Mo-rockin' Slow Cooker Stew

My flour, butter, sugar and baking sheets stared at me longingly as I skipped over them to grab my lonely slow cooker from the top cabinet. I have put a pause on baking the heavy, creamy, delicious goodies that one associates with the holidays because, well, to be honest, my pants are feeling a little snug. I worked really hard with WW to lose some of my poundage, so I don't want to sabotage myself. I'm also fighting against a medication whose biggest (ha!) known side-effect is weight gain, so that's a bit of an uphill battle.

This brings us to my delicious orange delight - WW Moroccan Slow Cooker Stew. My cooker and I have had a love/hate relationship. I love that I can toss in my raw ingredients and it will create a meal for me. I hate that it's an older model and only has 4 time settings: High 4 hour, High 6 hour, Low 10 hour and Low 8 hours. So when a recipe says to "Cook on low for 6 hours" what the heck am I supposed to do? And I have also learned that if your cooker isn't full to the top with the raw ingredients, it will burn, and then instead of coming home to a lovely pot of stewed chicken, you come home to a nasty burnt mess that takes 3 steel wool pads to scrub clean. So now it's a bit of an experiment. Sometimes I'll leave it on "warm" for the whole 8 hours and that works. For this recipe, I made it on a Sunday night and watched it closely.

I love the flavors of Moroccan cooking - hot and sweet and spicy. This stew is vegetarian, and honestly, I don't think I would want to add meat to it. The squash and beans make it very hearty and the spices warm your tummy. The original recipe called for baby carrots, also, but I didn't have them. After tasting the final product, I don't know if I would use them. It's sweet enough from the cinnamon and I think that carrots might make it too sweet.

Ingredients:

1 spray cooking spray
1 medium onion chopped
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup baby carrots (I omitted)
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp table salt

Instructions:

Coat a small skillet with cooking spray. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes.
Place squash in a 3-quart or larger slow cooker (crock pot). Add sauteed onion and garlic, carrots, tomatoes, broth, cinnamon, cumin and red pepper flakes. Cover and turn on to low heat; simmer for 6 hours.
Add chickpeas and salt. Stir, cover and heat for an additional 5 minutes. Yields about 1 1/3 cups per serving. Only 4 points per serving!

You can serve over cous-cous, but account for those points, too.

PS - Look for this recipe in Joelen's Chef Spotlight Dinners! http://joelens.blogspot.com/