Tag Archives: crockpot

Skipping the CSA this time around

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So, the veggie box program at work was SO successful that they’ve decided to offer a “Deep Winter” box. DH and I looked it over and determined that it’s the same stuff we were having trouble getting through (even at one box every other week) and the value was no better. Thus, we’re skipping the CSA for the first time since I jumped on the bandwagon. BUT, we have agreed that we’re going to try to take the lessons from the CSA experiment and work them into our regular routine – trying to put more fresh fruits and veggies on the table and incorporating them into our meal planning – just not based on the random stuff that shows up in a box. When the Spring boxes start to come out, we’ll jump back in…

Of course, the amusing part is that this week’s meal plan is still fairly light on the veggies, so we’ll be supplementing with in-season fruits and other things we can get our hands on that aren’t necessarily in season here (like grapes, which the kids practically inhaled at lunch today). I’m not ditching the idea of the CSA – but the winter veggie boxes just aren’t our cup of tea and don’t have the same value as the fall boxes did.

That said, the crock pot will be bubbling in the early part of this week – Mexican Meatloaf on Monday and Sour Cream Salsa Chicken on Tuesday. Both make great multi-night dinners, and I’m going to try out one of the slow cooker liners that dh got me for Christmukkah to see if that helps make cleanup easier from the meatloaf.

Experimentation will continue, one way or the other…

 

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In other semi-foodish news, I just devoured the Hunger Games trilogy. Took me next to no time to get through these books because they were so incredibly engrossing. Well written, deeply affecting, and really great reads. HIGHLY recommend! (Also, now very much looking forward to the movie of the first book, which is supposed to come out later this year. Yeay!)

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

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This is a really simple and fairly saucy dish that takes virtually no prep time and makes for a great winter meal. I’ve seen other stroganoff recipes before, but most of them are heavy on the beef. A trick I learned from being on Weight Watchers years ago is to substitute mushrooms for beef, for example: having a portobello mushroom on a burger bun instead of a beef (or even turkey) burger. I also like mushrooms in my stroganoff, so I laugh LOUDLY AND HEARTILY at the recipes that suggest a simple 4oz can of mushroom stems and caps. Really, folks?

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of this before it left the dinner table, so this is actually a shot of what went into the fridge. Depending upon how hungry you are, this can serve six people easily enough; we get two nights of meals out of this dish, sometimes with a little to spare. This is a fairly saucy one, but since we serve it over butter noodles (or occasionally with rice), the sauce finds a home. You could even try a crusty bread as a side, to help sop up some of the extra sauce. Save yourself on the prep time by buying washed and sliced mushrooms in your produce section (or by prepping them the night before and just shoving them in the fridge). We also buy our stew beef already cubed; again, it saves time. The beef costs the same whether whole or pre-cut; the mushrooms tend to be a little more expensive if pre-sliced/washed, but I’m willing to pay that price to save on the time of doing it myself. Some call it lazy; I consider it being efficient and knowing when to outsource.

 

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

Just because it's out of focus doesn't mean it's not delicious!

 

Prep Time: 5 mins before cooking; 5 mins before serving

Cooking Time: 8-10 hrs on LOW

Serves: 4-6

 

Ingredients

2 cans golden mushroom soup

1-1/2 lbs stew beef, cubed

1-1/2 lbs white mushrooms, washed and sliced

8oz french onion sour cream dip

 

Make it Happen

1. Coat the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Add the soup, beef and mushrooms to the crock pot; stir well to combine.

3. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs.

4. When the cook time is over, turn off the crock pot. Add the dip and stir well to combine before serving.

CSA Cleanout Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin

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This one is a recipe of necessity: my CSA veggie boxes have taken over the fridge! The counters, the fridge…everywhere I look there are veggies that need a home: in our BELLEHS. It also didn’t help that I spent part of the evening Sunday night trying to figure out which potatoes survived the house turning into a fridge for a few days (the answer: NOT the new potatoes or the red potatoes, sadly). We also have a week coming up where generating leftovers is a bad idea.

Thus, many of the items in this dish came from our CSA veggie boxes, specifically: the onions, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots and honey. The bulk of the prep time in this dish, well – ALL of the prep time, really, came from the chopping that takes up steps 1-5, below. The rest of it is about a 5 minute process. So, if you want to do any of this the night before, I’d recommend going for it.

We have large plastic containers in our house for just such a reason – so the onions, sweet potatoes, shallots and apples were all prepped the night before. TIRED ME, I put the apples on the top of the container with the sweet potatoes. Were I being smart, the apples would’ve gone on the bottom of the container so that I could’ve just upended the thing right into the crock pot and had them in the order I wanted. (I prefer to put onions and the root veggies at the bottom of the crock pot so that they can take the bulk of the heat – they tend to stand that much better than, say, apples, which would just turn straight into applesauce.)

The carrots were cut up in the morning too, only because I was out of energy by the time I was done with a long day that I capped off with prepping onions, potatoes, shallots and apples for the next morning. And, really, if your fear is that the apples might turn brown as they oxidize: feel free to let go of that fear. First, if you have the lid on your container fairly tight, that problem may be minimized. Second, if they’re going in the crock pot, you’ll never notice whether they turned brown overnight or not.

This dish came out sweet and yummy. We didn’t pair it with a starch, but you certainly could serve this with some rice or couscous. The sauce is plentiful and light in nature, and it lends a nice sweetness to the whole thing. Because we let it go for longer than the required cook time, the pork just fell apart on us (never a bad thing), and both the sweet potatoes and apples just fell apart on the tongue. Again, this is a good problem to have.

I would say that this is a recipe that could easily be done with chicken instead of pork BUT I would then adjust the cook time down to 6-8 hrs.

 

CSA Cleanout Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin

Porktastic!

Prep Time: 30-40 min
Cooking Time: 8-10 hrs on LOW
Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 small (or 1 large) yellow onions
2 large sweet potatoes
1 shallot
5 medium empire apples
6 medium/large carrots
1-1/2 lbs pork tenderloin
14-1/2 oz can low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup apple juice
2 Tb cider vinegar
2 Tb wildflower honey
1 Tb brown sugar

Make it Happen
1. Peel and thinly slice the onion(s); place in the bottom of a 5qt oval crock pot in a single layer. They should cover the majority of the bottom of the crock pot.

2. Wash and chop the sweet potatoes into pieces no more than about 1/2″ thick and 1″ wide. Place the sweet potatoes in the crock pot.

3. Peel and mince the shallot. Sprinkle about one-third of the shallot on top of the sweet potatoes.

4. Peel the carrots and remove the ends; chop into small rounds, no more than about 1/3″ thick. Place in the crock pot. Sprinkle about one-third of the shallots on top of the carrots.

5. Wash the apples; slice in half, remove the core and then cut the apples into roughly 12 slices. Place the apples in the crock pot; sprinkle the remaining shallots on top of the apples.

6. Place the pork tenderloin on top of the apples. Pour the broth on top of the tenderloin and pour around it, on top of the apples and veggies.

7. In a measuring cup, pour the apple juice and the cider vinegar; pour this combination on top of the tenderloin and then around it, on top of the apples and veggies.

8. Drizzle the honey on top of the tenderloin, using either the flat of the spoon or a brush to coat the top of the tenderloin evenly with the honey.

9. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the tenderloin.

10. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hrs.

11. Remove pork from crock pot and cut into 1/2″ thick pieces before serving with veggies, apples & sauce.