Spaghetti and Meatballs in the Crock Pot (or…not!) March 31, 2010

This past weekend, I had a real hankering for homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Mike and I also had a hankering to go see “Hot Tub Time Machine”. But, I didn’t want to eat at like 8pm! What to do, what to do?! I finally decided, why not try to make it in the crock pot instead of on top of the stove? That way I could prep it all and come home to delicious ready-made sauce!

Usually when I make sauce I do it all in one giant pot on the stove, I also cook my meatballs right in the sauce, none of that frying or baking them first business. When you cook them right in the sauce, the results are plump and flavorful meatballs that are tender and awesome! It probably helps that I am in no way Italian, so while this recipe is not at all authentic, it really is good. Ask anyone who’s eaten it! It turns out that converting it to the crock was really easy and pretty much just as delicious. The only problem with the crock is that when I cook it on the stove top I definitely cook according to taste. I’ll just add more of this or that until it is perfect. With the ingredients going into the crock pot, I couldn’t really taste it as it went along, I just had to add stuff and hope for the best. It went pretty well though.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Sauce:

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce

2 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tbsp basil

1 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp garlic salt

1-2 tbsp sugar

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

In a large, deep pot, heat up the olive oil. Add the onions and cook until they start to turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute as well, another 2 or 3 minutes until the garlic is browned but not burnt! Add in the can of tomatoes and the can of sauce. Add in all remaining ingredients and stir. Taste sauce and adjust any flavorings as  you need. If the sauce is still very acid-y, add a tad more sugar. If you put in too much sugar, add another can of tomato sauce.  Let the sauce simmer on low as you prepare the meatballs. Cover the sauce if it is splattering all over the place, that stuff hurts!

Meatballs:

1 or 1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey (I get the dark meat from Whole Foods, I find the really lean stuff is too dry)

1/2 to 1 c. Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 c. parmigiana cheese

1 or 2 eggs depending on how dry it is

3 tbsp milk

2 tbsp italian seasoning

1 tbsp garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together. The way it looks will tell you what you need to do. If it is not incorporating enough, add more egg. If it is too wet, add more crumbs! Try to make it an even amount of cheese vs. crumbs. When meatballs easily form a ball, the consistency is good. Form the meatballs into about 1 inch balls. Drop the meatballs one by one into the bubbling sauce. Be careful! You don’t want to get sauce burn! DO NOT STIR THE SAUCE WHEN YOU FIRST ADD THE MEATBALLS. After a few minutes, you can stir a bit. Let the meatballs cook in the sauce, covered, for at least 20 minutes, until the meatballs have turned white and appear to be done. If you are unsure, cook another 10 minutes.

Serve over spaghetti with some garlic bread. So good!!

Crock Pot Method:

It is totally the same method to do in the crock with these few exceptions:

For the sauce, start out with the onions sauteing in a small pot. Add the garlic and cook as stated above. When they are translucent, remove and add to the crock. Add all the remaining ingredients into the crock pot. Make the meatballs and drop them into the crock full of sauce. Cover and cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Easy enough, right?

Sausage and Red Pepper Calzones March 30, 2010

I actually found this recipe while flipping through the latest Williams-Sonoma catalogue. They had it paired with a really dumb looking calzone maker, that seemed like no one should ever spend 30 dollars to purchase, but hey, the recipe looked good! And it was! The original recipe calls for you to make your own dough, and while I am sure that would have been even more delicious, I was making this on a school night when I was particularly exhausted…truth be told, Mike did most of the work as I was just that tired! He chopped and sautéed, and I rolled out the dough and filled them. What a team we make, huh?! When you aren’t making your own dough, this recipe is really quite simple and doesn’t take too long at all! Here is how I made it:

Sausage and Red Pepper Calzones (based on a recipe from Williams-Sonoma)

1 tbs olive oil + 1/2 tbs for brushing over tops

pizza dough (either get it from the pizza parlor or grocery store, or just use the Pillsbury stuff)

7 oz. mild italian sausage, removed from casing if that’s the kind you could find

1/4 yellow onion, sliced or chopped

1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced or chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. fresh oregano

3 oz. ricotta cheese

12. oz mozzarella, grated (this is what the recipe calls for, but we used less, 12 oz is a LOT o’ cheese!)

6 tbs. tomato sauce (the kind from a jar works well)

flour for dusting

6 tbs. parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

In a small frying pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the sausage, breaking it into small chunks and cook until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Drain excess fat from pan.

Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for two minutes, then add the bell pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are tender and starting to brown.  Transfer the veggies to a large bowl, add the sausage, oregano, ricotta and mozzarella and sauce, and combine.

Take your dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, carefully stretch the dough out until it is roughly a rectangle the size of your baking sheet. Cut the dough into equal rectangles.

Fill each rectangle on one half with the sausage filling. Pinch the calzone closed all around and place on a greased baking sheet.  Brush the tops of each calzone with oil and sprinkle with some Parmigiano cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 475 degrees. Keep checking often as they can go from looking sad to overdone really fast!

Crock Pot Week! Pesto chicken with sweet potatoes

Okay so the way I’ve been updating, its more like Crock Pot Two weeks! It’s okay, we really ate them all in one week, I promise! This last recipe was interesting…also from the 365 blog, it featured cooking two things at once, which sounded like it would never work, but totally did! Basically, you put the chicken in the bottom, top it with cheese and homemade pesto, then cover with foil and pop the two sweet potatoes in on top to steam to perfection! The chicken came out a tad dry but I think I left it in there waaay too long, so that was probably my own fault. Either way, Mike declared it a dish I must make Often!

I didn’t actually change anything in this recipe, and I’m lazy today, so here’s the link to the recipe directly from it’s source!

Pesto Chicken with sweet potatoes!

The sweet potatoes came out SO great this way, I’d totally just make them all alone using the crock method…insides were so soft and flavorful, yum!!

Crock Pot Week! Chicken Noodle Soup March 24, 2010

This one is also from the 365 Blog. The thing that made it awesome is the dash of balsamic vinegar that they say to add. Genius! It made it have a really nice extra zing that was hard to identify. Fantastic! I used a lot of pre-cut veggies from the grocery store, which made it even easier to chuck in the crock. Try it!

Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup

1 1/2 cups already cooked chicken meat
6 cups water
1 or 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules (check for gluten, this was clearly labeled gluten free)
1 cup broccoli florets
1 small onion, diced
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
kosher salt to taste (probably a good 1 teaspoon, since the base is water)
50-cent piece size, or so, handful of raw spaghetti noodles to add at the end (I used Trader Joe’s brown rice)
1 large handful raw spinach leaves to add at the end
Parmesan and Asiago cheese, optional garnish

Method:

Toss everything into the crock up until the kosher salt. Let cook on low for 8 hours or more until sweet potatoes are tender. 15 minutes before serving add in the spaghetti and spinach ( I ended up leaving the spinach out as I had somehow miscalculated all of my ingredients and there was no way it was fitting in that pot!) Serve with some crusty bread or crackers and enjoy!

Crock Pot Week! Corned Beef and Cabbage March 21, 2010

Of course this particular crock week came up the same time as St. Patrick’s Day. Being that I’m blue eyed, freckled and Irish, Corned beef has got to be made! It is actually one of my favorite meals and I only make it once a year for some reason. I don’t know why I don’t ever make it any other day than St. Pat’s day, its so easy when you use the crock! Anyway…I call it corned beef and Cabbage but..I HATE cabbage. It is nasty and mushy and I just don’t like it when it’s cooked for so long. So, I reallly make corned beef and carrots and potatoes. But that’s okay, you can add the cabbage to your crock if it makes you happy!

Corned Beef minus the Cabbage in the Crock

Package of corned beef WITH seasoning packet (this year I used Nathan’s, but any brand will do, just check for the packet!)

1 pound baby red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half

1 bag baby carrots

water to cover it all in the crock

Method:

This is surely the easiest thing ever: Toss the meat, packet, carrots and taters into the crock. Add enough water to the pot to cover the meat completely. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5. Serve with some mustard and some Irish Soda Bread if you’ve got it! Sadly I made too small a hunk of meat this year: no leftovers!

Crock Pot Week! Carnitas in the Crock March 20, 2010

This is also from the 365 blog. I made this when my school had March Madness, which means our school’s teachers play vs. the teachers of our rival intermediate school. I do not play, but I always get suckered into selling water the whole night. It is fun, but we don’t get home til after 9, which is exhausting! In past years, I end up eating a lovely KFC bowl or somethings, but this year, I decided I ought to eat real food on my arrival home. The recipe for carnitas looked easy enough and it really was! It took about 5 minutes to prep it in the morning…with the exception of the fact that as I was reaching into the cabinet for my beef stock, I knocked over a jar of chicken bouillon and it SHATTERED all over the counter! Ugh! It took 20 minutes to clean up all the shards and made me late for work. But uh, the meal itself was still fast, I promise!

Carnitas in the Crock Pot

2 pounds pork shoulder (I couldn’t find shoulder, just used a roast)

1/2 c. fresh squeezed orange juice (1 large orange)

1/4 c. fresh squeezed lime juice (1 large lime)

7 cloves garlic, smashed but intact

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp cumin

1/2 c. beef broth

tortillas (she says corn but we like flour better)

sour cream, avocado, salsa, cheese for toppings!

Method:

In a small bowl, combine the salt and cumin. Rub mixture all over the pork and put it in the crock. Add the garlic cloves and squeeze on the citrus. Pour in the beef broth evenly over the top.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours or until the pork shreds easily with a fork. If your meat is still intact after 8 hours, cut it into chunks and cook it on high for about an hour or two.

Shred meat fully and serve on tortillas with toppings!

We will totally make this again, the pork was amazingly good!! The citrus gave it a really yummy tang and the cumin made it smokey and awesome. I didn’t even use salsa on my carnitas, the avocado, sour cream and cheese were perfect touches. Delicious!!

Crock Pot week! Cranberry Roast March 17, 2010

One of my favorite websites in the whole entire world is “356 Crockpot” This woman set a goal two years ago to cook for her family EVERY day in her crock for a year! Not only did she do it, she ended up making a career out of it! She has cookbooks and was on tv and is still super funny and awesome and I wish she was my friend in real life! Anyway, I had forgotten about her blog, but this weekend, I remembered and she inspired me: How about I try to cook for a week once a month using my crock? Every meal for a week, fun new recipes each time? Why not!

First up I tried her recipe for Cranberry Roast as it lured me with its four simple ingredients. It seriously took me about five minutes to prep it in the morning. I got it ready while my bread toasted! The recipe itself was super simple, but next time I think I would add a bit of liquid, it came out a bit dry for my taste and Mike agreed. I think a 1/2 a cup of beef broth added to it would have made it perfect. Using whole cranberries and cooking it on low for hours ends up with a tangy-sweet sauce, and the cranberries mellow out. So good over mashed potatoes!

Cranberry Roast:

2-3 pounds beef or pork roast or stew chunks (I used stew chunks)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

(next time I’d add a 1/2 c. beef broth)

Method:

Throw all the ingredients in the crock in this order: onions, beef, soy sauce, can o’ cran…then add the beef broth if you want to. Cover and cook on low for like 10 hours*…can be done in 7 though. If you cook it on high, it would be ready in roughly five hours. Serve with the gravy over some mashed potatoes. I used instant, talk about the easiest meal ever invented!

*I’m wondering if my meat was dry because I just cooked it too long and used stew pieces and not a whole piece of beef? If I’d been home to check it at 7 hours it might have been perfect then. So I guess if you will be away awhile, add some liquid! Otherwise, give it a try as-is. Tell me how it goes!

Spring Chicken

Spring Chicken!

This is a nice light recipe after you’ve been stuffing yourself full of comfort food all winter! It is very simple and delicious, and goes really well with the lemon rice included in the recipe.  Also, it would appear that I really like peas, what with the recipe I last posted and all! This one comes form my Rachel Ray book “365: No Repeats”. The trickiest part is just making sure you clean the leeks really well, they are totally stuffed full of dirt since you know, they come from the ground and have to be dug up to enjoy! Give it a try!

Spring Chicken

2 c. chicken stock or broth

1 c. white rice

zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

package of chicken breasts, cut up into small pieces or thin cutlets intact

2 medium leeks, trimmed of tough tops and roots

1/2 c. dry white wine (or chicken stock if you don’t have wine)

1 10 oz box of frozen baby green peas

salt and pepper

Method:

Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a small pot. Stir in the rice, lemon zest and 1 tbsp on olive oil.  Return to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15 minutes or so, until tender..make sure to stir and that you don’t let it burn to the bottom of the pot like I sometimes do!

While that’s cookin’, heat a large nonstick skillet over a medium high heat.  Add the remaining olive oil and butter, and when that melts, add the chicken to the pan and cook until lightly golden on both sides, about four minuets.

Cut the leeks in half lengthwise, then chop up into half moon shaped slices.  Place the leeks in a colander and run under cold water, separating and releasing the dirt and grit. Rinse and clean one more time for good measure.  Drain and add to the chicken.  Cook the leeks with the chicken until they are soft, another 3 minutes. Add the white wine and scrap up pan drippings. Add the peas and cook through for another two to three minutes.  Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the lemon juice over the leeks and chicken.

Fluff the rice with a fork, the zest will have given it a yummy lemony flavor.

Serve with the chicken and sauce over the lemon rice. Some white wine is delightful with this!

Pasta and Peas, please March 15, 2010

pasta and peas! It's easy peas-y!

Pasta and Peas is super easy to make and really quite yummy. I must admit, it’s not overly a looker, but it is kind of like a super easy stovetop mac and cheese, kind of italian style. It is of course from the Rachel Ray website, but I made it slightly differently than they tell you, so here is my method below:

Pasta and Peas

1 lb of penne or rotini pasta

1/2 c. chicken stock

2 c. frozen peas

2 c. ricotta cheese (I used fat free)

1 c. grated Parmegian cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp butter

Method:

Cook the pasta according the box directions and set aside a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain it. Meanwhile, in a separate pot, cook the peas with the chicken broth for about five or ten minutes, until the peas are warm and mushy. When the pasta and peas are cooked, take about two cups of the peas and mash them together with half of the ricotta cheese and a bit of the pasta water. If you use a food processor, it will come out a smooth green cheese sauce. Place the pasta in a large bowl and add the pea mixture, the leftover peas and the remaining cheese. Toss together with a pat of butter and add more starchy water if the mixture is too clumpy for your liking. Salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy immediately!

Chicken Parmigiano March 13, 2010

Oh yum! This came out really delicious. Mike loves chicken parm, so I thought I would make it for him in the more traditional way…you know, with tomato sauce and spaghetti. I just wish we’d thought to make some garlic bread, that would have been perfect! When I made this, we’d just cleaned the kitchen and I was feeling lazy. I didn’t feel like having to deal with oil spattering all over the stovetop when I cooked the chicken, so, I baked them! And guess what? They came out just as good as if I’d fried them, but since I didn’t they were even healthier! I think the secret is a tiny drizzle of olive oil over the chicken before you pop it in the oven. Give it a try, its easier to clean and made some really good crunchy chicken!

Chicken Parmigiano

a lb or two of thin chicken cutlets (buy em that way or smack them down to flatten them)

2 eggs, beaten with a touch of water

1 c. italian bread crumbs

1 c. Parmigiano cheese (grated kind) plus 1/4 cup

1 tbsp. poultry seasoning

salt and pepper

a jar of your favorite tomato sauce (I use four cheese!)

1 c. shredded mozzarella

basil and oregano

Method:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Add the poultry seasoning and some salt and pepper to the beaten eggs and beat all ingredients together in a shallow bowl. In a separate shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs and cheese together.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Dip chicken in the egg mixture, coating completely, followed by the crumb mixture, coating completely. Lay each chicken flat on the cookie sheet as you are done preparing them.

When all chickens are coated, take some olive oil and sparingly drizzle it over the chicken in the pan. Don’t go crazy, a little will go a long way! Pop the chicken in the oven and let cook, about 15 to 20 minutes until the chicken is crispy and is 160 degrees internally. Flip them at the halfway point to make sure both sides get crispy.

Take a large baking dish and line the bottom with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce. layer the chicken on top of the sauce. Top the chicken with more sauce, mozzarella cheese, basil and oregano.  Sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano cheese over the top. Pop back into the oven and bake, about 10 or 15 more minutes, until the cheese is brown and bubble.

Serve over spaghetti with extra sauce. Add some wine if you’re feeling fancy!