I admit it... I am a Food Snob! I can sit for hours upon hours watching the Food Network. I daydream on a regular basis that I live next door to Ina or Giada and I'm always invited over to try their recipes. Hey... a girl can dream right?!
Well, the other day (while on Facebook) I noticed a friend of mine (Laurie) from college was inquiring for some new Crock Pot recipes. To quote her "I need something other than beef stew". OMG! My feelings exactly! The amazing this was the 18 comments she quickly received . One of the comments actual stated "I realize how many women in their early 30's just got in on this crock pot conversation and I wonder if this is what the 50's were like minus Facebook".
This made me think about my own crock-pot recipe collection. And the fact that I only had two recipes that were worth sharing. Sad! I have 2 recipes that are staples:
- Pot Roast (same recipe that my mother always made)
- Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
But that is it! How can I have been cooking with this thing for 12 years and only have 2 really good recipes? Is that all I ate? No wonder I hide it after a few months of cooking with it. I got bored!
Since this "Cooking with Baby" adventure started I have been looking for new Crock-Pot recipes. My criteria? Simple! It has to be delicious. And... most importantly it has to keep me excited to cook with my crock-pot.
Thanks to Sandra Lee on the Food Network I started off with a bang! Her Chocolate Beef Stew set the bar high! I had to find more... but where?!
I think one of the reasons why I have given up in the past on my dear friend, the Crock-pot is because they require special recipes. And nothing in the "Crock-Pot Cookbooks" I have seen inspired me in the past.
Today I remembered that I had a jar of Artichoke and Caper Sauce from Tastefully Simple still in our cabinet. I pulled it down and started thawing that chicken that was in our freezer and when I got home tonight dinner was ready! Tastefully Simple made it... well... Simple! All I did was cut up some chicken and pour the sauce in the pot. Set it on low for 5 hours and voila! And I was amazed how good it was.
I hopped over to their site tonight to see if they were still selling their Slow Cooker Sauces... (side note: If we would have tried this sauce earlier I might have remained a consultant for them and bought my quarterly quota worth on just those sauces.) I was kind of disappointed to see the Artichoke sauce was not there. Instead they have a TANGY TENNESSEE™ SLOW COOKER SAUCE. They also have another mini recipe booklet: EASY SLOW COOKER RECIPES VOLUME II That has over 20 new recipes for delicious comfort foods for your slow cooker. This reminded me that I had Volume I sitting in my cookbook. Untouched... since I bought it.
Then I started searching for more of Sandra Lee's crock-pot recipes and I found out she had a whole book dedicated to Slow Cooking! Jack Pot!
I am adding these to my holiday gift list!
(hint, hint Kevin)
:)
*If you have an awesome crock-pot recipe please share it with me. You can leave it in the comments section!
I am adding these to my holiday gift list!
(hint, hint Kevin)
:)
And then I headed over to the Crock-Pot website and found out they have an iphone App. Double Jack Pot!
So now I have some tools:
So now I have some tools:
- Sandra Lee's Slow Cooker Cookbooks
- The official Crock Pot iphone app
- Tastefully Simple Slow Cooker booklet
... lets see what magic I can make!
*If you have an awesome crock-pot recipe please share it with me. You can leave it in the comments section!
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