Dust it off

Sometimes, the best new recipes are old ones. I received a Southern Living slow-cooker cookbook from my friend many years ago, but never really made anything from it. While the recipes all sounded delicious, they were pretty intricate, which defeated the purpose of slow-cookers! However, I decided to dust it off last month and take another look. I am *SO* glad I did, because I found this gem of a recipe.

It's one of those "throw everything in the pot" recipes that makes slow-cookers a working parent's dream. The sweetness of the coconut milk is absorbed by the vegetables and chickpeas, and the cilantro and curry balance everything out. Serve over rice, and you've got yourself an exotic and healthy dinner.

Chickpeas in Curried Coconut Broth
Adapted from Southern Living Cookbook

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola oil 

1 1/2 cups chopped onion       

2 garlic cloves, minced        

2 cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained                

2 (14.5-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained                

1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk

1 tablespoon curry powder

2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

6 cups hot cooked basmati rice (any kind of rice will do!)

 

Instructions:

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. (I have skipped this step the last two times and there was no difference in the final outcome. The onions cook perfectly if you throw them into the slow-cooker as-is).

 

Place onion mixture, chickpeas, and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a 3 1/2-quart electric slow cooker; stir well. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir in cilantro. Serve over rice.

Bet you can't eat just one...

This is another recipe from my childhood. I'm not sure where my Mom got this one, but I have fond memories of her making them in our old blue kitchen. So now I make them in my red kitchen!

They are a healthier version of potato chips, and a great side dish for a dinner. It's easy to throw them in the oven while you prepare the rest of the meal, but they are dangerously addictive. I nibble my way through the extra-crispy ones while I wait for Alex to come home.

Ingredients:

Baking potatoes, approx. 1/2 potato per person

Olive oil (the spray is better)

Salt

Pepper

Other seasonings, optional (Old Bay, Rosemary, Thyme, etc...)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400.

Slice the potatoes very thinly, making sure to keep the slices even. Spread them out in a single-ish layer on a baking sheet and LIGHTLY coat with olive oil. (Too much oil and they remain soggy. That's why I like the spray!) If the slices overlap slightly, it's okay. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and any other seasonings you want to use.

Bake for approx. 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are lightly browned and crisp. Thinner slices might burn a little, but you can remove them and continue cooking the rest.

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/