Crock-Pot Recipes

My wonderful dear friend, Beth Hensperger, has generously shared her published crockpot recipes from her cookbook, "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook."  I owe my life to this woman who in the depths of my despair, encouraged me to hang in there, and embrace life.  If you want to learn to bake bread, or make mouth-watering muffins, or other wonderful treats from your kitchen, remember this name: Hensberger, and buy her books.  She has a new crockpot cookbook coming out next year, NYMSC Family Favorites.  Make sure you buy it.  I own as many of her cookbooks that I can get my hands on.  And trust me on this, she understands our weight issues. Many, many, miles away from me, she taught me through well-written pages of her cookbooks, how to bake bread by hand.  We will post some more recipes for you to try.  These are my favorite.  The first recipe she published in a cookbook from me. 

Bunny's Braised Chicken Breasts on a Bed of Vegetables 

My friend Bunny Dimmel whips up this chicken any day of the week, loving the combination of onion, garlic, and peppers. You can also use bone-in breast halves or a turkey thigh, both which will take a bit longer. For chicken that is not smothered in a nice sauce or liquid, it is best to cook a short time on high rather than longer on low to avoid the meat becoming stringy.

 Recommended Size: Small oval

Machine Setting and Cook Time: High Heat: 3 to 3 1/2 hours :     Serves 2

 1 large white or sweet yellow onion, sliced

 2 cloves garlic, slivered

2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced 1/2 inch thick

1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced 1/2 inch thick

 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, rinsed and patted dry and trimmed     of fat

1/4 cup water or chicken broth

1 tablespoons olive oil 

1 lemon

Few grinds of black pepper

1.      Spray the cooker with an olive oil or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the onion slices in the bottom of cooker. Place a layer of the garlic, then the bell pepper slices or rings. Place the chicken breasts, breast side up, on the vegetables; pour in the water.  Squeeze the lemon over the breasts, then drizzle with the oilr, and give a few grinds of pepper. You can leave the lemon halves in the crock if you like for some extra flavor.

2.       Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Check at 3 hours. When the chicken is cooked, remove with tongs from the crock and place on a dinner plates.  Serve with lots of vegetables and the juices spooned over and some steamed brown rice or whole wheat couscous. If you use salt, season at the table.

 Fresh Beans for Your Chili from the Slow Cooker

The chili recipes in this chapter all call for canned beans. What if you want to take advantage of your little slow cooker and make your small portion of beans fresh? No problem. I used to struggle to get a good pot of plain beans until I started using the slow cooker to cook them. A few guidelines and all dried beans are fully cooked in just a few hours, ready to add to your chili, top salads, soups, or for use in other stews. Unlike the stovetop, there is almost no risk of burning your beans, as long as you have enough water.  Be careful not to overcook, as beans can still get mushy (though still good to eat).  Yellow split peas and chickpeas are the exception; they remain soft and shapely no matter how long they are cooked. Always check your beans towards the end of the cooking time and add more boiling water if they look too dry.  If the beans are to be used in another dish, such as chili, soup, vegetable stew, or a cassoulet, you will cook them al dente rather than totally soft. 

You can cook the beans completely plain, or add a bouquet garni, a single fresh or dried chili pepper, or add a sprig or two of fresh herb to flavor your beans. Add hot water, very hot to boiling, to the dried beans, then cover and cook on the HIGH heat setting.  Do not add salt until AFTER the beans are cooked; salt added at the beginning toughens beans and they will not absorb water properly during the cooking process. Remember that beans and legumes always take slightly longer to cook at higher altitudes.

You can use cooked from scratch or canned beans in any of my recipes. Want to substitute your fresh beans for canned? Here are the guidelines: A 15-ounce can of beans, drained, contains about 1 1/2 cups of beans. A 16-ounce can of beans, drained, contains about 1 3/4 cups of beans. A 19-ounce can of beans, drained, contains about 2 cups of beans. One pound of raw dried beans (approximately 2 1/3 cups) will yield about 5 cups of cooked beans.  

Recommended Size: 1 1/2 or 3 quart cooker

Machine Setting: High

Cook Time: 3 to 4 hours (The time will be the same for a small amount of beans as for a large pot)

Yield: 1/2 cup of dried beans, will yield about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans; 3/4 cup of dried beans yields about 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups of cooked beans; and 1 cup of beans will yield about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of cooked beans, depending on the size and age of the bean. A good rule of thumb to follow is the following:

1 cup dried beans needs 4 cups of boiling water.

Fine sea salt, to taste (optional) 

 Place beans in a colander and rinse under running water; check and pick over for small stones.  Place in the crock and cover with cold water.  Drain or let soak 4 hours to overnight. This is good if you need to cook old beans, but you do not have to soak the beans by any method to get a good pot of beans from the slow cooker.  Drain.

Add the measured fresh boiling hot water to the beans in the crock.  Cover and cook on HIGH, until tender, hold their shape, and not be falling apart. Most of the cooking liquid will be absorbed. I test at 2 1/2 hours. The best way to test is to bite into one. The beans will be covered with liquid at all times to cook properly, cooking into a liquid similar in color to whatever bean you are cooking, called the "bean liquor." You can add salt, or not, depending on how you want to use the beans. You want a more "al dente" parcooked bean if you are going to add to a chili recipe that will cook another few hours, so plan accordingly. Store the beans in the refrigerator in its liquor up to 2 days. Drain before using in recipes.

Specific Beans for Chili and Time Guidelines

The White Varieties, all very different in appearance, include garbanzos (also called chickpeas or cecis), navy beans, baby white beans (known as haricots), Great Northerns, black-eyed peas, yellow-eyed peas, cannellini. These all take about 3 hours to cook, except for garbanzos and soybeans, which take about 4 hours.

The Rose-Pink to Red-Black Varieties include black beans (frijoles negros or turtle beans), pintos (nicknamed the Mexican strawberry because of its mottled coloring) and its hybrids like rattlesnake and appaloosa beans, red kidneys, small pink (pinquito-a small kidney), anasazi, red beans, Jacob's cattle, and cranberry beans (borlotti or brown beans). These all take about 3 hours to cook.

Bunny's Weeknight Orange Chicken 

 Recommended Size: Small oval

Machine Setting and Cook Time: High Heat: 3 to 3 1/2 hours

Serves 2

 1 orange, scrubbed, cut into 1/2 inch slices

 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, rinsed and patted dry and trimmed of fat

2 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped

1/4 cup water or chicken broth

  1 tablespoons olive oil and a few grinds of black pepper.

 1. Spray the cooker with an olive oil or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the orange slices overlapping in the bottom of cooker. Place the chicken breasts, breast side up, on the oranges; pour in the water.  Sprinkle with the garlic, then drizzle with the oilr, and give a few grinds of pepper. 

 2. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Check at 3 hours. When the chicken is cooked, remove with tongs from the crock and place on a dinner plates. If you use salt, season at the table.2. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Check at 3 hours. When the chicken is cooked, remove with tongs from the crock and place on a dinner plates. If you use salt, season at the table.

Turkey Sausage Italian Style

So this is not fried Italian sausage with greasy peppers and onions on a bun with enough calories for the whole day, but in time, if you make this, I am sure it will be your favorite too. I love this dish.  I buy either turkey sausage or chicken sausage and divide the package into servings of 2 links.  I freeze the rest, 2 in a bag.  You will need:

2 links of turkey sausage (for 1 serving)

1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes from Hunts

1 large onion-sliced

1 green pepper, washed and seeds removed

1 clove of garlic

Oregano and a dash of basil. 

Spray the crockpot with olive oil, add the sauce first and layer the rest.  Leave it cooking for at least 4 hours.  I eat it like this in a bowl.  If you want noodles, etc, make them to go with it.  I usually eat a slad or steam a vegetable to have with it.

Awesome Pork Chops

For this recipe I try some different sauces from Wegmans.  I am very fond of MoJo Sauce.  I even use this sauce.  after I have roasted or steamed vegetables instead of butter.

1 small porkchop (lean, lean, lean, I generally buy sirloin chops or center cut boneless)

1 tbs of MoJo Sauce (or your favorite salad dressing)

1 large onion

1 clove of garlic.

I put it all in the crock pot (spray with olive-oil) plug it in and supper is ready when I get home.