Another oatmeal recipe! I really like cooking steel cut oats in the crockpot. It’s nice to wake up to breakfast ready to go and using the water bath method, you don’t have to worry about the oats getting overcooked or burned.  Not to mention it gets you a few breakfasts! This is very similar to the pumpkin slow cooker oats and is a version of the Yummy Life’s oats.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of steel cut oats (not the rolled oats)
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (you could just do water or regular milk for a bit of creaminess)
• 2 cups of water
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 2 medium apples, peeled and chopped. I used Pink Ladies. You want a firmer apple like a good pie apple.
• 40 grams of dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• pinch of salt

Again this is using the water bath method. This means using a casserole dish that fits inside your slow cooker. I used a wad of tinfoil to raise the casserole dish off of the bottom of the crockpot just a bit.  Spray the casserole dish with cooking spray and add all the ingredients to it. Stir. Then put in the crockpot. Carefully fill the space between the slow cooker and casserole dish with water until it comes up about halfway up the sides of the casserole dish. Not too high or it can bubble and spill into your dish.

Cover, set on low and let it cook overnight. I have let this go for as long as a bit over 8 hours and it has been fine. The water bath keeps you from having to worry about it.

Now, the apples will have floated to the top. Just give everything a good stir and serve!

I topped mine with a few toasted pecans and some maple cream. Yum!

This makes 4 good sized serving (1 cup+)

Nutrition: Calories:  210; fat 6 grams, carbs 40 grams, fiber 6 grams, protein 6 grams.

I love the slow cooker oats. The steel cut have such a nice texture to them. The oats are easy to reheat. Just add a a couple tablespoons of water to a serving and heat in the microwave for a minute, stir really well to break up lumps and heat again until hot, maybe another minute and a half or two.

It’s fall and that means time for soups and warm meals!  I made this soup on Monday to get us through the next couple days.

This is a super, super easy recipe.  I used this recipe as the basis, but had to cut the ingredients down because the original wouldn’t fit in my 6-quart crockpot. I don’t remember if I posted this before, but if I did it has been a long time.

Ingredients:

• 3 pound  potatoes with skin, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 an onion diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 8 ounces of frozen kernel corn
• 4 cups of vegetable broth
• 8 ounces of milk (I used 2%)
• salt and pepper to taste

This was a weird weather weekend, wasn’t it?  From bitter cold to warm and rainy.  Of course, lot of rain on top of a foot of snow and there is nowhere for the rain to go. What a mess.  It looked like pea soup in the afternoon on Saturday, too.

I had company for my Sunday bagel. My momma joined me after she got out of church.

Since it is going to be so busy for me for next few days, I wanted to prep some food. I made some crock pot soup. Always a good choice for busy times, right? Based on this recipe.

Creamed Chicken and Corn Soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (a package of 6 is usually about 1.5 pounds)
• 23 ounce can, aka the big one, of condensed chicken soup -(or  2 batches of homemade as per below)
• 1 can (14 oz) of creamed corn
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 2 cups of chicken or veggie broth

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on high for 5 hours. Break the chicken thighs into small pieces with a spatula (they should just fall apart) and serve.  If you want to use chicken breasts instead of thighs, put them in frozen so they don’t get dried out.

This is really good.  I guess that’s a good thing since I will eating this all week! The chicken thighs work really well in this recipe.

Nutritional info:  These stats reflect using the condensed soup recipe below and not canned, so your mileage may vary.  Based on 6 servings of soup, approximately 1-3/4 cups: 

Calories 358,  Fat 17 grams, Carbs 26 grams, Protein 26 grams, Fiber 2 grams.

Generally I don’t care for condensed soups and never have them on hand.  I came across a recipe on Pinterest and decided to make my own for a recipe at Christmas.  It worked, so I used it again here.

Homemade condensed soup base

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup low-fat or fat free milk
• salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour.

Whisk for a few minutes to cook out the flour taste. Then gradually whisk in the broth.  I don’t add the milk yet because adding cold milk can lead to lumps.  Once you whisk in the broth and it is smooth, whisk in the milk.

Then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly,  for a couple minutes until very thick – like this: 

Voila – This equals 1 can of condensed soup. You can do this with any flavors you want, too. (Please note this pan is a double batch since that is what I needed for the above recipe)

Here’s hoping the Broncos win the game today!  I did up my Broncos manicure:

I used the head of a flat pin to make the dots of polish.  Worked pretty well, too.

Now I’m eating this soup and watching the game. Come on Broncos!

I know – you are all What?? Butter chicken?  However, this recipe contains no butter at all 😀  There often is butter in this dish, but there are also plenty of versions that leave it out.  It really is a very rich dish, which is cut by using lite coconut milk and nonfat greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. I based mine on this recipe.

I took all pictures with my phone today, too, just for fun.

Ingredients (minus the chicken):

Haha – excuse the Mickey cup! It gets hand washed instead of being putting in the dishwasher, and it was there drying. Oopsie. Just keepin’ it real.  😳

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 pounds)
• 1 tbsp curry paste (make sure this is Indian and not Thai)
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1  can lite coconut milk
• 1 cup plain yogurt (make sure it does not have gelatin in it)
• 1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste
• 1 tsp of salt

Easy peasy directions:

Cut the chicken into bite-size chunks.  Add to slow cooker and then add everything else on top.  Stir well.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. I was a little concerned about adding the yogurt at the start, but the recipe said to do that.

Now, when it is done, it will look like the yogurt has separated, but just mix it up.  I suppose you could always leave the yogurt until the end and stir it in, but it tasted good to me.  If you do this on the stove top, I would leave it until the last step. In fact, I might just try stirring in the yogurt at the end even with the slow cooker to see if I can get it a little creamier.

Voila – served with rice.

I really liked this! I think the key to this dish is the cardamom. It’s a wonderful spice and smells like chai. I would wear it as a perfume if I could.  It’s worth picking up for this dish. If you don’t have it, you can try using an extra teaspoon of the garam masala, which has some cardamom in it, but it won’t taste quite the same.

I also did not put any cayenne in it for John, but next time I think I will add some. It’s also surprisingly filling.

Nutritional stats: The whole batch is 1311 calories, 60 grams of carbs, 59 grams of fat, 154 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  So, divided into 6 portions, it would be about 220 calories.  That will depend a bit on which coconut milk you use, so please note. The Thai lite has about 50 calories per serving versus 140 for regular coconut milk.

Okay, this is not technically a jambalaya, but it still tastes really good.  It’s almost like a stew that you add rice to.

I found the base of this recipe here at Taste of Home and made changes.

A note on the sausage. Do NOT use an Italian sausage for this.  If you don’t have andouille, then sub a kielbasa for it (use a turkey one for lower fat).  These come from a regional sausage maker and are quite tasty (and spicy).

Ingredients:

• One 15 ounce can of chicken broth.
• One 6 oz can of tomato paste
• One 15 oz can of diced tomatoes (with the juice)
• 3 ribs of celery, diced
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon of cajun seasoning
• 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (or less if you prefer – I used more!)
• 8 ounces of andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
• 16 ounces of chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces
• Hot cooked rice for serving

Bite size pieces:

In the crock pot (I have a 6 quart, but 4 would also work), add everything up to the meat into the slow cooker and stir well.  Then add in the meat. 

Here is the cajun seasoning we used. 

One of John’s customers sent him this (she makes it).

Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.  During the last 20 minutes of cook time, start the rice.

Here is the bowl to which I added a 1/2 cup of rice.

The leftovers were awesome, too!  Reheated and it looks more like traditional jambalaya! 

Laughing because I used the same bowl on both days to eat this, washed of course…  You could certainly eat this as is without the rice as sort of a stew.  It’s nice and spicy, too!

Nutrition:  This made 5 large servings for us.  Dividing the entire batch by 5 (between 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 cups) and you get:

210 calories, 7 grams of fat, 26 grams of protein, 8 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber.  Of course, your mileage will vary depending on the sausage that you use.

Add 100 calories per serving if you add 1/2 cup of cooked rice. 

This will be made again!

You know what I love on stressful work days? Leftovers!  They are just so easy. Also, it helps when the leftovers taste even better the second day!

I have been pinning slow cooker recipes lately.  Or really, I have just been pinning a whole lot of stuff and recipes happen to be some of them.  😳

Anyhoo, this recipe caught my eye and I made it up yesterday. Originally from The Comfort of Cooking, but I changed up some of the proportions.  The only thing we bought for this recipe was sesame seeds.  Everything else was in the fridge or freezer! Yay!

Slow Cooker Sesame Honey Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds of boneless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup diced onion (frozen diced for us)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon oil (toasted sesame would be awesome!)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• sesame seeds
• Hot cooked rice for serving

I have a 4 quart crock pot.  If you have a bigger crockpot, you may want to go ahead and double this recipe for better cooking.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker.

In a small bowl, mix together the onion, garlic, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil and red paper flakes.   Pour over the chicken.

Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 3.5 to 4 hours.  Remove the chicken to a plate.  In a small dish, mix the cold water and cornstarch.  Add to the slow cooker and turn to high and cook for 5 or 10 minutes until slightly thickened.  Alternatively, you could pour the remaining sauce into a microwave safe dish, add the cornstarch slurry and cook for about 2 minutes in the microwave – if you are in a hurry 😀

While the sauce is thickening, use 2 forks and shred the chicken.  Add the chicken back to the sauce and heat through.

Serve over hot rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Yummers!!!  This was even better today, too.

I have found that chicken in the slow cooker does better with shorter cooking times than other meats.  I don’t know how this would work if starting with frozen chicken breasts and cooking for 8 hours.  Maybe that would work without drying the chicken out?  Anyway, I made this Sunday afternoon and we feasted on it again on Monday.

Servings – Approximately 6  servings.

Nutritional stats (chicken only, no rice or sesame seeds)

Calories:  286

Fat: 5 grams

Carbs: 42 grams

Protein: 24 grams

So if you add 1/2 cup of rice, this would be about a 400 calorie dinner.  Bulk it up with some veggies, too, if you want!

I feel like we are just waiting around here to see what happens with the storm. Being far enough upstate to feel less effects, but not knowing exactly how much we will feel it.  It’s scary seeing all the footage of down state. I think the worst part will be the days of wind since the storm will turn back east as it comes north – so we will have winds through Thursday or Friday at least.  When it is windy, it is really hard to sleep – do you all find that?

Anyway, today it has been breezy and a bit gusty at times.  The power flickered off, which makes me wonder if we will keep power tomorrow or not.  I can’t work with no power, even if the company that I work for has a generator – we do not.

While we are waiting for the storm to pass through, how about I post the recipe for the Corn and Potato Chowder?  My version is based a lot on this one.  This ends up being my 3rd crock pot recipe for the month, even though this was not going to be the planned one.  I wanted something easy to serve for the pumpkin carving party yesterday and this fit the bill!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound 12 ounces of russet potatoes diced (the most time consuming part of this recipe)
• 1/2 an onion diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 16 ounces of frozen kernel corn
• 3 cups of vegetable broth
• 5 ounces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 4 ounces of half and half
• 2 ounces of low fat milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Today’s pink picture. One of my favorite t-shirts!  I have heard you can get wrinkles out of clothes if you iron them, whatever that means! 

Okay – here is recipe #1 that I tried this month for the crockpot.  I am making and posting 3 no matter what the result.  😀

I found this recipe for cinnamon chicken on The Gracious Pantry.

I modified it by halving it, first off, and  using sweet potatoes instead of carrots, and I left out the cardamom because I didn’t feel like peeling and grinding the pods.  I was in a hurry on my lunch break!  The nice thing about this recipe is that it doesn’t require too many ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 10 ounce sweet potato
• 1 pound of chicken breasts (that was 2 from this package)
• 8 ounces of canned tomato sauce (plain – I just used what we had)
• 7 ounces light coconut milk (half a can)
• 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Slice the sweet potato pretty thinly into disks or half moons about 1/4 inch?

Layer those in the bottom of the crockpot.  Then place the chicken breasts on top of that.

In a bowl, mix together the tomato sauce, coconut milk and spices:

Pour over the chicken:

Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.

Lori’s Notes:  Ours had cooked about 5 hours and we were hungry, but the sweet potatoes weren’t quite done, so I recommend going for 6 hours.  I took out the chicken breasts to shred them and John took out the sweet potato slices and microwaved them for a few minutes to finish cooking.  Then it went back in the crock pot to mix.

This was an interesting flavor.  Just like with Indian food, you don’t notice the tomato sauce like you do with Italian cooking.   It tastes totally different. I happen to like the cinnamon flavor in savory dishes (hello koftas!!!), but John isn’t that fond of it.  I will say that this dish needs some salt added to it before cooking.  It was missing that.

The next day, I actually had the chicken and sauce over rice and it was better the next day as the flavors really melded.

I have a small crockpot (4.5 to 5 quart?).  If you have a big one, you may want to go ahead and double the recipe.

I am not sure I would make this again.  John said he would eat it again, but it wasn’t his favorite.  It’s easy, though – big plus!

This is one of the easiest recipes to date!  I am enjoying finding crockpot recipes and tweaking them a bit.

Now the color of this dish doesn’t look so appealing, but it is tasty!

Tender, fall apart chicken thighs with a sweety and salty sauce with tart pineapple.

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 4 oz each)
• 1/2 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (1 large clove)
• 2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger
• 1 cup of sliced pineapple (fresh or canned/drained).
• 2 teaspoons or cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water