Spicy French Dip Sandwiches

I hear it all the time in the blog world: "I wish I could use my slow cooker more often, it is so convenient!"  But often, bloggers don't like the "cream of..." soups that go with a lot of slow cooker meals.  When I saw this recipe on Cooking With Christen, I knew it had potential.  I stuck with the original recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking because I loved how simple it was - Beef, Peperoncinis... that's it!  After the recipe finished up and I gave it a quick taste test, I also added about a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce to spice it up to our tastes.  This was a good recipe, but if I make it again, it will be for a crowd, as it was way too much food for just the two of us, and I can't eat that much beef anyway because I get a "stomach full of anger" (thank you Tour de France racer Andy Schleck for that awesome and totally unrelated to digestion quote!).



Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches (from A Year of Slow Cooking via Cooking with Christen)
2 lbs Beef Chuck Roast
1 16 oz jar whole peperoncini peppers
1 tsp Tabasco Sauce
6 Slices cheese (mozzarella, swiss, or provolone as shown here)
12 slices toasted bread or 6 toasted sandwich rolls

Place beef and entire contents of pepper jar into 4-6 quart slow cooker.  Cook all day (8+ hours) on low setting.  Add Tabasco if needed.  Shred meat with 2 forks.  Dish onto bread and top with cheese.  If cheese needs help melting, place open sandwich in toaster oven on broil for about 30 seconds. 

Ribs that my Husband Will Eat

My husband used to make fun of me all the time for my picky eating habits. I admit, when he first met me 13 years ago, I was pretty funny about food. I would rule out entire huge cuisine groups as foods I didn't like ("I don't like Mexican food" & "I don't like Chinese food" were a couple of his favorites, especially when he found out I hadn't had any Chinese food before). Obviously, that isn't a problem anymore. I daresay I am MUCH more adventurous that my husband when it comes to food. One of his quirks is that he doesn't much enjoy eating anything that involves bones. Chicken must be boneless. Pork Chops - boneless. And much to my chagrin (yay, Twilight readers!), he does not like ribs at all. Not only do the bones bother him, he is also not a fan of traditional barbeque sauce. But hooray! I finally found boneless country style ribs at the store right around the 4th of July and knew I was all set to research a sauce recipe that would not be sickeningly sweet so that my husband and I could enjoy ribs over the 4th weekend. I decided to go with Scott's Savory Barbeque Sauce on Allrecipes because I pretty much had all the ingredients and it also looked like the sauce was not too sugary and so would work pretty well with my planned slow cooker method of cooking. These turned out really good, and while they weren't true ribs in the traditional sense, I was happy to satisfy a bit of my rib cravings with a recipe I could cook at home and my husband could eat. These were definitely healthier than what I would have gotten at the local barbeque place, so that's a definite added bonus!

Scott's Savory Barbeque Sauce (from Allrecipes, but scaled WAY down!)

1 cup apple cider vinegar

5 oz ketchup

1 Tbs Paprika

1/4 pound dark brown sugar

1 Tbs Salt

3/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbs Worchestershire Sauce

2 Tbs lemon juice

Mix all well, store up to one month in fridge, or pour over 1.5 lbs boneless country style rib meat in slow cooker. Cook on low 8-9 hours.

Hot soup on a rainy day: Burrito Soup

Most people have heard, the weather here in California has been nasty. A tornado touched down about a block from our apartment. We live in Santa Barbara, people. Seriously, a tornado? And this was the first of several that happened last week. Bad weather calls for soup, but I have a hard time making soup for dinner unless it is really hearty. Thankfully, this soup from Elly Says Opa fit the bill perfectly. It really is everything that you would find in a burrito, but in soup form. I loved that I could mix up the different types of chili powders I had, as the complexity of the spices worked out great. Both the husband and I took soup leftovers into work this week, and the guys at the bike shop were incredibly jealous. One guy swore he was going to stop by and pick up a crockpot for his fiance on the way home! The husband really liked this soup, but kept insisting that it was really chili in disguise, which I guess is a good sign that it was hearty enough to count as a meal for him! For my Midwestern family members reading this - make this, but I would use half as much chili powder for your spiciness tastes!

Crockpot Burrito Soup (from Elly Says Opa)

2 tsp. canola oil

1 large onion, diced (mine was more of a medium onion)

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

5 cups beef broth

2 Tbsp chili powder (I used 1 Tbs regular, 1/2 Tbs Chipotle and 1/2 Tbs Ancho Chili powders)

1 Tbsp. cumin

2 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

2/3 cup corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup uncooked rice (or, cook rice separately)

Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and add oil. Cook the onions for a couple minutes before adding the beef. Brown the beef with the onion and drain if necessary. Put back on the heat and stir in the garlic, just until fragrant. Pour the beef mixture into the crockpot and then add the tomato sauce, beef broth, spices, corn and black beans. Cook on low for 8 hours. Increase temp to high and add the rice, just until cooked. Alternatively you can put the cooked rice in bowls and ladle the soup over it. Garnish with your favorite toppings (I used shredded cheddar, light sour cream and sliced avocado, yum!). This made about 8 servings.
Nutritional Information Per Serving (with 93% lean beef): Calories: 302 / Fat: 7.5g / Carbs: 33.5g / Fiber: 6.3g / Protein: 26g

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Happy New Year! Wow, it was a very busy holiday season for me, so as you can tell, I've gotten behind on blog posts. Thankfully, I have a bunch of recipes that I've been saving up with all my holiday baking as well as a few savory dishes, like this one. Unfortunately, this Pot Roast didn't turn out the way I remember it usually coming out. My cut of meat seemed fine in the package, but after I removed it from the package, it was revealed that my 3 lbs of roast actually had about 1.5 lbs of fat on the back side that was well marbled and I couldn't cut it off. Cooking beef in the crock pot can do wonders for a bad cut of meat, so I thought it would still be okay, but this was just ridiculously fatty. I think in the future, I'm going to go with a rump roast or another slightly leaner cut of beef instead of the chuck roast I used. This is such a great recipe (I've made it plenty of times), I'm not letting one bad experience turn me off!

Awesome Slow Cooker Roast (From Allrecipes)

2 10.75oz cans of cream of mushroom soup (I used 1 can Cream of Celery)

1 package dry onion soup mix (You can use half the package, I used it all)

1 1/4 cups water (I used beef stock)

5 1/2 lbs pot roast (Mine was about 3)

I added about a cup of baby carrots and 2 large white potatoes

In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

Crockpot Pepper Steak

One thing I have tried to do with this blog is to write about all the fabulous dishes that I've been trying, but also to be honest and blog about the not so great dishes, too. This dish would fall into the "not so great" pool. I think the main problem is that the meat used in this dish (sirloin) was so lean that it just got tough in the crock pot instead of the usual crockpot beef fare, which is tender and juicy. It was also lacking in a bold flavor and was awfully bland (if I hadn't added the A-1 Sauce, it would have been inedible). I look forward to making this dish again, but using the standard stir fry method. So here is a recipe that I wouldn't recommend!

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak (from allrecipes)

2 pounds beef sirloin, cut into 2 inch strips
garlic powder to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cube beef bouillon
1/4 cup hot water (I used a 1/4 cup of beef stock instead of bouillon/water)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 large green bell peppers, roughly chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt

I added: About 2 Tbs A-1 Steak Sauce
Sprinkle strips of sirloin with garlic powder to taste. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil and brown the seasoned beef strips. Transfer to a slow cooker. Stir in onion, stewed tomatoes, soy sauce, sugar, and salt.
Cover, and cook on High for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

After 8 hours, turn crockpot to high (or simmer, if your crockpot has that function). Add bell peppers, A-1 sauce and mixture of beef stock (or bouillon mixture) & cornstarch to crockpot and stir well to combine. Cook for another hour. Serve over rice or noodles.

Slow Cooker Ranch Pork Chops

I have mentioned before that my husband has an aversion to pork. He does enjoy pork in shredded pork tacos, and as long as the pork is cooked to done, but not too tough, he seems to do okay. So I thought that this recipe from Erica's Cooking Adventures would be great, since most everything cooked in the slow cooker comes out tender and cooked through just fine. I was so shocked when these chops came out pink after 8 hours of cooking. I ate them and thought they were tasty, but I don't mind pork that is a little pink. The husband was freaking out just watching me eat these. He ate the mashed potatoes and gravy. No pork. I might try these again and cook for 10 hours, or maybe try with chicken breast, but in the meantime, I'll continue to look for a good slow cooker recipe for pork.



Slow Cooker Ranch Pork Chops
4-5 pork chops (I used 4 medium thick boneless chops)
4-8 ou cream cheese (I used 4 oz low fat)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet Ranch dressing mix
4 T butter (I used 2 T butter, 2 T I can't Believe It's Not Butter Stick)
Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl and microwave for 1-2 minutes, until butter is melted and cream cheese is softened.Remove from microwave and mix in the cream of chicken and Ranch packet. Place the pork chops in the crockpot and pour the cream cheese mixture over top. Cook on high 5-6 or low 7-8 hours

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Tonight was another gym night, so I got this salsa chicken recipe going in the crockpot. It is based on a recipe from Sparkrecipes, which is a great free site that helps to calculate nutrition info. and share healthy recipes with others. The first time we tried this recipe, we didn't really like the taco seasoning flavor, so I decided to make my own. I also prefer cream of celery over cream of mushroom, and I love beans in crockpot dishes, so I came up with my own version below. Served over white rice, this hit the spot tonight, especially for my poor husband, who was so busy he didn't eat much lunch today and then went to the gym with me.


Crockpot Salsa Chicken
2 Chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1 Jar of salsa
1 can reduced fat cream of celery soup
1 can black beans
Mix of Paprika, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder and pepper
2 cups hot cooked rice

Coat chicken in your spice mixture to your tastes. Place into crockpot with salsa, cream of celery soup and black beans. Stir gently, cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with hot rice. Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition Info for entire meal: Calories: 339.2, Fat: 2.6g (.9 Sat, .8 Poly, .6 Mono), Carbs: 60.6g, Fiber: 7.7g

Billy Beans

This is a historic recipe in my family, which came to us via my step-brother-in-law's college roommate, Billy (that is probably the longest source for a recipe ever). My family has made it vegetarian, but it tastes great with browned ground beef or turkey added in as well, for those of you meatatarians out there. A traditional "Guest Dinner" in my childhood was Billy Beans, rice and grilled tri-tip (a specialty out here in Central CA), but just the beans and rice are a very filling meal. It is ridiculously simple and cheap to prepare.

Billy Beans

2 16 oz jars of your favorite salsa (we use Ortega, one mild, one medium)

2 15 oz cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

(this ratio makes about 6 servings, but can be adjusted as needed)

Put the above ingredients into a crockpot and mix well. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with hot rice and top with cheddar cheese, if desired. Also good served over a baked potato.

Nutrition Info for Billy Beans: Calories: 195, Fat: .4g (.1 Sat, .3 Poly, 0 Mono), Carbs: 36.1 g, Fiber: 10.1 g