 lbs pork butt

1 can/bottle of root beer

Place ingredients in slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on low. Remove pork and set aside. Save 1/3 cup of juices and toss the rest. Using two forks, carefully shred the pork. Return to slow cooker to keep warm on warm setting. Serve on buns with BBQ sauce and cole slaw.

BARBECUE SAUCE
1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T. vegetable oil

2 c. catsup
1 can cola
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. Mustard
2 T. Vinegar

Saute onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Add remaining ingredients.
Simmer 30 minutes until thick.

CROCKPOT ROAST
3-4 lb. roast, cheap cut
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cola
1 pkg. onion soup

Put on low for 8 hours. If you want it thicker, when done stir in a tablespoon of flour.

BAKED HAM
1 ham
1 can cola or cherry cola
Cloves (not powdered)

Put ham in deep pan on aluminum foil. Pour Coke over. Pierce the entire ham with clove spikes about ¼ inch apart. Bake at low temperature (300 degrees) for 2-2 1/2 hours. Baste occasionally with pan juices. Coke will turn into syrup.

P.S. I wanted to add that I found these great new Earth Gains Thin Buns. They are only 100 calories each and reduces all that bread. I really liked them.

Crockpot Wednesday: Chilly Day Chili

Ms. Munchie March 02, 2011 beef , crockpot 0 Comments

Chilly Day Chili

Rating: 5/5

Recently I was contacted by the folks at Beefitswhatsfordinner.com. They wanted me to try one of their beef recipes for February which, apparently, was I ♥ Beef Month. Sorry. Didn’t quite make it. I made the recipe in February, but it’s posting in March.

When we had the crazy, cold, stormy weather last week my thoughts turned to stormy weather comfort food – stews and chilis. I checked out their website to find that they have a lot of excellent stuff on it. There are, of course, plenty of recipes that can be sorted by ingredients or even by cuts of beef. There is a nutritional section discussing what benefits there are from beef protein, a section explaining beef grading and labeling to help you when you are shopping, and cooking lessons to discuss different techniques of marinating, preparing, and cooking.

I searched through the recipes and found what I was looking for – a chili that was simple that I could do in the slow cooker. It was even aptly named – Chilly Day Chili. With only nine ingredients that you just throw in the slow cooker and walk away from, what could be easier?

The recipe calls for the beef to be cut into ½ inch pieces. Instead I went to La Superior supermarket on Stockton Boulevard. Ethnic supermarkets can often be cheaper than regular ones. They also often have more variety of cuts and types of meat. As luck would have it, La Superior had chopped beef on sale and it didn’t look bad either. I expected to see a lot of fat and gristle as they chopped up the worst bits of leftover beef carcass. Actually, there were few signs of fat and gristle and I was rather impressed by the look of it. This would be perfect for the chili.

For such a simple chili it is definitely hearty and flavorful. When I first threw the ingredients in the pot I was a little worried since it looked heavy on beans and light on tomatoes. But the finished product came out great and I really enjoyed it. I like that the chopped beef gives it more meatiness and chew than ground beef.

Chilly Day Chili

from beefitswhatsfordinner.com

2-1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck or round, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 cans (15-1/2 ounces each) black beans, rinsed, drained

1 can (15-1/2 ounces) chili-style tomato sauce with diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup prepared thick-and-chunky salsa

Toppings: Shredded Cheddar cheese, diced red onion, diced green onion, diced avocado and dairy sour cream

Combine all ingredients except salsa and toppings in 4-1/2 to 5-1/2-quart slow cooker; mix well. Cover and cook on HIGH 5-1/2 to 6 hours, or on LOW 8 to 9 hours, or until beef is tender. (No stirring is necessary during cooking.)

Just before serving, stir in salsa; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. Serve with toppings, as desired.

Crockpot Wednesday: Chicken Tetrazzini

Ms. Munchie February 23, 2011 chicken , crockpot 4 Comments

Chicken Tetrazzini

Rating: 4/5

I was reading through some online crockpot recipes recently and stumbled on one where people were writing in the comments, "Why does this recipe call for cooked chicken? The point of using a crockpot is to throw everything in and let the crockpot do the cooking."

Actually, not so. In fact, the very best braised short ribs or stews always call for searing the meat on the stove first before adding to the crockpot. This important step contributes to depth of flavor for the final dish. But in the case of the above chicken comment, I think the recipe writer was just wanting to use leftover chicken. That's the case with this recipe.

I've made this shortcut chicken tetrazzini recipe since I was a child. It was our after Thanksgiving turkey leftovers recipe. I often just get a rotisserie chicken from the store and use that. The point is, this recipe calls for cooked chicken.

This recipe also calls for a little bit of watching and stirring. So I would not make it expecting to leave it cooking while you are at work. Rather maybe make it on the weekend when you don't want to bother doing a lot of cooking, but you can stir it up a couple of times while it cooks.

Chicken Tetrazzini

1 cup chopped chicken
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can of cream of chicken or mushroom soup
water
1/2 package of spaghetti noodles
1/3 cup chopped onion

Spray the crockpot with cooking spray. Take the spaghetti noodles and break them into thirds and layer them in the crockpot.

In a medium bowl, mix together the soup with one and a half cans of water (rinsing the can). Mix in the shredded cheese, onion, and chicken. Pour over the noodles in the crockpot. Cook on low for 4 hours. During the cooking time stir the mixture a couple of times. This will help the cheese to melt into the soup mixture.

Crockpot Wednesdays: Kumquat Chicken

Ms. Munchie February 16, 2011 chicken , crockpot 2 Comments

Kumquat Chicken

Rating: 4/5

My BFF has an enormous kumquat tree in her backyard. It is so big that we never get it all picked. I've made marmalade with them and I like to put them into my morning smoothies as well. After all, kumquats have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any citrus.

Unlike other citrus, kumquats are actually eaten whole. The rind is the sweeter part and the flesh is tart/sour. Therefore, kumquats are prized in China for this flavor contrast. You just need to be careful of the seeds. In fact, the seeds are the most time consuming part about using kumquats since you are slicing and seeding a lot of little kumquats for a recipe.

The original recipe on which this one is based is from Epicurious.com and calls for frying the chicken and then sauteing the rest. I wanted to see if it would work in a crockpot and it did! I like more sauce and so I've upped the amount of kumquats needed to a cup, which is probably about 20 sliced kumquats. I also upped the red pepper flakes because I like some kick, so some people may want to reduce that.

Kumquat Chicken
adapted from Epicurious.com version

•1 cup sliced and seeded kumquats
•1 large shallot, sliced
•3 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves or 4 skinless thighs
•2 tablespoons sugar
•1/3 cup water
•3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
•1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
•4 cups packed spinach leaves (from about 1 bunch)

Layer shallots and kumquats in the bottom of the crockpot. Place chicken on top. Mix together sugar, water, white wine vinegar, and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken.
Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.
Just before serving, gently remove chicken and toss spinach into crockpot. Stir so that the hot liquid will wilt the spinach. Serve chicken, spinach and sauce over rice or quinoa.

Notes: If you add the spinach too early before serving it will get ugly.
Cooking times may vary depending on your crockpot.

Crockpot Wednesday: Berry Cobbler

Ms. Munchie February 09, 2011 crockpot , dessert 0 Comments

Crockpot Berry Cobbler

As I do these Crockpot Wednesdays I've been amazed by the fact that you can bake in them. If I had known that in college, I would have had a crockpot back then. Keep that in mind, parents, when sending your kids off - crockpots are very versatile.

But although you can accomplish this feat, it's not exactly pretty. It's a means to an end, just not a pretty one. The gist is, you can bake any cake you normally do in a crockpot, but don't let anybody see it. Serve it out on a plate and add some whipped or ice cream to hide its imperfections. It will taste just fine.

This week I decided to do a dessert. BFF wanted me to bring a dessert to the Superbowl party and so I figured a berry cobbler would be nice. After all, I still had about two pounds of berries from berry picking last summer. You can do any fruit you like, of course, it's just a matter of changing the bottom fruit layer. I will tell you that I found that this recipe had too much dough. Next time I will only put about 2/3 of the dough in or add a bunch more fruit.

Berry Cobbler

1 lb of berries

1/2 c sugar

2 T quick cooking tapioca

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 c light brown sugar

2 t baking powder

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

3/4 c milk

1/3 c butter, melted

Prepare the crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Stir together the berries, tapioca and sugar. Put in the bottom of the crockpot.

Mix together the rest of the dry ingredients. Add the milk and butter and mix until just blended. Spoon dough over berries. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Uncover and let cool before serving. Serve with ice cream.

Note: Cooking times may vary depending on your crockpot.

Crockpot Wednesday: Chipotle Black Bean Soup

Ms. Munchie February 02, 2011 bean , crockpot 0 Comments

Chipotle Black Bean Soup

Rating: 4.5/5

This week's dish is a soup, one with beans. I've joined a challenge at Healthmonth.com and one of my goals for the month is more beans and nuts in my diet. So I decided to start it off with this hearty soup.

The soup does not call for meat, but you can add a browned chorizo or shredded cooked chicken if you want. I had some left over pork belly from the weekend. I sliced it and seared it and then cut it up into cubes and tossed it in. I also chose to puree about a third of it at the end so that it would be a creamier consistency.

This is a spicy soup. For me it's a medium hot level. Another note is that it does not call for salt. Salt will toughen beans so you never add it while they are cooking. But after it's finished I would suggest adding a teaspoon of salt to bring out the flavors a bit more.

Chipotle Black Bean Soup

Crock-pot cookbook

1 lb dry black beans

2 stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 4 oz can of mild green chilis, chopped and drained

6 c chicken or vegetable broth

2 t cumin

toppings: sour cream, cilantro, salsa

Rinse and sort beans. Place in a large bowl and cover with water. Let beans soak 6-8 hours or overnight. Drain beans and rinse. Place in crockpot. (The water rehydrates the beans but also removes the indigestible complex sugars that make us get gas. If you are soaking during the day, I suggest changing the water at least once during the 8 hours.)

Add chopped carrots, celery, and onion. Add broth. In a medium bowl mix together the tomatoes, chilis, cumin, and chipotles. Add to crockpot. Stir everything together.

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours, or until beans are tender. If desired, you can puree some or all of it in a blender. Serve with toppings if desired.

Crockpot Wednesday: Filipino Chicken Adobo Rice

Ms. Munchie January 26, 2011 chicken , crockpot 1 Comments

Filipino Chicken Adobo Rice

Rating: 4/5

I've mentioned before that I'm have Filipino but am pretty ignorant about Filipino food. My mom never learned to cook much Filipino food and so the only things I can even remember her making are lumpia, pancit, and adobo.

Filipino food is definitely its own thing. Being situated in southeast Asia and made up of over 7,000 islands, it has often been the stomping ground of invaders. Thus the influences over the centuries include Chinese, Japanese, Spaniards, Americans, and others. All of these influences mish-mash together to create unique dishes - the true example of fusion cooking.

One notable flavor trait of Filipino cooking is their mix of salt/sour. Adobo is a perfect example. Adobo is considered the national dish of the Philippines. It is usually made with either pork or chicken. I prefer the chicken, and it's important that you use chicken thighs, not breasts. The breasts will be too dry.

The primary ingredients for the marinade are vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper. The normal method calls for marinating, then simmering the meat in it to cook, remove the meat and boil down the sauce to make it even more potent, and fry the meat to give it a bit of crispiness. Then serve it all over rice.

I'm changing it up a bit in this version. After removing the chicken we toss in rice to cook in the sauce and then at the end throw in the chicken, now shredded. Your finished product is a nice, potent chicken and rice dish. No more fighting over the adobo sauce. I suppose you could throw the rice in from the start, but part of the beauty of adobo is the slow cooking of the meat in the marinade. The meat really takes on the flavor of the sauce.

Note: Cooking times can vary depending on slow cookers.

Chicken Adobo Rice

1 lb. chicken thighs

1/3 c vinegar

2 T soy sauce

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small bay leaf

¼ t pepper

½ c water
3/4 c rice

Remove the skins and trim any fat from the chicken thighs. Place in slow cooker.

Mix together remaining ingredients except for the rice and pour into cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. (Mine was on while I was at work, so over 8 hrs.)

Remove the chicken breasts and set aside. Add rice to the sauce in the cooker. Cook on high for 1 hour or until rice is cooked. Remove chicken from the bone and shred. Toss with cooked rice mixture. Serve.

Chicken Thigh

Crockpot Wednesday: Thai Style Ribs

Ms. Munchie January 19, 2011 BBQ , crockpot 0 Comments

Thai Style Ribs

Rating: 4.5/5

If you haven’t figured out already, I love Thai food. So earlier this week you got Thai beef jerky and today you have Thai BBQ ribs.

This is not my recipe and it's really supposed to be done on a grill or in a smoker. I'm adapting it for the crockpot. Basically, I put my ribs in half of the marinade to sit overnight in the frig. I then set them in my crockpot in the morning before I went to work. I set it at low since I would be gone for a good 8.5 hours. When I got home it was more like braised ribs because there was so much liquid. I took out the ribs, and dumped the liquid. I then served the ribs with the other half of the marinade as sauce.

These ribs were falling off the bone. Very tender and moist because they were done in the crockpot. If you want to crisp them up a bit, you can put them on the grill for five minutes and baste them with some more sauce.

The recipe called for 8 serrano peppers, but I just used 6 and found it had a good amount of heat. There is tang from the vinegar, salt from the fish and soy sauce, and sweetness from the honey. It all balances out for a flavor packed sauce. And if you baste it over ribs on the grill, it will be nice and thick and sticky. Yum.

lots of serranos = lots of heat

Thai Barbecue Sauce
adapted from: The Great Ribs Book

By Hugh Carpenter & Teri Sandison

Makes 3 cups

6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
8 serrano peppers or other small hot chiles, minced, including seeds
4 small green onions, green and white parts, minced
1/4 cup minced cilantro sprigs
2 tablespoon lemon grass, minced
1 tablespoon grated or minced lime zest
Juice from 3 limes
1 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup wine vinegar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons flavorless cooking oil

To make the sauce, combine all the sauce ingredients and stir well.

Coat the ribs evenly on both sides with half the sauce. Marinate the ribs, refrigerated, for at least 15 minutes. For more flavor, marinate for up to 8 hours. Reserve the remaining sauce to serve as a sauce for the ribs.

Crockpot Wednesdays: Caribbean Shrimp and Quinoa

Ms. Munchie January 05, 2011 crockpot , quinoa 1 Comments

Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker

For 2011 and I decided to do something different. Crockpot Wednesdays.

Two years ago my brother bought me an awesome slow cooker. This Hamilton Beach version comes with three different sized stoneware crocks so that you can make small to large dishes. Since I'm a Pampered Chef consultant, I already have a love of stoneware. It distributes heat well and it's easy to clean.

I decided I want to use it more and discover the versatility of slow cookers. So every Wednesday I will post a slow cooker recipe. I picked Wednesdays because it gives me the latter part of the week to choose the recipe and get the ingredients, and then Sun-Tues to get around to making it.

This first recipe is adapted from the Crock-pot cookbook. When I saw it several things struck me. First it called for shrimp. I thought to myself that seafood is not something you associate with slow cookers. After all, overcooking it can make seafood either tough or fall apart. So then I saw that the cooking time was only two hours. Most people associate slow cookers with putting it together in the morning and then letting it cook all day while you're at work. So two hours is not typically what you think of for slow cookers. But it does make sense for seafood.

I also, like my friend Poor Girl, love quinoa. I try to use it in my home instead of rice because it is so much better for you - high in fiber and protein. The original recipe called for rice, but I substituted quinoa.

Caribbean Shrimp and Quinoa

1 lb of shrimp, peeled, thawed

1 1/2 c chicken broth
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 t chili powder
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 c frozen peas
1 medium tomato, diced
3/4 c quinoa

Combine everything but the tomato and peas in slow cooker. Cook on high for 2 hours.
10 minutes before serving, add peas and tomatoes. Let cook for final 10 minutes.

*Note that cooking times could vary slightly due to differing cookers.