The Thanksgiving Slow Cooker Experiment

My housemates & I host friends and family for Thanksgiving every year. This year we had 15 people or so. Most people bring something, but we prepare a lot of food at the house. 

Last year, once the turkey came out of the oven, we started a game of four-dimensional Tetris to get the rest of the dishes done. This year, I opted out of that & decided to utilize slow cookers instead. I own 3 slow cookers, & I borrowed 2 more. 

I searched for recipes on Pinterest and decided on garlic Parmesan mashed potatoes, non-dairy mashed potatoes, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and chocolate cake. 

I laid out almost everything the night before: 

And I may or may not have created a spreadsheet to figure out which dishes went into which slow cooker at what time. In the morning, was time to get to work. 

I got too busy with the cooking & forgot to take more pictures during the process. 

And I totally forgot to take pictures of the finished dishes. Everything turned out at least ok. The mashed potatoes will need to be kept on warm during serving. The green bean casserole was pretty indistinguishable from having been done in the oven. The scalloped potatoes & the chocolate cake were awesome. 

Pinterest to the rescue

 I have 4 (so far) Pinterest boards related to food & cooking.

I know pinning things isn't the same as actually making them, but the organization makes me feel like I'm making progress.


http://www.pinterest.com/ohjoyofjoys/general-food-drink/

http://www.pinterest.com/ohjoyofjoys/healthy-eating/

http://www.pinterest.com/ohjoyofjoys/cooking/

http://www.pinterest.com/ohjoyofjoys/crockpot/

Scratch That

I've been thinking about foods I want to try to make from scratch. 

Hummus

Protein bars

Bread

Granola

In fact, I'm debating investing in a breadmaker. 

Meal Planning

I've done a lot of research around healthy  meals for slow cookers, freezing & storing, meals, bulk cooking, etc. I'm working on a sustainable plan that fits my diet, schedule, & budget. So far, I'm hoping to create at least 2 dinners & 3 lunches per week every weekend, as well as doing as much chopping of vegetables & measuring out snacks as possible.

I've chosen as my first recipes a white bean chicken chili & some enchiladas. I'm also hoping to find a good spinach lasagna recipe with good make ahead or storage prospects. 

Here are some of the resources I'm using:

http://skinnyms.com/10-skinny-weightwatchers-entrees-5-points-or-less/
http://wwcrockmeals.webs.com/

http://www.slenderkitchen.com/healthy-crock-pot-recipes/#

Re-Boot

Well, 2013 was quite the year. I'll be creating a lot of separate posts on these topics later.

• I was diagnosed with diabetes in January (both expected and unexpected) so I started making big changes. 
• I adopted a lower-carb diet (not entirely) and lowered my intake of refined sugar by a lot. 
• I joined Weight Watchers in April 2013. I lost about 20 pounds pretty quickly, but I've stalled a bit since then. 
• My housemates & I signed up for a bi-weekly veggie & fruit box delivery. 
• I bought a second crock-pot.

My current goals mostly revolve around learning to cook more healthy dishes that I enjoy.  I want to master at least 3 this year. I'm focusing on Weight Watcher's recipes, and if they're for the crockpot, so much the better. The plan (or at least part of it) is to get a group together to try new recipes.

Also, I lost an aunt last month, and in her honor, I am determined to bake a sweet potato pie from scratch, by myself.

I made a whole chicken!

That's a first for me. It was precipitated by whole chickens being on sale for a ridiculous $.39/lb. I put it in the crock pot, of course. I also used carrots & potatoes and half a soup mix packet. Next time I'm going to use the whole packet. Also, it would have benefitted from an onion. I used onion powder & garlic powder & a little cayenne pepper. Overall it was good, but I like really bold flavors for chicken, so I want it stronger for next time.


I'm also planning to use the leftovers for chicken & rice, and make stock for a 3rd dish. Whole chickens are cheap and versatile, so yay!

August 2009 Restaurant Week

For this Restaurant Week, I did two lunches and one dinner.

Lunch 1: Bobby Van's Steakhouse.
I love steak. And I can't seem to cook it the way I like it, so I enjoy getting a good steak at a restaurant. But for some reason at the last minute I decided to order the salmon. I can't say I regret it, because it was delicious. It was served with a roasted red pepper risotto that was absolutely incredible.

Lunch 2: Bobby Van's Grill.
Yes, I just did this in February. Yes, it was that good. This time around wasn't quite as good, but still great. Better salad & better dessert than Bobby Van's Steakhouse, by the way. I had a flank steak with sweet potato puree.

Dinner: Ruth's Chris Steak House
Yes, again. I do need to be more adventurous next time. But it was delicious, as usual. I added a side of sweet potato casserole.