Mom's Baked Beans

I realize this isn't really Paleo, nor is it the healthiest recipe I've ever made. But if you start these the night before, put a little extra water in the crock pot, and cook on low overnight, you have baked beans for/with breakfast! And it's so much nicer than opening a can. And yes, this is my mom's recipe. Ingredients: 1 1lb bag dry navy beans 1 cup water 1 cup ketchup 2 tsp dry mustard 2 Tbsp dark molasses 1 medium onion, chopped 1 large slice of bacon or about 2 Tbsp sliced salt pork a dash of salt and pepper Pour the dry beans into a large pot, sifting with your fingers a bit to check for dead or black ones. Cover with twice as much water and bring to a boil, then simmer on stove top for 25-30 minutes.

Turn burner off and let sit for at least 1 1/2 hours. Drain beans and add to crock pot, along with all other ingredients (slicing the strip of bacon into little chunks), mix well.

Cook on low at least 6 hours, or as long as you want (if overnight, add a little extra water before you go to bed).

Apple Pork Roast

It drives me crazy when someone has an apple or other kind of fruit tree in their yard and doesn't take advantage of it. So when we took our walk and saw a ton of freshly fallen apples under a HUGE apple tree just lying rotting in someone's yard, I filched as many as I could stuff under the stroller and walked away. The good news is, I'll be making apple sauce tomorrow.

Anyway I had this pork roast and figured what the hell, why not use some apples?

Ingredients:

2-3lb pork loin roast
1 tsp kosher/sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
dash of ginger
about 2 cups of chopped apples
1- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix the spices together in a small bowl.
Rinse off the pork roast under running water, then rub all over with the spice mix. Set in bottom center of large crock pot. Chop up the apples and spread all around the sides of the roast.

Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top of everything and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Easy Turkey Sloppy Joes

I combined and added ideas from other recipes to make this one my own. It was really easy to throw together.

Ingredients:

1 tsp vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey (frozen or thawed, doesn't really matter)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced (I was supposed to use green, but only had a red one)
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup prepared barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
multigrain/whole wheat hamburger buns

Drizzle oil into bottom of crock pot. Add turkey. Toss all other ingredients in on top of turkey (except for the buns) and cook on low 6-8 hours. About halfway through cook time, open the lid and stir everything together with a wooden spatula; this is essential if your turkey was put in as a frozen block of meat.

(Sorry but for some reason the photo uploader keeps turning my image sideways)
When it's time to eat, just put some of the mix on the buns and enjoy!

Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

So I've been using jarred spaghetti sauce for about 4-5 years now, and finally thought I'd try a cheaper way out. The baby is 15 months old now, can you believe it? So I am able to sit her in her play area and let her watch one of the Your Baby Can Read dvds while I prepare a meal. Since I just threw this one together in the crock pot, it took no time at all and will be very easy to throw together come dinnertime.

Ingredients:

1 14oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz can diced tomato (mine was flavored with olive oil and garlic)
1 pound ground meat (I used turkey this time)
1 can artichoke hearts or quarters
2 fresh scallions/green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
a few shakes of seasoned pepper and onion powder
1 Tbsp each fresh chopped sage and oregano
1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Throw all ingredients into the crock pot. Mix together if you can; my ground turkey was still partially frozen when I put it in so I'm going to have to stir it all together in a few hours once it's cooking. Cook in slow cooker on low for 6+ hours or until dinner, then serve over freshly cooked pasta of your choice.

Lamb Neckbone Stew Again

I took a few more photos of the process this time. This stew will serve about 6 people and is very thick and hearty. The original recipe can be found HERE. It takes about 25 minutes to prepare and I had all the vegetable ingredients at home (remember the sort of things I said you should always keep in your cupboard, like root vegetables and frozen peas and corn), and the Lamb was in a reduced meat bin so I got a little over 2 pounds for about $7. The baby was actually able to enjoy herself for quite awhile in her playpen, lying on her tummy and talking to her toys until after I was finished preparing this.
This is what I mean by "cubed" potatoes, cut into large chunks:

A good tip in case you are trying to really stretch out ingredients when you don't have enough of something (say you only have half an onion, or only 3 carrots when you need 4) is to chop them into smaller pieces. If you take less of something and make it looks smaller it ends up getting spread out more, so every bite of the finished product gets a little.


Remember, start this stew by 10am and cook it on low all day to make your house smell wonderful and eat a lovely dinner by 5 or 6pm. Goes great with crescent rolls.

Pork Loin Roast with Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Onions

Military folks get paid twice a month, and it's almost pay day. This means that my fridge and cabinets are almost empty of all the food I bought last paycheck (two weeks ago), so I'm doing pretty well for making it last two whole weeks. But that means that the pork roast I had thawing in the refrigerator for today had little left to accompany it. So this is totally an empty-out-the-cupboard meal. And I'm starting it a little late, having waited for the baby's 10:30am nap to get this ready. And now that you'll have my recipe, I can tell you it will probably only take about 20-25 minutes to prepare in your 7-quart slow cooker, and then you just play the Crock Pot waiting game.

Ingredients:

2-pound pork loin roast (cost me a little over $3)
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 apple, cored and cut into small chunks
1 whole sweet onion, sliced lengthwise and broken up
2-3 shallots, sliced lengthwise into strips
1/2 cup water
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Rinse meat off and place flat side down in bottom of Crock Pot. Sprinkle next 6 ingredients (herbs/spices) over the meat in whatever order you like, rubbing into meat.

Toss in onions, potatoes, shallots and apple, mixed up altogether. You can do this in layers as it may be easier to spice that way. Pour in 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle seasoned salt on all layers of vegetables, then sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg, trying to get most of the last two on just the sweet potatoes and apples. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Makes about 4-6 servings.

The pork ended up tasting a little bit dry, but not bad. If you have time, I recommend salting the pork a half hour before you set it in the crock pot to cook.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Crock Pot dinner made super easy, and cheap! Except around St. Patrick's Day, when corned beef is at a premium, you can usually find a good hunk of the stuff at your grocery store for a decent price. I picked up a 3-pound prepared corned beef brisket for a little over $8, and the veggie accompaniments were all together only a couple bucks more. Definitely use at least a 7-quart Crock pot for this one though, as there are a lot of things to pile in.

Ingredients:

2-4 lb. corned beef brisket
3-4 red potatoes, cubed
4-5 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 large sweet onion, sliced
whole small green cabbage
seasoned salt and ground black pepper

Rinse off the beef and place fat side down in bottom of Crock Pot. Open seasoning packet (which comes with every package of corned beef) and sprinkle over meat.

Arrange carrots, potatoes, and onions around the meat, letting extras spill over on top of meat. Sprinkle vegetables with a few shakes of seasoned salt and pepper. Add 3/4 cup of water, poured down the side so as not to disturb the spices.

Cut up cabbage into large chunks and arrange to cover all. Sprinkle with a little more seasoned salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low 6-10 hours (all day). Makes about 6 servings.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Today's dinner is brought to you by the "I haven't been shopping in so long that this is all that's left in my refrigerator" club.
Thankfully, I started putting this together so early in the morning that I didn't even disturb the baby's normal 8am nap.

Ingredients:

2-3 pound round rump roast (beef)
3 fat carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 large red potatoes, cubed/chopped into large chunks
1 sm-med sweet onion, sliced vertically into strips
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp dry parsley
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp seasoned salt

Set meat into Crock Pot fat side down. Surround with chopped vegetables. Pour in the water. Sprinkle first 6 spices over top of meat, shake the rest over all meat and vegetables. Cook on low 6-8 hours.