Category: crockpot

Apple Cinnamon Crockpot Oatmeal – Secret Recipe Club

It’s Secret Recipe Club time again!  For you newbies around these parts (Hi! Welcome!), Secret Recipe Club is the brainchild of Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin.  Each month, bloggers are randomly given another blog and they are to comb through the recipes on that blog and choose one to make and write about.  The blog assignments, except for your own, are a secret (hence, the name) and the super fun part is on the reveal day when you find out who had your blog and what recipe they chose to make.

This month my assigned blog was Hoosier Homemade.

Hoosier Homemade - Making Your House a Home

Liz, also known as The Cupcake Lady, has a TON of great recipes on her blog.  I had a lot of fun going through her categories and figuring out what I wanted to make.  Of course she had a gazillion cupcake recipes, but I didn’t have a real reason to make cupcakes.  I know, I know.  Who needs a reason to make cupcakes??  But the problem is, if I make them, I’ll eat them, and I don’t want to eat them.

crockpot-oatmeal

So when I saw her recipe for crockpot oatmeal, I knew this was a recipe that was perfect for me.  Healthy and easy.  I love steel cut oats, but it’s very difficult to make in the morning because they take 30 minutes to cook.  I don’t have that kind of time in the morning so this was a great solution.

Liz’s recipe calls for old fashioned oats, but I chose to use steel cut since that’s what I had in my pantry.  I added more water since steel cut has a higher water/oats ratio than old fashioned oats.  I also chose to leave out the raisins.  I debated using dried cranberries, and probably should have, but decided against it at the last minute.  Next time I will, that’s for sure.

crockpot-oatmeal1




Crockpot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Adapted from Hoosier Homemade


Ingredients:

  • 6 cups water
  • 2 small Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
  • 1 1/2 cups Steel Cut Oatmeal
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon, plus extra to sprinkle on top
  • 1 teaspoon Salt

Directions:
Spray crockpot with nonstick spray liberally.  Combine all ingredients in the crockpot.  Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Y’all know me by now.  I love a nice, easy recipe.  The hardest part of this one is peeling, coring and chopping the apples.

You can find this recipe linked up at these parties.

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Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore

I love crockpot cooking for the same reason most everyone does – it’s so easy!  This chicken cacciatore recipe is no different.  I didn’t even bother to thaw the chicken breasts first.  Just threw ‘em in the crock straight out of the freezer, tossed the veggies on top, and added the sauce.  And since I had some onions already diced up in the freezer, I didn’t have much prep to do either.



Crockpot Garden Chicken Cacciatore
Adapted from My Kitchen Adventures


Ingredients:

  • 5 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts

  • 1 cup green bell pepper, chopped (or the equivalent mixed sweet bell peppers)

  • 1 cup onion, chopped

  • 1 large rib of celery, diced

  • 2 large carrots, diced

  • 1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1 – 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic, undrained

  • 1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste

  • 1/2 cup fat free, reduced sodium chicken stock

  • 1/4 cup dry red wine

  • 2 TBS. balsamic vinegar

  • 2 TBS cornstarch dissolved in a little water

  • additional salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. Spray liner of a 6 quart crockpot with cooking spray.  Place chicken breasts inside the bottom.  Add in the green pepper, onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic.  Open can of diced tomatoes and top the vegetables in the crock pot.  

  2. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, chicken stock, wine and balsamic vinegar.  Mix well.  Pour on top of chicken.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or until the chicken is tender.  
  3. Add in the cornstarch dissolved in water.  Stir and allow to cook for another 20 minutes on HIGH or until the sauce has thickened.  Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.  

I served this over brown rice, but it would also be delicious over polenta or even egg noodles.

This recipe can be found at these linky parties, and Food Trip Friday and Today’s Creative Blog.

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Lentil Soup

As I mentioned yesterday, it’s been raining for a month straight and a chill is in the air.  I’ve been cold from the inside out so I knew I wanted to make a big ol’ pot of soup.  I had some lentils that have been sitting in my pantry for…um…years.  Is that dangerous, or just gross?  Whatever, they’re dried and there wasn’t anything funky about them.  So I made a pot of soup with them.

I could have used my cast iron dutch oven to make this soup, but I just wanted something I could throw together and not babysit so I decided to use my crockpot.  Once my veggies were sliced, it was as easy and literally throwing everything in the crockpot and turning it on.  I didn’t even stir it!  Such a rebel, I am.

What goes perfectly with a hearty soup?  Crusty fresh-baked bread of course!  My husband had the car, and my son was sleeping, so I couldn’t run to a bakery or grocery store.  Homemade it would have to be.  I started one recipe that I found online but, as I tend to do, I didn’t read the whole recipe before starting. It needed to proof in the refrigerator overnight!  That wasn’t going to work.

I wound up using this recipe but had to sort of eyeball the additional ingredients.  For instance, the first recipe had a weight amount for the flour, but the second one called for however many CUPS of flour (with no weight listed).  I just had to add flour until it looked right.  Same goes for the yeast.  The first recipe had a teaspoon of yeast, but this one had much more.  I measured it out and then just took one teaspoon out of there.  That seemed to work okay because the dough rose beautifully and it was nice and elastic.

The rolls were a little more dense then I would have preferred but I was still pretty happy with how they turned out.  I’m always impressed with myself when I can make real bread.

So, back to the soup.  So easy.  Here’s how you do it.  Make sure you pay close attention to the directions…it’s pretty complicated.

Crockpot Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups carrot rounds (about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick)
  • 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 cups dried lentils, rinsed and picked to make sure there are no stones or other yuckies
  • 32-oz container chicken broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp poultry seasoning (or to taste)
  • Salt and pepper (be generous…there’s a lot of soup to season)

Directions:

  1. Put all ingredients in the crockpot.
  2. Turn it on High for 4-6 hours.

Serves 6

This post is linked up to Cast Party Wednesday, Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, It’s a Keeper, Somewhat Simple, Momnivore’s Dilemma, Fireflies and Jellybeans, House of Hepworths, Jane Deere, Mangoes and Chutney, EKat’s Kitchen, Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms.

Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset.

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