Top 10 Posts of 2012

It's that time!  Time to reflect on the past year.  Since I just started this blog a little over 3 months ago, I don't have a whole lot of posts, but there have been over 100 of them.  I thought I'd do a recap of the most popular ones.  Click on the title of each numbered post to see the original. 

1.  Freezer to Crock Pot or Grill Recipes

Four recipes that were made to go straight from the freezer into either the crock pot or to place directly on the grill.  Recipes included Mango Chipotle Chicken, Smothered Pork Chops, Beef Tips, and Pepper Steak. 

2.  Sharpie Decorated Mugs - Simple Gifts

Directions on how to use Sharpie markers and plain white mugs or dishes from the dollar store to make gifts.  Decorate and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

3.  Kasie's Mom's Calzone Recipe - Guest Post 

This was a guest post written by my friend, Kasie Robinson, who is a fellow transcriptionist and jewelry maker.  Check out her awesome story and recipe, and then cruise on over to her Artfire shop HERE for some darling earrings.  

4.  Broke Food - Pad Thai Ramen 

Make a tasty, exotic-tasting meal with simple ingredients from your cupboards.  This recipe features that ever-popular food Ramen noodles but is dressed up in a way that is satisfying to both your taste buds and your pocketbook. 

5.  Freezer to Crock Pot Cooking Tips

A list of hints and helps for turning your own recipes into freezer-to-crock pot meals.  

6.  Grocery Savings Strategies 

Tips, tricks, and thoughts about saving on groceries that do not normally go on sale or have coupons readily available. 

7.  Crock Pot Foil Packets for Veggies 

Want to cook all your food at once but don't want the flavors to mix?  Foil packets for the crock pot may be the answer.  Just wrap up your items, seal in foil, and place in the crock pot!

8.  Wire Wrapped Glass Pebble Pendants - Simple Gift 

Use a dollar store glass pebble, wire, and some pliers to make a beautiful, unique, and simple gift. 

9.  Freezer to Crock Pot - Salsa Chicken 

This is a recipe for the crock pot that is basically chicken chili but uses chili ingredients rather than the usual white sauce that's associated with chicken dishes. 

10.   Homemade Glue-On Wire Bails - Simple Gifts 

This is a tutorial for how to make a glue-on bail that turns almost any object into a pendant for a necklace.  Simple, easy, and very pretty! 

There they are!  The most popular posts for 2012.  Thank you to all my readers who have made this adventure so much fun.  I look forward to seeing what 2013 has to bring!

Crock Pot Bread Pudding with Kahlua Sauce

Bread pudding is such a rich, decadent, and sumptuous treat that it's hard to believe the ingredients are so simple.  I consider bread pudding to be a comfort food.  The sight of the chunks of browned bread along with the scents of vanilla and cinnamon make me think of warm kitchens, good food, and good times. 

I've seen this casserole called crock pot French toast.  Oh heck no!  We southern girls know that this is bread pudding!

Mix this up and put it on to cook before heading to work for a yummy dessert.  Or, if you want to something take for a crowd-pleasing pot luck dinner, put it on to cook at night, turn the crock on low, and in the morning you'll have bread pudding ready to serve.  The Kahlua sauce keeps well in the refrigerator and reheats easily.  Make extra sauce if you like it served over ice cream. 

Bread Pudding

1/2 loaf bread with pieces torn into chunks (the more stale it is, the better)

6 eggs

2 cups milk 

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 tablespoons brown sugar (or 1 tablespoon white sugar and 1 tablespoon maple syrup)

1/2 cup pecan pieces (or raisins, if you prefer)

In large bowl mix eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in bread.  Allow to sit or rest for 15 minutes.  Pour half of mixture into greased crock pot.  Add half of pecans.  Pour remaining mixture into crock pot and top with remaining pecans.  Turn crock pot on low and allow to cook for 6 hours, minimum. Approximately 15-20 minutes before serving, remove the lid from the crock pot and turn crock on high.  This will "brown" the top of the bread pudding.  When ready to serve, scoop out and top with Kahlua sauce (recipe below).  

Kahlua Sauce 

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk 

1/2 stick of butter 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Kahlua

In medium saucepan combine sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla.  Heat over medium heat, stirring continuously, until mixture begins to steam and bubbles form.  Add Kahlua, stirring rapidly, and heat through again to near boiling point.  Remove from heat and continue to stir rapidly until no bubbles remain in sauce.  Serve over warm bread pudding.  

For an extra treat, top bread pudding with a dollop of ice cream, then top all with the Kahlua sauce. It is divine!

Crock Pot Baked Potatoes

 

Crock pot baked potatoes are an easy way to cook potatoes without heating up the house or turning on the oven just took cook a few potatoes.  There are two ways to make them.  I recommend using a softer potato for this like a red potato or Yukon gold.  I know they are not generally recommended for baking, but we got a batch of Russets a while back that could have been used for stones!

First is the foil method.  Wash and scrub thoroughly.  Do not peel. Coat each potato with olive oil then dust with salt.  Wrap in aluminum foil and place in crock pot.  No need to add any type of liquid.  Cook on low 6-8 hours on low or high for 3-4 hours. 

The second method is just the plain potato method.  Wash and scrub potatoes thoroughly, then place in crock pot.  Again, cook 6-8 hours on low or high for 3-4 hours. 

The foil potatoes will have the more traditional baked potato taste to them.  The unwrapped potatoes will have more of a steamed consistency and flavor.  

This is a great way to either make potatoes for a meal or to have them for twice-baked potatoes, potato salad, potato soups, hashbrowns, or any other recipe for which you need cooked potatoes.  It's an economical and easy way to have cooked, whole potatoes without having to either boil them on the stove or bake them in the oven! 

Crock Pot Apple Butter - Easy Christmas Gift!

This year we had an abundance of apples, so my weekends for a couple of months were spent canning apples. The tree was so loaded that we would have to pick apples just to keep the limbs from breaking!  Crock pot apple butter was one of the easiest projects for preserving the apples.   

This is made overnight in a 5 quart crock pot.  It takes very few ingredients.  You just need some time and effort to peel, slice, and core the apples, put the ingredients and apples in the crock pot overnight, and the next morning you'll have a batch of apple butter! A one-piece peeler-corer-slicer makes dealing with the apples a breeze. 

Crock Pot Apple Butter

5-6 pounds tart apples peeled, cored, and sliced/chopped (I use the peeler-corer-slicer like this one:  Peel Away Apple Peeler (Google Affiliate Ad)) 

4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

Instructions:  Place apples in slow cooker.  Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl then pour over apples and mix well.  Cover and cook on high 1 hour.  Reduce heat to low and cook 9-11 hours (this is why I say to do it overnight!).  Stir occasionally, scraping sides to prevent sticking.  Apples will be thickened and dark brown.  If there is still a lot of liquid, uncover and cook 1 hour longer.  

At this point, the apple butter may be lumpy.  You have three choices:  You can stir/whisk it and leave it with some lumps.  You can use a potato masher to mash it throughly by hand, or you can use a food processor to puree it in batches before preserving it. 

This will keep 2 weeks in the refrigerator, unpreserved.  It will also keep in the freezer or deep freeze for up to a year.  You can also can it in jars by pouring it into sterilized canning jars, topping it with a lid and seal, then processing it in a water bath for 20 minutes.  Apples are one of the easiest things to can because of their acidity, so this is an excellent option. 

Apple butter is excellent served with hot, fresh biscuits.  I also like it stirred into oatmeal, and you can add it to muffin batter or pancake batter for a wonderful spiced apple flavor!  It would be an excellent gift along with a few other goodies in a gift basket. 

This post contains links from affiliates. 

Crock Pot Foil Packets for Veggies and Other Foods!

I love foil packet cooking, and I love my crock pot/slow cooker.  I especially love when I can combine the two!  Most people know they can use foil packets of foods in the oven or on the grill, but did you know they work for crock pots, too? How many packets you use and what you put in them is up to you!

Tonight, we were having roast beef with the traditional veggies in the crock pot.  However, I wanted to add a few more veggies to stretch the roast for a meal or two of leftovers but didn't want the vegetables them to pick up the flavor of the roast.  Enter foil packets!  

I chose green beans and kernel corn.  For both, I used canned veggies and drained all the liquid off.  I added butter, salt, and pepper.  I then sealed the packets and placed them on top of the roast and veggies to cook.  I put the top back on the slow cooker, and let them cook until the entire meal was done.  

This is a great way to get an entire meal in the crock pot if you have a long day ahead of you and don't want to worry about making side dishes when you get home!  When you're ready to eat, simply slit open the packets and serve the contents piping hot. 

The possibilities for these packets are endless!  I have also made potatoes in these packets by peeling and dicing them then adding a bit of chopped onion, salt, and pepper. 

You can cook anything in these packets that you would on a cook stove top or oven.  You can even cook fish in a packet!  Just put the fish in foil, add your seasonings, seal, and place in the slow cooker. 

Other for packets ideas include: 

Glazed carrots: Fresh or canned carrots, maple syrup, a little brown sugar, and a little butter.

Mixed veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and green beans. 

Baked beans:  Pork and beans with liquid drained, BBQ sauce, crumbled bacon, and brown sugar. 

Baked potatoes:  Clean and scrub small baking potatoes.  Leave peels on.  Coat them with olive oil and salt, then wrap in foil and place them on top of the other items.  If using larger potatoes, consider partially microwaving them before wrapping in foil and placing them in the crock pot.  
Corn on the Cob:  Remove silk, wrap tightly, and place in crock pot.

What can you think of to put in a packet?  Use your imagination! 

Chili Redux - Frito Chili Pie

Hungry?  Have stuff that you need to use up in your fridge?  This is a great example of how to do that.  It's called Frito Chili Pie.  I'm sure my local friends are groaning and saying, "Really?  You're using that as a recipe of sorts?"  Well, yes.  Because I realize not everyone knows how to make this awesome stuff.  Technically, it might also be classified as what we call broke food, but sometimes broke food is the best.  (Broke food:  Anything that is yummy, filling, sometimes made from weird ingredients, and will feed you until payday.) 

I made a pot of crock pot chili a couple of days ago.  Now there's a little bit left, and we're tired of just eating straight bowls of chili.  This is our way of changing things up while still using the leftover chili.  I'll also have some things for substitutions/additions below.  

Traditional Frito Chili Pie 

A handful of crushed Frito's corn chips*

About 3/4 to 1 cup prepared chili

Shredded cheese 

Diced onions 

Additions and substitutions:   

Crumbled tortilla chips instead of Fritos 

Sour cream

Sliced black or green olives

Shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes or your little bit of leftover salad 

Wrap it all in a tortilla, and cover with salsa 

*If you want a real tailgate party, ballgame concession stand Frito chili pie, then you get an individual-size bag of Fritos (those tiny ones you get in the mlutipacks), crush the Fritos inside, slit it open lengthways, and dump your chili fixings in.  Eat straight out of the bag with a plastic spoon while wrapped in a fleece throw, sitting at a football game.

Enjoy!!

Michelle's Freezer to Crock Pot Chili

I dearly love a hot bowl of chili on a cold night.  While it's not been all that cold lately, it's been cool enough that I've just wanted something hot and spicy for a meal.

I've made this chili numerous ways.  I'm posting this recipe not because it's anything special but instead to talk about making freezer-to-crock pot items and to also talk about substitutions.

For crock pot meals, I make recipes based on a 5 quart crock pot. 

Michelle's Chili 

1 to 1.5 pounds ground beef, browned, drained, and rinsed*

1 to 2 14.5 oz. cans of kidney beans drained and rinsed**

1 to 2 packets of chili seasoning (enough to season 2 pounds ground beef)***

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1to 2 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes with green chiles (we like hot, but adjust to your taste)****

1 4 oz can diced green chiles (optional; this makes it very hot)

Brown the ground beef until there is no pink, drain, and rinse thoroughly to remove fat.  To freeze, place ground beef and remaining ingredients into a bowl and stir thoroughly to combine.  Spoon into a 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag.  Squeeze all air out, seal, and place in freezer.

For crock pot chili, remove frozen chili from freezer.  Run hot water over exterior of bag in order to loosen enough to remove the block from the bag.  Place in crock pot and cover.  Cook on high 2-3 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

If you wish to just cook this in a pot, then return ground beef to pot and add remaining ingredients.  Simmer on low for about 30 minutes.  Add water as needed to keep chili from burning or becoming too thick. 


*This is up to you, but I recommend draining and rinsing the meat, even if it is extra lean.  Because you may be putting this in a crock pot, more fat will cook out in the process, and if you do not drain and rinse it thoroughly, you might find your chili with a little too much grease floating on the top.

** Substitution alert:  Substitute any canned cooked bean you like such as pinto, black, or even navy beans. Just make sure the beans are drained and rinsed.  I say 1-2 cans because some beans are bulkier than others.  Put one can in, eyeball the chili, and then decide if you want another can of beans. We like 2 but less is OK.  Any bean will work, and you might find an interesting combination that you like even better than the original recipe.  Different types of beans also make the dish more visually appealing.

***I use Williams Chili Seasoning, but it may be a regional thing that is not available to you.  The Williams Original Chili seasoning is made to season 2 pounds of ground beef.  Use whatever you like, just make sure it seasons 2 pounds of beef. My pet peeve is to find a great recipe but it contains some obscure ingredient that makes cooking not worth it.

****I use Ro-Tel tomatoes, but again this might be regional.  You can use any brand that is canned with chopped green chiles.  As a substitute, you can use one can of diced tomatoes in juice, 1 tsp. onion flakes, and about 1 tablespoon canned diced green chiles.

Freezer to Crock Pot Cooking

A month or two ago I discovered freezer to crock pot cooking, and it has been life changing for me.

I tend to be on the frugal side and believe in trying to conserve resources any way possible. Some would call me a tightwad. I just call it being innovative.

Freezer to crock pot cooking appealed to me because I could prepare meals ahead of time, freeze them, and then the day I needed them, dump them in the crock pot and go. My family and I could come home to a hot meal that didn't require a lot of effort.

I check my local grocery store, Homeland, weekly to see what deals they have. Last week I found hamburger meat marked down, and I bought it!!

Now it was time to come up with some things to make.

Some meats can be frozen raw with recipes, but generally hamburger meat cannot because of the fat content. The meat must be cooked first and then added to recipes. Using the freezer to crock pot method, I looked at some recipes and decided to make them crock pot friendly.

I made:
 Two batches of tater tot casserole base.
 One batch of Mexican casserole base.
Two batches of taco meat.
One batch of Italian-seasoned meat.

I froze the remaining meat to be used for hamburger patties in the future.

My next few posts will provide the recipes for the above casseroles.