Try 10 different recipes in my slow cooker

My roommate and I made these. I made her make the sauce because I’m trying to encourage her to do more cooking. Basically I put chopped onion, baby carrots, a parsnip and potato at the bottom of the slow cooker. We broiled the ribs to get rid of some fat. She put together a can of tomato soup, BBQ sauce, ketchup, balsamic vinegar and Worcester sauce and spices. I also added about 4 cloves of mince garlic. We put the ribs on the vegetables and poured the sauce over the ribs. We let in cook on low for about 7 hours. I poured some sauce into a pot and skimmed off as much fat as I could. I boiled it with some flour to thicken and added red pepper, mushroom and zucchini to the slow cooker. I poured the sauce back in and turned in on high for a bit to let the extra vegetables to cook. It was very good.

I swear I didn’t name it myself but I totally agree! This was so delicious! I also added extra pepper – red, yellow and orange – so it made a lot!

1 tbsp cooking oil
1 lb lean ground chicken (Forgot to buy so I used strips of chicken breast, which I already had at home.)
19 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup finely chopped onion
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup sun-dried tomato pesto
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
14 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp granulated sugar (Did not use.)
¼ tsp salt
4 cups chopped red pepper
1 cup finely chopped zucchini

Heat cooking oil in large frying pan on medium. Add ground chicken. Scramble-fry for 5 to 10 minutes until no longer pink. Drain and transfer to 1 ½ to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 L) slow cooker.

Add chickpeas, onions and first amount of salt. Stir.

Stir pesto into flour in small bowl until smooth. Add next 4 ingredients. Stir well. Pour over chicken mixture. Stir well. Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours.

Add red pepper and zucchini. Stir and cover. Cook on High for 30 to 45 minutes until red pepper is tender-crisp. Serves 8.

This weekend I had a Christmas dinner with my roommates and I made this as an alternative to just a squash dish. It was very well received! I’m so glad too that I have leftovers! :)

Serves 2
Cooker: 3 quart
Setting and Cook Time: LOW for 4 to 5 hours

3 tbsp unsalted butter
3 shallots, finely chopped
2/3 cup diced peeled apple
Three 12-ounce packages frozen cooked butternut squash, thawed and drained, or 4 to 4 ½ cups fresh butternut squash puree (I just used one good sized butternut squash. I baked it for a little while too.)
2 ½ to 3 cups chicken broth, canned or homemade
1/3 tsp ground ginger
¼ cup dry white wine (Used apple juice.)
1 tsp salt
A few grinds of black pepper
(Also added coriander and rosemary.)

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and cook the shallots and apple for about 3 minutes, just to soften and coat them with butter. Place in the slow cooker and add the squash, broth, ginger, wine, and salt. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours.

Using a handheld immersion blender, or transferring to food processor or blend in batches, puree the soup. Ladle the hot soup into bowls, sprinkle with pepper and serve hot. (I skipped this part because I have a very small blender and I thought it would get too messy. Mostly it’s already blended but I took a masher to it anyway just to make sure!)

So far this is my favorite. I had it with mashed potatoes, which normally isn’t my favorite but it worked!!

1 cup chopped carrot
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 lbs stewing meat
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves (Used more. I love garlic.)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander (My coriander is whole and since I had no way of grinding it I put some in some plastic wrap and took a hammer to it – at 7:30 in the morning. Tee hee.)
1 cup chopped dried apricot
1 cup beef broth (Forgot to buy beef broth when I went to the store so I used some strong vegetable broth.)
1/2 cup dry sherry or apple juice
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup chopped fresh or frozen, thawed green beans (Used a can of green beans.)

Scatter carrot in bottom of 3 1/2 to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 L) slow cooker.

Measure flour into large resealable freezer bag. Add 1/2 beef. Seal bag. Toss until coated. Repeat with remaining beef. Heat first amount of cooking oil in large frying pan on medium. Add beef in 2 batches. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes per batch, stirring occasionally, until browned. Layer on top of carrot.

Heat second amount of cooking oil in same frying pan on medium. Add onion. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often and scraping any brown bits from bottom of pan, until softened.

Add next 3 ingredients. Heat and stir of about 1 minute until fragrant. Spread on top of beef.

Combine next 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Pour over beef mixture. Do not stir. Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours.

Add green beans. Stir well. Cover. Cook on High for 10 to 15 minutes until beans are tender-crisp. Remove and discard bay leaf. Serves 8.

This was all right. Maybe not as good as I hoped it would be but still tasty. When stirring I just stirred the chicken in with everything else since it was so tender. I just didn’t bother trying to make it stay together. So it kind of turned out like a stewy-saucy thing. I had it on rice.

1 tbsp cooking oil
4 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs
4 chicken drumsticks, skin removed (Instead of using the different parts I just used four chicken legs. Basically the same thing.)
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onion
2 galic cloves (So of course I used three!)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dried crushed chillies
1/2 cup prepared chicken broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp warm water
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup chopped red pepper (I used yellow because I needed to use it up.)
1/4 cup chopped, peeled English cucumber
2 tbsp coarsely chopped unsalted peanunts (Used cashews.)
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or parsley, optional (Used dried parsley.)

Heat cooking oil in large frying pan on medium. Add chicken thighs and drumsticks. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, turning occastionally, until browned. Transfer to 1 1/2 to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 L) slow cooker.

Add onion to same large frying pan. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until softend.

Add next 3 ingredients. Heat and stir for about 1 minute until fragrant.

Add broth, tomato paste and salt. Stir well. Pour over chicken. Do not stir. Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 9 hours or on High for 4 to 4 1/2 hours.

Stir warm water into peanut butter in small cup until smooth. Add to chicken mixture. Stir. Add red pepper. Stir well. Cover. Cook on High for about 15 minutes until red pepper is tender-crisp. Remove to large serving bowl. Scatter cucumber, peanuts and cilantro over top. Serves 4.

This was so delicious. When I came home it smelled absolutely amazing! I wanted to use up spinach so I added some (since it still had an hour) and it didn’t smell as amazing but just before turning it to Keep Warm (because I had to go out again) it started smelling amazing again. Blending the sauce was tricky though because I don’t have a very big blender so I had to blend it in bits. I got really messy. I forgot to get a picture again but since it looked messy I’m ok with that. The meat was very tender so when I removed it from the pot in just fell apart. I couldn’t really slice it very well. I lack kitchen grace. Still, tasted good!

-3 lbs boneless blade (or chuck) roast
-6 whole cloves (Did not use.)
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper (Actually was willing to grind this time until I realized that my sister took her mortar and pestle back.)
-1 tbsp cooking oil
-4 tart medium cooking apples, peeled and cores removed, cut into 1/2 inch slices
-1 cup thinly sliced onion
-1/2 cup apple juice
-1/4 cup beef broth
-3/4 tsp ground ginger
-3 tbsp water
-1 tbsp all-purpose flour

Cut 6 shallow slits in roast at random. Insert 1 clove into each slit. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper.

Heat cooking oil in large frying pan on medium-high. Add roast. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until browned on all sides. Transfer to 4 to 5 quart (4 to 5 L) slow cooker.

Scatter apple and onion over top the roast.

Combine apple juice, broth and ginger in small bowl. Pour over roast. Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours. Remove roast to large serving platter. Remove and discard cloves. Cover to keep warm.

Stir water into flour in small cup until smooth. Add liquid in slow cooker. Stir well. Cover. Cook on High for about 15 minutes until thickened. Carefully process with hand blender or in blender until smooth. Makes about 4 1/2 cups (1.1 L) sauce. Cut roast into thin slices. Serve with sauce. Makes 12 servings (2 to 3 oz., 57 to 85 g each, cooked weight).

Turned out really good!!! Maybe slightly too tender but still delicious! The tin foil was a really good idea too because the sauce stayed in the tin foil and when I removed it there was some sauce at the bottom but it was mostly fat so I got rid of that.
The picture is of it before cooking. I was so hungry I forgot to get one after. It made me 7 servings. One I ate right away, one I gave to my roommate since she was there and her diet consists of ramen noodles and Sidekicks, plus I wanted feedback, and the remaining 5 I’m saving for lunches at work.

Ingredients:

-2 to 2 1/2 pounds ground chuck (I picked up two smallish packages of ground beef. I don’t know how much that actually was. Probably a bit more than needed.)
-1 can tomato soup, divided ½ cup each (Used ready made tomato and herb soup. I took a cup of it and added a can of tomato paste to make it thicker. A half cup went into the meat mixture.)
-1 egg, slightly beaten
-1 cup crushed Ritz crackers (Used some other type of crackers. I don’t remember what they’re called.)
-2 tablespoons honey (Had no honey and didn’t want to buy it since I don’t really use it. I did have some maple syrup though.)
-1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, divided (Couldn’t find Worcestershire sauce in the store so I used BBQ sauce.)
-2 tablespoons dried minced onions
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper (I didn’t feel like grinding any since I’d have to grind it with a mortar and pestle.)
-1/2 cup water
-2 teaspoons prepared mustard
-2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preparation:

Combine ground chuck with half of the tomato soup, egg, crackers, honey, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, onions, salt, and pepper. Mix well and form into a ball. Place a crinkled length of aluminum foil in the slow cooker/Crock Pot so the ends extend an inch or so out of the pot. Place the meatloaf in the pot. The foil will make it easier to lift the meatloaf out and keep it out of the drippings. (Since I thought the beef was a bit too much I added a bit more crackers and soup. I also added a few cloves of mince garlic, basil, thyme and oregano.)

Combine remaining soup, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, the water, mustard, and brown sugar. Whisk together and pour over the meat loaf. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
Serves 4 to 6.