Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

I came to conquer the blah-blah-blues of January. Those chill-you-to-the bone winds along with the sad realization that the holidays are over and not to return for an entire year are a definite call for comfort food. 

This, my friends, is the ultimate comfort food. It is in the same class as fluffy buttermilk biscuits, hashbrown casserole, and chicken-noodle soup. But, unlike it's classmates, this Slow-Cooker Beef Stew will fill up your husband as a stand-alone meal. And when the man is full, the mom is happy. And when the mom is happy, everybody's happy. Am I right?

Here's the winning line-up: Stew beef, red potatoes, celery, carrots, beef broth, tomato soup, olive oil, tomato soup, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder.

Brown stew meat in a heavy skillet coated with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with seasoning salt while it's browning. Don't cook through--just brown.

Add the meat to your slow-cooker. Reserve the juices in the pan.

Add the chopped potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker.

Sauté the chopped onions and celery in the reserved juices until onions begin to look clear. 

Add this (including juices) to the slow cooker. Stir in beef broth, tomato soup, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder.

Cook on high 4-6 hours. Serve warm. 

This is some of the yummiest broth you'll ever have in a soup, and the meat is perfectly tender. This is one of those staple recipes you'll come back to again and again! 

(Full recipe below)

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Serves 8

Ingredients

1-1.5 lbs beef stew meat

1 tablespoon Olive oil

2 teaspoons seasoning salt

3 medium red potatoes, chopped to 1 inch pieces

25 baby carrots , chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped

3 cups beef broth

1 large (26 ounce) can tomato soup

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons salt-free Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Coat a heavy skillet with olive oil. Add stew meat and sprinkle all over with seasoning salt. Sear the meat by frying on high, turning meat over until outsides of are just browned.  Use a slotted spoon to add the seared meat to a slow cooker. Keep the juices in the skillet.

2. Add the potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker.

3. Sauté the celery and onion in the leftover meat juices until onion starts to look clear. Add this to the slow cooker.

4. Stir in broth, soup, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Cook on high 4-6 hours. Serve warm.

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Easy Meat and Spinach Lasagna

I think I've made homemade lasagna more in the last 2 months than I have in the rest of my married life. Why? Because I have come up with a truly easy way to make it! Much of the credit has to go to Barilla for making an oven ready noodle I truly trust. 

This is NOT a sponsored post. I'm just sharing my love of this product. I have used other "oven ready" lasagna before, and it always required me to really water-down my recipe for it to come out right. These noodles come out perfectly tender and delicious every time.

The other revelation I will share is my new method for the cheese layers. Typically, the cheese layers of a lasagna have ricotta or cottage cheese, an egg or two, grated parmesan, and spices.  I was in a hurry a few weeks ago and decided to try just mixing prepared pesto with cottage cheese--no eggs, other cheese, etc.  It was the best lasagna I had ever made! 

Here's a quick tutorial. Recipe follows.

Prepare your meat sauce. I brown half sausage and half hamburger, then add 8oz of frozen chopped spinach to the hot meat. ( I've used chopped fresh kale once, and it turned out great!). Stir in 1-2 jars of prepared pasta sauce. Then mix your cottage cheese or ricotta with the pesto. Layer meat, noodles, cheese, meat, noodles, cheese, (3 total noodle ending with meat. Here I wanted to show how the noodles don't touch the sides or each other. They expand beautifully while cooking.

Cover the top with Mozzarella or Italian blend shredded cheese.  Cover with foil and bake 50 minutes at 350°. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes.

Mmmm. My house smelled like a fine Italian restaurant. Or a really good pizza joint.

Here's the full recipe:

Easy Meat and Spinach Lasagna

Serves 9

Ingredients

9 sheets of Barilla Oven-Ready Lasagne

1/2-3/4 lb lean ground beef

1/2-3/4 lb ground pork sausage

8 oz frozen chopped spinach (or chopped fresh kale)

48 oz of your favorite prepared pasta sauce (I like using one Classico Spicy Tomato and Basil one of any other red pasta sauce.)

3 cups cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

1/2 cup prepared basil pesto

2 cups Mozzarella or Italian blend cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. In a large pot, brown beef and sausage. Add in spinach to thaw in hot meat. Mix well.

3. Pour pasta sauce in with the meat and spinach. Bring to a simmer, then turn off.

4. In a separate bowl, mix cottage/ricotta cheese with prepared pesto. 

5. Spread a layer of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Top with 3 sheets of lasagne. The sheets should be 1/2 inch or so apart from each other, and not touching the edges.

6. Spead a layer of the cheese/pesto mix over the noodles, then spread more meat mix over that. Continue making layers in that order (meat, noodles, cheese mix), ending with meat. 

7. Spread the shredded cheese over the final meat layer.

8. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Remove and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Dijon

I LOVE this meal. So does my family. So did the guests we shared it with last night.  I originally made this recipe up as a casserole several years ago when I was part of a moms group that met monthly to make a meal together.

  

However, as my family has grown and become busier, I make fewer casseroles and more slow-cooker meals. They are just so much more practical.

This recipe makes a DELICIOUS, saucy chicken curry with a fun kick from the spicy dijon mustard (NOT hot--my hubby is a total wimp about heat).  

I like to serve it over rice and have a couple of veggies or a salad on the side.  A good naan bread--which I noticed for sale at Costco recently--would be a yummy addition as well.

1. Gather your ingredients.

  The chicken doesn't have to be tenderloins. Any boneless, skinless cut will work. I actually did a mixture of the breast tenderloins and thighs this time. I've done just breasts in the past, and it works great.

2. Put the chicken in the slow cooker. It can be frozen or fresh. 

3. Mix together the rest of the ingredients, except the sour cream.

4. Pour the mixture over the chicken and stir it up a bit.  

5. Close the the slow cooker and cook on low 6-8 hours.

After 6-8 hours, it will look something like this.

6. Use a couple of forks to shred up the chicken in the slow-cooker. 

7. Add the sour cream and stir it well.  Turn off your cooker, but re-cover it until you are ready to serve it up.

So yummy!  

People who don't love curry, love this. 

People who do love curry, love it too!

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Dijon 

2-3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken (frozen or fresh)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup Beer & Brat Horseradish Mustard (or other Dijon mustard)

1/4 cup real bacon bits

1-2 tsp curry powder (I like about 1.5, but if I'm serving pickier guests, I stick with 1)

2/3 cup sour cream

1. Place chicken in slow-cooker. 

2. Mix rest of ingredients except sour cream. Pour this mixture over the chicken, and stir it around a bit.  

3. Cover slow-cooker, and cook on low 6-8 hours.

4. After time is up, shred the chicken while still in the slow-cooker.

5. Stir in the sour cream. Re-cover the cooker, and turn it off.

6. Serve over rice.

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Pesto Chicken Dinner

Warmer weather means two things in my kitchen: Popsicles in the freezer and a slow cooker on the counter.  Summer days are hot enough without adding the heat of a baking oven, am I right?  

And if you are like me, Summer days are busy. I like a dinner that is ready when we are worn out from a day of play in the sunny weather.  

This meal will become a go-to solution in your house. I have served it SO many times--to my family and to guests--and it is ALWAYS a hit.  

This is quite possibly the easiest slow-cooker meal EVER! 

*TWO* Ingredients for the chicken: Frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs (strips or whole thighs) and pesto! I love the Classico Traditional Basil Pesto. I've used other pestos, and they work well, too. 

 

I don't do any actual measuring for this meal. I put a layer of frozen chicken on the bottom of the slow-cooker and spread some pesto on top. For a family of 6, I use about 1/3 of a jar on this first layer...

...And add another layer of chicken with about 1/3 more of the jar on top of that. If you are feeding a crowd, use the entire jar and really pack the chicken into the pot. It cooks down quite a bit.

Now to multi-task. Put a layer of aluminum foil on top of the chicken. I use the heavy stuff--you may want two sheets if yours is regular foil. Wash some potatoes and set them right on top of the foil. Give them a good sprinkling with sea salt. Cover your cooker and leave it on low for 6-8 hours.

Six hours later... I have some cooked 'taters and chicken. See how much it cooks down?

Remove potatoes (we're going to have fun with them in a sec) and the foil.  This is what your chicken will look like pre-shredding.

Use two forks to shred the chicken. It will fall apart with beautiful ease. You will be using a straining spoon to serve it up on to plates. All that leftover broth can be saved to make a mean chicken noodle soup or Italian wedding soup. It is a delicious base.

Now, on to the potatoes. This is your seasoning line-up. I really like this McCormick Italian seasoning. I also  really like Tone's Rosemary Garlic seasoning (which has the salt in it).  I have made these potatoes with both of these seasonings to much applause. 

 

Coat a large frying pan with olive oil (canola or avocado oil work, too).  Chop your potatoes into bite-size chunks and throw them in on top of the oil. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt, Italian seasoning, and ground black pepper over the potatoes and toss to coat.  Turn your burner on high and fry those babies up! I usually do a few more sprinkles of salt and seasoning along the way.

Mmm, mmm. This is the #1 way my family likes potatoes. Even beats french fries.

Toss together a green salad and plate it all up. 

PRESTO!  You've made a delicious Pesto Chicken meal!!

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"BEST ROLLS EVER!"

I love homemade rolls. And, let's face it--who doesn't?!  I have a few recipes in my arsenal that I make from time to time--quick-rise, croissant-style, spoon rolls, etc.

These rolls, however, are my "go-to" recipe. I developed the recipe when we were newly married, and I've been making them since.  This is the recipe that I've shared with people in all the places we've lived (so get ready--if you make these, your friends WILL be asking).  I even taught a class on making these once to a group of stay-at-home moms who were wanting to learn.

Here's what you need: (Recipe's at end of the post.)

Flour, salt, baking powder, yeast, butter, sugar, egg, water. The basics.

Put the yeast and 2 tsp of sugar in the warm water in a large mixing bowl. If you are using a stand mixer--this should be the bowl you use. Let it sit until the yeast starts to grow....

 

....like this. Yours may not look like a doughnut. This is a rare phenomena. Usually it just looks like a big blob of wet, yeasty air.

 While your yeast is growing, melt your butter just until mostly melted (don't boil it). Whisk in the rest of the sugar and the egg. You don't want your egg to cook in there, so make sure your butter isn't scalding hot before you add the egg.

Now mix the butter mixture into the growing yeast water.  It will look about like this. 

Okay, I kinda skip a step here with the pictures because it's not much to see. In a separate bowl mix 4 cups of flour, the baking powder and the salt.   Add this dry mixture to the wet and mix until well incorporated. I use my paddle for this step, then switch to the dough hook for the next step.

Add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The amount varies for me each time slightly. This batch took 3 1/2 more cups total. 

Remove the dough and knead it just enough to form a nice smooth(ish) big ball.

 Put a little (1/8 cup or so) oil in a large bowl and turn the dough over in it once to coat it--seam side down. 

Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it rise until it's doubled in size. This is about 2-3 hours if it's at room temperature; 1-1.5 if it's in a warm place (like sitting on a warm oven or next to a crock pot). 

Here is the double-in-size dough.

Punch it down. (Like my fist indentation?)

Pull off approximately 1/3 cup pieces of the dough, and turn them in your hands so that you are forming a ball that has a seam on the bottom and is smooth on the top. This picture shows the top and the bottom of a dough ball. You don't want to roll it between two palms like you would play-dough. Imagine you are forming the dough around an imaginary marble or bouncy ball. You want it to cover it and have a seam on the bottom. (I hope this is clear...)

Place them in a greased baking dish right next to each other, but not squished. 

Cover and let rise. I put mine in a warm oven (I heated to 170 before then I turned it off when I put them in). They were doubled in size in 30 minutes. 

Here are the un-baked doubled-in-size rolls.

Hot out of the oven!

Mmm, mmm....

I like to butter the tops before serving. Best served fresh and warm.

 

All plated up. I love a colorful meal. 

Best Rolls Ever

(This is what my son exclaimed at dinner tonight. I thought it made a nice title)

2 cups warm water

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) yeast

1/2 cup sugar, divided

1.5 sticks butter

1 egg

8 cups flour (all-purpose, or combination of all-purpose and whole wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1/8 cup canola oil

1. Dissolve yeast  and 2 teaspoons of sugar in warm water. Set aside to allow yeast to begin to grow.

2. Melt butter and mix with sugar. Add egg and mix well. Add butter mixture to yeast that has begun to grow. 

3. Mix 4 cups of flour with baking powder and salt.  Add this to the yeast mixture and stir well.

4. Stir in, then knead in 3-4 more cups of all purpose flour--1/2 cup at a time-- to make a dough of even consistency. Form into a ball. Turn over once in a metal mixing bowl greased with canola oil. Cover and let rise until double in size (2 hours on a warm oven, or 3 at room temperature).

5. Punch down , then form 2-3 inch balls and place in greased baking dish. They will more than fill a 9x13. I use an 11x17.  Cover and let rise 30-45 minutes more in warm place--until doubled in size. 

6. Bake at 375 15-20 minutes, until light brown. Butter tops while hot. Makes 2 dozen.

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