For Thurs. 4/2: Meatloaf

I doubled this recipe. It made a BIG loaf. I didn't make any changes, other than pre-mixing the topping and sticking it in a bag to go on top when it's done. Jeff will pre-slice before serving (into 12 pieces.) I am sending some garlic mashed potatoes (instant) to go with.

For Tue. 3/24: Beef Stew

Beef stew is a crockpot classic. I don't really use a recipe; I kind of make it the way my dad always did, modified for the crockpot. I split of a little less than 1/3 for our dinner tomorrow. Here's what I used (total, between the 2 crockpots):

-Trim the fat from and cut up a 4 1/3 lb. beef shoulder roast (pot roast meat is a lot cheaper than pre-cut stew meat, and cooks the same, and is often better quality. Look for something marked "pot roast.") You want about 1 1/2 inch chunks.

-In a Ziplock style bag (gallon size), toss about 1/2 cup flour with about 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 Tbsp. pepper (or to taste; can also use seasoned salt.)

-Toss beef chunks in flour. Then brown in a small amount of hot oil, just until the beef is beginning to take on some color. (Reserve the extra flour in the bag!)

-In the crockpot(s), toss 2 onions, diced, 6 large or 10 small potatoes, peeled and diced, about 45 baby carrots, halved, 3 stems celery, sliced, 2 medium-ish turnips, peeled and diced, 4-5 cloves garlic, minced, and about 3 Tbsp. rosemary, crushed between your fingers. (You want your dices pretty large, almost the size of the beef chunks, except the onions a little smaller.)

-Add the browned beef.

-In the bag with the flour, add 2 14 oz. cans beef broth, 2-3 Tbsp. gravy browning (this is important! Don't skip it, it gives a stew that "certain something") and about 1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce. Close bag and shake (and mush if necessary) until flour is all mixed in. Pour over stew ingredients. (If you're doing this on the stove you'd add some water, too.)

-Cover and cook low and slow until done-- about 8-10 hours on Low, usually.

I made biscuits to go with. Mmmmm. Stew and biscuits. I'm drooling already.

For Tue. 3/10: Pasta E Fagioli

I used this recipe (a recipe I didn't have to double! Wow!)

I added 2 cloves of garlic.

I subbed a dash of cayenne for the Tabasco.

As suggested by reviewers, I cooked the pasta (Bertolli Piccolini Mini Farfalle) separately and Jeff will add it in at the end.
I somehow managed to leave the store without buying the beef broth. And, I am somehow out of beef boullion (which I ALWAYS keep on hand, I don't know what happened, really.) So I flavored some water with 2 or 3 Tbsp. of Worchestershire sauce, to add color and meatiness. I doubt they'll notice. (I also decreased the water by about 2 ounces because I'm not putting the pasta in dry to soak up some of the liquid. The pot still ended up full to the VERY top. This is a HUGE recipe, folks.)

They'll eat that with some rolls we got. (And they'll like it. Or else. ;) No, just kidding, but I'm sure they'll like it.)

My first impression is that I could have done with half the beef. But we will see when it is cooked.

Friday 3/6: Meatball Subs

Ah, the meatball sub. I'm not sure whether to list it as Italian (it purports to be) or American (it actually is.) I guess I'll do both.

I doubled this recipe. Omitted the parmesan, like I said, I'm out. Used dried minced onions. Added breadcrumbs until the texture was right. Seasoned up the sauce with extra Italian seasoning (again, cheap brand.) Didn't brown them, just threw them in to cook for 8 or 9 hours. To be served with buns (not hot dog, good sub buns) and shredded mozzarella cheese (and a slotted spoon, for the meatballs, and a ladle, for the sauce.)

I anticipate that much as I am not a fan of meatball subs, the guys will adore it.

Tomorrow I am also having Jeff pass around a list of what they've had so far so they can vote for up to 4 favorites to be repeated.

Bonus Recipe: Black-Eyed Peas with Soup Bones

Soup bones were on clearance and black-eye peas take a lot of the same ingredients as pea soup so I decided to put some in our crockpot for our lunch or dinner tomorrow (no room in the fridge so it will just cook overnight.)

Here's what I did:

Put about 3 lbs. beef soup bones or pork or ham or other meaty bones in the crockpot.

Add 16 ounces dried black-eyed peas, rinsed.

Add 2 carrots, sliced (or equivalent baby carrots), 1/2 medium onion, diced, 2 stalks celery, sliced, 2 cloves garlic, minced, and black pepper to taste (I prefer to add salt at the end.) If desired, add chili or chipotle powder to taste. If desired, add 1 can diced tomatoes. (I didn't add either this time.)

Pour over about 1 1/2 quarts water, or more if needed (judge it by eye, remember you won't lose as much in the crockpot as on the stove.) Cook on Low until done, adding water and stirring as needed. Season with salt, remove bones, and stir before serving. Serve with rice or cornbread. Mmm.

Friday 2/27: Sloppy Joes

Oh, my, the guys are excited about this one. (I skipped the chicken, you may note. A client provided dinner Wed. so the employer provided dinner Thurs. instead.)

I used this recipe, doubled. (Yes, it says it serves 10, but this is Sloppy Joes we're talking about, and a bunch of guys mostly in their 20s. They love this stuff. I planned for 2 to 3 each. I sent 24 hamburger buns. Yeah. I don't know that there will be leftovers.)

I mostly followed the recipe but like another reviewer the mustard just seemed really strong. Also the texture was a bit too much meat, not enough sauce, and just not tomato-ey enough. (Okay, that's not a word but I used it anyway. Whatcha gonna do about it? :p ) So I added in (to the double recipe) about 10 ounces of canned tomato sauce. At that point it looked just right.

I hope there's a taste left for me, I've been jealously thinking of their dinner all day. ;) The recipe says this freezes well so it may be something I'll have to make ahead some time and freeze in individual or 2-4 person portions. (It's also a great meat-stretcher, in the tradition of Sloppy Joes. 2 dozen servings from 2.5 lbs. of meat? Not bad at all!)

Monday 2/23: Moussaka

I went with this recipe. Notes:

-Doubled it, of course. Made for a VERY full crockpot, but fit.

-Used no-salt-added canned tomatoes. I always do. The regular are so high in sodium, and it doesn't change the flavor.

-Used ground lamb, drained after browning.

-Used Italian seasoning instead of oregano because it's mostly oregano and I think I used mine up.

-She didn't say how to slice the eggplant so I quartered it, peeled, then sliced the long way. I sliced the onions in half rounds and then halved again to get quarter rounds. After seeing how much space they took up next time I might dice the onions (if there is a next time-- which there might be, since it smelled delicious.)

-I used green bell pepper since no color was specified. It seemed a bit bitter and with long cooking I didn't want it to get more so so to cut any possible bitterness I added about 1/2 Tbsp. honey.

-I put the Feta (I used reduced-fat tomato and basil, it was on sale and, well, reduced fat, you know I never use full-fat cheese if I can help it) on the top, just crumbled all over. I figured that would let it kind of melt down for a more traditional moussaka topping without going to the work that reviewer did of making a bechamel. I'm not a bechamel-in-the-crockpot kind of girl most of the time. ;)

It will cook about 8 hours on Low.

I am categorizing this under lamb, because that is what I used, but also under beef because it could easily use ground beef instead if you don't have access to/can't afford ground lamb. (She says you can also use turkey, feel free but I'm not going to categorize it under every possible substitution. If I substituted, I would do beef. ;) ) I was surprised to see, though, that ground lamb at Vons was actually not much more than ground beef and was fresh and looked very good.

Tuesday 2/3: Chili and Cornbread

I made my standard "crockpot chili." Sometimes I make it without beef, in which case it is "food storage chili" because it uses only ingredients I keep in my shelf-stable food storage. It makes a huge batch; believe it or not, I actually always make this much, because it freezes well or will feed us all for about 5 days if kept in the fridge, and it is so easy. And it's not expensive, so why not do the work once for quite a few meals? I make it pretty mild, you can add more chili powder or red pepper or hot sauce as you like to up the heat level if desired.

Drain and rinse (until the water runs pink is good enough; it's not like 3 bean salad where you want it to run clear so it won't stain the other food) 3 27 ounce cans kidney beans (dark or light makes no difference; can also use 1 no. 10 can, which is what I usually do, I get them at Smart and Final, or you can cook dried; you shouldn't use dried straight in the crockpot unless you adjust the liquid accordingly, which I don't have room for since I'm making a huge batch but on the stove it's completely feasable, or if you have a working pressure canner, which I don't right now, you can can your own dried beans to make it even cheaper.) Dump them in the crockpot.

Add 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes and 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (for soupier chili; for more stew-like chili use 1 28 oz. and 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes), undrained.

Add 1 lb.-ish browned and drained ground beef (I did 4 lbs. all at once the other night, might as well; used 1/2 of it for the Nogales Pie and then used 1/2 of what was left tonight; the other part will be Hamburger Helper or something later in the week.)

Add about 1/2 cup dried diced onions, 1/4 cup dark chili powder, 2 Tbsp. cumin, and a shot (about a Tbsp.) of Worchestershire sauce (I only use Lea & Perrins, I just think it tastes better.)

Mix (I just use my hands for this...)

It will cook on Low for at least 6 hours. Ideally it would be stirred once or twice in there, but if not, just stir before serving.

To go with I made a pan (in a disposable cake pan so it doesn't have to come home) of Marie Callender's just-add-water cornbread mix. Yes, I am that lazy. It tastes great and they won't care (or probably know) it's not from scratch. And it's a lot less work and less messy than "real" cornbread (no eggshells, etc.) and tastes just as good! Plus it's shelf-stable too, I keep it as part of my food storage. It's an easy, tasty way to make a complete protein with the beans if you're going vegetarian (though of course it's not vegan.)

Monday 2/2: Nogales Pie

I started with this recipe.

I made a few changes:

-used 2+ lbs. of beef
-used a whole (2 cup) package of shredded 2% (aka low-fat) Mexican blend cheese
-used 2 onions
-used 5 cloves garlic
-used 3 Tbsp. chili powder and 2 1/2 Tbsp. cumin; omitted oregano (forgot it...)
-used one can tomato sauce and 1 drained 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes (I forgot to double the amount of sauce I bought; it's not something I keep around)
-used 2 cans Ranch Style beans
-used 2 cans no salt added corn
-used 5 corn tortillas on each layer, and ripped into quarters instead of cutting into sixths
-used 2 4.8 ounce cans of sliced olives
-used 2 4 ounce cans of green chiles

Here's how I did the layers:

Tortillas

Half of beef mixture topped with about 1/3 of cheese

Tortillas

One can of beans, one can of corn, one can of olives

Tortillas

Rest of beef mixture, topped with 1/3 of cheese

Tortillas

Other can of beans, other can of corn, other can of olives, topped with rest of cheese


It just filled up my 6 qt. crockpot. It will cook for 5-7 hours on low.

I think it will be pretty mild; people will probably want to put some hot sauce on it.

The lady who posted the recipe calls it Mexican but it feels Tex-Mex to me (despite the lack of liquid smoke) so that's how I'm classifying it.

Friday 1/30: Cheesesteak Sandwiches

I looked around at several recipes but ended up kind of improvising based on the theme. Here's what I did (remember this is to make a HUGE amount, enough for 12 or more sandwiches:

-Sliced 2 onions in half-rings; dumped in crockpot.
-sliced 1 red, 1 1/2 yellow, and 2 green bell peppers into strips; dumped in crockpot.
-Using kitchen shears, cut almost 5 lbs. of beef loin flap meat (the stuff you use for fajitas; if you watch Good Eats and saw "Tender is the Loin", this is familiar territory) WITH the grain into pieces that were as wide as I wanted my strips long. Trimmed off excess fat and any silverskin that I found left on (because as Alton says, "That's definitely not good eats." Turned sideways and cut across the grain into thin strips. Dumped in crockpot.
-Seasoned with salt and fresh-ground pepper.
-Tossed (but left a lot of the onions on the bottom to carmelize.)

This will cook 6 hours on Low, then go to Warm until time to eat dinner, and be stirred just before serving.

It will be served with sliced French rolls and an assortment of cheeses (the traditional American slices, but also sliced mild Cheddar and sliced Provolone.) Each person will open a roll, put their desired cheese on, then top with meat/pepper/onion mixture, close it up and let the cheese melt while he makes his salad.

I kind of really hope there's some left over. ;)

Monday 1/26: Slow Cooker Lasagna

I started with this recipe. I made the following modifications:

-used whole-wheat lasagna noodles (and used the whole package)
-used part-skim ricotta and low-fat mozzarella
-used extra mozzarella
-added minced garlic to the beef before browning
-mixed the (undrained) mushrooms with the sauce instead of layering (I'm lazy that way)
-mixed Italian seasoning in with sauce instead of meat
-used a slightly smaller can of spaghetti sauce (that's what the store had.)

It will cook for 5 hours on low. We'll see how it works! I found the ricotta a bit hard to spread so I ended up putting globs all over and then spreading them out to just about cover, like frosting a cake. Emma washed her hands and helped sprinkle the cheese on.

Instead of breadsticks they're getting garlic bread. I got too lazy. Sorry. ;)

I also cut up veggies to go on their salads all week. This is starting to make me hungry...