Recipe Exchange Thread

I just made this at Oktoberfest this weekend, and I guess it was authentic enough as I did not bring any home with me; I am a go-by-ear guy, but I think I remember the proportions:

Country Style Pork Ribs with Potatoes and Sauerkraut

Ingredients
3 lbs (+/- to taste) boneless country style pork ribs (I cut them into 2” chucks for better sharing)
About six or seven medium size Yukon gold potatoes (they hold up better than russets/bakers), sliced in 1/4” rounds
One medium to large yellow onion, sliced in thin half rounds
2-3 pounds prepared sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
One (14 oz +/-) kielbasa sausage, sliced in about 1/4" rounds (for a less meaty meal you can skip this)
Normal size can of chicken or veggie broth (acceptable to substitute about half a bottle of dry white wine)
Salt & pepper, thyme, garlic powder (you could throw in coriander and a bay leaf too, but I didn’t) to taste

Cooking instructions
Take rinsed and drained sauerkraut and place in bottom of large crock pot. Next add potato slices in a layer. Onions go on top of potatoes, followed by pork ribs and kielbasa slices. Season with spices of your choice and pour cooking liquid of choice over all. Turn on low, and drink beer for around 5-6 hours on slow or 2-3 hours on high. I chose low for obvious reasons, but if you are not at Oktoberfest, it may be frowned upon to drink for that long. When pork pulls apart with a gentle tug o’ the fork and potatoes are about the same, it’s done. Serve in bowls with some nice bread to sop up juices.

Options
If you wanted a more veggie version, I think you could substitute apples in place of meat.  If you wanted to be all fancy you would brown the meat first use wine instead of broth, sauté the onions and use real sautéed garlic rather than powder. I’m too lazy and my palate is not that refined.

Enough for a non-main dish portion for over fifteen people. If I had a bigger crock pot I woul duse more potatoes.

If you need exact amounts, just google the name I used - you'll find plenty of variations.

I was on a pinning spree last night with crockpot recipes. I will share what I found but I've made none of these so I can't promise they are any good. More to follow.

SOUP RECIPES (vegetarian if you use veggie broth)


Creamy Indian-Spice Vegan Sweet Potato Soup

Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a first course.
Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes (or 3-4 cups leftover mashed sweet potatoes)
1 medium onion, diced
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp grated fresh ginger root
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tsp curry powder (hot or sweet; I use hot, of course)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
1 tsp agave nectar (or honey), or more to taste
6 oz coconut milk, or more to taste
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
A few teaspoons of chopped apple and cashews, for garnish
Directions

Pierce the sweet potatoes in a few places, and cook in the microwave on full power for 9 minutes, or until the potatoes are quite soft. When they're cool enough to handle, scrape out the flesh into a bowl, and discard the skins. (Skip this step if you're using leftover mashed potatoes.)

In a Dutch oven, sauté the onions in the oil over low heat for 2-3 minutes, until translucent. Add the ginger and garlic, and sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in the curry powder, turmeric and cumin, and cook for 20 seconds until just slightly fragrant. Add the sweet potato plus 1 cup of water, and stir to combine all ingredients.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in the lemon juice and honey. Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Then, add the coconut milk. Stir to incorporate, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the stove, and use an immersion blender to purée the soup to the texture you like (I like mine slightly "rustic"). If you don't have an immersion blender, let the soup cool for a few minutes, and purée in batches in a food processor or blender.

If the soup is too thick, add more coconut milk and/or water. Taste the soup, and adjust seasonings with more lemon, honey, salt and pepper, to your liking.

Serve hot, garnished with chopped apples and cashews.



Crockpot Tomato-Basil Parmesan and Pasta SOup (little notes aren't mine, they are from the blogger)


Makes about 8-10 servings

Ideal slow cooker size:  6 quart

Cooking time:  6-8 hours








1 cup grated carrots


1 cup thinly sliced celery


1 medium onion, finely diced


2 Tbsp tomato paste


1 Tbsp olive oil


1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 bay leaf


1 Tbsp dried basil


1 tsp dried oregano
 2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
(If
I don't have crushed tomatoes on hand I use 2 (14 oz) can of petite
diced tomatoes and then I puree another 2 (14 oz) cans of diced
tomatoes)


4 cups water


4 tsp chicken bouillon granules (if you are vegetarian you can add in vegetable bouillon) 
 Tbsp honey


1 tsp salt


1 cup heavy cream, warmed (If I don't have cream I just use evaporated milk or even skim at times)
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving if you desire


¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, optional

1
 cup ditalini, campanelle, rotini pasta (I love love using the little ditalini!  They are so perfect for this soup)

Salt and pepper

Croutons





1.  Add
carrots, celery, onion, tomato paste and oil to a microwave safe bowl.
 Cook in the microwave for about 5 minutes.  Stir every 90 seconds. Transfer to a slow cooker.


2.  Stir
the flour into the vegetables (it will be pasty).


3.  Add
in basil, oregano, tomatoes, water, bouillon, honey and salt.  Whisk a
bit, until flour and veggies are combined.  Add in bay leaf and cover. 4. 
Cook for about 6-8 hours on LOW, or until veggies are soft.


5. 
Remove lid and stir in cream that has been warmed, Parmesan cheese and
parsley.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente over the stove.  Add the cooked pasta into the slow cooker.


6. 
Salt and pepper to taste and add in additional basil and oregano, if needed.  Ladle into bowls and top with additional Parmesan and croutons.











 

I've used the crock pot liners before with no issues. BUT--I'm also the person that will eat food off of the floor, so maybe I'm not the smartest.

Fabulous Crockpot things I never would have thought of!


Crockpot Fudge

Yield: Servings 30 | Serving Size = 1 piece of fudge | Calories: 114 g | Previous Points: 3 | Points Plus: 3 | Total Fat: 8 g | Saturated Fat: 5 g | Trans Fat: 0 g | Cholesterol: 0 mg | Sodium: 21 mg | Carbohydrates: 13 g | Sugars: 10 g Dietary Fiber: 1 g | Protein: 1 g

Ingredients

* 2-1/2 cups Chocolate Chips, [I used dark chocolate chips because of their health benefits. Ghirardelli is a good brand and works well with this recipe)
* 1/4 cup coconut milk, (canned, not in a carton)
* 1/4 cup raw mild honey
* Dash of sea salt
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Fudge is perfect for the slow cooker because it doesn't scorch or burn.

Add chocolate chips, coconut milk, honey and salt, stir to combine. Cover and cook on low 2 hours without stirring. It's important that lid remain on during this 2 hours.

After 2 hours, turn the slow cooker off, uncover, add vanilla and stir to combine ingredients. Allow to cool in uncovered slow cooker, until fudge has reached room temperature...approximately 4 hours. Using a large spoon, stir vigorously for 5-10 minutes until it loses some the gloss.

Lightly spray a 1 quart casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour fudge into dish, cover and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Cut into 30 pieces. This fudge is very rich and meant to be eaten on occasion as a treat.



Crockpot Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons pumpkin puree

4 Tablespoons of vanilla

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 cups strongly brewed coffee

(Blogger's Note: I used my keurig and made 2 cups of iced coffee because it brews stronger)

3 cups of milk

4 Tablespoons of sugar

Whipped Cream (optional)

Directions:

In the crock pot, combine the milk and coffee. Whip together the other ingredients and pour into the crock pot. Whisk together well. Turn crock pot to high for 2 hours.

Blogger's Note: I found the mixture tended to stay at the bottom, if you stirred the mixture occasionally within the two hours it would come out better.

Serve in mugs and top with whipped cream and cinnamon sticks. Enjoy <3




Crockpot Pumpkin Bread


Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
3 hours
Total time
3 hours 15 mins


Serves: 4-6
Ingredients

* ½ cup of oil
* ½ cup of sugar
* ½ cup of packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs (beaten)
* 1 15oz can of pumpkin
* 1½ cup of flour (sifted)
* ¼ tsp. of salt
* ½ tsp. of cinnamon
* ½ tsp. of nutmeg
* 1 tsp. of baking soda

Instructions

1. Blend the oil and both of the sugars into a large bowl.
2. Then, stir in the beaten eggs and canned pumpkin. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour the batter into a greased or oiled bread pan. (I used a canola oil spray that worked just fine.
4. Now add two cups of water to your crockpot and place the pan into a crock pot.
5. Cover the top of the crockpot with eight-ten paper towels. This is to trap condensation and keep the bread from becoming mushy.
6. Place the crock pot lid on top of the crockpot (I tried to make sure the paper towels were trapped around the lid so they didn’t slip) and bake on high 2½ to 3 hours.

Made the crockpot beer chicken tonight and it was the easiest thing I ever made. And it only cost $5.50 since I already had the beer and spices. I ended up using the breast meat to make this recipe for chicken salad that I've been wanting to try. Came out really good.


Chicken Salad Recipe (with Greek Yogurt)

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain and unsweetened (like Chobani)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I used dried tart cherries cause I think dried cranberries are too sweet)
1 1/2 cups celery, small diced
salt and pepper as needed
fresh greens such as mesclun, arugula, etc.
multi-grain bread

Instructions
1.Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add chicken breasts and boil for 20 minutes or until fully cooked.
2.Remove chicken from boiling water and cool completely in refrigerator.
3.After the chicken has completely cooled, cut the breasts into large chunks. Mix with the yogurt, mayonnaise, dried cranberries, celery, salt, and pepper.
4.Serve between two pieces of bread with fresh greens.

So I'm on a mission to start eating better and lose some weight. I spent several hours this weekend chopping veggies and preparing food for this week. I'm proud of myself!

Anyway, I found this recipe on pinterest, and I made them last night. They turned out good; actually, better than I thought they would be because I thought they would be gross. So I'm sharing with you guys.

Oatmeal Banana Cookies

2 ripe bananas
1 cup quick-cook oats
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Smash bananas in a bowl. Add oats and mix together. Fold in chocolate chips until mixed well. Spoonful mixture onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

It only makes about 8-10 cookies. When I took mine out of the oven, they were not "melded" very well and kind of fell apart. After they cooled off a bit, I stuck them in the fridge, and now they are perfectly set.

I have a bunch! What are you looking for? Dinner? snacks? dessert? 

I had to look this up from someone's blog because my cookbook is at home. I would double this. It was one of my favorite meals when I ate vegan. Don't skimp on that red curry paste. You can find it in the asian cooking section of grocery stores. It's in a little tiny jar and the coconut milk should be nearby.


Thai Sweet Potato Curry
Serves 2, adapted from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen

1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp red curry paste
3/4 lb sweet potato
1 can lite coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz peanuts, chopped
2 scallions
3/4 cup brown rice

1. Set up the rice to cook (i.e. boil and simmer).

2. Chop up all of the veggies – onion, garlic, and sweet potatoes.

3. In a medium skillet, heat the EVOO. Add the onion and cook until soft – 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 min. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes.

4. Add the coconut milk, soy sauce, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook about 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft. Serve warm, over the rice, with scallions and peanuts.

And for dessert....

I made this pie and absolutely nobody guessed it was vegan let alone had tofu in it! Someone even told me I should make them and sell them. Not my recipe, it's Alica Silverstone's. So good. I might have to make one now.

1 vegan chocolate cookie crust (Arrowhead Mills makes one)

1 (10-ounce) nondairy chocolate chips

1/2 cup soy or hemp milk (do not use rice or nut milk)

1/4 cups peanut butter, divided (I think the shelf stable PB is better to use in something like this)

1 (12.3-ounce) box silken tofu (firm)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the cookie crust for 4 to 5 minutes just to make it a bit crispy. Cool completely.

Melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a stainless steel bowl over boiling water and melt the ingredients in it. Whisk in the milk until combined and smooth. With a measuring cup, scoop out about 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture, then pour the remained into the cookie crust. Place the cookie crust in the refrigerator to cool completely.

While the filling chills, combine 1 cup peanut butter, the tofu, syrup, and vanilla extract in a food processor or blender; process until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Pour the peanut butter mixture on top of the child chocolate filling in the cookie crust, smoothing it out over the pie as you pour, and return the filled cookie crust to the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour or until firm.

To serve, return the reserved chocolate filling to the double boiler, or stainless steel bowl, and stir in the remaining 1/4 cup peanut butter. Stir until chocolate and peanut butter are very well combined and very warm. If the mixture seems too thick to drizzle, add some soymilk until it is runny enough to pour. Decoratively drizzle the mixture over the chilled pie in zigzags or swirls, or use a small spatula to spread it smoothly over the whole pie. Refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

I used my slow cooker this weekend to attempt to make potato soup. The recipe I was following said to cook the cut-up potatoes for 5-6 hours on low. After hour five, I checked on the taters and they were still hard. So I upped the temp to high and let them cook for another hour. At hour six, they were still hard, so I dumped the contents of the slow cooker into a pot on the stove and boiled them til they were soft. It irritated me because I was hungry and because my slow cooker is, apparently, a very slow cooker.

I just made a fantastic Crock-Pot recipe a couple of nights ago that I was gonna post here. But then I got high. Full disclosure this is based off of a recipe I found online, and now I can't find it or I'd link to it, but I made a few modifications.

Slow Cooked Balsamic Pork Tenderloin with Herbed Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

The Balsamic Pork Tenderloin:
Ingredients:
1 Pork Tenderloin (I used a 1.5 pound cut, but you can use a bigger one, just add more of everything, it's not rocket science, my measurements are suggestions)
1 Cup of Chicken Broth
1/3 Cup of Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce (or a bit more, I filled the table spoon and let a little more spill over)
1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Honey
1 large pinch of Red Pepper Flakes (depending on how spicy you like your food, I used maybe .5 teaspoons worth, whatever you'll be fine, but at least a pinch)
5 cloves of Garlic chopped (I love garlic. You can use more or less. Again this isn't rocket science)

In a bowl or large measuring cup mix everything but the meat. Put the pork in your Crock-Pot then pour the "broth" over the top of it. Cook it on high for 5 hours. (When there is only 45 minutes left start making the potatoes, see below). Remove the pork loin from the pot and shred it with 2 forks. While you're doing that have your oven pre-heating to 250 f. Place the now shredded pork on an oven proof cooking apparatus, I used a ceramic dish but a baking sheet would work fine and bake it while you complete the next step. Your goal is that the pork will have little crispies on it's ends. Don't over cook it though!

Pour the liquid left in the crock-pot into a sauce pan and cook it over medium/ medium high heat until it is reduced by about 1/4 - 1/3. Remove the Pork from the oven and plop it in a bowl, pour the reduction over it and toss.

The Herbed Fingerling Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 lb of fingerling potatoes cut into large bite sized chunks (if you don't have fingerlings new red potatoes will work just fine, this is not rocket science you just want chunks of potatoes)
1/8 to 1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon of salt (or more, depending on your taste but it's easier to add salt and impossible to make it less)
1/2 Teaspoon of pepper (whole pepper corns ground with a mortar and pestle yields the best results imo)
1 Big Pinch of Dried Oregano
1 Big Pinch of Dried Basil
1 pinch of Tarragon (this is optional but it worked)

Preheat the oven to 400 f. Get a 1 gallon freezer bag and add all ingredients to it. Seal it but make sure there is a good amount of air in it. Toss the freezer bag full of potatoes and herbs for a minute or two until the potatoes are completely covered in the mixture. Dump out the herbed potatoes onto a baking dish and cook for 20 minutes. Scrape up the potatoes and shuffle them around on the dish and cook for another 20 minutes. If the potatoes are not quite done at that point scrape them up and shuffle them around on the dish again and bake for another 10 minutes. They should definitely be done at this point. Your goal is to get them crispy and kinda burnt on the outside but soft on the inside.

I served this with string beans (no point in posting that recipe it was just string beans boiled in chicken broth until they reached my desired tenderness) and my quacking god was it good!

Leftover suggestion: The next day I made soft tacos using the pork! Just put some shredded pork on a soft taco, some extra sharp cheddar cheese, hot sauce and a couple of slices of avocado and a splash of lemon juice. It was quacking divine. If we'd had any leftover potatoes I would have made a burrito but those potatoes we're gone man!

So is that the first time you've been wrong today or have there been others?

Holiday treat planning takes time! I'm already buying baking ingredients to have on hand, so I figured maybe some other inforooers are as baking obsessed as I am.

So I'm curious: what does everyone put in their chili? I really like my chili recipe but I'm curious how different it is than other people's chili recipes. I don't use much (if any) meat because I'm not a big meat-eater, so my recipe consists mostly of beans, tomatoes and peppers.