Hello and HAPPY Wednesday Slow Cookerers!! We are most certainly enjoying our summer -- and I hope you are too. I just want to soak up every last bitty
bit of it. :-) ;-) I've not been the best meal-planner lately, because I have time during the day to wander to the grocery store, and it just hasn't been the biggest deal to think about dinner in the 10 or 11 o'clock AM
hour. BUT. the more I hear from you guys, the more I can see that a lot of you don't think about dinner until 4 or 5 PM!!
dude! that is why you are stressed!! don't think about dinner when you are ALREADY at dinner time and are hungry and cranky!! Think about dinner time when you are calm, cool, collect, and in control. Otherwise you're going to end up last-minuting it, and might not be super crazy happy with the choices you end up making when you are over-tired and over-cranky. (geesh, Steph. you sounded kind of mean and bossy there...) I'm sorry! ;-) #itsbecauseIcare --> copied and pasted -- written
originally in fall of 2009(when I was pregnant with baby girl #3!;-)I've been thinking a lot about meal planning lately. Last year took on a life of it's own with the brand-new-recipe-every-single-day-because-I-am-absolutely-bonkers challenge.But it's 2009. And 2009
seems to be the year that we (global along with personal 'we' here) go back to basics. Basics are good.I fell in love with the slow cooker because of how I could stretch meals, and make-do with pantry staples. I've slow-cooked and re-purposed with the cooker this past week or so, and would like to share.Last Saturday, my mom hosted a breakfast
to celebrate a visit from our Scottish relatives (not these ones; different ones, yet still related!) I made the Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole, but mixed it up a bit. Mom didn't want meat. So I cut the meat, added mushrooms
and another bell pepper, and upped the seasoning to make up for flavor since there wasn't any sausage. It turned out great.On Sunday, I made Tilapia in Foil Packets, served with quinoa and broccoli. Instead of using cheddar cheese, I used shredded Parmesan--it was fantastic, and the kids each ate two servings.Yesterday (Monday), I made Taco Soup. Taco soup is still the hands-down go-to meal when I want to ensure the kids eat a hearty meal. Adam took leftovers for lunch today, and we still have 1 quart left for a planned leftover night.Today I've got lasagna bubbling away in the cooker. It's raining BUCKETS, and I have no interest in
going to the store, so I made due with stuff we had in the cabinets and freezer.For pasta sauce, I'm using Trader Joe's Vodka sauce. For meat, I've cut up 3 frozen chicken and apple sausages (Aidells) and 5 gluten-free
Italian Meatballs (Coleman Natural, purchased at Costco).We didn't have any ricotta in the house, so I left it out, and used leftover mushrooms from the Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole, some spinach, and chopped broccoli from Sunday night's Tilapia dinner.For cheese, I used shredded Mexican blend (not Italian, oh no!) I bought on sale to go with the
Taco Soup. I also used 2 string cheeses.And for the pasta: I only had 3 Tinkyada lasagna noodles in the house, so a few of the layers are with brown rice penne from Trader Joe's. I didn't follow my own recipe AT
ALL. But this will be a good dinner, I can already tell---and it was "free."Wednesday is leftover night. I always throw in a leftover night (lots of times 2!)----we clean out the fridge and make-do with stuff already in the house. Sometimes I re-purpose leftovers and make fried rice. If I make anything "fried" tomorrow, it will be fried quinoa, because I still have 2 cups leftover from Sunday.On Thursday I'm going to make Cheeseburger Soup, and try to figure out why the cheese is separating on people. It may mean I'm going to try just stirring in the cheese cubes at the end. I'll let you know.updated: okay, I tried it with adding
the Velveeta and milk at the very end, and it works just fine that way. There is plenty of moisture in the pot from the broth and browned meat to cook the potatoes. The milk and cheese melted almost instantly, and by the time the table was set, it was good to go. I tried blending a bit with a stick blender to thicken the broth. it worked.also, I made the Not-Too-Spicy Bean Dip for an afternoon snack. I didn't have taco sauce in the house, but I did have buffalo wing sauce (I kind of always have buffalo wing sauce. it's probably not normal), so I added 2 capfulls into the bean blob. I also stirred in about 1 tablespoon of sour cream for
some added moisture, and a handful of shredded cheese (still left from Taco Soup night). The kids loved it, and ate a lot. The buffalo wing sauce provided a slight tang and kick without being spicy.Friday is the school's pasta feed (I will bring pre-cooked brown rice penne in a tupperware) that I somehow agreed to oversee. hmm.Saturday is Brown Sugar Chicken--- always a big hit in our house and on Sunday, I'm going re-make the Fish Chowder. This is my older daughter's most-requested meal, but I got a hilarious email about how it stunk up Sherri's
house--I'm so sorry Sherri! So I'm going to try adding the seafood at the very end to keep sensitive noses happy. :-)We will probably start the next week with a leftover night and will eat additional leftovers for lunch.The crockpot is your friend, use it! --> end of post written in 2009. :-) So let's think about this -- are you putting your wonderful slow cooker machine to work so you don't have to? Decision Fatigue is a REAL thing. And I don't want you to feel defeated as you make your way through your days, weeks, months, and years --- The slow cooker lends itself to meal planning — in order to plug in the
pot in the morning, you need to be sure that the food is already in your kitchen.
This year's bundle has the 30 Dump and Go Freezer meals. .
Which means that all you need to do is shop ONCE and you get a fully stocked freezer for an entire month! Due to a family allergy, all of the included recipes have been made with completely gluten-free ingredients. If you are not
gluten-free, simply ignore my notes.
The bundle ALSO includes: - 30 Days to a New You digital planning journal
- Clean Less Play
More: Housekeeping for Normal People
- AND the Freezer Meal Guide, Cards, and Book
All of the recipes chosen were well-reviewed and tested on my A Year of Slow Cooking site and were featured in my cookbooks. Curious to see which recipes are included the freezer meal book? Here you go!
enjoy the rest of your week!! happy slow cooking!
xoxo steph
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