No Worry Crock Pot Curry

Curry powder. You may not have guessed it by looking at it, but it can pack a potentially life-altering, health-improving punch. It's a complex combination of herbs and spices that generally includes coriander, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, and red pepper, but will sometimes be supplemented with additional ingredients such as ginger, garlic, asafoetida, fennel seed, caraway, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, green cardamom, black cardamom, mace, nutmeg, long pepper, and black pepper.

So what makes curry powder so great? Well, many of its ingredients have been linked to improvements in health indicators. What am I talking about? Let's look at an example...

Why tumeric rocks:

• It may help relieve joint pain experienced by people living with arthritis because tumeric contains more than 24 compounds that fight inflammation in the body.
• It may help those living with digestive disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), because tumeric can aid digestion and reduce disturbances such as heartburn, bloating and gas.
• It may help those with high cholesterol, because studies have shown that tumeric may assist in the reduction of LDL levels (bad cholesterol), thereby helping prevent atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque in the artery walls)

(For more information about the benefits of curry powder and tumeric, visit here and here.)

Fueled by my love for easily prepared, tasty, nutrition-packed meals, I set out to create a healthy crock pot curry recipe. The challenge for me was creating a recipe that resembled the classic coconut curry my mom used to make, but was a bit lighter in that it didn't use coconut milk.* I wanted to develop a curry dish that was well-balanced and allowed me to recognize the veggies, chicken, and grain because they weren't completely smothered in sauce. Go ahead, call me a purist. (For a vegetarian version, omit chicken and substitute vegetable broth or water for the chicken broth.)

Speaking of veggies, feel free to add whatever you may have on hand. Some bell pepper strips or cauliflower would be great additions both flavor and health-wise. Serve over a mini grain like rice, quinoa, or cous cous, and top your curry with one, two, or all of my suggestions below. (Before you judge my vanilla yogurt idea, I'd recommend giving it a whirl because I can pretty much guarantee that you'll be just as surprised as I was by its yum factor! Try it!)

The Stuff:

• non-stick olive oil cooking spray
• medium sauté pan
• crockpot

The Edibles:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 medium potatoes, chopped into pieces the same size as your chicken
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 2 carrots (about 1 & ½ c.), sliced (can use frozen)
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1 tsp. coconut extract
  *Of course you could use coconut milk in this recipe if that's what your heart desires; substitute 1 cup milk for one cup of broth; omit extract and honey
• 2 T. honey
• 1 T. flour
• 2 T. curry powder
• hearty shake of the following: garlic powder, onion powder, and coriander
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 c. frozen peas, thawed

Optional Toppings:

• 2 T. vanilla yogurt
• 1 tsp. hot sauce
• 2 -3 tsp. toasted flaked coconut
• 1 T. slivered almonds

The Making:

1. Spray a medium-sized saute pan with non-stick olive oil cooking spray. Place pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and on all sides.
2. Doing this quick cook will help seal in the moisture of the chicken and prevent your meat from disintegrating in the crock pot.
3. Place potatoes and onion in crock pot. If using fresh carrots, add at this time. Top with seared chicken.
4. Whisk together chicken broth, coconut extract, honey, flour, curry powder, dashes of spices, and a pinch of salt and pepper (you can add more after cooking). Pour over chicken and vegetables.
5. Cover; cook on high for 3 to 3 & ½ hours or LOW 6 to 7 hours.
6. Add peas and carrots (if you’re using frozen) at this time. Allow the curry to cook for 30-45 minutes on high with the cover removed in order to thicken the sauce.
7. Serve over rice, quinoa, cous cous or whatever else you may have on hand!

Optional topping ideas: a dollop of vanilla yogurt, hot sauce, flaked coconut, slivered almonds.

Britt's Crock Pot Barbacoa Chicken

Do you have to cook for a crowd? Does that crowd like chipotle?

Faced with the plan to cook for my chipotle-obsessed family and boyfriend, I thought I would try my hand at making some barbocoa beef. It was during the ingredient-acquiring stage of this meal that I realized how I could not afford to purchase the beef I so desired to cook. Seeing at boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale, I decided to be practical (versus broke) and make Barbocoa chicken.

The result? Pure deliciousness.

The ultimate result? A versatile recipe that can accomodate what happens to be cheaper: chicken breasts or 4 lbs chuck roast.

And the ultimate, final, most satisfying result? I fed my family and friends a healthful dish that they enjoyed.

I doubled this recipe to serve a party of 7. It was more than enough!

The Stuff:

• blender or food processor
• crock pot

The Edibles:

• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 3 chipotle peppers, canned in sauce (you'l just need a small can for this, and I think I only added 4 peppers for a double recipe, but I'm weak when it comes to spicy things)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ground clove
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 3 bay leaves

The Making:

1. Combine cider vinegar through clove in a blender or food processor and puree on high speed until smooth. This is your adobo sauce.
2. Into your crockpot pour 1/3 of the adobo sauce, or enough to thinly cover the bottom of your cooker.  Add oil, broth, and bay leaves. Give it a stir. Lay chicken breasts flat on top of sauce. Pour remaining sauce over the chicken, flipping to make sure the pieces are completely covered. Cook on low for 6 - 7 hours.
3. Remove the chicken from cooker and shred. Remove bay leaves. Place chicken back into adobo sauce-ful cooker and stir until fully covered. Serve in a burrito, on top of a salad, or smothering a bed of rice. Top with anything you like: fresh tomatoes, salsa, cheese, beans, sour cream, and/or guacamole. For salads, I recommend a dressing made by combining 1 to 2 tablespoons of ranch dressing with a couple spoonfuls of fresh salsa.

Lip-Smackin' Crock Pot Ribs

If you're a vegetarian, I apologize. This recipe is clearly not for you.

Feeling an aching in my bones for a hearty meal, and decidedly not aching to slave over the grill in order to produce said meal, I settled on testing the waters and trying my hand at some crock pot ribs. My co-worker raved about her success with this method, and I am soooo glad I work with a trustworthy bunch (and not a group of Dwights a la The Office trying to con me constantly)! I think Jay thanks Anne just as much as I do for this fantastic (and easy) rib recipe!

I made my "own" barbecue sauce using a mixture of about 3/4 cup pre-prepared sauce, such as Sweet Baby Ray's (yes, I'm aware that would be classified as cheating, but I wanted to cover my bases in case my mixture was not quite right). To that I added about 1 cup ketchup, 2 T. cider vinegar, about 2 T. brown sugar, about 1 T. Worcestershire sauce, and a little bit of garlic and onion powder.

Serve with extra barbecue sauce, some homemade fries (or carrot fries!), and some baked beans for some real grill-time fun (sans grill)!

The Stuff:

• crock pot

The Edibles:

• one slab pork back ribs (cut into two half-slabs)
• 1 onion
• a lot of barbecue sauce (I think I used about 2 cups)

The Making:

1. Mince onion. Place in crock pot
2. Place about 1/4 cup of the barbecue sauce in the bottom of the pot. Swirl around a bit.
3. Cover ribs with barbecue sauce. I also picked up some of the onion pieces and put them on the ribs.
4. Cook for 10 hours on low. Serve with extra barbecue sauce.

Special Request Beef Stroganoff

This is based on a Cooking Light recipe; I made a few changes based on convenience and pure absentmindedness.

As you may notice, I tend not to measure many ingredients when I cook. I prefer eyeballing over cleaning multiple measuring cups and spoons. Now, that may have contributed to my mistake, but I also think that a sleepy head may have been partially accountable as well.

Let's see. I began this recipe by gathering my ingredients (rather, my lovely bearded assistant helped me with this task while I prepped the beef). On a crowded counter, my parsley and dill sat, ready and waiting. Now let me say, they are in similar sized containers, and to a busy cook, they look rather alike. I hastily grabbed one bottle, eyeballed about 2 tablespoons of what I thought was parsely, grabbed the second bottle, looked at the label, and realized that was parsley. I had just poured more than 3 times the recipe-directed dill amount. The horror! The original recipe called for a measly 1/2 teaspoon of this herb, significantly less than the approximated 2 tablespoons I had just added.

Of course I had already placed my onion, beef, and mustard into my crock pot, so there was almost no way I could dump it out and start from scratch. I tried to pull out as much as I could, shrugged my sholders and moved on to "measuring" the parsely. I estimate that about 1 tablespoon or more of dill was left in the pot, and I do have to say, my mistake undoubtedly contributed to the making of one tasty meal. Seriously.

Jay had been begging me for months to cook beef stroganoff. For some reason I had never jumped on this request like I have (almost) all others. Ribs? Sure. Meatloaf (again)? Fine. But for me, beef stroganoff has never been one of those dishes I dreamily salivate over. This week, Jay asked me (yet again) if I would make it, and upon looking up a recipe and realizing how effortless stroganoff is to make (I mean, seriously... you throw some stuff in the crock pot and waam-oh, you have yourself a meal), I decided that I could suck it up and try my hand at the dish. I mean, maybe I would like it more than I remember, right?

And did I. Jay took pictures of me liking the spatula. I kid you not. This is one flavorful dish that I will dream about... I just hope I don't drool too much on the pillow.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup stroganoff and 1/2 cup noodles)

The Stuff:

• sharp knife for trimming your steak
  
• crock pot

The Edibles:

• about 1 pound top round steak, 1/2 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of fat etc.
  
• 1 c. chopped onion
  
• 2 T. dried parsley (fresh works too, obviously)
  
• 2 T. Dijon mustard
  
• 3/4 tsp. salt
  
• 1 T. dried dill
  
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  
• about 2 c. sliced mushrooms (I used baby potabellas)
  
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or the equivalent in jarred or powdered)
  
• 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
  
• 1 c. reduced sodium beef broth
  
• 1 8 oz. container low-fat sour cream
  
• 2 c. hot cooked medium egg noodles

The Making:

1. Cut steak diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place steak and next 8 ingredients (though garlic) in slow cooker; stir well.
   
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a small bowl; gradually add broth, stirring with a whisk until blended. Add broth mixture to slow cooker, and stir well. Cover with lid, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
   
3. Remove the lid and let the stroganoff stand for 10 minutes to allow it to cool down a bit. Stir in the sour cream. Serve your creamy, mushroomy beef over the noodles and savor each bite!

Estimated Nutritional Information (per serving):
Calories: 400
Fat: 10g
Protein: 36g
Carbohydrate: 43g
Fiber: 3g
Cholesterol: 110mg
Iron: 5.5mg
Sodium: 946mg
Calcium: 123mg

Crock Pot Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

Again, this recipe is waaay too easy. I make at least one meal a week in my crock pot, simply because I love leaving work knowing that dinner is just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Dump, press the button, and presto! (Okay, maybe it's not quite like that; there is a bit of wait-time.) I prefer to make my crock pot meals during the week, because when made on the weekend I find myself impatiently lifting up the top, looking, smelling, salivating. And that's a major no-no when cooking with a slow cooker. They say that one is supposed to add 15 to 30 minutes every time you lift the lid. So essentially I'm only prolonging the agony. The horror!

You'll see that I enjoyed a baked sweet potato aside the chicken. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend this pairing, I had a craving. You can't fight those. Conversely, Jay perfectly complimented the chicken with quinoa flavored with a bit of teriyaki sauce poured over the top. Now that might be a bit more appropriate. But to each, his own.

The Stuff:

• a crock pot (also known as a slow cooker)

The Edibles:

• 20 oz. can crushed pineapple in its own juice
• Teriyaki Marinade with Pineapple Juice (alternatively you could just use teriyaki sauce)
• 3-5 fresh or defrosted skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• Optional: Grilled fresh pineapple slices

The Making:

1. Dump pineapple can contents into crockpot (include the juice). Place chicken breasts in the pot atop the pineapple. Pour marinade over chicken breast. (I would estimate I used 1/4 cup... it wasn't much). Flip chicken breasts over to ensure that they are fully covered in marinade.
2. Cook in the crock pot 6 & 1/2 hours on low, or 3 to 3 & 1/2 hours on high.
3. Serve with grilled pineapple if desired, and devour.