Crock Pot Crazy Part One: Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

With my life being crazy busy these days (grad school is ROUGH), I've been looking for ways to eat delicious food, be healthy, and not spend 5 million hours in the kitchen. This weekend, I spent two days using my beautiful crock pot to fill my fridge/freezer with delicious food for this coming week, as well as taking one pot of it to the church during General Conference.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion 
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 serrano chile, seeded and minced (Walmart in Portales didn't have these... I got a jalapeno instead)
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) (I used 2 cans)
• 1 1/2 cups cubed peeled baking potato 
• 1 cup diced green bell pepper 
• 1 cup (1-inch) cut green beans
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
• 3 cups fresh baby spinach 
• 1 cup light coconut milk 
• Lemon wedged (I didn't do this... I forgot to buy one.)

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and carrot; cover and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Add curry powder, sugar, ginger, garlic, and chile; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
2. Place onion mixture in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Stir in chickpeas and next 8 ingredients (through broth). Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours or until vegetables are tender. Add spinach and coconut milk; stir until spinach wilts. Serve with lemon wedges.

Robin Robertson, Cooking Light 
OCTOBER 2004

Let me tell you! It was YUMMY! Warm, healthy, wholesome. Perfect for the freaky cold spell we had this weekend! 

Toddler approved meals

I have a lovely toddler who is not into eating a lot of vegetables. As of late I have decided to try and find ways to get her to eat her veggies without her even realizing it. This recipe portions and freezes well for make ahead meals (which is great for me since baby #2 is almost here and cooking meals will be out the window soon), and it is pretty delish even for adults.


Broccoli and Spinach Pasta
1 TBL butter
1 TBL flour
1 cup milk (for a lighter sauce, use skim)
1/2 cup grated cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cooked pasta of choice, about1 cup uncooked (I recommend wheat or fortified pasta)
Vegetables of choice, chopped finely

Melt butter and stir in flour. Once it is smooth slowly add in the milk, using a whisk to get rid of any chunks. Bring to a light boil so that it thickens. Reduce heat, add in cheese, salt and pepper, and voila! Sauce is ready.
Add in vegetables of choice to your sauce and keep on low heat so they get soft. **If you are doing a lot of hard vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc I would recommend steaming them quickly in the microwave beforehand to save time.**
Add in cooked pasta and you're ready to go. With the extra pasta (if there is any) divide it into plastic bags portioned for your toddler and freeze. It reheats in about 1 min, stir after 30 seconds.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it is simple, completely flexible, and healthy! I know that the makers of baby/toddler foods have the best intentions, but this is preservative free and way cheaper than buying pre-made food.

Party Planning

This is an ode to my mother who may be the best party thrower ever! Here are some preliminary tips on party planning...

The beginning stages

1. Pick a theme. My mom is already planning, purchasing, and scheduling her Halloween Party. She has been in the works for quite some time, I'd say a good six months. Not all parties need this much advanced planning, but hers does. The theme this year is like an Old Hollywood/ celebrity theme. Once the theme is narrowed down it makes it super easy to start collecting decorations, invites, etc. 
2. Start Collecting. Nothing is worse than falling in love with the last xyz at a store, then to find out that it can't be ordered in time. For Julia's birthday party I found the cutest little gift boxes at a garage sale in April as well as themed cupcake decorations at a post-Easter sale. If I had waited until June to get these things I probably would not have found what I was looking for or I would have had to of settled for the next best thing. I also purchased all of the table clothes, cups, plates, decorations a month in advance just to make sure we had it all and I didn't have to stress last minute. Seasonal items also tend to be available in greater supply months before the actual holiday.
3. Make your guest list. Even having a tentative idea in your mind of how many people are coming will help with small last minute details. Try and send out a Save The Date card, text, FB invite, etc so that people have plenty of time to get work off so they can be there. This is especially important at catered events, like our Halloween Birthday party 2 years ago, or say, a wedding...
4. Make a tentative menu. Start collecting recipes, advice, ideas, etc to help make food planning and preparation a breeze. I had my menu made about a month in advance for Jackson's baby shower and I was able to tweak it accordingly. I didn't have to stress about food...one less thing.

I will stop here. These are the first 4 steps to a great party, but trust me there are more to come.

Baby Shower Crafts

For my baby shower  I was on a tight budget so  I decided to make some of the decorations for the party. First we have a customized banner showcasing Jackson's name. 

First cut a 12x12 piece of scrapbooking paper or cardstock into a 6x12. From the top make a mark at 6" and from the bottom make marks at the 3" and 9" mark. Cut from the top down to your 3" mark, up to the top to your 6" mark, then back down to your 9" mark and finally up to your top end. This will give you a total of 6 flags per 12x12 sheet.

For the letters I used a cricut to cut them, however, if you do not have one you can always use a marker to draw them in, or print letters out using your computer and cut them out by hand. 

To attach the flags together I used some neutral ribbon and stapled each flag on, using 3 staples per flag to secure it. I have also seen people sew the paper across the tops to make the banner, that works, too.

We also made tie and bowtie onesies. The first step is to wash, dry, and iron your onesies and the fabric you intend on using for them. I free-handed my pattern for the tie by drawing it onto computer paper, cutting it out, and making sure it was even. 

Attach the pattern onto the fabric using a couple of pins. Then cut it out. We used fabric glue to attach them (careful! the glue can run through to the back so make sure you put a piece of cardboard inside the onesie) and to finish them you just embroider around the edges, like so:

Lastly, I made this cute little stand for Jackson's scrapbook. It was accompanied by little cards that everyone could write notes on for him that I will later put in said scrapbook.

I used a 6x6 piece of scrapbook paper as my base. Then I used solid pieces of cardstock to frame out his name, instructions, and the ultrasound photo. The "Coming Soon" I cut out with a cricut, but if you don't have one you can always use stickers or print out the letters from your computer and cut them out by hand. 

Tomatoes 3 ways, part 3

Finally, part 3, and this is an easy one!

Texas (or Cowboy) caviar

5 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 jalepeno, seeded, veined, and finely diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 can corn, drained
1 can beans (black or pinto), drained
2 small avocados, diced
1 lime, juiced
2 TBS olive oil
Ground red pepper, add as preferred.

Add all chopped ingredients into a large bowl. Mix the lime juice, olive oil, and red pepper in a small bowl and pour over the chopped ingredients. Mix gently (the avocado will loosen up a lot if you over mix it) and enjoy!

Tomatoes 3 ways, part 2

This is one of Brenan's favorite things that I make. ever. We can literally eat an entire bowl in one sitting.

Pico de Gallo

5 tomatoes, seeded, diced
1 bell pepper, seeded, diced
1/4 - 1/2 (depending on size) white onion, diced
1 jalapeno seeded, de-veined, diced (if you like heat, keep in the seeds/veins)
Juice of 1/2 - 1 lime, depending on size, juiciness, and preference
2 Tablespoons salt  (sounds like a lot? Not really. It brings out all of the flavors and enhances everything magnificently)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
cilantro (optional, we don't use it...)

Chop everything, mix, and enjoy! I recommend adding the onions last so you don't cry. Also, add half of your salt and lime juice,  then do a taste test. It is always easier to add more, but if you overdo it you're stuck with a strong pico.

Tomatoes three ways: Part 1

Recently my mom gave me a ton of tomatoes, like more than one person could use in a month...So, I decided to be creative and get cooking so that they didn't go bad, plus it's good practice since I have tomato plants growing in my garden.

Fresh pasta sauce

Ingredients
8-9 vine ripened tomatoes (or slicing tomatoes)
3 TBS olive oil
2 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS Italian seasoning
2 TBS salt
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper
**optional** basil and red pepper flakes

Roughly chop up your tomatoes. I threw out most of the "guts" i.e. seeds and insides, but I reserved some just in case my sauce got too dry.

 

The guts

Put your tomatoes in a pot on medium heat (with your olive oil) to cook them down. As they cook down the tomatoes will peel themselves and you can pick out the skins if you don't like them. Add all of your seasonings and continue to let the tomatoes render out, about 20 min.

After 20 min turn your heat down to lo/simmer and if your tomatoes start to get too dry, add in some of the guts that you didn't throw out. After about 15 more minutes, take out 2/3 of your tomatoes and puree them in a food processor/blender/magic bullet. I did a rough puree, dumped 1/2 back in, then finely pureed the rest. I like texture in my sauce, but if you do not, then puree all of the tomatoes until fine.

This was enough sauce to cover about 1/2 lb of cooked pasta, to which I also added 2 chicken breasts.

Chicken Breast Secret

 Heat your oven to 350. In a pan on the stove (medium heat) add a little oil before adding your chicken breasts and then sear your chicken for about 2 min on each side, giving them a nice golden brown color. Transfer them to your oven for about 10-15 min (depending on their thickness) and you have a perfect chicken breast that didn't dry out on the stove!