Crock Pot Wednesday

It's that time of week again.  Crock pot day.  I got this recipe from a friend a few years ago and adapted it to our tastes.

Taco Soup:
- Ground beef or turkey (cooked)
- Diced bell pepper (red, green, or both)
- Diced/Seeded Jalapeno (or a TB of jarred diced jalapeno)
- Drained can of corn
- Drained can of black olives (roughly chopped a bit)
- Drained and rinsed can of beans (I usually use black, but friend suggests any bean)
- Can of crushed Tomatoes (sometimes I use a can of diced tomatos)
- 1 pkg of taco seasoning
- About 32 oz chicken stock

Toss everything into the crock pot and stir.  I have a 6 qt crock pot so this is usually fine.  Sometimes, I'll throw in an extra can of tomatoes.  It's very easy since pretty much everything is in cans that I normally have in my pantry anyway.

I normally cook on low all day (about 7-8 hours).  When I get home if I want it thicker, I just put some in a small put and make a corn starch slurry to thicken that small pot up and then dump that back into the whole crock pot.  If you don't know how to make a corn starch slurry don't worry - just read the box it'll tell you how :)

I usually like it very thick so I make it much thicker when I get home.  Sometimes, I'll take a can of creamed corn and thicken that and add it back into the pot.  You could also probably use an imersion blender a bit to make it thicker.  Serve with some shredded cheese and sour cream.  If it's really thick, grab some chips too.

Meal Plan Monday

It's already time for another Meal Plan Monday.  Here is the plan for this week:
Breakfast is cereal, waffles, or toast
Lunch is leftovers

Sunday: Baked ziti but instead of ziti I'm using mini raviolis, garlic bread, salad
Monday: Chicken "Glop" (yes, it's a terrible name but that's what we always called it growing up), rice, roasted butternut squash
Tuesday: Pork chops with pineapple salsa, steamed broccoli
Wednesday: Something in the crock pot but I haven't figured out what yet.
Thursday: Jambalaya with chicken and/or shrimp
Friday: Baked Tofu



I'm heading off to jury duty now.  Lucky me, I got called in on the first day.  I have a book and a sudoku book all set to go so hopefully that'll keep me entertained all day.  Some things say I can bring my cell phone, some things say I can't at all, so I guess I'll just leave it in the car.  It would be nice to be able to text or just roam the internet while I wait but oh well.  Hopefully, I don't get lost driving out there.  

Questions

Wanda over at The Shambled Shack posed a few questions that I figured I would answer. 

1. Why is it so hard to stick to a menu plan? Honestly, I have no idea but it happens to me all the time.  I end up making meal plans with meals that I love on them but something ALWAYS happens that makes me deviate from it.


2. Am I the only one that deviates this much? Definitely not.  Life happens and you deal with it.

3. Is it really worth making a plan if your constantly changing up the plan? I think it is.  This week I didn't make a meal plan at all, and I went food shopping without a list and I felt kind of lost.  I just bought things on sale or things I wanted to buy and it felt weird not knowing where everything was going to be used.  Even though a lot of things don't get used as they were intended because the meal plans change.

 4. When making your plan, do you grocery shop first or plan your meals around what is on sale for the week?  I make my meal plan and then go shopping.  I generally stock up on proteins whenever they're on sale or I can get a good deal so I don't plan my meals according to the sales.  I just go food shopping to pick up random missing ingredients and veggies/fruits.
5. How often do you grocery shop?  It depends..  usually every other week or so but sometimes weekly.  If I'm feeling particularly lazy it can go about 2.5-3 weeks.  It's just me and my husband so it's not like we need gallons of fresh milk in the fridge. 

6. How in the world do you get your pantry stocked up enough to do a pantry challenge for an entire month?   I'm a packrat?  I don't really.  I think it's a combination of going shopping while hungry so I buy weird things and then stock up on random sales or whatever looks good.  Then I get home and forget what I bought so I make other things and the new random foods get stocked into the pantry.  I also tend to forget what I bought so one week I may buy 5lbs of chicken because its a good sale.  Then the next week I might do the same because I forgot that we have plenty so then we end up with a ton of stuff. 

7. What problems have you had with menu planning and how did you solve them?  My main problems are just sticking to the actual menu plan.  I always put good stuff on there.  Life just jumps in the way.  Friends/family want to go out to dinner and of course I'm not going to say no.  Plus, sometimes I'm just not in the mood for that meal on that day when it actually happens.  I've learned to solve these problems by just going with the flow and hoping for the best.  I keep making the plans and sometimes I stick to them sometimes I don't.

8. What kind of variety do you give your menu plans? Do you stick with only three or four and rotate them?  They're all completely different.  Depending on if I'm following a diet plan (which I should be currently.. ) there may be certain meals that I really like and I know will help me stick with it.  I generally like to try out new recipes so there is at least 1 recipe that is new on there and an old standby.  It would probably be easier to rotate a few different plans but we like change and trying out new/different food so that wouldn't work for us. I find that if I'm eating lower carb, I tend to make monthly plans.  If I'm eating lower fat or just whatever I want, I make 1-2 week meal plans.  I have no idea why I differentiate, it's just always what I've done and I know it makes no sense whatsoever.
 
 
As for Food Waste Friday: No picture sorry.  I dumped out the mashed potatoes from last week and one leftover chick pea cutlet. There's quite a bit of leftovers in there that we need to finish up this weekend.

Crock Pot Wednesday

If you haven't noticed, I like simple crock pot recipes.  Since I don't have much control once all the ingredients go in, I like to keep it easy.

Today, I'm not even sure if you can call it a recipe, but I am. .

6 Chicken Legs
1/2 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (or whatever bottle is lurking in your fridge)

Put chicken legs on bottom.  Pour sauce on top.  Cook until done. 

Eat and enjoy. 

Short, simple, and tasty.  My kind of recipe.  I also saw this Crockpot curry recipe the other day that looked really good.  Of course, I didn't write it down/print it out so I'll have to go by memory and fudging it along the way.  Hopefully I'll remember and try it in a few days.

Food Waste Friday and Recipe Round-Up

Food Waste Friday:
Well, I'm currently on my way to my parents (or already there depending when we actually left) so I couldn't take a picture of what I threw out.
I ended up throwing away 4 grossly moldy cucumbers. When I bought them from the "going" shelf, I should've used them right away but I could never think of anything to do with them besides cut them up into salads. We were both sick for a while so not many salads got made or eaten. I need to figure out more to do with cucumbers. Any ideas?
I also threw away a handful of wilted blueberries that were heading into "gross" territory. I bought them on a whim and then ended up not in the mood for them at all. Luckily, my niece ate most of the good ones when she was visiting earlier in the week along with basically an entire can of mandarin oranges. The rest of that can got thrown out since I won’t use them in anything else and, honestly, I have no idea why I had a can of them in the first place.
I also anticipate having to throw away the following things once I'm back home on Monday night: 1 serving of leftover Taco Bake (if it's still good one of us will have it for lunch on Tuesday) and about 2 helpings of mashed potatoes (I always make too much).

New Recipes That We Tried:
Chickpea Cutlets – They were interesting. Instead of making gravy, I just ended up using a can of beef gravy because that’s all I felt like doing that day. So the gravy didn’t go with it at all but I would definitely try them again. I was surprised my husband actually liked them since he’s a picky eater and when I told him what we were having for dinner he made a weird face. He said he’d want to try them smaller – more like falafel – with yogurt sauce. I ate one for lunch dipped in ketchup and hot sauce cause I didn’t know what to dip it in and it was also tasty.

Taco Bake – Very good. I took pictures too like requested! I halved the recipe and made it in one pan and also added sautéed peppers since I have a bunch of peppers to use up. My favorite part, of course, was the browned cheese on top because you can’t go wrong with cheese in my eyes. My husband really liked the addition of beans and rice to the dish since I’ve made a similar one before. I would definitely make again. Here are the pictures:

My tortilla lay out.  I ended up using 2 across then sliced one in half to cover the top and bottom middles.  Then I took a fourth one and cut it into quarters  so I could make sure to cover every possibly corner.  Yes, I'm crazy, I know.

Making layers.  This was everything up until the last layer of tortillas and cheese

Right out of the oven

My slice.  I ended up topping it with a dollop of sour cream.

Crock Pot Wednesday

 


I used to be really afraid of my crockpot, it's true.  I think the problem was the crockpot itself.  I started out using the one my parents got for their engagement.  My parents will be married for 35 years this year.  So, as you can see, it's an old crockpot.  It's white with the lovely yellow 70s flowers on it and everything.  There's no high or low - just off and on.  I think that's why stuff used to taste terrible whenever I made it in the crockpot.

Also, I started low carbing when I first started using the crock pot.  So it was a weird mash of learning to cook differently and in different equiptment.  I'm surprised to this day that my husband has never said anything bad about my cookings because, oh boy, some gross things would come out.  Food would come out tough and overcooked (or undercooked) and just gross.  He's a good sport. 

The only thing that works perfectly in that old crockpot (that I admit is still sitting in my pantry because I feel guilty throwing it away) is candied nuts.  This works out well since I can't make candied nuts in the oven without burning them.  The recipe can easily be halved or doubled, I was just using a 5-6 qt crock pot and it tastes so good so I make a ton.

Candied Nuts

• 2 lbs nuts - I like to mix: Walnuts, Pecans, and Almonds
• 1 cup of melted butter
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of sugar (or splenda)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or diabetisweet) - Can use all regular sugar as well
• 1 TB cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
• a bunch of fresh nutmeg 

Put nuts into crock pot.  Stir in butter.  Stir in all seasonings until everything is nicely coated. 

The trick is in heating.  I remember reading somewhere online about what to do so that's always what I've done.  I don't remember where I read it so, if it was you, please let me know so I can credit you with your trick. 

Cover the crock pot and set to high for 30 minutes.  Uncover, stir, turn to low and let cook for about another 2 hours or until tasty and done.

No matter how much I make, these are always eaten up very quickly.  Even when I would make them with Splenda my picky brother in law (who claims he absolutely hates the Splenda aftertaste) happily eats a huge portion whenever I make them.

Meal Plan Monday

I can't believe another week has already started.. Here's another Meal Plan Monday.

Last week we never got around to eating: Paella or Stir Fry.  I just ended up making random things those nights because we weren't in the mood for either. 

For breakfasts we still have 3 bagels left so we'll eat those, along with waffles and/or eggs. Lunch will be leftovers as usual or there are some Lean Cuisines in the freezer

It's a weird week this week.  I met the husband for lunch today and we went to a Chinese buffet so since that was such a big meal that means no real dinner tonight.  Also, we're heading out to my parent's either Thursday or Friday and we haven't decided which day yet.  So only a few meals planned.

•Monday: Popcorn or random snacks while watching tv (very healthy, I know)

•Tuesday: Chickpea Cutlets w/Gravy from The Happy (atheist) Homemaker

•Wednesday: Taco Bake from The Shambled Shack I'll use up the frozen leftover buffalo chicken that I made last week with this.

•Thursday: Chicken (and whatever fish I can find in the freezer) Paella which may, yet again, be pushed back to next week.

Pizza Week

We've had pizza twice this week.  It was homemade, so that means it's okay, right?

I also may have eaten the leftovers for breakfast this morning so that kind of means that three meals this week were pizza. I'm getting really good at flipping it off of the peel though!.  I have this garlic cheese spread stuff that was just sitting in the fridge unopened.  So I put a nice layer of that onto the dough, then sauce, then some shredded cheese, then tomatoes (the second time was anchovies cause they were in the fridge).  Sooo good and garlicky.  The husband just had sauce and cheese since he can't eat garlic/onions and just wanted plain pizza.

Also, the "Eat from the Pantry" isn't working.  It doesn't make sense to do it now (well, it does but still).  Our bank is currently offering $10 back for every $100 we spend in groceries until mid-March.  I'm not upping the amount I'm spending because that wouldn't save any money.  But, I've also decided that I'll just shop as normal until mid-March.  That way we can get a few bucks back and that doesn't hurt.  Once it's over, I'll try the challenge again.  In the meantime, I will try to use up more random things from the pantry (like the garlic cheese stuff.. yummmm).

Food Waste Friday

This photo was actually taken on Sunday but I thought it would be silly to leave gross food in my fridge for another 5 days.

(Please excuse my very messy kitchen - I was currently in the midst of making dinner when I decided to clean out the fridge.)

From left to right: Turkey Shepherd's Pie, Lentil/Black bean chili, Lemon Chiffon Yogurt (I probably shouldn't admit that it went bad back in December..), Sweet Mashed Potatoes, 2 containers of pasta sauce that I meant to freeze (but kind of ran out of room for in the freezer and then forgot about them), Leftover Chinese food from Tuesday - Wonton soup and Lo Mein.
Not pictured but thrown out today: Leftover stir-fry.  I made it way too salty so I shoulda thrown it away that night but thought I might eat it later in the week.

Pretty much all leftovers. See why I need to work on us eating leftovers? I even tried to get some of them eaten by putting them in containers ready to go for lunch. Unfortunately, sometimes the lure of going out for lunch is so much better than leftovers.

Oh well, hopefully next week is better.

Shrimp and Broccoli Orzo

Here is the recipe that Wanda requested.  It's a very simple recipe that I started making when I was actually trying to lose weight (which I should probably start again...)  It comes from: Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight! : 150+ Restaurant Favorites to Make at Home--All 8 POINTS or Less.  They call it Pesto Shrimp & Orzo Salad.  Since I change things around (and am randomly out of ingredients like pesto and shrimp today) we tailored it to our tastes..

Shrimp & Broccoli Orzo (Makes 4 good size portions)

• About 1 cup Orzo
• 1/2 lb Shrimp or Chicken
• 1-2 small heads of Broccoli (I chop up the stems too)
• 1/3 - 1/2 c of Mayo (fat-free if you're being healthy could probably sub for yogurt or something simliar as well)
• 1/2 TB dried basil (or 1 TB fresh if you have it around)
• 1 TB olive oil (If you have pesto around - use that instead of basil/olive oil)
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• Dash of crushed red pepper (optional)

Cook orzo.  When there is a few minutes left, I throw the broccoli in with the orzo so they can cook together.  Drain and reserve 1/3 c of the cooking water.  Cut chicken/shrimp into bite size pieces and then sautee in a pan.

Stir together the rest of the ingredients along with the cooking water.  Add in the orzo, broccoli, and chicken/shrimp and stir so everything is coated.  Sometimes I throw in pine nuts (to make up for the lack of pesto) or additional vegetables if I want it to be a bit different.  The other night I threw in some toasted walnuts for a bit of crunch.

We like it warmed but not too hot.  I do tend to like it peppery too so I'm generous on that end.  It's also good as leftovers and served cold.

Crock Pot Wednesday

I needed something to make for dinner tonight and since Debbie runs Crock Pot Wednesday, I figured why not just throw something in the crockpot and see what happens. 


Buffalo Chicken
 2 chicken breasts (that's all I have)
 1/2 pkg of ranch dressing mix
Maybe 1/3 c hot wing sauce

The measurements came about because that's just what I had laying around.  Apparently, even though I thought there was more chicken in the far reaches of my freezer, there isn't.  There's been an opened package of ranch dressing mix sitting in my cabinet for longer than I'd like to remember.  As for the hot sauce, well can you really go wrong with hot sauce?  There was proabbly around 1/3c left so I just added a bit of water to thin it out (and get the rest out of the bottle). 

I mixed the hot sauce and ranch dressing mix together and just poured it on top of the chicken.  I'll cook it on low for probably around 4-5 hours.  Then I'm thinking it'll be shreddd and we'll have Buffalo Chicken Nachos or Tacos tonight.

Healthy?  Could be better could be worse.  Depending on spiciness, I might add a little butter when I shred the chicken in order to cut back on the spice. 
Tasty?  I think it will be.. hopefully..

Honestly, crock pots generally worry me and I always feel like I'm going to do something wrong.  I  have no idea why I feel this way, I just do.  I always follow recipes to the "T" with crock pots (except leaving out onions and garlic for the husband).  So, this is my first time just kind of winging it and hoping for the best.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Do you have any good recipes for me to try out?

Update: It was pretty good.  Probably could've used more hot sauce because I was expecting it to be spicier.  I think in total it was in the crockpot for 4 hours on low.  I may have taken the lid off twice to check for doneness though (I know you're not supposed to do that but I just couldn't help myself).  I shredded it and we made the Ultimate Buffalo Chicken Nachos.  We still have a bunch of leftover chicken which I'll probably freeze so we can have it again in a few days/weeks. 

I'll try and update with a photo because my phone for some reason won't email it to me right now.  It was very tasty though. 

We broke.. already

Well, we broke that whole "No food shopping" thing.  Yes, it was quick.  But, there were some good reasons for it.

1. We were out of olive oil.  Yes, it's not a big deal since I have spray, vegetable oil, and peanut oil but still.  It was on sale so the husband picked some up.  If it wasn't, we would've just done without.
2. We were out of paper towels.  I probably have 5-6 kitchen towels hanging around my kitchen currently (not counting the clean ones in the pantry) but when I'm dealing with raw meat I prefer paper towels.  Plus, with three animals there are random spills happening all the time.
3. This is the main reason:  My husband wanted to pick up some fruit. 

How could I say no to that?  Growing up he barely ate fruits and veggies.  The only "vegetables" his parents made were boiled broccoli/cauliflower, canned creamed corn, and baked potatoes.  I'm not sure what fruit he ate.  Off the top of my head I'm thinking just strawberries and apples.  Yup, that's pretty much it.  So, when Mr. Picky Eater decides he wants to pick up some fresh fruit (and I don't have to go to the supermarket) I will gladly let him do that. 

I'm okay with this and I'm not counting it as fully breaking the challenge.  Everyone needs fresh fruits/vegetables every once in a while and that's okay.

Weekly Meal Plan

This is what we're eating this week. I generally write out a meal plan for the week including breakfast, lunch, and dinner but then rarely stick to it each day. I'm going to try to do better with that as well which is why I'm taking part in Meal Plan Monday.  As long as I have 5 dinners planned out and they get eaten at some point, I'm happy.

• Breakfasts all week: Bagels - I bought 2 dozen the other day since it was close to the same price as buying a 1/2 dozen. I could only fit 6 in my freezer so we still have a bunch to finish up.
• Lunch: Leftovers from dinners and I'm allowing myself (and husband) one free lunch out

• Monday: Pizza (the dough has been defrosting since Saturday so we need to use this up
• Tuesday: Shrimp & Broccoli Orzo
• Wednesday: Tacos or Nachos with leftover roasted chicken
• Thursday: Chicken (and whatever fish I can find in the freezer) Paella
• Friday: Stir Fry
• Saturday: Out to dinner with friends
• Sunday: Superbowl so I'll probably make a few appetizers to bring to a friend's house.

I also have a batch of olive oil bread in the fridge from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking that I'll make a loaf of whenever it seems like it would be good with dinner. It's a great book, I should do a review of it one day.

Let's hope I can actually stick to it this week!

Food Challenges?

Eating from the Pantry.

I've done it before because I tend to be a packrat when it comes to my pantry and food shopping. Last time I did it for 6 weeks without any food shopping. We picked up milk and fresh fruit once. Seeing as I'm the only one who drinks milk, it's much easier to go long periods without milk in this house.

The cabinets and pantry (and freezer...) are starting to get super full again. Well, they're overfull if I'm being totally honest. I was on the phone with my sister the other day and she told me she won't open my fridge or freezer because she is afraid stuff will fall out onto her. If that's not a wake up call, then I don't know what is.

So, I'm hunkering down. No more food shopping until March 1st at the earliest. I guess I'm officially/unofficially joining the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. This will be easy. Honestly, if there were some disaster that forced us to stay indoors (with electricity) for 8-10 weeks, we'd probably still be fine. Don't get me wrong the meals would get weirder and weirder, but we'd survive. Depending on what we decide to do for Valentine's Day, I may need to go food shopping for that but I might not have to. I need to make a list of all the random stuff that's hidden in the far corners of the kitchen so I know what to use up.

We also need to do much better about using up our leftovers. So maybe I should start the Food Waste Fridays that another of my favorite blogs does. We'll see how it all goes. I don't want to try too many things at once and overwhelm myself.

Eating from the pantry and eating all (or at least more) of our leftovers will definitely save money. I know this in my head.. it's just all putting it into practice that seems to be the hard part.