Crock Full of Beef

The crock pot is the busy person's best friend and right hand man (woman,) always working with you, never against you, and couldn't care less about what the weather's doing outside.

The beauty of the crock pot is that it can be stocked in the morning and left to its own devices all day. No babysitting required. And by the time you drag your sore body home at the end of a hectic day, your crock pot will greet you with a ready-to-serve home-cooked meal!

If you're curious to test the servitude of your crock pot, here's a quick (prep time wise) and easy recipe for barbecue beef.

Crock Full of Beef

4lb roast of beef


2 tbsp cooking oil


1 large onion, peeled and sliced


1/2 cup water


5 cloves of garlic, peeled


1tsp salt


1tsp ground black pepper


2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce

Add cooking oil to frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Remove from heat.

To stock your pot, add 1/2 of the sliced onion to the bottom of the pot. Place the browned roast on top of the onion. Add the water, garlic cloves, salt and pepper and the remaining onion.

Cover and set timer according to the length of your work day for a minimum 4-6 hours or maximum 8-10 hours. The longer you work, the better your roast will be!

Fast forward 6-10 hours ...

Welcome home! Supper's almost ready!

Remove the roast from your trusty crock pot and discard the juices. Shred the meat using a fork and return it to the crock pot.

Add the barbecue sauce and cook on high for another 30-60 minutes, or the amount of time it takes to change into something comfortable and check a day's worth of emails.

Once the last email is answered, you will have yourself one happy crock full of tasty beef!

Serve it over rice or pasta, or make a gourmet sloppy joe and serve it up on a fresh bun.

For an easy all-purpose barbecue sauce, which tastes great with beef, pork or chicken, here's one of my favorites from "Barbecue Secrets Revealed".

The sauce can be made ahead of time and stored either in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

Amazing All Purpose Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Catsup


1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce


2 dashes Bottled hot pepper sauce


1 cup Water


1/4 cup Vinegar


1 tbsp Brown sugar


1 tsp Salt


1 tsp Celery seed


1 tbsp Minced onions

Combine ingredients in slow-cooking pot. Cover and cook over low heat 2 to 3 hours.

Makes 2 to 2 1/4 cups sauce.

Happy crockin'!

Grilling Vegetables - Easy Dinner Ideas

Grilled Corn

Wrap shucked ears in foil. Sprinkle them with water and dot with butter before rolling up individually in generous squares of foil. Grill on high heat for about 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so. Corn will be blackened in places and delicious. You can also include a sprig of fresh herbs, a sprinkle of sea salt or a grind or two of fresh pepper.

Peppers

Grilled peppers are awesome. Leave the pepper whole and grill over high heat, turning often, until blackened and all over. Place the peppers in a bag or wrap in foil to cool and loosen the skin. After about 10 to 15 minutes the skin should peel off easily, then peppers can be cored, seeded and sliced or chopped as desired. Grilled peppers are great on an antipasto tray, in panini or served plain.

Grilled vegetables can be the basis of a great vegetarian meal. For more great vegetarian recipes and easy dinner recipes, visit http://www.dinnersinaflash.com

Portabella Mushrooms

Wash the portabellas and remove the gills with a spoon. Brush lightly with oil. Grill over high heat cap side down until very brown. The cap will fill with moisture. Turn the mushrooms, pressing down to expel as much moisture as possible. When done about 10 to 15 minutes, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Onions

Trim ends of the onion and slice into thick rounds. Secure the rings together by skewering the rounds with long metal skewers. Brush lightly with olive oil and season as desired. Grill onions over high heat about 15 minutes turning halfway through cooking time. Move the onions off to a cooler area of the grill for 10 more minutes or until tender.

Grilled vegetables are also great when camping. For more great grilling recipes and easy dinner recipes, visit http://www.dinnersinaflash.com

Tomatoes

Choose Tomatoes that are firm and not overripe. Slice them in half horizontally and remove seeds. Drain cut side down on paper towels. When ready to grill, season cut side generously with salt and pepper. Grill cut side down until softened and blistering. Turn tomatoes over and continue grilling a few minutes more. When tomatoes are done, drizzle them with vinaigrette or some pesto thinned with a bit of olive oil.

Cooking with Applesauce

When I think of applesauce I think of a childhood memory. My mom used to buy the applesauce with cinnamon in it. Until I was a teen, I thought all applesauce was dark in color and had a cinnamon flavor. I still smile when I see the small servings of cinnamon flavored applesauce in the market, knowing that other moms are also giving their kids this yummy treat.

I love to use applesauce when cooking. I'll share a few recipes that I enjoy using applesauce:

Cookies Made with Applesauce



2 3/4 cups flour


1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed


3/4 cup applesauce


1/2 cup shortening


1/2 -3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)


1 small package chocolate chips (I always prefer milk chocolate)


2 eggs


1 teaspoon salt


1 teaspoon vanilla


1 teaspoon cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/4 teaspoon cloves


Combine all ingredients and mix well. Drop dough by level tablespoonfuls two inches apart on an un-greased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

And what about Applesauce Chicken?

1 fryer, cut up into 8 pieces


1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)


1 cup unsweetened applesauce


1 cup ketchup


1/4 cup cider vinegar


2 tablespoons vegetable oil


2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed


1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce


Pepper to taste





Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook about 5 minutes. Onion should be soft. Add applesauce, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is slightly thickened.

Arrange chicken in casserole dish. Pour most of the sauce over the chicken leaving enough to baste once during cooking. Bake in 350 degree oven until chicken is done.

I love quick breads. These are loafs made in a loaf pan, without yeast. They are quick and easy to make and require no rising time.

Applesauce Bread

2 1/2 cups Bisquick


1 cup applesauce


1/3 cup sugar


1/4 cup butter


2 eggs, beaten


1 teaspoon cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


1/4 teaspoon cloves





Note: Try both sweetened and unsweetened applesauce. Try Splenda, instead of sugar. Try cinnamon applesauce and omit the teaspoon of cinnamon. If you like nuts, add some chopped up nuts to the recipe. There are so many variations on making this quick bread.

Mix all ingredients together. Beat well, medium speed about 2 minutes. Pour into loaf pan and cook about 55 minutes at 350 degrees. Insert toothpick into center of cake. Toothpick should come out clean.

Enjoy these 3 recipes, using applesauce as a main ingredient.

Bon Appetite!!

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes With Easy Preparation

The other day I was looking through my grocer's weekly sale flyer and I found myself thinking, "The easier the preparation, the worse it is for you." Think about fast food. No preparation, but completely unhealthy.

I continued my thoughts through meal preparations - frozen TV dinners, frozen pizza, frozen "meal in a bag", boxed dinners, the list goes on and on. We are so concerned with doing things quickly we are hindering our health by jamming our bodies full of preservatives and things with names too long to state and too difficult to pronounce.

I pictured my grocery store, which wasn't difficult since I'm usually there at least twice a week. I love my grocer's produce section, seeing all the fresh fruits and vegetables; I usually spend most of my time there. However, thinking of all the isles that follow, my thoughts were once again confirmed. Packaged food after packaged food - even in the organic isle! I know that cooking with natural ingredients is the best way to go, but how are we to do it if we're bombarded with packaged, boxed, preserved food?

Thinking about my own cooking, I know that I use more "pre-packaged" items than I probably should. For convenience sake, I often used frozen vegetables and canned tomatoes. I feed my kids boxed macaroni and cheese. However, they don't eat frozen dinners, ready-made frozen chicken, and we never eat at fast food restaurants.

These thoughts drove me to research my own recipes; were there a handful of crock pot recipes with extremely easy preparation that are healthy? I did find a bunch, and although the recipes with canned soups tend to be higher in sodium, I believe I found a nice balance between easy preparation and health. Plus, every recipe on the list has 10 ingredients or less. You can view these recipes at http://www.natalies-recipes.com/website/easy-healthy-recipes.aspx.

When it comes right down to it, we want to be healthy and feed our families healthy meals. However, our busy lives often take over and prevent us from doing so. I hope that I have offered you some options to avoid the frozen dinners and fast food restaurants and create healthy meals with ease.

The Joy of Convection Ovens - They're Not Just for Restaurants Anymore

Nowadays, it is easier for home cooks to buy professional equipment for their kitchens. For example, the convection oven is a tool used by professional bakers worldwide. Convection ovens that restaurants use are highly priced (a few thousand dollars for a good one) and need special wiring. But now, there are a line of table-top, home ovens that provide convection-style cooking, for only a few hundred dollars each.

When looking for convection ovens, decide what features do you want. And, compare different brands. There are many brands, such as German-made Wiesheu, US-made Kenmore or Viking. Do you want a professional oven or one for the home? Freestanding model or table-top? The bigger and fancier it is, the larger the price tag. Mine is a counter-top model that also includes a built-in breadmaker and jam-maker. There are many options to choose from, so check around. The most desired kind of convection oven is the European, or "third element" kind of convection oven (three heat sources). Mine is not a "third element" style, most countertop models aren't, and it does just fine, so don't rule out the two-element kinds, they are great, too. Whatever suits your needs the best, and fits within your budget.

Convection ovens cause breads to have superior crust and texture, just like a bakery. Pastries come out incredibly flaky, such as croissants or puff pastry. It is amazing how beautifully golden and evenly cooked my breads are now. Before, in a gas oven, they came out nice, but now they rise better. Breads baked in the convection oven even have a quality taste, since the strong heat carmelizes the exterior, they have a slightly nutty and sweet flavor. It's because the oven strongly circulates the air around the inside, distributing the heat more efficiently to the food.

Some foods aren't meant to be made using convection style, due to the air movement inside the oven. Making souffles, meringues or anything delicate is discouraged. Also, if you work with parchment, anchor it down in the oven to keep it from blowing all over the place. But, in general, nearly everything can be made in the oven, from cookies and cakes to breads of many kinds. The breadmaker in my unit is fantastic. Just load the included container with the ingredients, and the oven does the rest: mixing, poofing and baking. When it is finished, it just sounds a chime. Pies bake perfectly, my oven has a round baking rack for pizzas and pies, that rotates as it cooks. The oven also makes great roasts and includes both a vertical and horizontal spit to cook with. With convection, the possibilities are nearly endless.

When converting your recipes to convection cooking, the experts say to subtract 25 degrees from the recipe's given setting. Convection ovens cook faster, so also decrease the cooking time by about 25% as well. Multiple racks of cookies can be baked at the same time with superior results to the less evenly cooked multiple batches in a regular oven. That is why most bakeries and restaurants use convection ovens, because they can bake in quantity without sacrificing quality of the finished product.

Don't be afraid to switch to convection cooking. Once you make the change, you will be glad that you did. I know I am. After seeing others use them and tasting their artisan breads, I decided to get my own. If you are a serious bread baker or cook, this oven will be of great use to you. That is why cooking schools use and prefer them to conventional ovens. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed. If anything, you'll be finding excuses to do more baking. Your family will most definitely approve.