05/1/13

crockpot beef and broccoli

The sunshine is out, the air is crisp and all I want to do is go outside and rip out some blackberry vines! Who am I? A girl with a plan. On days like this the last thing I want to do is spent time slaving away in the kitchen on dinner. I want something quick, simple, and delicious. Okay, I want that most of the time, but some days I’m fine and enjoy spending more time in the kitchen than others.

This is when the crockpot comes in handy. Even on warm days, crockpots are life savers. You don’t always have to make a soup in the old crocker. You can make a typical meal that would be cooked on the stove in a pan – like this beef and broccoli – but with much less hands on time.

The one ingredients I wasn’t too stoked on was the beef consomme. I tried to find a recipe for how to make it at home, but found nothing that looked quick to make. Quick and simple was needed since I didn’t have too much time that morning.

Anyways… I highly recommend this dish. Jacob and I gobbled it up. Serve with some rice or your favorite grain and lots and lots of broccoli. The more the better.

Crockpot Beef and Broccoli

from Chef in Training

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into thin strips

1 cup beef consomme

1/2 cup soy sauce, reduced sodium

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp water

Fresh broccoli florets (as many as desired)

Hot cooked rice

Directions

Place beef in crock pot.

In a small bowl, combine consomme, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil and garlic. Pour over beef.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

In a cup, stir cornstarch and water until smooth. Add to crock pot. Stir well to combine.

Blanch broccoli florets and add to the crock pot. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes on HIGH or until thickened.

Serve over hot, cooked rice.

Yesterday I began trying to take Hunter’s 11 month picture…

It has officially turned into a challenging task! Today is a new day, and we’ll get that perfect picture. Or at least, a less blurry.

Do you tend to spend more or less time in the kitchen with nicer weather? Or does it not make a difference? Anyone have a recipe for beef consomme?

Heather

03/25/13

crockpot sweet apricot chicken

Good morning!

How was your weekend? Ours went by pretty quickly (they always do), but was pretty great. Saturday involved teaching a couple classes in the morning, a long walk with the hubs, kiddo and dog, and then having some friends over for wine + cheese. Sunday we started the day off with a couple hours of yard work. It was actually really nice getting out there pulling some weeds and cleaning up the front yard. Hunter happily sat and watched in the stroller until he needed to go down for a nap. We ran a couple errands, then finished the day off with a date night, ending with froyo. Yum.

Hunter even got put to bed like a champ by my mom. Pretty nice way to finish off the weekend.

Now it’s back to reality. I’m working on finishing up my meal planning for the month, but before I share that I owe you all another crockpot recipe.

I am almost caught up on sharing my weekly crockpot recipes, which I definitely got behind on. I have two to share. To continue the order (which is how I’m making all 50 of the recipes), it’s time to talk about chicken. Apricot chicken. The recipe itself is super simple – gather four ingredients, then cook it low n slow for a few hours. The thing I didn’t like so much was the onion soup packet and catina dressing. Since I’m trying my best to make more homemade, real food ingredients, I did the same here.

Online I found a recipe for homemade dry onion soup mix. I followed the recipe, except for when it called for beef bouillon, which I subbed for my fresh bouillon cubes from the freezer. For the catalina dressing I followed this recipe. Simple and tomato-y tasting.

The only pineapple-apricot jam I found at the grocery store had lots of additives in it, so I went with a more basic apricot jam.

Did you catch all that? Just four ingredients… and I’ve changed three of them. Good thing I didn’t change the chicken too!

Crockpot Sweet Apricot Chicken

from chef in training

Ingredients

6-8 skinless chicken breasts

1 cup apricot jam

1 cup catalina dressing *

1/4 cup dry onion soup mix *

Directions

Place chicken in the crockpot. Mix all other ingredients together and pour over chicken.

Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve over rice with vegetables.

*follow the links to the recipes above to make your own

Had I not made all those changes, would Jacob have like this one more? I’m not sure. Meat + fruit are not really a combo he prefers. While Jacob wasn’t a fan of this dish, Hunter and I really enjoyed it! The chicken was a little sweet + very saucy. We ate it on top of rice and vegetables. It made for a super simple meal, even with my extra dry soup and dressing preparation. The next couple days I threw the leftover chicken on top of salads with creamy blue cheese dressing. I’d highly recommend that!

If you’re a fan of fruit and meat together, give this one a go. But if you’re like my hubby, I’d try the sesame honey chicken. Both are saucy, just with different flavor profiles.

How was your weekend? Do you like fruit and meat together? One thing that comes to mind is Thanksgiving turkey and cranberry sauce, mmmmmm.

Heather

01/7/13

crockpot cafe rio sweet pork

I have been gone too long! Between all the holidays and being sick for much longer than I would have wished for, blogging took a back seat. Before getting too behind I wanted to share last week’s crockpot recipe. It was soooo good! So far my favorite. Not only was the pork amazing, but the creamy tomatillo dressing that went on top of the salad made the dish.

For Christmas I received these cool tortilla bowl makers. All you have to do is put the tortilla in the mold (you can see part of it in the picture below – upper left). The tortillas took about 8 minutes in the oven and I had perfect bowls for our tasty dinner. I added some shredded cheese to the bottom.

This was step 2.

Step 1: make the pork

Crockpot Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
Adapted from Chef in Training

Ingredients

2 pounds pork roast

1 can cola (NOT diet)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 cup water

1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

Directions

Put the pork in a reclosable bag to marinate, pour in half of the can of cola and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Marinate for a few hours.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of cola, water, can of chiles, enchilada sauce and garlic salt in crock pot on low for about 7-8 hours.

Shred pork. Serve in fun tortilla salad bowls!

Step 3: make the dressing

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing
Adapted from here

Ingredients

1 packet of ranch dressing

1 cup mayo

1 cup buttermilk

2 tomatillos husked and diced

Garlic powder (just a few shakes)

juice from 1 lime

Directions

Put ranch dressing, mayo and buttermilk in a blender and blend until combined. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

Keep in sealed container in the fridge.

**I actually halved my batch and it still made a good amount.

Step 4: assemble everything. Here’s what went into our tortilla bowls:

refried beans
pork
romaine lettuce
tomato and avocado
tomatillo dressing

I need to star this recipe. It was that good! My pork likely didn’t turn out as sweet as the original recipe since I cut out a lot of the cola and brown sugar, but since my version was amazing, I think I’ll be sticking with it. Plus the actual process had less steps. Always a bonus is my book.

Crockpot recipe for week 4: Cafe Rio Chicken

Today was my first day back to teaching/exercising after almost 2 weeks off (being sick kicked my butt ). I’m excited to get back into the swing of things and into a routine again.

How was your Monday? Hope it went well!

Heather

Tag Archives: crockpot recipe

crockpot beef and broccoli

crockpot sweet apricot chicken

crockpot cafe rio sweet pork

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