Family Favorite Recipe - Crock-Pot Ranch Stew

We had this for dinner last night. Ranch Stew in the crock-pot. This is one of the recipes that my Mom used to make all of the time. I remember coming home from school and having the house full of the aromas of this cooking all day in the crock-pot. This is comfort food. I used to pick out the beans and pieces of tomatoes, but I don't do that any more! lol I do substitute Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles though for the ground beef and it works wonderfully in this recipe. I haven't eaten red meat since 1991 and love having these products so that I can fix my favorite childhood (and ground beef loaded) recipes in a veggie-friendly way. The canned corn, beans and tomatoes are the regular-sized cans. Not the big ones. I'm sorry, but I don't know the ounces for them. I just grab what my mom did. lol I'm guessing they are around 14 oz cans. The ones a bit bigger than a can of soup..... ;-)

Ranch Stew-

1 pound of ground beef (or the equivalent in veggie ground beef crumbles)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green bell pepper
1 can corn- drained
1 can red beans- rinsed and drained
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1-2 teaspoons chili powder

Saute beef (or "beef" crumbles) onion, and green bell pepper in some oil in a big skillet. Meanwhile, add corn, beans, tomatoes to the crock-pot and turn to medium heat. After the meat is cooked and the onions and bell peppers are soft, add the mixture to the crock-pot along with the chili powder. Stir well. Let cook for 5 or 6 hours. You can turn your crock-pot to low and let it cook all day, if you want. Stir every now and then, if you're home. Serve on top of some cooked rice. Yum. You can also top this with some shredded cheese, if you like, but I like it just the way it is.

Leftovers are so yummy. I'm having some right now actually!
Enjoy!

Family Favorite Recipe - Crock-Pot Veggie Curry

Yum! Here's what we had for dinner last night. We just love curry. I must admit that I went many, many years thinking that I did like it, but it's because I was totally going on its smell from an old McCormick jar of curry spice. Oh, I was so wrong! All of those wasted years that I could have been eating curry! lol I had my first curry at an Indian restaurant in Lincoln. It was our anniversary and we decided to be adventurous and eat a type of food that we hadn't ever had before. I am so glad we did that, because now we are both totally hooked on curries and Indian food. It is so wonderful!

Here is a great and super easy recipe for vegetable curry. It comes from a great book called, "Fresh from the Vegetarian slow Cooker" by Robin Robertson. The only addition that I have made to this recipe is adding the sliced zucchini. Next time, I might add some broccoli florets instead of the zucchini, just to give that a try. Enjoy!

Crock Pot Vegetable Curry-

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 large carrots, sliced on a diagonal
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons good-quality curry powder (I use Spice Islands)
1 teaspoon gruond coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
8 ounces green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (I just use frozen choppd green beans)
15.5 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (sometimes I use these, sometimes I don't!)
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cupes vegetable stock
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
salt

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, and cayenne, stirring to coat.

2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a 3 1/2-4 quart slow cooker. Add the potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, tomatoes. Pour the stock into your empty skillet and scrape off all of that spicy goodness from the bottom of the pan. You don't want to waste that good flavor! Pour the stock into the crock pot. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

3. Just before serving, stir in the peas and coconut milk and season with salt to taste.

Serve over hot cooked rice! YUM!!!!!

Leftovers are awesome the next day.....I'm eating a big bowl of it right now!

God Bless,
di

Family Favorite Recipe - Country Chili in a Crock-Pot - Vegetarian

I have been making this chili for years! I found it in a book called "The TVP Cookbook" by Dorothy R. Bates that I picked up in an awesome health food store when we lived by Little Rock called "Beans & Grains & Things". This chili makes A LOT! It fills up my big crock-pot. The original recipe calls for cooking it on the stove, but I love having it cook all day so that the flavors can develop. I think that the TVP needs that, since it's basically flavorless. Simmering all day in a crock-pot full of yummy goodness could fool most meat-eaters. I'm guessing. lol It's been so long since I've had red meat, I don't remember what it tastes like in chili. But, either way, I have had friends try this chili who eat meat and they all loved it! If you have any questions, please ask. I make this totally different from the instructions in the book so I'm trying to remember how I do it step by step!

Country Chili-

2 cups boiling water
2 cups TVP flakes
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
6 cloves garlic, or more or less to taste (the more the better!)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayeen pepper
2 - 28 oz cans diced tomatoes (I use petite diced)
2 - 16 oz cans red beans - undrained (I sometimes substitute one can of the red beans for a can of Great Northern beans or black beans)
2 cups vegetable broth

1. Pour the boiling water over the TVP in a large bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large crock-pot, add the diced tomatoes and beans with their liquid. Turn crock-pot on to medium/low heat or 8-10 hour cooking time.
3. Over medium-high heat, saute the onions, green bell pepper and garlic until they soften. Remove from heat. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Put the onion mixture into the crock-pot with the tomatoes and beans and stir well. Add the rehydrated TVP and stir well.
4. Pour the 2 cups of vegetable broth into the pan that you were sauteing the onions in and stir to loosen up all of the spices and flavor that has stuck to the pan. Pour the broth into the crock-pot and stir well.
5. Cover and let cook for 8-10 hours on med/low heat.
A before and after photo of my chili. The TVP is very light and not to yummy looking but after cooking all day, it soaks up all of the flavors anda colors from the other ingredients and makes a beautiful and hearty chili!

This is great served with some sour cream, Fritos and shredded cheddar cheese on top! And, of course plain, saltine crackers are awesome with it also. Leftovers can be frozen. Or, a favorite way for us to use them is to mix some chili with 4 oz of Velvetta cheese to make chili cheese dip to eat with tortilla chips. Yummy!

Enjoy & God Bless!
di