Quick Crockpot Chili

This recipe uses one of those McCormick or French's chili spice seasoning packets, though homemade chili spice seasoning would work just fine. Basically, I think its a combination of chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and cumin. I use the packets for their simple convenience, though we do add extra chili powder, cayenne pepper and chipotle flavored tabasco sauce for some extra spiciness!

This recipe makes enough chili for us to eat for about three days! This is very impressive given Tony's appetite :).

I normally serve the chili over brown rice, but you could try all kinds of variations. Growing up in Ohio introduced me to Skyline chili (blech, gag, barf), which has a hint of cinnamon in it, and is served over spaghetti noodles. I've served chili over egg noodles before, which was actually surprisingly good! There is obviously a lot of room to play here (chili dogs, chili-cheese fries, etc.), so be creative!

Quick Crockpot Chili

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef (between 85-93% lean)
1 packet chili spice mix (or about 1-2 Tbs of pre-prepared chili spice mix)
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can red kidney beans, undrained
1 can black beans, undrained
(optional: 1 can corn, drained)
1 tsp Tabasco sauce*
1/2 tsp chili powder*
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper*

*only add this if you want a little extra heat

Garnish: shredded cheese and/or sour cream

Procedure:

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once beef is cooked through, drain and place in crockpot.

2. Add all other ingredients to the crockpot except the cheese and sour cream. Mix thoroughly.

3. Cook on high for about 1-1.5 hours, or until piping hot. Serve over rice or noodles, and garnish with cheese, sour cream, or whatever else tickles your fancy!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I've used this recipe multiple times now, and each time I make it I am more impressed by how something so simple could taste so good! Since this recipe uses a crock pot, you can prepare everything in the late morning, go about your day and when you come home (to a very fragrant house), the meat is ready to be served.

Note: Tony did the dirty work of touching the raw meat. I can't really stomach that quite yet.

I found this particular recipe here, after a quick Google search of "pot roast recipes." I had to change the recipe a little bit, as it was far too much food for just two people to eat, even taking into consideration leftovers.

Yay, more icky, raw meat pictures!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Makes 4-6 Servings

Ingredients:

1 beef roast, about 2 lbs

1/2 packet of Italian dressing mix

1/2 packet of ranch dressing mix

1/2 packet of turkey gravy mix

1/2 cup water

Procedure:

1. Place the roast in the crock pot, ensuring that the most surface area is in contact with the bottom of the crock pot.

2. Mix the dry ingredients, then add the water and whisk briefly, until there are few lumps. Pour over the roast.

3. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. The meat will be tender "fall apart" when it is done. Allow the meat to rest a few minutes on the cutting board, then pull apart with forks and enjoy!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Side Note: My mom and I both cooked this dish for Easter supper this year, as a way to be "together" while still being 2,000 miles apart. I think we've started a fun tradition!

Grandma Ryno's Peanut Clusters

Have y'all noticed that I have posted more in the first 2 months of 2009 than I did in all of 2008? I think this occurred because of 2 reasons: 1. I enjoy this hobby, and I put a lot of my free time into cooking/baking and photographing, and 2. I found out how to automatically post a few weeks ago, which means I write up a whole bunch of things on Sunday (my day off), and they can be automatically posted during the week. How cool is that!?!

On to the recipe...

Grandma Ryno sent us delicious peanut cluster candy during Christmas time, and let's face it---Tony didn't eat more than one bite. I took care of the rest, to say the least. When I asked her for the recipe, I was expecting to have to use a candy thermometer, and slave diligently over the stove, paying for my sin of gluttony.

I was surprised to find that this recipe is one of the easiest I've encountered, all thanks to the crockpot! This is a "dump-and-go" recipe, which can sit in the crockpot for a few hours while you clean up the house (= take a 2 hour nap to sleep off a migraine).

I hope you all enjoy this recipe, which could easily be modified with different nuts and perhaps also different kinds of chocolate to suite a variety of tastes!

Ingredients:

1 160z jar of dry roasted peanuts
1/2 12oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 oz (half a brick) of Baker's German sweet chocolate
1 1b white almond bark

*Note, I'm not exactly sure how big my crockpot is, but it is a standard size Rival (I think 3 quarts). I'm far too lazy to test it out and measure how many quarts it can hold. Just make sure you have a large enough one (i.e. not a Little Dipper), and not one that is too large to make the layers described below.*

Procedure:

1. Layer the nuts, chocolate chips, German chocolate and almond bark (all bars broken into squares) in the crockpot. DO NOT MIX! Set the crockpot on "low", and cover.

2. Don't touch anything (seriously---you have to resist!) for 3 hours. Turn off the crockpot, and allow the mixture to sit, covered for 20 minutes.

3. Stir the mixture thoroughly, and carefully drop spoonfuls on waxed paper to cool for at least 30 minutes. Tony found out the hard way (and didn't care) that they're still a little gooey before the half hour is up :).

4. This made roughly 3.5 dozen clusters, though the number will vary with the size of cluster you make. Be sure to share, and feel free to make people think you slaved over these babies--they are that good!