I mentioned yesterday that I was going to get a crock-pot heavy meal plan together for this, our last week with the glass-top stove. I’m not that great at meal planning. Most recipes are geared for a much larger crowd than our family of 2, especially crock pot recipes. I can usually scale them down a bit, but I d0n’t like it when they call for a whole can of something, or a whole vegetable of some kind, and then if I half the recipe I’m stuck with a half can of something, or half a vegetable (usually I just add the whole vegetable anyway).
I usually try to plan about four meals for a work week. Something always comes up one night or another, and we end up eating leftovers, or going to dinner with friends, or something. Planning five meals was always too much, so now I try for four.
This week I’m breaking out my Cooking Light cookbook and making a few of the recipes from it.
– Chunky Minestrone with Beef (pg 347). I like how it says “A slow cooker makes this a versatile hands-off recipe” because for a crock pot meal, this one is surprisingly hands-on. The directions call for you to combine the first ingredients and cook on high for one hour, then reduce to low and cook for 5 hours. At that point you’re supposed to add more ingredients and cook on high again for another 45 minutes and THEN you stir in the cooked pasta. Geez. I can tell you right now that’s not happening. Mine will probably cook for 8 hours on low, then my crock automatically goes to “warm”. I’ll put it on high when I get home and add the other veggies, pasta might happen.
– Slow-Cooker Sausage and Vegetable Chili (pg 346). I’m making this one with frozen corn instead of canned, because canned corn is one thing (of like 3 things) that Andrew will not eat. He’ll eat other canned veggies, just not those. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get the right chicken sausage (it calls for chicken sausages with habanero chiles and tequila) but I’ll find something. Our grocery store has in-house-made sausage, so I’ll probably go with some of that. This one has the straightforward “combine all ingredients and cook on low 8 hours” instructions that make me love crock pot cooking.
– Chicken Stew (this one’s from a website). The reviews on this one are mixed. So I’m just going to take the basic idea and run with it. Hopefully I’ll get good results.
– Egg Brunch Casserole. I found this one on Pinterest, it’s from a blog. I have to take a breakfast item to work this Friday, and I’m thinking of bringing this. So I’m going to make it one other day this week as a test-run. Mine will be made without onions, as one of my co-workers is allergic. Fingers crossed the eggs don’t get rubbery.
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