Crock Pot Tips

I know if you go by my recent focus on french fries you would think that I eat junk food all the time.  The truth is that I only have fast food once or twice a week.  The rest of the time my handsome husband cooks up a storm.  My favorite thing to eat right now are his Crock Pot creations; he has no recipes and no two ever taste the same.  I wanted to share a few of his techniques that really work to make each meal special.

• Spice and then sear the chicken/meat before adding it to the crock.  You should not cook it, just sear in the spices on the outside.  If you do not have a go to spice mix then you can sprinkle on a bit of rosemary, paprika, crushed garlic, salt and pepper.  This helps the meat have it's own flavor.
• Use canned soup or broth as a flavor base, there are many great low sodium options.  We like cream of mushroom best right now.
• Don't add too much water.  I like a stew consistency so we don't add much water, usually only about 1/2 cup is added to the cream of mushroom or other condensed soup.
• Cook meat and root vegetables for a few hours then add the more delicate vegetables for the last hour or two. Try new vegetables that you would not normally add to the crock pot, like snow peas, broccoli crowns and spinach.  Adding them in last also allows for them to taste fresh instead of too mushy.
• Pour the finished stew over brown rice to give additional texture and fiber;)  I LOVE a brown and long grain wild rice mix.

I whipped up a nice PicMonkey college to show some of the ingredients of a recent creation.  The carrot pictures show the root vegetable covering the meat.  The picture with white sauce over the root vegetables is our cream of mushroom soup.  Esteban cooked that root vegetable mix for a few hours then added the green mix you see with snow peas.  This one had a sweet note with the carrots and sweet potatoes, that was balanced by just a bit of heat with Cayenne pepper.  It smelled so wonderful and tasted even better!

Have a terrific Tuesday!!

Do you like the new look?