I got a slow cooker when I got married, but in one year’s time, I only used it once – disastrously. I tried it once when I was home all day to see how it cooked. I attempted to make rice pudding, but I had put in too much rice and too much milk and it overflowed. I had to dump it out into a big pot halfway through.

But somehow, I gathered up the courage to try it again – and in the past month, I’ve used it six times. Hence, I make this proclamation in front of the whole world – I love my slow cooker (and no, Ameir doesn’t consider it cheating, because he gets food out of the deal). I love the taste and texture of the food it produces. I love not having to cook when I get home after long days. I love the smell of deliciousness that greets me when I get home. *dreamy sigh*

I’m highly inspired by Stephanie of A Year of Crockpotting, who used her slow cooker every day for a year. As I make stuff, I’ll link to things that are inspired by her recipes.

This meatball stew was inspired by Stephanie’s adaptation of Simply Recipes‘ Albondigas recipe (meatball soup).

I made some meatballs, seared, and froze them for future use. I used the same basic recipe as I use for spaghetti and meatballs, but I added pureed chipotle-in-adobo to the mix. Just because I had some. I wanted to do frozen meatballs because I thought they’d cook much quicker than root vegetables, so I thought adding them to the slow cooker still frozen would give me more time. It came out to 12 meatballs, so I put half of them in here and saved half for something else later.

Basic slow cooker safety and operation:
– Do not put cold food in a hot cooker.
– Do not put hot food in a cold cooker (put it on warm while you’re preparing).
– High cooking is usually 3 -4 hours. Low cooking is usually 6-9 hours.
– Put vegetables in the first layer, meat on the second (veggies take longer to cook).
– The slow cooker doesn’t lose moisture, so when it’s done cooking, you’ll have either the same amount of liquid you put in, or even more b/c of condensation.

Click for the recipe!

Spicy Meatball Stew
(3-4 qt cooker)

4 baby red potatoes, cubed
Equal amount of butternut squash, cubed into the same size
1 or 2 carrots, chunked
1 can diced tomatoes with chipotle
1/2 – 1 can tomato sauce (depending on how saucy you want it)
2 onions + 4 cloves garlic
dried herbs, if desired
veggie broth, if you want this more soupy

1. Sautee the onions and whole garlic cloves (slightly smashed) over medium-low just until the onions are getting soft and the garlic cloves are getting browned (just this little bit of hot stuff is not enough to need to warm the slow cooker, and remember you’re putting in frozen meatballs later).
2. Salt and pepper the vegetables.
3. Put the vegetables and onions, garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker. Pour over half of the sauce and stir to make sure they’re all coated.
4. Put the still-frozen meatballs on top and pour the rest of the sauce and tomatoes on top.
5. Cook on Low for 7 hours and serve with rice.

Thanksgiving Dumpling Soup

A slightly different way to get rid of Thanksgiving leftovers – This is just going to be an idea more than an exact a recipe. I can’t remember exactly what I used, but I remember the chipotle was a really great kick.

Stock made from turkey bones
Shredded turkey, whatever is left over
One butternut squash, diced (about 4 cups)
Two carrots, diced
8 oz cremini mushrooms, choppped
One can diced tomatoes with juice
Onion, Garlic
2 or 3 chipotle peppers, pureed or diced finely
1 or 2 tsp adobo (from the can of chipotle)
Cumin, salt, pepper

Caramelize the onion, add the garlic towards the end. Add the butternut squash and carrot, saute till almost soft. Do the same with the mushrooms a few minutes later. Add the shredded turkey and mix it around with the other flavorings. Add the cumin, salt, pepper, chipotles and adobo. Mix in the tomatoes and broth and let it simmer until the squash and carrots are soft.

Dumplings – these were a bit hard, so I’m open to suggestions for another method.

1 cup flour, 1 egg, dried herbs, salt, pepper

Mix the egg and flour and seasonings till it forms a sticky, eggy dough. Break of little rounds of it and drop it into boiling broth. They’ll float to the top when done.

Ohh, this was a good one! The chipotle peppers give this soup a smoky smooth flavor. It’s a nice departure from the normal corn chowder. But, beware. The first bite of the soup isn’t spicy, so you might be tempted to add more chipotle. Be ye warned – it gets progressively spicier as you eat it. In the end, I felt feel somebody kicked me in the tastebuds. And I liked it.

The fish tacos couldn’t be easier. Why? They’re made of fish sticks! Gasp! Cheating! I know. Fish tacos from frozen fish sticks? What? But they taste so good, and they’re so quick. All you have to do is fancy them up a little with some salsa.

Recipe here:

I based this soup on this recipe, but added more corn and chipotle peppers.

Chipotle Corn Chowder

4 cups frozen corn
2 cups milk
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups chicken broth
4 chipotle peppers (from a can)
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt, pepper
Pat of butter, olive oil

1. Melt some butter and olive oil in a soup pot and saute the onion and garlic until soft.
2. Add the potatoes, salt, and pepper and let it cook for a few more minutes (this will make it cook quicker later). Add the corn, stir well. (Maybe leave the corn out for a few minutes before this so it doesn’t go in frozen).
3. Pour in the liquids. Let the mixture come to a medium boil, then bring it back down to a simmer.
4. Puree the chipotle peppers and a couple spoonfuls of the sauce (or mince finely) and add it to the soup.
5. Simmer the soup for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Fish Tacos

Oven-bake fish sticks as directed on package. On a warm tortilla, spread shredded lettuce and four fish sticks. Top with salsa, chopped avacado, tomatoes, cilantro, sour cream – whatever you want!

This is a very hearty, scoop-it-into-a-bowl-and-get-some-crusty-bread stew which can be made completely vegetarian or a little different by adding lamb or beef. I got it from Elise at Simply Recipes. I think it tastes best when the eggplant, tomatoes, mint, and peppers come from your own garden (or your father-in-law’s).

This stew, as Elise explains it, is beautifully layered, and when each layer of flavor stays in tact, you get different punches of flavor as you eat. You serve it in the same dish that it cooks in, to preserve the layers. However, it also works well layered into a big pot and then just scooped into bowls to serve.

Eggplant Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses

One 1 1/2-pound eggplant (or enough eggplants for 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup lentils and enough water to cover
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 long green chilies or jalapenos, coarsely chopped
2 tbs chopped mint leaves
1 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs honey
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses

1. Partially peel the eggplant so it has lengthwise purple strips. Quarter it lengthwise, then cut those long strips into three or four pieces. Salt it all over well, then place it on a baking sheet laid with paper towel. Let it stand for one hour. (This is a good first step to making anything with eggplant. It takes out some excess liquid and the kind of bitterness that an eggplant can sometimes have.)

2. In a saucepan, cover the lentils with two inches of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer until lentils are soft (about 15 min). Drain the lentils – I don’t drain them all the way, because a little liquid is helpful in getting the rest of the stew started.

3. In a bowl, mix together: onion, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, mint, tomato paste, crushed red pepper, 2 tsp salt, and honey.

4. Coat a small or medium enameled cast-iron casserole with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.

5. Rinse the eggplant and pat dry. Cut it into smaller chunks.

6. Start layering – 1/2 of the tomato mixture, 1/2 the eggplant, 1/2 the lentils. Repeat. Pour a little bit of the lentil cooking water or broth on top (helps it get going, but not necessary).

7. Pour the rest of the olive oil on top and around the sides of the vegetables. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses. (This stuff has a bit of a sour-bitter kick by itself, but the honey cuts through that)

8. Bring the stew to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the eggplant is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this beautifully misspelled menu item for sale in Medina. There’s not much to be said about it – the picture says enough. Want some?

This is a simple, homey soup with just some basic flavors – not a lot of fancy herbs or spices, just the basics. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and the vegetables. And with a simple shortcut, its super quick.

Leeks look like an overgrown scallion and have a mild oniony taste, so you don’t have to start by sautéing onions for this soup…unless you just really like onions. Leeks are a little quirky to work with – the bottom part of a leek, the white part, is grown underground, so the dirt gets inside the layers. With leeks, you cut first, then submerge in water and rinse very well to get the dirt all out.

I used leftover mashed potatoes that I had frozen to make this. The mashed potatoes had spinach and mushrooms in a buttermilk alfredo sauce (this one), so if you wanted to make it the full “Potato, spinach, mushroom, and leek soup” (which I highly recommend), just sautee the mushrooms and spinach along with the leeks.

Recipe here

Potato and Leek (and Spinach and Mushroom) Soup

- Three cups of mashed potatoes
- Two leeks, sliced and washed
- Two cloves of garlic, diced
- Two cups of chicken broth, or as much to make it as liquidy as you want
- Salt, pepper

- Heat some olive oil in a soup pot. Saute garlic for a couple of minutes.
- Add the leeks, salt them well, and saute until soft. (spinach and mushrooms too, if desired)
- Add mashed potatoes (in my case, spinach and mushroom mashed potatoes).
- Add chicken broth to thin out to desired consistency. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper as needed.
- When the soup is hot, ladle into bowls and garnish with croutons.

Also known as “Why Is It So Cold In The Spring In NC” Soup or “We Just Had A Huge Barbeque on Saturday, What Will I Do With All The Leftovers” Soup.

This whole week is rainy and cold. It doesn’t make sense, so I decided to make stew. Yes. Stew solves all problems, including what to do with all of the leftovers from Ameir’s graduation barbeque. These will all be very imprecise measurements, since I was working with leftovers from the fridge. The stew is a combination of guacamole, roasted corn, tomato sauce, chicken broth, and shredded leftover chicken. It came together so quickly, in less than 20 minutes! It also stores well and tastes better the next day.

Recipe here:

Roasted Corn and Chicken Soup

Three or four cups of guacamole (made by your dad), or
—-Four avocados, diced or mashed by your sweet little sister-in-law Aishah
—-Four tomatoes, diced
—-One onion, diced
—-Two jalapenos, diced
—-Juice of half a lemon and one lime
—-Salt, pepper

Three cups diced or shredded leftover chicken
Five ears of corn, roasted on the grill and kernels cut off
Two or three cups tomato sauce
Three cups chicken broth, or more for a more liquidy soup
Fresh cilantro, diced
One large or five baby carrots, diced
Quarter of a large onion, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

– In a large pot, sautee the diced onion and carrot until soft.
– Add the guacamole, corn, tomato sauce, and chicken broth. Stir well.
– Let the soup simmer for 5 minutes while you dice or shred the leftover barbequed chicken
– Add the cilantro and diced or shredded chicken, let it simmer until warmed through.

For an easy garnish, cut up some garlic bread into cubes and pan-toast it with some olive oil until browned all over. Ameir calls them “crispies.”

I love soup, and while tomato isn’t my favorite kind, I get a hankering for it every now and then. When that hankering occurs at midnight, the only thing you can do is grab a can of Campbell’s. *Ick.* I know, I was desparate. I tried to make it better by adding some oven-roasted tomatoes and using milk and chicken broth to dilute it instead of water. Okay, but not great. I had a lot leftover, and I needed something delicious and nutritious while studying for Criminal Law. (yes, yes, I am studying. The Rule of Lenny…uh…Lenity, and all that.)

I’m not sure if this is a jambalaya or just an extremely saucy risotto made with extra-diluted creamy tomato soup-broth. Anyways, it’s very filling and very good and very easy. It took me about 30 minutes maximum from kitchen to sofa, not including the 5 minutes it took me to make the marinade and the 1 hour where the stuff was soaking in the marinade.

Click here for recipe

Exam Week Jambalaya

The meat and marinade:
1 chicken breast, cubed
6 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Marinate while you’re studying defenses to crime (for at least one hour) in: ¼ cup ranch dressing, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 or 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 cup of leftover tomato soup (already diluted if from a can)

The vegetables
One can of corn, drained
A cup or so of steamed green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
Half an onion, diced
Garlic, a couple of cloves, chopped

The Rice
Liquid: one can of broth mixed with four cups of already-diluted tomato soup.
Two or three cups of cooked rice
Worcestershire sauce, a couple of dashes (optional, but it really adds a second layer of flavor.)
Chili sauce, to taste for heat

Note here: I used leftover soup – I had diluted three cans of canned condensed tomato soup with one can chicken stock and two cans milk, and then eaten about three or four cups from that. I used the rest of it in this dish. The milk in the soup is probably why this rice dish came out creamy. For this dish, you’re basically making a tomato broth for a risotto-style rice – it should be liquidy, not thick, so adjust proportions as you see fit.

1. Heat the tomato broth until boiling and keep it at a simmer or low boil, covered on the stove
2. In a large pan over medium high heat, heat some oil and sweat the onions and garlic. Add the corn and green beans and let cook for a couple of minutes. You don’t want the corn cooked to a mush; it should still be fresh and pop in your mouth when you eat the rice.
3. Add the cooked rice and turn the heat to high. Stir the rice around, letting it get toasted and drier for about 5 minutes. Add a good amount of stock and stir to let rice absorb it. Lower the heat back down to medium high.
4. Keep adding stock and stirring as the rice absorbs the liquid until it is the consistency you want. Reserve about ½ cup of the broth liquid.
5. Add a few dashes of W. sauce and chili sauce to taste. Turn down the stove and keep the rice hot while you cook the meat. (or if you’re super skilled, you can do the rice and meat at the same time).
6. In another pan over medium high heat, add the chicken and cook until just done. Do the same with the shrimp. You don’t need to remove the meat from the marinade, just pour it all in – but I did start the chicken first, and then added the shrimp after a few minutes since they have drastically different cooking times.
7. Pour in the ½ cup of reserved broth (or however much you have left), scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.
8. Put the rice into a serving dish. Pour the saucy chicken and shrimp on top. I didn’t have any, but some fresh chopped green herbs (especially cilantro) would be great on top.
9. And yes, I am studying. I wrote this recipe on the bus on the way to school so I’m not wasting any study time.

This was the perfect dinner on a cold Friday night after a long, long week at school. We curled up watched old LOST episodes with bowls of this spicy, gingery chicken and vegetable braise lushing over rice. Okay, so lushing is not a word, but it somehow describes this meal. This one’s a keeper.

I’ve been wanting to try braising ever since I read a techniques article in Cooking Light a few months ago. So when I found the perfect ingredients in my fridge for an Asian-inspired dish, I decided to try it. Braising the chicken breast was nowhere as complicated as I thought it would be, and it made the chicken very flavorful and soft. I was just learning this technique, so I made it with one half of a chicken breast (cut into two pieces, one each for Ameir and I). It was actually enough for a very filling meal because of all the vegetables and rice.

To braise, you lightly brown the meat first, remove the meat from the pan, and cover the meat with some foil. Then add the vegetables to the same pan, deglaze with the stock, then simmer, then add the meat back and simmer. I added a middle step and simmered the stock with the vegetables before adding the meat. The liquid should not cover the meat, only come up the sides. Also, the key is to only simmer the meat – cooking it slowly is what gives it flavor and softness.

Click here for the recipe

Asian braised chicken with vegetables

1 chicken breast
3 cups stock (vegetable, chicken, or a mix of both)
2 carrots, sliced
4 scallions, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
10 spears asparagus, I think, sliced
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 can of sliced water chestnuts – about 1/4 cup, cut the slices in quarters
1/2 can baby corn, sliced
1 or 2 tbs pureed ginger-garlic mix
2 tbs at least of soy sauce
chili paste, to taste

*note* – Use a very low sodium stock because when the flavors condense, everything gets salty on its own. Also, these vegetable amounts are approximate, and you can obviously add anything else you want.

1. Pat the chicken breast dry and season with salt and pepper. With the pan on medium-high heat (add oil too), sear the chicken on both sides until brown, but not cooked through. Remove the chicken and cover.

2. Lower the heat a bit and add the onions, scallions, and ginger-garlic puree, sautee for a couple of minutes until soft. Add the carrots, asparagus, and mushrooms.

3. After a few minutes, pour the soy sauce in (I drizzled from the bottle two or three times around the pan) and add the chili sauce (twice back and forth across the pan, and it was *spicy*). Add the water chestnuts (surprisingly, even if you add them now, they will not lose their crispness).

4. Add the stock, stir well, cover, and let the mixture simmer for 30 min. Come back and stir every 5 or 10 minutes. It’ll be quite reduced by the end.

5. Take the stock off the heat and let the stock stop bubbling. Add the baby corn. Move some vegetables around and add the chicken breast in the middle of the pan, such that it can actually touch the pan. (I don’t think that is necessary, though.) Scoop some of the vegetables onto the top of the chicken. Put the pan back onto the heat, cover, and *simmer* (just a few bubbles rising every few seconds – you do not want to boil this. Braising requires cooking slowly). Simmer for about 20 minutes.

6. To serve: make a big pile of rice in the middle of a large bowl. Scoop the vegetables on top. Cut the chicken into eatable pieces and place on top of the pile. Pour the remaining broth on top of the rice.

so. good.

Ugh….Ameir was a bit fluish and allergy-ish today (surprisingly, he got allergies before I did this year) and I was just plain exhausted. We had rice and stuff in the fridge but we both wanted something soupy.

I took out chicken to defrost so I could make chicken noodle soup, but as I looked at the frozen chunk of chicken, I thought, “I can’t do this today.”

I wanted something quick, easy, and flavorful that reminded me of the yummy shrimp dumpling soup I had at Ayesha’s. This soup was born!

The best parts of this soup are the ginger and the chili sauce. These strong spices clear up your blocked sinuses and the hot broth just feels great after a long day. I mixed chicken and vegetable broth for this, but you could really use whatever kind you wanted. The key is simplicity.

By the way, this gingery-spicy-soy broth also makes for a delicious asian risotto. With the leftovers of the broth, I just mixed in some already cooked leftover white rice and let it cook together, stirring, until it turned into risotto. Not authentic, but fast.

Click for recipe

Ingredients

2 14-oz cans of vegetable broth
2 cups of chicken broth
One carrot, sliced very thinly
Two handfuls of mushrooms, sliced very thinly (I used creminis but buttons would work great as well)
1 scallion, green and white parts, sliced very thinly
Six peeled and deveined shrimp (for two servings, I just used enough shrimp for us even though there was more broth left over because reheated shrimp are gross)
1 heaping tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp chili paste, more/less to taste
2 or 3 tsp of soy sauce, to taste

1. Marinate the shrimp in some ginger paste, soy sauce, and chili paste. Set aside.
2. Pour the broths into a soup pot and start them simmering together. Add some chili sauce and garlic-ginger paste.
3. While the broth is simmering, slice the carrots and mushrooms very thinly. I mean thinly. Not chunks. You want these to cook quickly in the simmering broth.
4. Put the vegetables and scallions into the broth. They only need to cook for a few minutes to get tender, but not mushy.
5. Make sure the broth is simmering lightly (you can even turn off the stove but leave it on the heat) and add the shrimp with the marinade. Cook for a couple of minutes until shrimp are pink.
6. Taste and adjust seasonings.
7. Serve!