Hot & Sour Soup

This one was kind of fun because I had no clue where to find half the ingredients at Publix. Thank you whoever invented the shopping carts with kids seats and steering wheels! Had it not been for Aedyn's ability to drive, this shopping trip could have been a nightmare, because heaven forbid I ask for help finding anything! This is definitely a "to taste" recipe, so I'm giving points to start from and then an approximation of what I did.

Ingredients:
Serves: 6 if served as main dish, more if accompanied by stir-fry or something else.

- 1lb firm tofu, cubed
- 2 cups broth (beef, chicken, or veggie)
- 2 cups water
- 1 package fresh sliced mushrooms (canned or jarred would probably be ok too)
- 1 can bamboo shoots, drained
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce 
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 3 Tbsp rice vinegar (add more later) I used 3.5 -4 Tbsp
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (add more later) I used 1/2 tbsp
- 1 tsp garlic salt (add more later) This I wasn't sure about so I just added it to my own bowl and told Jake he would need to add it to his as well.
- 1 bag fried egg noodles


Directions:
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 4 - 9 hours

1. Combine everything in 4qt crockpot
2. Cook on Low for 7-9 hours or on High for 4-5 hours.
3. Taste about half way through and then shortly before you serve. Add more rice vinegar for more "sour", more pepper for "hot", more garlic salt for "something missing"
4. Serve with fried egg noodles as garnish. 
 

Original recipe at A Year of Slow Cooking

Gringo Pozole Verde

Not to bad for a non-authentic recipe. Actually closer to what I remember than alot of the pozoles that restaurants claim are authentic. So a keeper until I find a better one!

Ingredients:
Serves: 6
- 4 - 6 pork steaks, sprinkled with salt and pepper
- 2 14.5oz cans of hominy (do NOT drain)
- 1 sm onion, chopped
- 2 cans diced mild green chiles
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- cayenne pepper to taste, or allow everyone to season their own bowl
- shredded cabbage
- sliced radishes
- key lime slices




Directions:
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 6-8 hours 

1. Combine hominy, chile,  and onion in crock pot, lay steaks on top, pour broth over everything.
2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. Use a spoon to beak up the steaks, they should shred very easily.
4. Serve with cabbage, radishes, lime, and pepper on the side. Cabbage and radish can serve as garnish or to thicken up the soup, pepper to taste, and squeeze a fresh lime over everything! 

Chicken Cordon Bleu (Soup?)

Well...it tasted good, but definitely didn't turn out the way it should've. I found a recipe for Crock-Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu. Yum! Well...I altered it a little, but I don't think the alteration was my main problem. I used bacon instead of ham; not sure exactly what was going on in my brain that made me think that a recipe that calls for covering the meat in soup would yield crispy bacon wrapped around chicken breasts, but yeah, somehow that's what I was thinking when I put it all together this morning. I think my biggest issue was letting it cook too long. It was on low for about 7 hours, the chicken was so tender that is was falling apart, no staying wrapped with the bacon and cheese. I used the appropriate amounts of soup and milk, but I think it was really too much for the style crock pot I have. Or maybe this just isn't a good recipe for a deep, round six qt...maybe an oval, shallower 6 qt is necessary. Anyway, it tastes good, it's just more of a shredded chicken in creamy, cheesy, bacon soup than your tradition cordon bleu.

Here's how I made it...if you have any ideas on how to fix it (besides not letting it cook so long) feel free to share!

Ingredients:
Serves: 8
- 8 Chicken Breast pounded flat, or chicken breast filets(these are already thinner, so you can guess which one I went for)
- 1 lb Provalone slices
- 1 lb bacon (or ham slices)
- 2 cans cream of chicken and mushroom soup (or cream of whatever)
- 4 Tbsp heavy cream ( or any type of cream or milk)

Directions:
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 3-5 hours on Low; 6-8 on High

1. Spray Crockpot with cooking spray or oil
2. Lay out 1 or 2 slices of bacon or ham, stack on chicken and 2 slices of cheese. Roll up.
3. Place rolled meat in the crockpot seam down, stagger the layers
4. Pour in soup and cream/milk
5. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours; High for 3-5...until Chicken is cooked through.

6. Enjoy! I served it with mashed potatoes and green beans. :)

Pot Roast Ribs

Thanks, Elizabeth, for the seed recipe that led to this experiment! The original recipe called for BBQ sauce, but as my 2 year old currently refuses to eat anything remotely BBQ flavored I decided to take some artistic license. I wasn't really sure what this would end up being or how it would turn out; really thought I had royally messed it up about an hour before it was done. But it was great, the meat was so tender it was falling apart and the carrots were perfect, the broccoli was also falling apart, might have done better if it had been fresh? It tasted like a really good, jiucy pot roast, just wish i had tossed some potatoes in with it.

Learning experience: Ready Rice (cooks in the microwave in 90sec, no need to add water) yeah, not worth the 4 minutes saved...although Aedyn seemed to like it well enough.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4-6
 - 3lbs Boneless Country Style Ribs
- 1 bottle Steak & Chop Marinade (or other marinade, or BBQ sauce)
- 1lb fresh carrots (chopped, baby, or however you like them
- 1/2 family bag of frozen broccoli ( I wanted to throw another veggie in and that's what happened to be in the freezer *shrug*) or another type of veggie or 1 large potato chopped
- 2 cups water

Directions:
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 4-5 hours

1. Place ribs in the pot.
2. Add entire bottle of marinade, moving the meat around a little to make sure it's coated.
3. Add veggies.
4. Add water.
5. Cook on high for 4-5 hours.
6. Serve as is or over brown or white rice. It'd probably be good with mashed potatoes too...

Crockpot Pot Pie

This was incredibly simple and tasted pretty good. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it's another good comfort food. I used Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough for the top, but I think it would have been better if I'd used Bisquick or another biscuit dough. It also needed some salt and pepper, but there was no harm done by allowing each person to season their own. I let it cook on low for 5.5 hours and then turned it up to high for 1 hour. I also used beef stew meat...told you I was lazy, it was something I could pick up from the store already chopped up!

Ingredients:
Serves: 6

Filling --
- 3 Chicken thighs or breasts chopped up, or 1.5 lbs boneless pork chops, or 1.5lbs beef stew meat
- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 large baking potato, chopped up
- 1 sm jar sliced mushrooms
- 2 cans of cream of mushroom and garlic soup (any cream of____ will work)
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp majoram
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 4 Tbsp heavy cream (or any type of cream or milk)

Topping --
- 2 1/4 cups Bisquick Mix
- 2/3 cup milk


Directions:
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 3-7 hours
 
My 6-qt crockpot had plenty of room for more, I probably could've gotten away with using the 4-qt, but better safe than sorry the first time :)

1. Spray crockpot with cooking spray, or grease with butter or shortening (whatever you've got on hand to keep it from sticking.
2. Dump everything for the filling into crockpot.
3. Stir until all veggies and meat are mixed well into the soup.
4. Make biscuit dough and lay on top of filling.
5. Cover and cook on high for 3-5 hours or high for 6-7 hours. You want the biscuit in the center to be firm/start to get crunchy.

If alot of condensation starts to build up on the lid then prop the lid open a little (vent)with a wooden spoon or chopstick.

Original recipe at A Year of Slow Cooking.

Slow Cook 16 Bean Soup w/ Sausage

I stumbled across this recipe and coincidentally happened to have the 16 Bean soup mix on hand. It was great and even better on day 2! I served it with toasted whole grain bread.

Ingredients:
Serves: 8
- 16 Bean Soup Mix
- 1/2 large sweet onion - chopped
- 2- 3 cloves of garlic - chopped
- 1 lb sausage or kielbasa - sliced
- seasoning from the soup mix, or use onion soup mix, or your favorite spices
- water

Directions:
Prep time: 10min
Total time: 8 - 10 hours

1. Throw it all in a 6qt crockpot
2. Fill up crockpot with water until about 2" from the top.
3. Cook on low all day.
4. Eat it. :) 


Original recipe at A Year of Slow Cooking