Crockpot Curry

It's the youngest daughter here tonight, and I will freely admit that my idea for this freeze ahead crockpot meal is totally taken from my dear friend Steph over at Cupcakes and Curls. I did, of course, adapt it to be my own.

Here's Steph's original recipe:
Chicken Curry

4 Chicken Breasts - Cut up in strips or chunks
2 Bottles of Trader Joe's Yellow Curry
4-5 Red Potatoes sliced or cut into chunks

This one is easy - Cut up your chicken and potatoes, toss them in a Ziploc freezer bag and pour in your ready made sauce. Freeze. When ready to cook, defrost in fridge overnight and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with Trader Joe's Microwave Jasmine Rice.

I tweaked this in a couple of ways, mostly to include a bigger variety of veggies, since Steph's husband is notoriously picky about vegetables, but I am a huge fan of veggies of all stripes.

Here are the ingredients I used to make two freeze ahead bags of curry tonight.

Ingredients
2 bottles of either red curry or yellow curry
1/2 curry bottle of water, shaken to get lose curry
1 gallon size freezer bag full of the following:

• 2 of those massive frozen chicken breasts
• 2 red potatoes, cubed
• 2 gold potatoes, cubed
• 1 1/2 bell pepper, variety of colors, sliced
• 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced
• FREE CHOICE - Add more or less of any of the above ingredients, as well as different vegetables. I fully intended to include eggplant and bamboo, but I fell short on two accounts. My eggplant had gone bad and I forgot to buy a can of bamboo. I upped how much potato and pepper went in, accordingly. If you don't like veggies or use smaller hunks of chicken, you'll need to put in more breasts to fill the bag.

Steps

1. Label bag before adding food, as it is much easier to label an empty freezer bag. I specify what the dish is, the date it is made, and any cooking instructions (low 8 hrs).
2. Chop and slice all meat/veggies according to preference. I did not slice the chicken, as it was already frozen. I will just fish the chicken out and either cube, slice, or shred it when it is time to serve.
3. Dump all chopped meat/veggies to the ziplock.
4. Pour two bottles of curry sauce (yellow or red to taste) over top.
5. If you're like me and your crock is often on for longer than 8 hours--work, am I right??--this step is crucial to maintain moisture. Fill one bottle about 1/2 way with water; cap and shake it. Dump the curry water into the other bottle; cap and shake it. Dump into bag. This gives you extra moisture and maximum flavor!
6. Seal the bag and squeeze it to be sure all veggies are coated in cooking liquid. Freeze flat.
7. The night before you use it, leave in refrigerator to thaw.
8. The morning of, dump contents into crockpot; set it; forget it.
9. Cook rice when you get home to serve with curry. You can use instant rice, stovetop rice, or a rice cooker (my preference). 
10. Chop, shred, or slice chicken if need be.
11. Enjoy! This is really easy, delicious, and satisfying.

The bag between bottles. Is your mouth watering yet?

Date Night Italian Feast

Youngest daughter here, and let me tell you about how awesome my date night Italian feast went. My husband grasped my hand, looked me deep in the eye, and said, "Is there something I'm missing or forgetting? You're being so romantic." Yeah, success.

Yes, date night means light drinking to the tune of the baby monitor at our house.

What's my recipe for a great date night? Two very simple recipes taken and tweaked out of my favorite cook book, Better Homes and Gardens: New Cookbook, Prizewinning Recipes. I cooked "White Bean and Sausage Rigatoni" and used their directions for fresh zucchini.

I acquired the food for this from a few places, but you could easily get a comparable list all from just Walmart or any other standard grocery. I started at Trader Joe's because I wanted their delicious parmesan reggiano.

Shredded using my Cuisnart Food Processer

That trip was not my last because Trader Joe's was missing two key ingredients (Italian tomatoes and turkey sausage), hence the split between stores. Here's how my shopping split up:

Costco
Franconia Beer (a local brewery)

Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's Block Red Shiraz
Parmesan reggiano block of cheese
Rigatoni
1 can cannellini beans
Sweet Italian pork sausage
Ciabatta bread
Three-pack of zucchini squash

Walmart
1 Bag Marketside Caesar Salad Kit
1 can Italian-style tomatoes
Sweet Italian Turkey sausage
Dried crushed basil (I had this at home, but if I was out, I would have purchased it at Walmart.)

To start, we had the Marketside Caesar Salad Kit, which is assembled by opening, dumping, and tossing.

To accompany, we had the ciabatta bread. I dunked mine in a little olive oil and basalmic vinaigrette. My husband went with Country Crock. It's really a taste thing.

For the main dish of white bean and sausage rigatoni, I made a slight tweak to the recipe because I ended up acquiring both the type of sausage called for and a back-up flavor. I will note it in the recipe that follows the photo. I mixed both types of sausage because I wanted left overs of both types for an upcoming dinner party, and because I was skeptical of the flavor of the turkey sausage, as it was my first time to cook with it. As it turns out, either would have been fine alone because the two types were pretty indistinguishable. Turkey is lower fat and pork is cheaper. Pick your battles!

Ingredients
2 cups dried rigatoni (8 ounces or half the package, eyeballed)
1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans
1 14.5-ounce can of Italian-style diced tomatoes
8 ounces (1/2 package) sweet Italian turkey sausage (changed to be 4 ounces turkey and 4 ounces pork, not necessary... pick one)
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil, crushed
1/4 cup shredded Asiago or Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)

Steps
1. Cook sausage and chop into bite size pieces. I put this in because I hate it when recipes assume you've already cooked and chopped your meat. This takes about 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring your water up to boil. This time is also always left out of the recipe.
3. Open your two cans. Drain and rinse the beans. Leave the tomatoes be.
3. About the time the sausage is done, you'll be able to put the pasta in the boiling water. It takes 12 minutes if you use Trader Joe's variety. When it is done, drain it and place in your serving dish.
4. While your pasta is boiling, heat the tomatoes with the dried basil (if using) and sausage in a saucepan.
5. Shred a chunk of your big block of parmesan cheese in the food process. Skip this if you buy it pre-shredded or grated.
6. Add beans and fresh basil (if using) to sauce. Heat through.
7. Toss sauce with pasta and serve sprinkled with cheese to taste.

Nutrition Facts (for Turkey Sausage Only)
Per 2 cups: 432 cal, 10 g. total fat (3 g sat. fat), 46 mg chol., 961 mg sodium, 65 g carbo., 7 g fiber, 25 g pro.
Daily values: 4% vit. A, 3% vit C., 11% calcium, 23% iron

For my side dish of vegetables, I decided on zucchini. I prepared them the plain way that Better Homes and Gardens suggested, but they were a little bitter without seasoning, so I tweaked them to include garlic salt and olive oil on their way to the table. The tweaked recipe follows the photo.

Ingredients
3 zucchini squash
Pinch of salt
Pinch of garlic salt
Drizzle of olive oil

Steps
1. Boil salted a few inches of water in the sauce pan.
2. Cut off ends of zucchinis. Slice zucchinis into 1/4 width slices.
3. Cook zucchini in salted water for 4-5 minutes.
4. Drain zucchini and toss in a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of garlic salt to taste.

When it was all said and done, the meal was filling, wholesome, and delicious. I got the go ahead to make it again. I was surprised that the sauce was so hearty and flavorful considering how few ingredients it included, but it was great. The recipe really "stretches flavorful sausage with white beans" as the cookbook indicated. It was a ton of food, and it yielded a good deal of left-overs, even in our home of hearty eaters. I personally was skeptical of the cannellini beans, but they took on the flavor of the tomatoes and had a similar texture to the meat; it was a delightful addition of fiber and frugal protein. 

When it was all said and done, I wrapped up date night by putting away the laundry and my husband did the dishes. That's our love language, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Two easy meals from one slow cooked pork loin

Guest blogger and youngest daughter Sarah here, and I want to brag about a two super easy meal ideas that came from one slow cooked pork loin, which I will admit is big sister's recipe.

Base Recipe: Sweet and Spicy Dr. Pepper Pork Loin

Ingredients:

Big ole pork loin

1 cup brown sugar

12-16 oz of Dr. Pepper*

12-20 oz of salsa*

Directions: 

• Place the loin into a big ole slow cooker.

• Pour the remaining ingredients over the loin.

• Cover and heat on low setting for eight hours.

*Adjust amounts based on size of loin and slow cooker, as well as for desired balance of sweet versus spicy.

Meal One: Meat and Taters

Pair the fresh out of the crock pot loin with Walmart's BBQ chopped salad and mashed potatoes. My taters were left over Rachael Ray smashed potatoes, but the Yukon Gold instant potatoes would be sufficient in a time crunch.

Meal Two: Pork Tacos

Shred and reheat the leftover loin. Warm tortillas; I used Rosa's Cafe flour tortillas, which are thick and homemade style. Mix Walmart's Southwestern Chop salad. Create tacos to taste with standard taco fixings--see my mom's post on that for ideas. My husband's delicious suggestion? Dress the taco with the chopped salad!

Photos

I didn't realize that I had a blog post brewing until we were halfway through meal two, so I apologize for the unattractive photos. Then again, shouldn't food be so delicious that you devour it before you have a chance to think straight?

The taco done Jeff-style with pork, chop salad, and a sour cream and salsa mix

Walmart's super delicious Southwestern Chop Salad

All that remains of the super tender, sweet and spicy pork loin