Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

To be honest, I haven't made much use of my crock pot over the summer. With the kids off school, and our days a bit more relaxed, not to mention holidays, it just didn't seem necessary. I did make the best whole chicken in a crock pot a couple of times, and also some versions of the slow cook bacon, but I didn't try anything new at all.

Until last week, when the kids went back to school. Ms Fussy Eater progressed to secondary school, joining her brother Mr Teenage on the school bus. This means that they both have longer days and are not hanging round the house any more. They get home about 5pm and get homework done before Hubby and I get home from work. Unless they manage to prepare something for themselves - and seriously, Mr Teenager can barely manage to pour boiling water over pot noodles - they are usually hungry.

So, last week we selected two recipes from the Australian Women's Weekly easy slow cooking book. The first of these we had on Tuesday - meatballs in tomato sauce.



Meatballs and spaghetti is a huge favourite in our house, especially with Ms Fussy Eater. But she has a favourite recipe, for Spanish meatballs, made with minced lamb. We're tried other recipes, but she's never satisfied. So, it was a little risky to try this, but the picture looked so good!

I made the meatballs the night before, putting them (in layers) into the crock pot and leaving them overnight. I made the sauce separately in a jug, and poured it over the next morning. It took a bit of preparation.

Preparation

On monday evening I soaked 2 slices of bread (brown/white mix) in 125ml milk for 10 minutes. Then I whizzed this up in the food processor with an onion, a carrot, 3 cloves garlic. This mixture was added to about 600g lean minced beef, with an egg, 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste, and some dried oregano. I shaped the mixture into small-ish balls, resulting in about 30 meatballs, which I put into the crock pot bowl and left in the fridge overnight.

To make the sauce I softened a chopped onion and 2 more cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Then I added a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of cherry tomatoes (these were whizzed together in the food processor to avoid any lumps). I also added another 2tbsp sundried tomato paste and 250ml beef stock. This was left in a jug in the fridge overnight.

Next morning I simply poured the sauce over the meatballs and left it to cook on low for about 6 hours. We served it with spaghetti.

The Result

I honestly expected to come home to find all the mince stuck together at the bottom of the dish, and that I'd have to just mix it up and serve as bolognaise. But, actually, the meatballs all held their shape beautifully, dispersing themselves around the sauce, which was beautifully rich in texture, colour and flavour. The breadcrumbs in the mix made the meatballs light and not at all dense, like you might find in other recipes.

The Verdict

This was really delicious and everybody had second helpings, and there was still some leftovers. Mr Teenager just covered his plate with parmesan (a usual behaviour) and devoured it. Ms Fussy Eater complained initially that it wasn't the favoured recipe, but then ate everything down quite enthusiastically. She did concede that it might be her second-favourite recipe for meatballs and she wouldn't mind if we made it again.

I think we will make it again!

The Best Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot

The weekend before I cooked the Luscious Italian Chicken recipe was very, very busy. On the Saturday morning, I accompanied Ms Fussy Eater to Dublin to see 1 Direction live at Croke Park. We left home that morning at about 8:45am, and went on a bus with 45 other mums and young ladies, stopping off at Dundrum shopping centre for a couple of hours, before proceeding on to Croke Park. 1 Direction played to more than 80,000 fans that evening, while it lashed rain. Ms Fussy Eater enjoyed the event immensly, and I have to say that I had a good time too. We got to bed, after a long bus journey home, at 3:30am.

So, I was in no mood to cook the next day. We ate mostly rubbish, leftovers from a family event the previous week. By Monday, we needed some proper, wholesome nourishment. A whole cooked chicken was just perfect.

I've cooked a while chicken in the crock pot before, with good results. The Slow Cooked Chicken with Tarragon was excellent, as was the Fall off the Bone Chicken. Ever adventurous, I decided to try another version and found this recipe for The Best Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot over on 100 days of real food. It's not unlike the Fall off the Bone version, but it was absolutely delicious.

Preparation

The recipe calls to combine the spices in a bowl: 2tsp paprika, 1tsp salt, 1tsp thyme and 1/4tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper. It also calls for a few things I don't have, so I used 1tsp onion salt and a crushed clove garlic. I cut up 2 onions, quite small, and put them in the bottom of the pot. The chicken sat on top, and I just poured/rubbed the mixed spices over it. Then I left the chicken cooking on LOW for the whole day while I was at work - about 9 hours.

When I came home, I prepared a big pot of mashed potato.

The Outcome

As before, the chicken just falls apart when we tried to take it out of the pot. There is almost no carving involved. The chicken is tender, suculent, perfectly cooked and full of flavour. But the best part of this dish is the flavoursome and rich stock left behind in the pot. Each person got a mound of mashed potato, tasty chicken and some delicious sauce poured over. There could be nothing more wholesome.

The Verdict

I don't think you can go wrong with mashed spuds and chicken. We all loved it and everybody went back for second helpings.

The chicken was quite large, so we had quite a few leftovers, which went into sandwiches and salads during the week.

Hubby has declared this the best of the three whole chicken recipes.

Luscious Italian Chicken

Wow, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Mr Teenager finished his second year at secondary school and went off to Irish College. From the lack of communication, it appears he's getting on fine. His last week at school was a busy one in the house, and I used the crock pot twice. The first time was for a whole chicken, which I'll write up soon. The second time was midweek, while we had a guest staying, and I picked this reciped for Luscious Italian Chicken, from the Skinny Slow Cooker Recipe Book. I picked it because it seemed a little bit unusal for a slow cooker recipe, with a creamy sauce, but also because it looked very easy to prepare.

Our guest that evening is a reader of this blog, and she made me promise not to identify her, so I won't. But she did seem to enjoy this dish, which I'm really pleased about.

Preparation

First thing that morning, I combined 1tsp each of dried oregano, rosemary and thyme. I put 4 quite large chicken breasts into a bowl and mixed the herbs in to coat the chicken. These then went into the crock pot with: 2 tins of condensed mushroom soup (I used Campbell's); about 150g mushrooms, sliced; 2 small onions, chopped; 1 garlic clove, crushed. The reciped called for 2 tbsp fat free cream cheese, but I didn't have any, so I mixed in 2 tbsp fat free fromage frais instead. All of this was mixed together. I put the lid on the pot and switched it to HIGH.

I left a note for our guest, who was due to arrive later that day, to turn the crock pot to KEEP WARM when she got in. I estimate that it cooked for about 6 hours. By the time I got home, the smell was delicious and our guest couldn't wait to get tucked in! We cooked up a big pot of mashed potato to accompany.

The Result

This was a really good dish. The chicken was good perfectly, not overcooked at all. Although there were five of us, there was plenty in the four chicken breasts. The sauce really was deliciously creamy with good mushrooms flavour. Unlike many slow cooked recipes, it was not at all watery. The mushrooms were still chunky enough that they could be picked out easily for Mr Teenager and Ms Fussy Eater.

The Verdict

Everybody really enjoyed their dinner that evening. Our guest was very impressed with the crock pot and the meal it had produced. Without the mushrooms, Mr Teenager was quite happy to eat all his chicken and potato with a good helping of sauce. Ms Fussy Eater had to have any excess sauce removed, but was quite happy with her chicken.

We all gave this a thumbs up and it is certainly included in recipes that must be cooked again.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember of get a photo before everybody ate, so you're just going to have to imagine how good it looked!

Sweet Asian Chicken

Mr Teenager was still at home, sick, on Thursday. So, his dad decided to work from home that day, to keep an eye on him. We had already decided to try this recipe for Sweet Asian Chicken, from the Skinny Slow Cooker Recipe Book, which doesn't take too long to cook, so it was good that Hubby was there to monitor it. In fact, Hubby prepared the whole thing, from start to finish.

Preparation

This didn't take much preparation, apart from chopping meat and vegetables, and it was all done on Wednesday evening. To serve 4 people, we used just 3 large chicken breasts, which were cut into pieces. Into the crock pot went the chicken pieces, along with: 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 onion, chopped; 1/4 cup honey; 2tbsp tomator puree; 4 tbsp soy sauce; 2 carrots, cut into batons; some crushed chilli; 1 cup orange juice; and 1tsp cornflour mixed with a little water.

Next day, the crock pot was switched on to LOW and left for about 6 hours. At the end, we cooked some plain noodles - one of the children's favourites.

The Result

This was a tasty dish with some good flavours. The chicken was well cooked. There was plenty of sauce, which went quite well with the noodles. The carrots were a little too soft, but not mushy. This fed the family of 4 people quite comfortably, with no leftovers.

The Verdict

Usually Ms Fussy Eater likes Oyster Sauce with her noodles, and we often just pick out the bits of chicken and carrots that she will eat. This time, to our dismay, we found we had run out of Oyster Sauce, so she had to go without. We didn't give her too much of the juice, just plenty of chicken and carrot, but the flavour was not disguised the way it usually is. To our surprise, Ms Fussy Eater admitted to quite liking the sauce. Success!

Italian Pork Chops

The last time I cooked pork chops in the slow cooker, it was a huge success. I'm sorta surprised that I haven't cooked them since. This week was a good opportunity. As I said in my last post, it was a busy, busy week, when I felt that I was constantly trying to catch up with myself. To complicate matters, Mr Teenager came down with a bad cold on Wednesday morning, probably after the very wet Car Boot Sale, and had to stay at home from school. While I couldn't be with him all day, I went to work later than usual, and left earlier to work from home. This gave me plenty of opportunity to ensure that the Italian Pork Chop recipe, again from Slow Cooking Properly Explained, was cooking for just the right amount of time.

Preparation

On Tuesday evening, we got together the ingredients and assembled them in the crock pot. I trimmed the fat from the chops (I used 5 nice thick ones) and browned them quickly on both sides in a non-stick pan.

Into the bottom of the pot went: 1 onion, chopped; and one red pepper, chopped. The recipe actually called for a green pepper, but I prefer the flavour of red. The chops went in on top of the onion and pepper.

Then we added: 2 courgettes, sliced; 6 tomatoes, skins removed and chopped; 4 green olives, sliced; 1tsp dried oregano; 1 tbsp red wine vinegar; one chicken stock cube, and a splash of water.

Next morning, I remembered to turn the crock pot on LOW, and left it for about 6 hours. Initially I was going to serve this with rice, but at the last minute I cooked up some wholewheat pasta. It was a good accompaniment.

The Result

The large amount of courgette in the dish meant that the sauce was copious and quite thin. I think next time I'll use less courgette. Otherwise, the flavour was lovely, and the meat was beautifully tender, almost falling apart. Eating it with the pasta worked very well. Mr Teenager, despite his bad cold, coated his dinner with an avalanche of parmesan, and then ate up everything on his plate.

There was lots of sauce, too much for 4 people. Again, we had leftovers, which hubby will take for lunch at work.

The Verdict

This was a good family dish, and very easy to prepare. Even Ms Fussy Eater finished her meal, although she was not given any courgette on her plate. There were no complaints, and Mr Teenager gave it a thumbs up.

So - another successful pork chop recipe for the collection.

Beef in Red Wine

This last week was a busy one. At the weekend, we had lots of activity, including the Car Boot Sale at Mr Teenager's School, so I spent lots of time last Saturday baking for the cake stand. The weather on Sunday was atrocious and we spent about 5 hours standing outside in the wind and the rain (and cold) raising funds for the school. On Sunday afternoon, after we came home, we lit a fire and I fell asleep on the sofa. I don't think I quite recovered all week.

On Monday I had a big day at work, with a visitor coming from the UK to give a seminar, which was to be streamed and recorded. No pressure! I though it would be nice to invite my visitor and her husband to dinner on Monday evening. So, we chose this recipe for Beef in Red Wine from the Slow Cooking Properly Explained recipe book.

We did all the preparation on Sunday evening, after I had roused myself from the sofa, and let the crock pot overnight in the fridge. On Monday morning, I got the slow cooker all set up. The recipe said to cook the casserole on LOW for up to 10 hours, so I knew I could safely leave it all day.

After the seminar, while I was having coffee with my guest at about 3pm, she casually asked what was on the menu that evening. It was at that point that I suddenly had the horrible realisation that I had forgotten to switch the slow cooker on! Panic stations! I phoned my neighbour, who very kindly let herself into the house and turned the crock pot on. At that stage it was too late to give it the long, slow cooking that it needed and instead I had to cook it on HIGH for a much shorter amount of time. All the same, when I got home shortly after 6pm, I was hugely relieved to smell the wonderful aroma of garlic, thyme and red wine cooking together.

In total, the casserole had about 4 hours of cooking on HIGH. I suspect that the dish would have been even nicer if it had cooked longer and slower, but I have to admit that it was pretty good. We served the beef in red wine with brown rice, but I think it would also go very well with some mashed potato.

Preparation

On Sunday night we cut about 750g of round steak into cubes. We fried 1 onion, chopped finely, in a little olive oil, until browned, then added the beef. Once the meat was browned on all sides, it went into the crock pot with the onion. To this we added: 12 black olives; 1 garlic clove, crushed; 5 large tomatoes, skinned and with seeds removed; 150g button mushrooms; 300ml red wine; 1tsp dried thyme.

This was cooked on Monday for about 4 hours on the HIGH setting - but see above.

The Result

When I got home, the aroma from the pot was just wonderful. The sauce of the casserole  looked quite thin, though, so I added 1tsp cornflour mixed with a little water. Once served, the rice soaked up a lot of the juice anyway.

There were 5 of us for dinner, Ms Fussy Eater was out at her gymnastics class. There was plenty for everybody, with enough left over to make a generous lunch for hubby next day.

The Verdict

Well, our guests seemed to enjoy it, and all the plates were cleaned. I'd like to try this recipe again, with a longer, slower cooking. I think the meat wasn't as tender as it could have been.

I didn't get a picture of the dinner, so please enjoy a photo from the Car Boot Sale instead.

Shredded beef tacos

It's been a little while since I last posted on this blog. I was travelling last week and my mother-in-law came to visit, so the crock pot stayed in the cupboard. I do love my MiL, and I appreciate all she does for us, but when I come home I find all sorts of strange things in my fridge and on my pantry shelves. It takes me a couple of days to get everything straightened out the way I like it.

Just before I went away, we made this recipe for Shredded Beef Tacos, from the Australian Women's Weekly easy slow cooking book. I had a nice piece of round steak and considered making a stew, but the weather was getting warmer and the children like the notion of assembling their tacos at the table, so I went with this instead.

Preparation

I was off work, so didn't need to get prepared the night before. Instead, on the day, I assembled everything in the crock pot. First I mixed together 1/4 tsp chilli powder and 1tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander and paprika, and then rubbed this all over the beef (about 2 lbs of good quality round steak). I put this into the crock pot and added: a beef stock cube; 2tbsp sundried tomato paste; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; and half a cup of water. This was cooked, on the low setting, for about 7 hours.

When cooked, I took the beef out of the pot and shredded it roughly, using two forks. The shredded meat went back into the sauce.

The Result

We served the shredded beef with flour tortillas and an assortment of sides: shredded lettuce, guacamole, chopped tomatoes, sour cream, grated cheese. Each person assesmbled their own tacos according to their own tastes. For Ms Fussy Eater, this means nothing except beef, and very little sauce. For Mr Teenager, large helpings of grated cheese are involved.

The beef was delicious, in quite a spicey sauce. The original recipe calls for a sliced red chilli, which I didn't add. I'm quite pleased because I don't think Ms Fussy Eater would have been able for any further heat. There was a lot of shredded beef, probably enough for at least six people. We had our fill and there were leftovers which went into sandwiches during the next few days.

The photo was taken after we had eaten our dinner, so it depicts just the leftovers!

The Verdict

Ms Fussy Eater enjoyed her two tacos, even without anything more than the shredded meat in them. Mr Teenager declared the whole thing to be delicious.

I would certainly make this again, perhaps even adding the extra chilli.