Crack Pot, er Crock Pot Tips

It's nice to come home from work and have hot home cooked meal all ready to eat. Crock pots allows you to slow cook your food for many hours and not have to worry about it. There are many cuts of beef that require long slow cooking to be tender. These tend to be cheaper (in some cases much cheaper) cuts of meat because they take so long to cook to be tender enough to eat. But, who has the time nowadays to cook all day?  That's where a crock pot comes in handy.

Briskets are commonly made into corned beef. Rump roast or 7 bone roast can be made into pot roast. You can use cheap beef stew meat to make of course beef stew but you can also make it into Beef Stroganoff. You can use a large dutch oven in the oven or a large pot on the stove at a low temperature, but with either of these you need to keep checking on them to make sure the liquid does not totally evaporate and burn your food. I really can not stress enough to not leave the pot even on simmer or a stove on  and leave the house or fall asleep (I did this once smoke filled the house and the fire department was called I was taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation and totally burned the pan). You always want to take your meat and brown it on the stove before putting in the crock pot. This sears the outside so it stays moist on the inside. It also makes caramelized juices that give your dishes that really good flavor.

Beef Stroganoff
Take two pounds of beef stew meat, 1 onion diced,  1 can of mushrooms, fry in 2 tables spoons of oil. Season with a teaspoon of salt, pepper and dried mustard. when the onions are soft and carmelized and the meat is browned  add in 1/2 cup of cheap wine or cooking sherry. Add in a can of beef stock. Scrap the bottom of the pan and pour into crock pot. Let cook on low all day. Mix in a can of mushroom soup with two tablespoons of flour throughly mixed in. Cook on high for 15 minutes string constantly add in a cup of sour cream.and serve over  a package cooked egg noodles. Add some cooked frozen broccoli to the side.
Feeds 6-8 for $10.00


Pot Roast
Take a rump roast or 7 bone roast put in pot with a teaspoon of salt, pepper, garlic, paprika and diced onions. Cook until roast is browned on all sides. Add a can of beef broth and scrap the bottom of pan. Pour into crock pot. Put on low setting all day. Add diced carrots and quartered potatoes 30 minutes before serving and cook on high. When ready to serve cut up meat place back in broth serve using slotted spoon.
Feeds 6 for $8.00 

The Same Old Chicken Again

At the beginning of the month, I found family portions (meaning they only come in these 10 pound packages) of chicken quarters for 79 cents a pound.  I bought 10 pounds of it and portioned it out in freezer bags. My family is getting so sick of chicken they're ready to start screaming and running around like a chicken. So, I have to come up with something different.

Here are a two chicken recipes to make with all that chicken. Remember to always rinse your chicken and pat dry so the seasoning sticks to the chicken. With chicken quarters you either need to separate the thighs and legs or cook the chicken longer to make sure they're cooked through at the joints.

Ginger Garlic Honey Chicken

Place dried chicken in a casserole dish. Sprinkle liberally with about a teaspoon of salt and pepper. Make a paste with 2 tablespoons of honey a teaspoon of garlic powder two table spoons of ginger (use less ginger if your family doesn't care much for the taste). The meat will have a nice ginger taste all the way through while the outside has a slight sweet taste to it. Spread paste over chicken. Cover chicken with aluminum foil for the first 45 minutes of cooking. This will allow the chicken to cook and not burn the honey. Cook for an hour or until no blood comes out when you cut into the joint. I'd make some Curry rice with peas to go with it to add an Indian touch.
Feeds 4 for $5

Chicken and Dumplings

In a large dutch oven or a pan that can go on the stove and in the oven. Fill 3 quarters full with water. Add a tablespoon of salt, pepper, sage, and onion powder or diced onions. Boil until chicken easily falls from bone or about 45 minutes. Remove chicken from stock, de-bone, and put chicken back in stock. Put in frozen or canned peas, corn, green beans, and or carrots. Cook for 10 minutes. While cooking in a bowl mix up a cup of Bisquick(TM) or a cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add in 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine and 1/2 cup of milk. Spoon in to boiling soup mixture. Place in oven for 10-15 minutes until top of is golden brown.
Feeds 8 for $5.00

Oops, I Forgot

Its one of those days when I forgot, like many of you to take something out for dinner. Uh oh, what do I do now? I have a couple of quick pasta back-ups. I buy a large quantity of cheese tortellini and portion it out into freezer bags. I can either put the tortellini in hot boiling water for 10 minutes, or I can use spaghetti noodles. Sometimes I will substitute penne pasta. I make either a Poor Man's Alfredo Sauce or a tomato-based sauce.

Poor Man's Alfredo Sauce

Take 2 tablespoon of oil or butter heat at a low temperature adding teaspoon of salt, pepper, and garlic. Add two tablespoons of powder parmesan cheese, heat until the cheese  starts to looks melted. Add in a can of mushroom soup and a 1/2 cup of milk, mix until a creamy consistency. Add in half a cup of shredded cheese of any kind, stir until melted into the sauce. You can also add leftover chicken and or peas.

Tomato Spaghetti Sauce
Sauté 2 tablespoons of oil or butter or margarine with a teaspoon of salt, pepper, onion power, and garlic. Add a tablespoon of oregano, chives, Bay leaf, and basil. Sautéing helps to pull out the flavor of the dried herbs. Simmer on low for five minutes. You can add chopped onions, mushrooms, or even carrots or zucchini, depending on your likes. Sauté for another five minutes or until the vegetables are soft.  Add tomato sauce and/or any form of tomatoes (fresh, whole, diced, paste, etc.). Simmer on medium to low heat until it's time to serve it. The longer it simmers, the better it will taste. Serve over any variety of pasta , top with any kind of cheese, sprinkle with parsley.

Add a salad and garlic bread for a quick meal that feeds six.

It's Chili Outside

No, it's chili inside. There is nothing like a hot bowl of chili on a cold snowy winter night. This a hearty dish that can warm you up and put a sweat on your brow. It  can be made very inexpensively while feeding a lot of people. The first question is who is your audience, is it a bunch of small kids or is  it big burly men with cast iron stomachs?

You can buy lots of dried bean such as white, black, red kidney, and pinto beans. They are really cheap, you can purchase a 2 lb bag for a little over a dollar and it can sit on the shelf for years. In a large pot throw in 2 cups of any combination of beans, kidney beans and pinto beans are the best but the other kinds add a variety. Let them soak for 8-24 hours. If you need to you can put them in a pot and boil on simmer for 2 hours to speed up the softening proses. Tip: do not add salt to the water. Once you do that you have ended the softening proses. It causes them to get a "coat" on them and stops the inside from cooking. This is good when you add them to the chili so you can continue to cook the chili  giving it a better flavor and not making the beans so soft they are mushy. If your really short on time have some canned beans around. there about a $1.50 a can. They are a little more expensive but  it doesn't take all the effort.You will need at least three cans of any combination.

You can make it  vegan in which case skip this step. Now for semi-vegetarian or with meat style, take ground  chicken, turkey, pork, beef. or you can use fine cubed beef. Add teaspoon of salt, garlic (powder or cloves), and pepper, fry and drain. Put aside.

Place cut up chilli's (if you want it spicy), diced onion, tablespoon each of Chili powder, Paprika,  and Cayenne pepper. Fry until onions and chillies are soft add back in the meat. Add diced tomatoes, and two large cans of tomato sauce. Add in beans. Cook for 30 minuets or as long as you want, the longer the better. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream. Feeds 10 for $7.00.

Michey's Surprise

Why is it a surprise? Because it's the end of the month, the day before payday when money is tight. We have no idea what we are going to eat. It's a surprise as to what is in dinner. It usually consist of whatever leftover meat is in the refrigerator from a previous meal. It could be chicken, pork or leftover hamburger meat. It could even be left over taco meat or bar-b-que beef. It almost always is made with Raumen noodles because they're cheap you can find them for 10 cents a package especially if you buy in bulk. While the noodles are boiling in water I use half the seasoning package in the water the other I mix in with the meat  as I am reheating. Then I spice it  up to taste. You could add chili powder or coriander, salt, pepper, or onion powder. It really depends on how spicy you want it. Then add vegetables. Surprise, they can again be anything. They can be frozen peas, green beens  and/or corn.  You can add canned vegetables, even canned carrots. Whatever vegetables you might have in the refrigerator draw you want to get rid of, the more the merrier. Mix the noodles in and serve. Its not the best meal, but it covers the food groups and it will fill you up.

I was lucky this month I had a few dollars left over, so, I went to the store to see what I could find. I headed for the discount meat and chicken section. For $5 I found a 6lbs. roaster chicken. So I headed over to the discount stale bread to find a loaf of something to make stuffing. I was in luck I found a bag of stuffing for $1.65.

I took the chicken rinsed it inside and out, let it sit to dry. You can make stuffing following package instructions or In a large pot heat two table spoons of oil. Poor in a table spoon of sage, rosemary, and thyme.  Add a teaspoon of onion powder, garlic, salt, pepper, and celery seed.  Stir till herbs have soaked up some of the oil. Poor in 1 can of chicken stock, add  2 cups  of  bread cubes (packaged or a loaf of stale bread cut up). Put in refrigerator to cool. In the chicken cavity pour tablespoon of salt, pepper, sage, rosemary and thyme. Rub around the inside of cavity. Squish in Stuffing into cavity. Put left over stuffing in casserole pan and put in the over the last 15 minutes of cooking.  Evenly salt, pepper and garlic outside of chicken. Place chicken in oven at 375 for 1 and 1/2 hours. Add a green frozen or canned vegetable. Make gravy by using dripping from pan and half of milk and a teaspoon salt, and pepper each. Mix with a fork or whisk a tablespoon of flour heat on low string constantly till thicken.  Feeds 6 for $7.50