Something Out of Nothing

Day 118.

Today's the last day of my grocery cycle. It's the bare bones day. It's the day when we're often eating weird food combinations that would normally go untouched. It's the wipe-out-the-fridge day. It's the "Mom, there's nothing to eat," day.

Except it's not.

I came up with an amazing meal that I wouldn't have ever considered. It's has its quirks, because we've run out of many ingredients. You can avoid my quirks and still make this dish wonderfully, but I'm writing these recipes exactly as I created them.

Tomorrow, Picky Eater gets two crowns and Bayberry gets braces. Prayers, good thoughts, and input are all very much welcome.

Oh, and what do you think of my photographs? Major improvement since I began this blog, no? I've started playing with Picnik. I love it!

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs in Red Wine-Garlic-Tomato Sauce

What You Need:

• a rack of ribs
• mayonnaise
• sea salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups red wine
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 15 oz can Rotel tomatoes and green chilis
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• cooked pasta
• fresh parsley, chopped

How it's Done:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Spread ribs with mayonnaise. Sear in a hot pan on both sides. Move to slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Deglaze skillet with1/2 cup red wine. Add onions and garlic and cook and stir 2 minutes. Add remaining wine and all tomatoes. Pour this sauce over the ribs.
4. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours.
5. Remove ribs from slow cooker and remove meat from bones. Return meat to the slow cooker and let it sit in the sauce until your pasta is cooked and ready to serve.
6. Plate meat sauce over pasta and top with chopped parsley.

On the side, I served this lovely fruit crisp, because I had ONE apple and ONE cup of frozen raspberries.

Individual FAT-FREE Apple-Raspberry Crisps
makes 2 servings

What You Need:

• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1 cup frozen (or fresh) raspberries
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup

How it's Done:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two small baking dishes with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Divide apple and raspberries between dishes. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
3. Combine cinnamon, oats, and maple syrup in a small bowl. Divide over the top of the two dishes.
4. Bake for 35 minutes. Serve hot.

For more slow cooker meal ideas, visist Dining with Debbie.

Give Your Slow Cooker a Chance to Impress You

Day 69.

Do you use a slow cooker?

Do you use a slow cooker for anything other than a hunk of meat and some hardy vegetables?

I love my two slow cookers, and long for two more. I'd like to have one large slow cooker that's company presentable. My two slow cookers are food stained and old, chipped and yellowed with age, but work perfectly. I'd also like to have one of those tiny slow cookers that are perfect for a small side dish or appetizer.

When my husband was in Egypt on his first overseas mission, I mailed him a Lil Dipper, some Velveeta, a can of Rotel, a can opener, a plastic mixing bowl, a spoon, and a brown bag of Mission tortilla chips. It was his favorite care package. See? Slow cookers can bring happiness. :o)

Your slow cooker is a wonderland of cooking capability. You can use it to make almost anything. You can make a main dish: soup, stew, pot roast, of course, pot pie, casserole, beans. You can also use it to make breakfast for you while you sleep, and dessert while you go about your day. Your slow cooker can even be used as a room freshener, to make your house smell lovely.

For now, let's tackle something many people find challenging: dried beans.

I remember when I was 20 years old, and my husband was 21, far too young to have a toddler, but we did. We qualified for WIC back then, and they would allow me to purchase certain food items: ready-to-eat cereal, milk, Juicy Juice, cheese, eggs, and dried beans. I would always give those beans away. I didn't know how to cook them and didn't care to try. Dried beans? Ick! Probably they tasted as bad as dried milk! No, thank you! I'll pass. I told you I was too young.

I don't remember when I decided to give dried beans a chance, but I'm so glad I did. I still use canned beans frequently, because they're so quick. Relatively speaking, canned beans are economical, too, at under $1 per can. However, I can generate three to four cans' worth of beans with one pound of dried beans. Dried pinto beans cost me 99 cents per pound. If I buy them in bulk in the produce department, they cost me even less.

For me, saving money is my full-time job. I can save 66% or more by purchasing dried beans. The energy used to cook them is negligible in the big picture. They're boiled for ten minutes, then slow cooked all day. Slow Cookers are very energy efficient.

If you haven't tried dried beans yet, I encourage you to do so soon. Here's the simplest recipe I know.

Slow Cooker Pinto Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dried pinto beans, sorted and rinsed
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• at serving time only: salt and pepper to taste, optional hot sauce, cheese, taco sauce, or sour cream

How it's Done:

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.
2. Pick through the beans. Sometimes the machinery used to harvest them also harvests small pebbles. Remove any funny-looking beans that are cracked, broken, shriveled up, or otherwise unappealing. Rinse the good beans in a collander.
3. Put the beans in a pot. When the kettle of water is boiling, pour it over the beans. Bring the beans to a boil on high heat. Boil at a full, rolling boil for ten minutes.
4. Pour beans and boiling water into the crock of a large slow cooker.
5. IF YOU WILL BE GONE ALL DAY, add the onion and garlic now. IF YOU WILL BE HOME, add the onion and garlic in FOUR HOURS. Cover and cook on low all day long. The beans will take from 8 to 10 hours to cook, so get them started first thing in the morning.

I recommend serving your beans with a side of rice. It's said that beans and rice together form a perfect protein. Here's a delicious side dish to go along with your beans and rice:

Slow Cooker Triple Cornbread
(yes, you can bake bread in your slow cooker)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 11 oz can of corn
• 14 3/4 oz can of creamed corn
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/4 cup finely minced onion
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 Tbsp baking powder

How it's Done:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. Grease the crock of a large slow cooker.
3. Pour batter into crock. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours, then uncover, turn off the heat, and let it sit for 15 minutes before removing from the crock. You should be able to flip the crock over onto a plate and the whole loaf should slide right out without any trouble.

For more slow cooker recipes, visit Dining with Debbie each Wednesday.

Hands-Free Cooking

Day 62.

It's soccer practice day. Have you ever seen a bunch of 5 & 6 year-olds playing soccer? It's really amusing, because all they do is run in a big herd around the field, trying to get a kick in. They all have a blast, learn a few skills, and get some physical activity in the process.

I love using my slow cooker to free up my Rush Hour time. I call it "Hands-Free Cooking" since my trusty Crock Pots (I have 2) do all the cooking for me. Rush Hour, at my house, is the period of time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.: It's the time when all the papers come out of the backpacks, dinner is cooking and being served, lunches are being made for the next day, laundry is being sorted and put away, clothes are being ironed and prepared for the next day, money is being doled out for the latest PTO fundraiser, permission slips are being signed, pets are being fed... Get the idea? I know many of you have your own Rush Hours. What do you do to streamline things at your house? Here are a few hints from me:

1. Unpack lunch boxes, clean them out, and make them right away. 4:00 comes and I'm wiping out the boxes and packing lunches. It only takes 5 minutes and it's done. I like being able to check things off my To Do List.
2. Have a Landing Pad. Backpacks go there. Fill out all forms, dole out money, pack backpacks, et cetera at that one spot and no place else. This cuts down on lost forms and misplaced folders.
3. Have a Touch it Once policy. Don't put things off. When you touch that permission slip, sign it and put it away. Don't take the stack of papers from the backpack and set them aside to review later. If you've touched them, deal with them right away. This is another way to avoid losing things.
4. And finally, rely on your slow cooker. Especially on days when your children have activities.

Slow Cooker Meatloaf and Slow Cooker Twice-Baked Potatoes Casserole
serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

for Slow Cooker Meatloaf:

• 1 1/2 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 box stuffing mix for pork
• 1/2 cup minced white onion
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup water

for  Slow Cooker Twice-Baked Potatoes Casserole:

• 8 medium baking potatoes, baked, cooled, then peeled
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup half & half (milk will do, too -- I had to use up some half & half)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 green onions, chopped

How it's Done:

for Slow Cooker Meatloaf:

1. Spray your crock with non-stick cooking spray. Although this won't prevent all sticking, it will aid in cleanup quite a bit.
2. In a large mixing bowl, place all ingredients except for 1/4 cup of ketchup. Mash it all together with your fingers, making sure all the ingredients are well combined.
3. Press the meat mixture into a large slow cooker's crock.
4. Cover with remaining ketchup.
5. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
6. Let meatloaf stand 10 to 20 minutes before cutting.

for Slow Cooker Twice-Baked Potatoes Casserole:

1. Spray your crock with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Cut cooked, peeled potatoes into chunks, and place in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add sour cream, half & half, salt, pepper, and butter.
4. Mash with a potato masher.
5. Layer in a 2 quart slow cooker in this order: half of the mashed potatoes, half of the cheese, half of the bacon, half of the green onions. Repeat layers: the remainging mashed potatoes, cheese, bacon, and green onions.
6. Cover and cook on low for at least 4 hours, or on high for 2 hours. I'm cooking mine on low all day. It will be fine on low.

For more slow cooker meal ideas, visit Dining with Debbie.

An Open Letter to Helicopter Moms (and a yummy meal)

Day 55.

Dear Helicopter Mothers,



I'm writing to address a number of issues that your overflowing love for your child has presented to the rest of us average moms. For starters, would you please consider spending less time in the classroom? We know you want to be involved in your child's education. We know you want to show your support of the teachers. We know you want to spend more time with Junior. We know you want to make sure your child has the best education possible, and by making yourself a presence in the classroom, you're ensuring your little Junior will succeed. We all want the same things. But becase you're there, day after day after day, the teacher doesn't need the rest of us. We'd love to be there for our little Juniors, too, but you're hogging all the volunteer time. Please think about how the other children feel knowing that only Junior's mom comes in to read to them. We want to read to the kids, too.


There's also the issue of Girl Scouts. When little Jenny's snack time rolls around, please let her serve the cupcakes that you painstakingly decorated to match the plates and napkins you also provided. We appreciate your contribution. But wouldn't it serve Jenny better to be able to perform her duties as Snack Person instead of you performing them for her? Also, do you have to stay and watch every meeting? It's okay if Jenny has a cookie crumb on her chin. It'll probably still be there when you pick her up. You really don't need to lick the napkin and wash your seven year-old's face every few bites of snack. It's a crumb, not a disease. You'll note the other children with happy frosting mustaches aren't dropping like flies around your precious Jenny. Additionally, your constant prompts to get Jenny to answer questions and volunteer are detracting from the group's natural rhythm and flow. The rest of the girls keep looking at you. Please stop interrupting our leader. Her time is valuable with our children.


On the sports field, please do cheer for Johnny. But don't run to him and pick him up if he falls down. Let him learn how to stand up after he falls. And for heaven's sake, stop booing the opposing team. It's not a very nice thing to do. Don't be so concerned with grass stains. Do you really need that Tide to Go on the soccer field? Really? Do you KNOW how ridiculous you look running out to the sidelines to dab Johnny's bottom with Tide? We wear grass stains as badges of honor out there.

I do so hope you'll bring Jenny over for cookie baking with my child on Saturday. You're welcome to stay, too. But I'll probably try to usher you away from the kitchen while the girls decorate their cookies. Your daughter wants to express herself, not eat your perfect cookie. Who knows? Maybe I can teach you how to enjoy a latte in a separate room.


Sincerely,

Free Range Mom

******************************************************************************
With that said, let the feasting begin!

Slow Cooker Honey-Nut Chicken over Vanilla Rice
serves 4

Ingredients:

for Honey-Nut Chicken:

• 4 chicken breasts (I used frozen ones)
• 2 Tbsp white vingear
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

for the Vanilla Rice (adapted from Public Aprons Menu):

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp sugar

for dessert (gingerbread from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book):

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon (I had none and subbed pumpkin pie spice)
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger (I used a full tsp)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup light molasses
• 1/2 cup water

How it's Done:

1. Dump chicken, vegetable oil, vinegar, honey, cayenne pepper, and almonds into slow cooker. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours. After 7 hours, proceed with step 2.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" square baking dish. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the gingerbread (flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
4. Beat shortening on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and molasses.
5. Alternately, add flour mixture and water, scraping sides of bowl frequently.
6. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.
8. After putting gingerbread in the oven, set a pot of 4 cups of water to boil.
9. When it's boiling, add the scraped-out insides of a vanilla bean, vanilla extract, sugar, and rice. Return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook on low 20 minutes. Fluff with fork.
10. Serve chicken over rice. Spoon sauce over chicken and rice. Serve gingerbread warm from the oven for dessert. I dusted mine with pink and blue sugar for fun. A lemon or orange glaze, simple vanilla glaze, or plain are all good, too.

Now go devour some more eye candy and gain a few new slow cooker recipes at Dining with Debbie!