Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

Like a Sandals vacation, this meal is all inclusive.  Two veggies, a starch, and yer meat.  All in a couple hours.  It's fantastic.  Plus, it's delicious!  This was the first time I'd ever made or eaten stuffed peppers.  It's not as if they're exotic or made with expensive, hard-to-find ingredients...it's just not something that was ever on the menu at our trailer growing up.

But times have changed, and times are strange (as my good friend Ozzy sings) and I am making stuffed peppers.  Here we go:

1 crockpot
4 green peppers (or try different colored peppers if you want.  Be jazzy)
1/2 lb ground meat (If you chose to use 1 lb of meat (like I did), you should buy another pepper and see if you can squeeze it into your crockpot.  One pound of meat would make enough for 5 peppers.  I didn't have 5 peppers.  Some filling was sacrificed.  I used hamburger.  The original recipe called for ground pork.  You could try ground chicken, turkey, moose...really, whatever ground meat you could get your hands on.)
1 c. instant white rice (uncooked)
1 c. frozen peas (uncooked)
3/4 c. bbq sauce, divided (I used Weber Kick'n Spicy...and it was!)
4 oz Velveeta, cubed (ok, so the Hannaford at the Mall only sells their brand of Velveeta in 32 oz logs...but it made more financial sense to buy their 32 oz log than Velveeta's little 12 oz log...so now I have 28 oz of Velveeta at my house.  Not that I'm complaining...)
1/2 c. water

Combine 1/4 c. bbq sauce and the water in the bottom of the crockpot.  Cut the tops off your peppers and take out all the seeds and the membrane (is that what it's called?  That's what I'm calling it.)  In a medium bowl, combine your meat, rice, peas, and 1/2 c. bbq sauce.  Stuff the peppers evenly with the meat mixture, and stand them up in the crockpot.  Put one cube of Velveeta on each pepper.  Cook on low 7 hours or high 2 1/2-3 hours (I went the quick route.) 

You guys!  These were so good.  Andrew said that this was up there as one of his favorites.  I asked him what his other favorites were, and he said he couldn't remember.  I'm so good at taking compliments.

The cheese disappears, which is good if you have a Velveetaphobe for a husband, as I do...

Try these peppers!  I have never been so excited about eating a non-corn vegetable in my life!

Slow Cooker Beer Braised Pork Roast

My lack of posts doesn't mean that I've subjected Andrew to nights of takeout or just left him to fend for himself.  I've just been too busy to make up quippy blogs about our dinners.  But we've had some good ones, and I'm lazy, so I'll catch them for the blog the next time I make them.
What have I been so busy doing?  Well, those wedding photos weren't going to post themselves (I'm sure there's someone still trying to make it through the 500+ pictures I posted on Facebook.  But there are twice that on my Shutterfly share site.  You're welcome that I didn't invite you to view those.)  But really, the bulk of my blog posting dry spell was spent trying to change my last name.  And get a passport.  The federal building is a scary place, my friends.  I shall not want to go there again.
So back to tonight's dinner.  I pulled a pork roast out of the freezer this morning without quite knowing what I was going to do with it.  I consulted the internets and found a simple recipe for slow cooker pork.

1 pork roast (I think they recommended a 5 lb; I think mine was 2?  I didn't check...I was busy trying to peel that weird white jobby off the bottom of the frozen pork)
1 bottle beer (the original recipe said light beer.  Did they mean light colored beer or "less filling, tastes great" light beer?  I screwed them and used a stout beer.  Then I filled that same bottle with water and used that, too)
3 onions, roughly chopped
Some shakes of:
Salt
Pepper
Basil
Marjoram
(I'm never one to measure spices unless it really counts, like in baking...and even then...)

So, put all that stuff in a crockpot and cook it.  Mine went 6-7 hours on high, then I dropped it down to warm, cause it was done, but Andrew and his Biblical sidekick were still installing Shannon's furnace.

While I waited for the Mister to come home, I made homemade gravy.  Please, please, please, don't ever buy jarred gravy or gravy powder or any of that junk.  Gravy is so stupid easy to make.  It goes as follows:

1/4 c. fat drippings from the meat you've cooked (or the equivalent in butter (4 Tbsp), which is what I used today)
1/4 c. flour
2 c. liquid from the meat you've cooked (I did 1 c. of meat liquid and 1 c. water)

Melt your butter over medium heat in a saucepan.  Add the flour and stir (I used a whisk), cooking it for a minute or two.  Slowly add the liquid to the flour mixture and cook, stirring, until the gravy is thick and bubbling, then cook for 1 additional minute after that.  Salt and pepper as desired.
That's it.
After dinner, Andrew asked if we could have mashed potatoes again tomorrow night so he could have more of that gravy.
I saw him dip some of the pork right into the gravy boat (and by gravy boat, I mean Pyrex measuring cup.)
That boy liked him some gravy.
Should have brought him a cup of gravy on our first date instead of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.  Would have taken less time.  And maybe we wouldn't have had a commercial break.
Anyhow, let's see the dinner picture:

I think Andrew was drinking from the gravy boat while I was taking this picture...

It was super delicious, and the leftovers have me dreaming of some sort of tourtiere (that may be fake French for pork pie), which I've never made, but would definitely try (minus the leftover broccoli.)

Try this and MAKE HOMEMADE GRAVY!

Crockpot Strikes Back

I tried to make this recipe last week, but my crockpot got the jitters and wouldn't perform.  I made it yesterday, when I knew I'd be home to make sure the lil bugger would turn on.  And it did.

The problem with "Zesty Italian Crockpot Chicken" is that it's not really zesty.  It's not bad tasting, by any means.  Andrew loved the sauce.  Maybe add two packets of zesty seasoning?  Maybe just call it Chicken Stroganoff (minus the mushrooms.)  It's tasty enough to make, and easy for a day when you're just going to watch "The Walking Dead" all day and knit your lil heart out.

Zesty Italian Crockpot Chicken (taken from Pinterest)

4 chicken breasts
1 8oz pkg cream cheese (I used reduced fat)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pkg Zesty Italian dressing seasoning (this is in the dressing aisle, near the croutons.  Don't get distracted by the croutons.)

The original Pinterest recipe may have had some directions like "soften and cube the cream cheese and whisk the sauce together."  But I'm lazy, so I just chucked it all in the crockpot.  I started it on high for 1 hour, then turned down to low for another 6 hours. I gave it a stir a couple times while it was cooking.  I think it was done before that.  We just weren't ready to eat. 

What looks like macaroni and cheese but doesn't taste like macaroni and cheese?

I made egg noodles (and some gemelli noodles.  Mixed em up.  Oooh weee we're wild in Clifton!) and peas.  I needed the peas for color.  This meal is a dreadful 70's cookbook photo color.  Post-shot, I hit it with some fresh ground pepper.  

The chicken tastes rotisserie-style and it makes a lot.  Try it, but don't expect the zest.  It's not coming to your party.