CrockPot Beef Stroganoff

OK, I swear I know how to cook without my slow cooker. I'm just on a little kick right now. :)

When I told Patrick I was making beef stroganoff for dinner, he made a horrible face and declared that he didn't like beef stroganoff. Apparently they serve it practically every other day on the carrier, so he was not thrilled with the idea. But, within 5 minutes of turning on the CrockPot, my house smelled AMAZING and then P was suddenly counting down the minutes until dinner was ready. We both really enjoyed this meal and I plan making it again and again.

And in case you were wondering, P said my beef stroganoff is much better than the stuff they serve on the carrier. I don't think I'm going to take that as much of a compliment. ;)

I found this recipe for CrockPot Beef Stroganoff and after reading TONS of reviews, I modified the original recipe and came up with this.

CrockPot Beef Stroganoff

1-2 pounds steak, cubed (I used sirloin that I got at a great price)

2 cans GOLDEN cream of mushroom soup

1 packet of dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup beef broth

1/2 onion (I used white)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning (We LOVE this stuff!)

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

4 ounces cream cheese 

Salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything but the cream cheese into the CrockPot. Cook on low for 6 hours.

20 minutes before serving, add cream cheese to pot. Stir until melted and blended well.

Seriously, could this recipe be any easier?!

Well, that doesn't look very appetizing! Haha! I promise it is though!

I served it over extra wide egg noodles, with green beans on the side.

I modified my pulled pork recipe a little after making it again this weekend for a party we had, so be sure to check that out!

Low Fat Chicken Tequila Fettucini

I found a recipe for California Pizza Kitchen's Chicken Tequila Fettucini stuffed away in my recipe box a few days ago and I almost threw it out when I saw that it called for butter and heavy cream. It just sounded way too fatty for us, since we typically try to eat only low fat foods. But, I decided to make it anyway and see if I could modify it to be a low fat recipe. Success! This was packed with flavor and spice!

Low Fat Chicken Tequila Fettucini

1 16 ounce package of dry spinach fettucini

1/3 cup chopped cilantro (I cheated and used frozen cilantro cubes)

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

2 jalapenos, minced (you can use less jalapeno and remove the seeds to cut down on spice)

3 tablespoons Can't Believe It's Not Butter Fat Free Spread

approximately 1 1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock

approximately 1/3 cup tequila

approximately 1/3 cup lime juice

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 pound chicken breasts, cubed

1/2 red onion

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1/4 cup asiago cheese

In a small bowl, mix chicken, soy sauce, 3 tablespoons tequila and 3 tablespoons lime juice. Marinate in the fridge for about an hour.

Saute 2 tablespoons butter, cilantro, garlic and jalapeno for about 5 minutes. I included the seeds from one, for extra spice.

Add chicken stock, remaining tequila, and remaining lime juice. Add additional stock, tequila, and lime juice as you see fit. I added more of each because I wanted more sauce.

Bring mixture to boil and thicken sauce for about 5 minutes.

In another pan, saute onions, peppers and 1 tablespoon of butter until cooked through, but be sure to not overcook them. A little crunch in the peppers is really nice in this recipe.

Add chicken and marinade, mix well.

Add sauce from other pan, bring to a gentle boil until chicken is cooked through.

Add asiago cheese and stir until well blended.

Prepare pasta as directed.

Add pasta to the chicken and veggie mixture.

Squeeze some fresh lime juice in at the last minute, for a little more flavor.

Isn't the green pasta fun?

Serve and top with your favorite cheese. I used asiago, again.

Whew! This stuff was spicy, just like we like it! I've never had the CPK version of this dish, so I can't really compare my recipe to theirs, but this was definitely delicious without the fatty butter and heavy cream! I want to try this recipe again soon and add some more veggies. Maybe some artichoke hearts? Any other suggestions?

Laurel's CrockPot Chicken with Garbanzo Beans

Since I created this blog, my sweet friends have sent me a bunch of delicious recipes to try out! I started with Laurel's middle eastern chicken recipe, since I was intrigued by the idea of middle eastern food in the CrockPot. Thanks so much for this great recipe, Laurel!

Laurel's CrockPot Chicken with Garbanzo Beans

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 large chicken breasts

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 small zucchini, quartered lenghtwise and sliced into 1/2" slices

1 12 oz container cherry tomatoes

1 cup chopped cilantro

Plain yogurt - two 12 oz. containers (I used fat free yogurt)

Mix olive oil, garlic, paprika, cumin, and red pepper flakes.

Coat chicken with oil mixture and throw in crock pot.

Add remaining ingredients plus any additional marinade.

Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours.

I love how the paprika gave this dish a beautiful red color.

I served this with sun-dried tomato couscous, some plain yogurt to cut down the spice and I fried up some falafel.

Laurel said she typically doubles everything, especially the marinade, so I might try that when I make this again. This time I followed the recipe exactly and it was great! Try it, you'll like it! :)

C/Kara's Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies

When Kara stayed with me for a few months last year while our guys were deployed, we had a great time acting like little Martha Stewart's in my kitchen. Kara volunteered at the USO while she was here, so we often baked stuff for her to take into the office and we also fed my handman neighbor pretty routinely, since he was always fixing stuff around the house. But when it came to these cookies, we would bake them with the intention of sending them to the USO or giving them out to the neighbors, and then we would "accidentally" eat all three dozen cookies.

Oops.

We created this recipe because, as strange as it sounds, I really don't like chocolate. I know, I know, crazy. So, these chocolate free cookies quickly turned into my favorite treat.

C/Kara's Brown Sugar Toffee Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 8 ounce bag of Heath Bits o' Brickle toffee bits (Make sure you don't get the chocolate covered toffee bits. The recipe doesn't turn out nearly as well using those.)

(No pictures of this recipe, since these cookies are just too dangerous to have in the house.)

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt, then set aside.

Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.

Add eggs, beat well.

Gradually add flour mixture, while beating the mixture.

Gradually add toffee bits, until fully mixed into the dough.

Drop teaspoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.

Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack.

These cookies are extra delicious when they are crunchy, so I prefer baking them for the full 11 minutes.

Enjoy!

And don't feel obligated to share. ;)

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork and Homemade Mac & Cheese

Stop whatever you are doing, right this instant.

And go make this.

Seriously, it is that good.

I found two recipes for pulled pork last week, here and here, and then sort of combined the two to into what turned out to be a super yummy recipe. We ended up eating dinner at 5:30 the night I made this because the delicious smell made us SO hungry!

CrockPot BBQ Pulled Pork

4 pounds pork shoulder (ours was bone in, but you could use boneless)
1 white onion, sliced in rings

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup worcestershire
1 tbsp ground mustard
1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

5 splashes of Tabasco sauce
Dash red pepper flakes (we like things spicy, so I used about a teaspoon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by adding everything but the meat and onions to the CrockPot. Thoroughly whisk together.

Add meat to CrockPot and turn it a few times, to coat each side with the sauce. Then throw the onions into the CrockPot as well.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

When cooked through, place meat onto a cutting board to shred. The meat is so tender that it will literally fall apart when you touch it. Discard any bones and fat (or give them to the dog - made Shiner's day!). After the meat is shredded, place it back into the pot and cook it for another 30 minutes or so, just so that it can soak up a little more juice.

Be warned that this makes A LOT of food! We've eaten pulled pork 4 times already and there is still a ton left.

That face means that my recipe was a success. :)

I also used all of these ingredients (minus the pork and onion) and bottled up my own BBQ sauce! I added about the same amount of everything that the recipe called for and then just played with the ingredients until I liked the way it tasted. SO GOOD!

I served the pulled pork with some mac and cheese I whipped up from ingredients we had laying around the house.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

2 cups elbow noodles (we were out, so we had flower shaped macaroni. Ha!)
2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
3 tbsp butter (I used fat free Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp ground mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Cook pasta as directed.

In a saucepan, sauté onion and garlic in 1 tbsp butter until golden.

Add spices, milk, sour cream, and 1 3/4 cup cheese to saucepan. Mix until creamy and cheese is melted.

Add pasta and mix well.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with Pam. Add pasta and sauce.

Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese and 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs on top.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

The final product! Also served with potato bread and baked beans. Not the healthiest meal out there, but it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.

Basil Pasta

We are HUGE pasta lovers in this house and since I have an abundance of delicious basil, I jumped at the chance to make basil pasta! A few months ago I ate some of Tiffany's delicious homemade pasta and I've been dying to make some ever since!

Start out with these 4 ingredients, plus a little water. Who knew pasta was so simple?! Not me! I doubled the original recipe to make 4 servings, so that we can get two different meals out of one batch of dough.

Basil Pasta

1-1/2 cups chopped fresh basil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup water

Finely chop the basil in a food processor.

Add the flour and pulse just until combined. I had to scrape the basil off of the side of the food processor a few times.

Add the eggs, olive oil and water. Mix until dough forms into a ball.

Place dough on a piece of plastic wrap that has been sprayed with Pam, wrap it up, and throw it in the fridge for an hour.

Divide the dough into about 10 equal pieces and roll them out seperatly, instead of trying to roll the whole dough ball at once. So glad the original recipe included this step, or else I would have had a mess on my hands.

Be sure to coat the surface you are rolling your dough out on with flour, as well as your rolling pin. Unless have a fancy pasta maker. ;) I don't own a pasta maker (yet, hehe), but it was fun to make it all by hand!

Cut the pasta into strips or whatever shapes you want! I made linguini (some were more like fettucini) and pizza cutter did just the trick!

Allow the noodles to dry for at least an hour. I dried mine for about an hour and a half.


Throw into some boiling water, cook for about 5 minutes, drain, and serve.

I just mixed the pasta with some olive oil and italian seasoning and then topped it with asiago cheese. The flavor of the pasta is so fantastic that I didn't want to hide it behind a heavy sauce.

I served it with herb roasted chicken and cherry tomatoes.

This pasta was seriously yummy and I highly recommend it! I think Patrick cleaned is plate in about 10 seconds last night!

Now that I know how to make pasta, I'm thinking of all sorts of fun dishes to prepare! Tomorrow night I'm going to attempt to make ravioli with the left over dough, so wish me luck! :)

CrockPot Stuffed Steak

Welcome to my cooking blog! I'm always trying out new recipes and then forgetting how I made things or where I found the recipe, so I figured this would be a good way for me to keep some of my favorites all in one place!

I'd love to hear some of YOUR favorite recipes! Please feel free to leave recipe ideas in the comments section!

Since I've gone back to school, I've become majorly obsessed with my CrockPot! Nothing beats throwing some stuff into the pot, leaving for a few hours, and then coming home to your house smelling DELICIOUS and having dinner almost ready! So convenient!

I found this recipe for CrockPot Stuffed Steak HERE a few days ago and I just had to try it! I was a little nervous about cooking steak in the CrockPot because I was afraid it would be dry, but I could not have been more wrong! This steak literally fell apart and was SO moist!

I served it with steamed red potatoes and salad with balsamic dressing.

The original recipe called for flank steak, but Wally World no longer carries that, so I just grabbed some round steak. Cheap (like $5 for 4 steaks!) and it turned out great!

CrockPot Stuffed Steak:

1 lb steak (I used 4 round steaks)

1 green apple, chopped with skin on

1/3 cup almonds, chopped

1/2 cup feta cheese (I used fat free feta)

2 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup soy sauce (I will use low sodium soy sauce next time b/c it was just a little too salty)

Marinate steak in soy sauce and honey mixture for at least 5 hours. Or, throw it in the fridge to marinate overnight for some serious flavor!

Mix apple, almonds, feta, and garlic in a small bowl.

Place the steaks and juice mixture into the CrockPot.

Scoop about 2 tbsp of apple mixture onto each steak, roll up the steak and place seam side down. There will be extra mixture, so just save it for later.

Cook on low for about 6 hours, or the original recipe says you can cook it on high for 4 hours.

After cooking, place steak on a plate and then dump more of the apple mixture on top of each one.

This recipe is seriously delicious and SO easy! I think I will make it next time we have people over, so that I can pretend to be domestic! :)

Let me know if you guys make this!