Slow Cooker Week, Day 5

I'd never had a strata before. Doesn't it sound so fancy?

Well, I'm getting all fancy on y'all and I done made myself a strata!

Make this. And then when anyone asks what it is, make sure you answer so nonchalantly...or you could totally act like it's so difficult and reply with a deep sigh like you are so exhausted.

Little do they have to know that you made it in the slow cooker! Your secret is safe with me.

A strata is a bread, cheese and, in this case, veggie, compilation held together with eggs. A perfect addition to your weekend brunch, a bridal/baby shower or Christmas morning.





Spinach Breakfast Strata

Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution

Serves 10+ as a side, 8-10 as a main dish

Prep Time: 1 hr, including drying out bread

 

Ingredients:

1 loaf supermarket French bread, cut into 1/2 in. pieces  (12 cups)

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 1/2 c. shredded Gruyere cheese (6 oz.)

2 1/2 c. half and half

9 large eggs

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

 

Directions:

First, spread cut bread over rimmed baking sheet and bake until dry, about 40 minutes.

 

Heat oil in a skillet until hot. Add onion, garlic and thyme and cook until onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in spinach.

 

Spread half of dried bread into slow cooker and sprinkle with half onion mixture and 1/2 c. gruyere cheese. Layer remaining dried bread, onion mixture and cheese. Whisk half and half, eggs, salt and pepper together in bowl, then pour mixture evenly over bread. Press gently on bread to submerge. Cover and cook 4 hours on low, until the strata is set.

 

Let strata cool for 20 minutes. If you would like to serve from a platter and not the slow cooker, you can line the slow cooker with either a crock pot liner or foil to make it easy to lift out with spatulas.

 

Enjoy!

Laura

Slow Cooker, Day 4

Sometimes, you just want to throw things in a slow cooker, walk away and come back a few hours later and eat.

Is that too much to ask?

And sometimes, you don't want to go to the store and buy unique ingredients or dirty six bowls and pans before your slow cooker meal even starts to cook.

Here I am, saving the day. Here are five of my favorite ways to get dinner on the table without utilizing one brain cell to prepare. Lovely visual.



(background image via)

1. Throw in however many chicken breasts you need for your crowd at dinner that night, a packet of taco seasoning (or any Mexican inspired spices you have!), 4-8 oz. cream cheese (based on the chicken breasts amount) and a jar of salsa. As a bonus, if you have a can of corn or any beans on hand, feel free to throw those in, as well. Cook on low for 4-6 hours and shred to use in tacos, fajitas, taco salad or quesadillas.

2. Line the bottom of the slow cooker with sliced red apples, top with boneless pork chops, sprinkle with cinnamon and more sliced apples. Pour in 1/4 c. water for moisture. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with stuffing.

3. Same as #1, throw in however many chicken breasts your need for dinner that night. Pour one can Coke/Dr. Pepper/Pepsi/Root Beer (your choice!) and enough BBQ sauce over chicken until covered. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes or shred for sandwiches, salad or chicken salad!

4. Line the bottom of your slow cooker with sliced bell peppers and a sliced onion. Pour about 1/2 cup-1 c. Italian salad dressing over the veggies. Once again, throw in those chicken breasts! (Can you tell we always have a bag or two of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer?) Sprinkle salt, pepper and cumin over the chicken. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve as fajitas or in quesadillas! This is one of my favorites!

5. A twist on Thanksgiving! Dump a bag of frozen veggies in the slow cooker (peas and carrots are good), top with 4 chicken breasts, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a box of stuffing, prepared. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. A meal in itself! Maybe get some pie for dessert!

Let me know if you try any of these recipes! I think you'll find yourself rekindling your love affair with the slow cooker.

Enjoy!
Laura

Slow Cooker Week, Day 3

Get ready- another super simple, slow cooker recipe comin' at ya!

In my resolution to try more of the recipes I pin on Pinterest, I found this little gem and loved it!

And it's only FOUR ingredients. Be still, my heart.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken.

via

 

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Recipe from The Frugal Girls

Yield: 4 servings

 

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce (buy 2 so you can have it on hand to use the other half of the dressing and soup mix!)

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

8 oz. Catalina salad dressing

 

Directions:

Cook chicken in slow cooker for 3 hours on high. Drain juices from slow cooker.

Mix together last three ingredients and pour over top of chicken. Cook on high for 30 minutes.

 

Serve with stuffing, over rice, quinoa or on a salad!

 

Enjoy!

Laura



Slow Cooker Week, Day 2

When you have a baby, people bring you dinner. I wouldn't say it's the best part of having a baby (because then I'd sound like a horrible mom) but it's definitely up near the top of the list.

And then your best friend comes to visit and she not only cooks you dinner when she is there but puts something in the crock pot for you to have that night after she leaves. I'm lucky, I tell ya.

I've been remaking the Cashew Chicken on a regular basis over the past few months to rave reviews. It's simple, flavorful, unique and delicious!! All really great adjectives there.

I love that I only have to pick up a few ingredients at the store and already have the rest on hand, ready to go.

via

 



Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken

Recipe slightly adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff (super cute sisters!)

Yield: 4-6 servings

 

Ingredients: 

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (I've used apple cider vinegar when I don't have rice wine on hand!)

4 Tbsp ketchup
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup cashews

 

Directions:

Combine flour and pepper in large zippered bag, add chicken and shake to coat with flour mixture. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side. Place chicken in slow cooker. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in small bowl; pour over chicken. Cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours. Add cashews and stir. Serve over rice.

 

Enjoy!

Laura

Slow Cooker Week, Day 1

I don't know if you know this, but recently this little cutie entered our lives.

 



(Just kidding, I knew you knew that, I just wanted to share a super cute picture of her.)

I used to love cooking dinner. It was my time to be creative, decompress, let loose and just relax in the kitchen.

And then I had a baby.

And that basically infinite amount of time I had to cook became a lot shorter depending on when she needed to eat, when she was asleep, when she was awake...you get the idea.

Enter our dinner saver- the slow cooker. (Picture the heavens opening, angels singing and a crock pot falling from the sky.)

I've always been a fan of the slow cooker but have really learned to rely on it over the past few months. This week will all be dedicated to a few of my favorite slow cooker recipes.

Today, I want to share about the Cadillac of slow cookers that I use and a cookbook that I've been loving!

First, my father in law surprised me with this INCREDIBLE slow cooker from Williams-Sonoma a few years ago, The All-Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker.



It cooks evenly and is easy to clean! You can braise or sauté right in the pot over the stove and then set it in the slow cooker to continue cooking. One less pot to clean is fine by me!

It has a great countdown timer and will automatically keep your food warm after the cooking time is over.

Oh and did I mention it's huge?! Seriously. Seven quarts huge. I've even quadrupled the recipe when making apple butter (that's 10 lbs. of apples!) and it handles it like a champ.

 

You can add this to your wish list from Williams-Sonoma here!

 

I've also been slowly trying out recipes from my new cookbook, Slow Cooker Revolution from America's Test Kitchen (aka my new, favorite addiction).

 



All the recipes have been tested and then tested again...and again...and again until they are foolproof for you to recreate at your house! You can order this from Amazon here!

 

Check back this week for lots of yummy slow cooker recipes!

Laura



Slow Cooked Apple Butter

When we first moved to Colorado, it took an extremely long time for my teaching license to transfer over from Texas. So, in that time, I picked up a lot of new hobbies, one being canning!

I first tried canning a small batch of jam and, although it was extremely frustrating because I had no idea what I was doing, it became something that I really look forward to doing!

Now every Autumn, I load up on fresh, scrumptious apples and make apple butter! It is a perfect introduction recipe to canning and I love that come December, the apple butter flavors are still perfectly canned and I have a load of stocking stuffers and small gifts to pass out to neighbors, family and friends!

But don't let the canning aspect deter you from this recipe- you absolutely don't have to can this! Just make it and keep it in the fridge for a delicious spread for your bread, a stir-in for your yogurt (delicious!!) or make it extra decadent and make a batch of my Apple Butter Rolls!

And- wouldn't you know- this recipe is from Skinnytaste! So it's guilt-free, too!



I quadrupled this recipe (10 lbs. of apples!) and picked up organic Gala apples from our local farmer's market grocery store at 99 cents a pound! What a deal.





Oh, did I mention that this is made in the SLOW COOKER? And makes your house smell amazing? Now you have to make it.

Slow Cooked Apple Butter

Recipe from Skinnytaste

Yield: 2 cups

 

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs (6 large) apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped (I used gala but honeycrisp or a mix of the two works well, too)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Place the apples in a slow cooker. Top with sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and mix well.

Cover and cook on low 10 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.

Uncover and puree with an immersion blender. Cook on high uncovered 1-2 hours.

Spoon into sterile jars for canning, or containers and refrigerate.


Enjoy!
Laura

Root Beer BBQ Pulled Pork

The hubster told me the other day that he doesn't like things made in the crock pot.

What?

Does that even make sense?

The crock pot is just basically an oven and one of God's greatest gifts to women.

Strange man.

Normally, I try to respect his opinions on things I make in the kitchen but this one I just had to say that he's going to have to deal with it. Because the crock pot ain't leaving. Because the crock pot makes delectable creations like this Root Beer BBQ Pulled Pork so easy!

My mom made this when I was in Oklahoma a few weeks ago and I made it last week for my husband's pot luck lunch at work...and stole some to eat for ourselves, at home, too!

 Root Beer poured on top...

Shredded and drained...

BBQ Sauce mixed in and ready to eat!



Root Beer BBQ Pulled Pork

Adapted slightly from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Yield: A lot...

Prep Time: 5 min. Total Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients:

-Half gallon root beer

-2 Pork Butt (see picture) or tenderloin

-18 oz. BBQ sauce (plus more for serving, if desired)

-Slider buns for serving (I like the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls)

Directions:

-Place the pork in the slow cooker and pour the root beer over the meat.

-Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, until the pork shreds easily with a fork.

-After the pork has cooked, drain and discard the root beer. I pulled out the meat with tongs into a bowl and poured the rest of the liquid into the sink then put the meat back in the slow cooker.



-Pour the BBQ sauce over the meat and stir to combine. You can either serve immediately on buns or keep on warm until you're ready to serve.

(For the pot luck, I started the slow cooker at midnight, drained the meat and added the BBQ sauce at 6:30am before he left for work. He took the slow cooker to work and kept it on warm and added a little more BBQ sauce before serving.)

Enjoy!
Laura

Parmesan Pork

I love a good crock-pot meal and this is definitely one to add to your files! Quick to put together and delicious in 6 hours! Feeds a crowd, too!

I used two small pork tenderloins (totaled a little over 3 lbs.) instead of one large one but if you can't find them, grab a big one and ask your butcher to cut it in half.

It's as simple as mixing up a few ingredients like honey, Parmesan cheese and garlic (full recipe listed below) and pouring it over the meat in the crock pot.

When you pull the meat out of the crock pot six hours later, it will be falling apart and extremely tender aka delicious. Pour the remaining sauce into a pan to let thicken and smother it over the pork like gravy. Mm, mm, good!





Parmesan Pork Roast

Recipe from Taste of Home Magazine

Yield: 4 lbs. pork, approximately 10 servings

Prep Time: 15 min. Total Time: 6 1/2 hours

Ingredients:

1 boneless whole pork loin roast (4 pounds) (or 2 small)

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup honey

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons dried basil

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

-If using one large roast, cut in half (or have butcher do that at grocery). Place in a large slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the cheese, honey, soy sauce, basil, garlic, oil and salt; pour over pork. Cover and cook on low for 5-1/2 to 6 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160°.

-Remove meat to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Transfer sauce to a small saucepan. Bring liquid to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice the roast (or if it was like mine, pull it apart with a fork) and serve with thickened sauce.

Enjoy!
Laura