Week 9, Recipe 9: Crock Pot Girls Slow Cooker Italian Beef

Gold Stars for Laura - 4: 

I've made two new recipes in one week, 

two new recipes in two days, 

five recipes in four straight weeks, and 

have gotten caught up to an even week and recipe count!

Keeping in mind the goal of this challenge is to get me cooking at home instead of eating out the majority of the week, one should not judge the difficulty level of my recipes as ... today we are back to the slow cooker! I chose another slow cooker meal today for three reasons: in general, the recipes are easy, they provide several meals for the two of us throughout the week, and this will be a ready-to-eat meal between trick-or-treaters.

Today's recipe is Crock Pot Girls Slow Cooker Italian Beef

3 lb. Beef Chuck Roast or Sirloin
1 Onion, quartered
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 - 10 to 14.5 oz. can Beef Broth
1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian salad dressing
1 envelope dry Aus Jus mix
1/2 (16 oz.) jar Pepperoncini Peppers and juice

Place meat and the onion in a 5-quart slow cooker.
Mix up the next 5 ingredients in a small bowl; then pour over meat.
Add peppers and juice.
Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours.
Remove meat from cooker and slice or shred.
Have juice and peppers available to put on sandwiches or on the side.
Serve on rolls or buns.

Adventure #1:

Apparently your roast may have sticks in it, which I would not have discovered had I not had to mold the roast into my slow cooker. So, Step 1 in the instructions should be "Check roast for sticks."

Adventure #2:

I found the "1/2 (16 oz.) jar Pepperoncini Peppers and juice" open to interpretation. Does this mean 1/2 of your jar will be 16 oz. or 1/2 of a 16 oz. jar? Asked husband and both sets of parents this question. Consensus seemed to be 1/2 of a 16 oz. jar. Then, one set of parents further misinterpreted the instructions to mean the peppers were only served on the side so the amount was not critical. However, the (current) Step 3 says to "Add peppers and juice" before covering and cooking. So, I went with 1/2 of a 16 oz. jar (8 oz. total) placed in the slow cooker while cooking.

Stay tuned ...

Week 9, Recipe 8: Baked Spaghetti from SparkRecipes.com

Tonight's meal is one I'm pretty sure I can handle. Hoping this will an easy lasagna alternative. We'll see how it goes!


Also, there will be a second recipe this week, probably going in the slow cooker tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Baked Spaghetti from SparkRecipes.com

8 oz whole wheat thin spaghetti
2 cups marinara sauce
24 oz fat free cottage cheese
2 oz fresh parmesan
4 oz mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti in boiling water according to package directions to 'al dente'. Drain. Place in 9X13" oiled pan. Spread cottage cheese over spaghetti, top with marinara sauce, then parmesan cheese, then mozzarella. Cover tightly with foil & bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Remove foil & return to over for 10 more minutes to brown top.


Number of Servings: 8


Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user SCRYBIL.


UPDATE:


Better than your average spaghetti night. I accidently bought the 16 oz cottage cheese and it was still super cheesy. I have a feeling this will be our new go-to spaghetti recipe.

Coney Dog Modifications = Surprisingly Lo-Cal Meal

This doesn't really qualify as cooking but I accidently created a relatively lo-cal alternative to a Detroit favorite. When made at home, you can have coney dogs & fries for under 600 calories! Who knew? I didn't until I put it in my SparkPeople Diet & Food Tracker app out of curiosity.  Actually, it came out to 527 calories ...

Lo-Cal Coney Dogs & Fries
1 reduced-calorie hot dog bun
2 fat-free Oscar Mayer Wieners
1 cup Hormel Chili, No Beans
3 oz. Ore-Ida Zesties Fries (approx. 12 pieces)

Place hot dog bun open-faced on plate. Put one hot dog on each bun "half." Cover with chili (and onions and mustard, which are not technically in this calorie count but would still not put it over 600) and serve with fries.

There should be enough chili to cover your fries too. You can reduce the calories even further if you can give up some of the chili. However, at under 600 calories, I say treat yourself and indulge. I bet this is probably a third or less of the calories this meal would be at the local Coney restaurant where you would get two full-calorie buns, two full-fat hot dogs, and three times as many deep-fried fries. I will still frequent our awesome Coney joints occasionally but can kill a craving with this easy at-home switcheroo!

Week 8, Recipe 7: Original Ranch Roasted Potatoes

Hidden Valley - Recipe Page

The husband is grilling ribeye steaks for football day. This side dish will be my contribution to the meal.

As for the chicken paprikash, the leftovers have not been touched by either of us, so I'm considering that recipe a bust.

UPDATE:
Delicious but totally stuck to the pan. This is why I post even the simplest of recipes because if I'm involved something usually goes wrong ...

Chicken Paprikash Report

The Family Circle Chicken Paprikash recipe went together very easily.

It looks suspiciously the same when done.

Better in the bowl.

Overall, I liked the idea of the recipe. However, it fell a little short on flavor. If I were to make it again, I would either use the called-for chicken thighs to see how much that impacts the flavor or try a different version of the recipe. Unless, of course it is delicious tomorrow, as some recipes often are better the next day.

Also, this was my first time using the slow cooker liners. It's the only way to go in terms of clean up. Hooked.

Week 7 Recipe 6: Family Circle Chicken Paprikash

Saw this in an issue of Family Circle and it's going in the slow cooker tomorrow! I'm going to use chicken breasts instead of thighs because I already had them in the house and frozen green beans because the fresh ones didn't look too great at the market tonight. Big risks for me on a first time recipe! Stay tuned!

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed
• 2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• Cooked egg noodles, for serving

Directions

1. Coat slow cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray. In medium-size bowl, toss the chicken thighs with flour. Combine in slow cooker with green beans, onions, tomato sauce and 1 cup water. Stir to blend, then add 1 tablespoon of the paprika, the salt and pepper.

2. Cover slow cooker and cook for 4 hours on HIGH or 6 1/2 hours on LOW.

3. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream with remaining 2 tablespoons paprika. Scoop 1/2 cup sauce from slow cooker and gradually whisk into sour cream. Slowly stir sour cream mixture into slow cooker. Serve paprikash over noodles.

Week 6 Recipe 5: Crock Pot Corned Beef

This was A-MAZ-ING! We are huge corned beef fans but usually boil it on the stove. I don't think I'll ever do it that way again. Tender, flavorful - what's not to love. Debating adding one dark beer next time but it probably doesn't need it. Happy tummy for sure!

And yes, I know I'm cheating on the challenge count, but it's my blog and I'll cheat if I want to. :-)

The Crock Pot Challenge: Week 12 : Corned Beef and Sauerkraut

Can't wait to make this tomorrow! And super excited I found this crock pot blog. I may have to follow suit ... :-)

The Crock Pot Challenge: Week 12 : Corned Beef and Sauerkraut: 1 corned beef brisket 1 large jar of sauerkraut several small red potatoes Spread sauerkraut along the bottom of your slow cooker. Pla...