Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Crockpot 911



Okay. I need your help out there.

I feel uninspired in the kitchen. 

I'm all over the place in the rest of the house. For some reason, nesting is already beginning. I'm trying to figure out where to put this baby when he/she makes their debut. So this has lead to every single closet and piece of furniture (we have an old house without closets) untouched and organized. The days of closing the doors and forgetting the chaos inside exists are over.

But, the kitchen........oh, the kitchen. Its the most untouched room of my life right now. And if you know me or have been reading this blog, you know this girl loves to cook and loves food.......a little too much at times. 

I don't want Jason to have to lose his baby weight after this pregnancy is over also by being an innocent bystander of my drive-thru addiction. After the dinner we had tonight, things aren't looking so hot. Thanks Dairy Queen!

- Hunger Buster with cheese and fries
- Large Coke (I'm a big fat caffeine sinner when I pregnant. But, remember, I'm not drinking coffee)
- Deluxe Nachos (Jason and I split these for an appetizer. Doesn't everyone get an appetizer when eating fast food????)
- Banana Split Blizzard (YOU MUST TRY THIS. THESE WILL BE ADDED TO "THE LIST OF FAVS")

So, here is where you come in. I successfully cooked supper a few nights ago in a crock pot. It re-ignited my love for them. I put supper in at 2pm when I was feeling great and girls were asleep. When I started feeling icky when 5pm rolled around, supper was done. Amazing. I love that little round pot with the knobby.

I'm a fan of crock pots. The only problem I have with them is that most of the crock pot recipes are really really bad for you. I might as well eat from a drive-thru. Believe me, I can cook me some chicken spaghetti in the crock pot with the best of them. But, Velveeta isn't exactly great for you. Sorry if I just made some of you cry out there!

I'm on a mission to find healthy slow cooker meals. I'd love to know if any of you have any recipes that you love and want to share with me! Jason (aka.....The Food Nazi) will appreciate it. Don't be scared. I know we each have different things we've omitted from our particular diets. No worries there. Submit away. 

Maybe we can have the "World's First Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes Cookbook" and get rich off it together. That's a really long title. We'll have to shorten it, now won't we?

13 comments:

QuiltedSimple said...

I have a bunch of recipes - I'll email them to you this afternoon. And the great thing is - all of them are healthy (or mostly so). Do swiss steak for tonight (I got the recipe from Kellie at Sugar Creek Farm) it was so yummy with homemade mushroom soup over it for the sauce. Round steak, floured and fry long enough to brown, 1 1/2 c. milk, 3 Tbsp. Flour, salt, pepper and a can of mushrooms, dump over steak in crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours (or something similar to that - I forget:)). Noodles, green beans and you are done!

Have a good nausea free day!
Kris

Mommy, M.D. said...

hmm, mine aren't really so healthy either.

my favorite is french dip. put a chuck roast in there with a bottle of beer and a packet of onion soup mix (you could substitute real onions here i'm sure). that's it. shred and serve on toasted french rolls. the sauce it cooks in is fine, or you can boil it for awhile to reduce it.

or go to allrecipes.com and look for these: slow cooker chicken taco soup, slow cooker chicken tortilla soup, and bbq pork for sandwiches.

Rachel said...

I found this blog the other day and have been looking through some of her recipes. I like that she rates each one: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

(She used/is using the crockpot everyday for a year!)

When I was pregnant, I'd put the crockpot on the back porch so I wouldn't have to smell the food cooking all day. It helped my nausea and appetite a ton! You might have a problem with animals trying to get it, but they'd get burned trying, I think.

5 Chicks and a Farmer said...

Thanks Ladies! I've gotten some great ideas already. I'm inspired and making a grocery list! Hooray!

The website Rachel recommended below is great! You should check it out. I'm going to try some of her recipes this week.

I will be posting recipes as we try them and like them!

Keep them coming!

The Williams Family said...

Keep me posted on the healthy recipes that you find....I LOVE the crockpot but my boys food allergies do not allow me to cook very much b/c most recipes have some kind of cheese and cream of something soup. I'd love to have healthy good recipes that I could maybe alter for them.

Kendra said...

Lynsey -

I actually have a weight watchers crockpot cookbook. With each recipe is the point value for that meal. My mom gave it to me and I don't really pay attention to the points, but I would think that would be helpful if you wanted to make it super healthy. I'll see if I can type some up for you later.

Kendra

sugarcreekfarm said...

Ah, Rachel beat me to the punch. I love that Crockpot365 website!

Here's a few from my kitchen:

Kahula Pork + Lo Mein with the leftovers

Bean & Ham Soup

Vegetable Beef Stew

sugarcreekfarm said...

Oh, and the one that Kris mentioned is here:

Swiss steak

Carrie said...

You can always do the standard roast, potatoes, carrots, green beans etc. I also cook bean soup in mine and just keep it on low all day. 4 different kinds of beans, corn, 1 ib.beef (I think you might have some of this), little bit of rotel, and tomato juice (use as much as you want to make it nice a soupy).

My mom has some old fashion crok pot books. I'll flip through them and see what I can find. You can also put in a whole chicken and let it cook. it's less work for you.

Whitney Swanson said...

ok...im like you and try to eat as healthy as possible...
i love crockpot cooking, but never do it because im a college student cooking for one.
BUT, there is a really good website called fatfreevegan.com
and it has an entire crockpot recipe section. it is a very health conscious website written by a very healthy mother. you might wanna check it out!

the amys said...

The easiest roast beef recipe is to stuff the pot with a roast and fill it to the brim with potatoes, carrots,and onions if you like then add a packet of beef stew mix and 3-4 cups of water. Close the lid and cook on med or high until vegetables are tender. Wade absolutely loves this and thinks it's better than his mama's. Just please don't tell her. hehe.

Kyle said...

Oh, I found this great recipe for steel cut oats in the crockpot:

http://annkroeker.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/overnight-crockpot-steel-cut-oatmeal/

(I don't know how to do the link in comments. Sorry!)

Anyway, it took me like, 10 seconds to throw together and we woke up to hot oatmeal in the morning!

And you can do chicken breast, chicken broth, taco seasoning on low for 8 hours. Shred and do with as you like. We usually put ours in tortillas with all the fixins.

Be sure to post any good ones you try!

Unknown said...

There are some good real food crock-pot cookbooks out there now. I found one called "The Gourmet Slow Cooker". There is a volume one and two. As I recall, they called for whole food ingredients not processed food. Also one called "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" that might be worth a look. And, I have a cookbook called "Greatest Ever Slow Cooker Recipes" published by Hermes House. It's definitely of British origin so some of the ingredients are uncommon but easily substituted. The most processed ingredient I've come across has been treacle, in the desserts section. Some of the main course dishes I'm excited about: Carrot and Coriander Soup, Layered chicken and Mushroom Bake, Rabbit Casserole with Juniper, and Slow Cooked Okra with Tomatoes.