Bye-Bye Crockpot

“Everything’s impossible until somebody does it.” – Batman

Yep, it's a goner! 

Ran the dishwasher and then while unloading it I grabbed out the lid to my new crockpot and it just shattered all over the place. Big shocker!!!

While the shock wears off, head on over to my favorites gluten free (you will never know these recipes are gluten free) Crockpot website. A Year Of Slow Cooking She has a recipe for EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!!! Our faves are the Rotisserie Style Chicken it rivals Costco! and Refried Beans, I do add a bit of bacon grease to these

Always read to the bottom of Stephanie's recipes because she give you a review by her family and any tweaks that she decides to make after they try the recipe.

Enjoy, while I shop for the new Crockpot or many an InstaPot???

Moe

YUMMY Fall Gluten FREE Recipes

As you have read, my focus has been on getting the new homeschool year planned out and started...next week I will share how our first week of homeschool crashed and burned, yet was profitable for the Homeschooled Young Man.

As I was taking a much needed break from life, I came across this wonderful website from My Gluten-Free Kitchen...YUMMY is all I can say. I printed out several of her recipes and plan to make them this week. I just love the fall time of year! I want warm, soft foods like casseroles and Michelle over at My Gluten-Free Kitchen has just the recipes.

Here recipes are all gluten free, but some of her links to other websites/blogs do not have gluten free recipes, but many of them that I looked like could be easily made gluten free. Such as replace soy sauce with gluten free soy sauce or replace noodles with gluten free noodles. All easy fixes so check her out!

Just a few recipes she offers up
Buckeye Brownies
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Snickerdoodles
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches

Visit Michelle and enjoy some wonderful fall recipes.

Moe

3 Reviews in 1 Just For You!

 

What more could I ask for than to be able to review an awesome product from Simplified Pantry!The  Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free Simplified Pantry is available for purchase.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this PDF file, there are so many tips and tricks for the gluten free and dairy free lifestyle. For those of us that live this each and every day, it's been a blessing to find some new recipes to add to the weekly menu plan.

Lots of slow cooker or crockpot meals for the coming hot summer days to keep your home cool, yet get good quality foods on the table for your family. No fancy ingredients, but lots of pantry items in these recipes. I love how there is a Master Pantry List.

 

An entire page of marinades!! Perfect for summer grilling.

 

How many of you say that you want to eat more healthy fish, but are not sure how to cook it? YUMMO!! 3 fish recipes.

 

Pasta on a gluten free diet? YOU BET! Some delicious looking recipes in the Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free Simplified Pantry recipes.

 

Looking to add more fiber? They have bean recipes just for you!

 

Mexican they got that too!

 

Nice hearty Soups & Stews, 4 pages worth.

 

Full meal salads, side salads and veggie dishes too.

 

Desserts like Peanut Butter Cookies, Berry Sorbet, Chocolate Mousse and many more sweet treats.

 

And last but not least a menu planner! LOVE that! Though I wish that I could type in the PDF menu planner, that would be a wonderful added touch. I could type my menus and print it out.

 

My only complaint about the Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free Simplified Pantry is that it suggests using frozen meat in your crockpot/slow cooker, I DO NOT AGREE WITH DOING THIS. NOR DO I ADVOCATE DOING THIS.  I will admit to having done this in the past before I took a food sanitation class and learned that the meat ends up being 3 different temperatures while cooking in the crockpot/slow cooker. Some of the meat it hot, some cool and some warm, which ends up being a hot bed for bacteria growth. So each time you are doing this you risk harming your family with food poisoning (that flu bug that everyone seems to get can actually be caused by food poisoning).

 

This is for any level of cook, I did not come across anything at all that was too hard or had any weirdo ingredients. I printed out a copy of the PDF and took it to one of my gluten free cooking classes that I teach at our local college for the students to look it over. Many of the people commented that the recipes looked easy and doable.

The Simplified Pantry Blog has a few other products including a regular meal planner, Simplified Pantry. That has similar recipes to the gluten free/dairy free version. I did see some that were clearly gluten containing meals, but they could all be pretty easily converted to gluten free/dairy free recipes.

 

You will also find available for purchase the Paperless Home Organization ! This is awesome and works as a binder system in a digital age. Organize everything on your Apple and Android devices!!! Both PDF and Kindle versions are available. This homeschool, unorganized, computer no-nothing Momma...lol. Loves this. Step by step instructions on how to set it all up. This has come at the perfect time for me. I have some summer free time to play with this and have it all up and running by the start of school. This is SOOO COOL!!! I totally recommend this. 

Hope you enjoy these products, I sure have. I really enjoy being a part of the TOS Review Crew, but this review really WOW'd me, it was something fun for me as the Momma and I learned some new menu tricks that I have enjoyed implementing in our home. Thank you TOS!!

  

 

Beef Stew slow cooker recipe

It's finally cooling off here a bit so I've started cooking some hearty meals around here. I use my crockpot/slow cooker all summer long, but when it's time for school to start, I get that slow cooker crockpot really fired up! This time I made some Corn Free, Gluten Free & Dairy Free Beef Stew.
I found some flank steak on sale, cut that up into small pieces, cut up some organic carrots and added some garden fresh green beans. Poured in 2 cups of water (I don't always add water to my crockpot, but I wanted some beef broth to put in the freezer), added some fresh ground pepper, about 3 teaspoons of Grandmas Molasses (corn free & gluten free-had to call the company to find this out), 2 tablespoons of Soy Sauce (corn free/gluten free brand), 1 tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos (tastes like soy sauce to me but with less sodium and it's also Certified NON-GMO liquid protein concentrate), if you don't have Braggs, just add more soy sauce, and finally I added a teaspoon of Sea Salt.
If you don't have the allergy restrictions you can add mixed veggies, corn, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes and whatever seasoning sounds good to you.

I'm sort of funny about my beef, I like it very tender. So I put it in the crockpot for 3 hours on high and then about 5 hours on low. You can just leave it on low all day or put it on high for 4 hour.

I did not serve anything with this since I'm sort of doing a rotation diet so as not to get another allergy started. But this would be good with the beef stew and juices poured over mashed potatoes, rice or brown rice pasta. 

Next week I will share my new dairy free, corn free and gluten free cantaloupe sorbet recipe.......SO EASY!!  I'm loving my new ice cream maker BIG TIME!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Moe

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!!

School is fast approaching and I wanted to give you one of my all time favorite websites for cooking during the school year  the Crockpot 365 blog.

The entire site is gluten free, but the recipes are for everyone!  Look under the Slow Cooking tab and click on Index for a listing of the recipes. She also gives a review along with reader comments after each recipe.
We love the  Baked Oatmeal, Chicken Teriyaki , Rotisserie-Style Chicken (this is WONDERFUL! and tastes like the expensive store bought). After I make this one I add about a cup or so of water to the chicken broth in the bottom of the crockpot and then I freeze it for later use YUM!
Check it out for easy meals during the school year.
Moe

Freebie from a friends blog

Lynns Kitchen Adventures blog is offering a really cool menu planning print out for FREE! Can't beat that. She also has lots of neat things over there. Check her out she has regular recipes and a section with allergy recipes. Very tasty ideas.

I notice that I feel much better about having to follow a restricted allergy free diet when I plan ahead. If I don't plan and then meal time comes around, it's very hard to just grab something and eat it. I had a rough patch today. I made up a big batch of chicken, potatoes, celery and carrots in the crockpot. It was wonderful, but we were running low on the veggies, so I thought I would add my favorite Asian rice noodles. Cooked them up and had a small bowl of them with some butter on top, I felt not so great for awhile, fuzzy brain, racing heart, aching joints all the sudden, flushed face. Our son grabs the noodle bag out of the trash and says

"MOM!!! These have cornstarch in them!"

I was shocked, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought them!  It's plain as day, WATER, RICE, CORNSTARCH. Nothing hidden, but I sure did goof and now I am paying for it.  And I ruined a yummy batch of food that I made for myself. Oh, well my guys will enjoy it.

Live and learn.

Moe

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken recipe

In keeping with the pantry challenge theme I'm are shopping from the freezer this week. I have 1 whole chicken and 1 cut up chicken left. So today we are having either Rhodie (a Rhode Island Red rooster) or Freddie (a Leghorn), both were 4-H Grand Champions in 2010. These chickens fit nicley in a crockpot.

Gluten Free Rotisserie Chicken

4-5 lb chicken (I think we are using a 3lb one today)

2 tsp kosher salt or more if you like it salty like the store bought ones, I skipped the salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder (I would go 2 tsp next time)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp Italian seasoning (I would make this 1 tbls next time)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I think I will skip this next time it was a bit spicy for me)

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch of chili pepper (if you want) I used chili powder (too much spice for me)

4 cloves garlic

1 yellow onion quartered

Skin the chicken if you want to (I don't)

Remove all the goodies from the cavity

mix all seasonings and sprinkle inside and outside the chicken

put garlic and onions inside chicken cavity.

Put bird in breast side DOWN in crockpot.

DO NOT ADD WATER-no liquid is needed for this recipe.

Cover and cook on high 4-5 hours or low up to 8 hours. The longer you cook this the more tender it is. I am also going to put a few washed/scrubbed potatoes in the bottom of the pot to cook. YUM!

For safety sake when I have the time, I put the crockpot on high for the first hour to make sure that the temperature gets good and hot and then I turn it to low for the rest of the day. Always cook thawed chicken in the crockpot NEVER frozen since the inside of the bird stays at the wrong temperature for too long while in the crockpot and bacteria can start to grow.

This was pretty good, both my guys liked it, but it was too spicy hot for me, I like a bit of heat, but this was really warm. So you can see my changes for next time in (   ).
If you are not daring enough to try this recipe, just sprinkle your chicken with Lawyr's Seasoning Salt and turn the crockpot on. YUM!!! But way too much sodium for this body  :O( 

Moe

Month 2 of my Pantry Challenge & recipes

Tonight for dinner we had Chicken Stew as I call it. All from the pantry except for the chicken (did not want to have to butcher a hen for dinner....lol. So I let Tyson do the dirty work!)

I sliced up a bunch of celery, carrots, onion and put them in some olive oil and sauteed them.

Dumped those into the crockpot with a 32 oz container of NO SALT GF chicken broth,

cut up the chicken breasts (3 of them) added those to the crockpot,

sprinkled in some cumin (1/2 tsp or so),

1 tsp of poultry seasoning,

1/2 tsp of Kitchen Bouquet,

1/2 tsp of Marjoram.

A can of black beans drained and rinsed 

a large can of green beans (I think around 30 oz or so?) drained and rinsed.

I cooked that on high for an hour and then on low for about 3 hours. But you could put it on low all day and just leave it. I had some brown rice in the fridge leftover so I tossed that in about the last hour. It was a hit!!

Moe's Gluten Free/Dairy Free Chicken Stew

A fine meal like this was not be complete without a wonderful dessert!!

Moe's Gluten Free/Dairy Free Peanut Butter Truffle Brownie

1 box of Gluten Free Hodgson Mill Brownie Mix (use regular brownie mix if you can eat wheat  :)

I used 2 eggs to make the cake like brownies and followed the recipe on the box.

Then to make the peanut butter filling (use Sunbutter if you have allergies to peanut butter)

Filling

1/2 cup Fleischmann's salt free margarine (it's dairy free too!), softened (or use real butter)

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons Almond/soy or dairy milk (I added a bit more to make it more creamy)

Blend with mixer until creamy. Then I cut the brownie in 1/2 with a knife, layed on the filling and then put the top of the brownie on. It's 1/2 gone already! lol

Moe

Soup recipe for you

Come on over to one of my favorite blogs "The Gluten-Free Homemaker" she has a wonderful recipe for beef vegetable soup slow cooker just click on the link and make a big crockpot full of this yummy goodness!

If you are not gluten free, just use regular flour in this recipe.

While the crockpot is cooking away, relax with  good book and your kids snuggled up around you and make some memories.
Enjoy!
Moe

Soup Supper anyone?

This is day 11 in my own pantry challenge and I found some soups hidden away in the cabinet. Soup suppers can be a very frugal way to feed your family. Think ahead in the day and get the bread machine out too. Make some sort of yummy bread, that always makes a meal seem special, or swing by the grocery store and pick up a loaf of crusty french bread if you are not gluten free. Pop a pan of brownies in the oven too. It's little things like that, that keep my husband from saying "Were only having soup?"

Also you might think about adding to your soup or mixing flavors, sometimes I will mix the Chunky soups or Progresso ones. Such as 2 different types of beef soups or 2 different types of potato soups and add some extra corn, green beans, peas, carrots, canned potatoes, whatever your family likes, this way it sort of bulks up the soup, as my guys don't care much for runny soups. Sometimes I add a bit of cornstarch (1/2 cup cold water to 1 tablespoon corn starch, stir it up well and add to boiling soup, stir until thickened, about 3 minutes).

If you make a potato soup you might try sprinkling some cooked bacon on top or a touch of cheese (if you can have dairy) and even some parsley. YUM!! Search the web for some very frugal potato soup recipes!!

For the homeschooling mom soup suppers can be a huge blessing!! Easy meal, no planning and you can even let the kids pick 'their own can of soup'. Or you can dump all the ingredients into the crockpot first thing in the morning, get the bread machine up and running and dinner cooks while you teach. What a blessing a soup supper can be.

Enjoy a soup meal each week and I bet you will save a few calories and $$ in the new year!

SOUP's ON!!

Moe