Crock pot ideas/Recipie

[ehirsch83]

Thank you ladies for this thread!
I always thought of crockpots as thick, unhealthy, cornstarchy mushs.. My Ex's mom used to make horrendous concoctions in hers!!

But all of the recipes here inspired me, showing how healthy and yummy one can cook in a crock pot! I received a Macy's gift card for Christmas and today I was in Macy's looking for things to spend it on and I saw that the kitchen appliances(like everything else in the store!!) was on sale. I opted to buy the 5qt crockpot and I can not wait to test it out Sunday.

I go to work and don't get home until 7 most nights, if not 8:30 if I go to the gym after work and by the time I get hom the SO and I are just soo tired. I feel that the CrockPot is just what we need! Put it together in the AM and have it ready when we get home.

Thank you again to all of you wonderful women here on TE for sharing these great recipes and inspiring me to try something that I once had a negative conotation towards.

[surgtech1956]

Lisa, do you peel the apples? Thanks

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thank you ladies for this thread!
I always thought of crockpots as thick, unhealthy, cornstarchy mushs.. My Ex's mom used to make horrendous concoctions in hers!!

With crockpots you reap what you sow. If you load it with canned cream of mush soup and canned peas and canned spinach (like the recipes of the 1960-70's often called for)...then you get those famous crocpot 'mush casseroles". My favorite crock recipes are actually from new vegetarian crockpot books, even though I'm not a vegetarian. I like them because they emphasize fresh produce and concentrate on keeping the textures and tastes nice and distinct.

Lisa, do you peel the apples? Thanks

Yes, but I use one of those marvelous little old fashioned gizmo machines you suction-cup onto your counter and stick the apple on and turn a crank by hand while it rotates, peels and cores the apple in about 10 seconds. They still make them! It's one of those kind of great old machine inventions you have to really admire, sort of like a bicycle.

[Kelly728]

Just noticed that link Flash posted. Awesome! I'm finding I have to dig through for something that isn't too unhealthy and heavy but, I've found a few to put on my "to do" list.

[crazycanuck]

I ventured to Myer this afternoon & picked up a slow cooker/crock pot thing plus a mini waffle maker

I look forward to using both & will keep an eye on this thread. I'd like to make my dear even happier with coolio new dishes

[badger]

I'm going to resurrect this thread because I need to use my crock pot more.

I'm not a big soup person, and there's only so much beans I can eat so I really like tulip's use of the crock pot to make lasagne. I never thought of it, and considering they sell no-cook noodles now, it's so brilliantly simple.

Someone way back put a recipe with peanut butter. I recently made a pumpkin stew with peanut butter and it was so delish! I used all kinds of mix-n-match vegetables in the fridge along with left over summer squash, water with some bouillon, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter, couple tablespoons of tomato paste and voila, a few hours later a lovely stew. At least it's thick so it doesn't feel like a soup to me.

Oh, and I'm also baking up a storm lately with bread, and made some nice buns.

Anyone here ever make bread without yeast, as in culture it with wild yeast from the air? Takes a while to do (a couple weeks?)

[tulip]

You can use regular noodles. No need to pay extra for no-cook noodles. In fact, you can use regular noodles, uncooked, for regular oven-baked lasagne, too.

The only thing that I have found is that if I leave my crockpot on high for the whole time, it gets a little burned on the bottom. I haven't made it in a while, but next time I will start it on high for 3 hours and then set it to low for the final 3 hours (or however long it takes, I go by how bubbly it gets).

[WindingRoad]

Tulip I'm going to try that out tomorrow. Is there any trick to getting hard noodles to fit in a round crockpot?