Autumn Soup

I received this recipe in an email from my Aunt JoAnn. Chris and I loved it.

Autumn Soup

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1 med. onion, chopped

1 lg. can of tomatoes (they can be crushed or whole, if whole you need to break them up)

1 can of water from the tomato can

2 potatoes, diced and peeled

1 1/2 cups of diced celery

1 - 2 tsp. of dried sweet basil

Salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the hamburger with the onion. Add it to a crock pot with all the other ingredients. Make sure that the liquids cover the raw vegetables. Put on low for 6 hrs. or less. Most of the stuff will be ready.

If your going to have company for dinner, add another potato, and some chopped celery.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Base Ingredients:
6 large potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, diced
1 quart homemade chicken broth
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste


1 cup cream
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Garnish: chives, sour cream, bacon, and cheese


Cook the base ingredients in your crock pot for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Add the cream, cheese, and garnishes.

Crockpot 7 Layer Dinner

4 potatoes sliced

1/3 cup rice

1 lb raw hamburger

1 onion, chopped

1 small carrot, sliced or chopped

1 lb mushrooms, sliced or chopped

1 tsp sugar

2 (14 oz ) cans of diced tomatoes, undrained

salt and pepper to taste

Mozzarella (or other) cheese. 

Layer each item item in the order listed. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours. Add cheese to individual plates.  

Last time we made this we forgot to add the salt and it still came out great. This is the perfect throw it all in the Crockpot and have dinner waiting for you when you get home from work meal. 

Grape Juice

Last summer we were given 16 lbs of grapes. That is a lot of grapes and we had limited fridge and freezer space. We decided to make grape juice out of them. 

Rinse 3 lbs of grapes. It is okay to leave in the seeds. Place them in a crock pot. You can fill it to the top with grapes. Add 1/2 cup of water and let simmer for 8 hours. Then drain all of the pulp out the pot and drain the juice into another bowl. Let the juice cool, then pour it into plastic bottles. This juice is delicious and will last in the fridge for about a week. Throw it out when it starts to taste like wine. 

Apple Banana Bread

I often make this cake when I have apples and bananas that are to old to eat. 

1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 stick butter
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
2 or 3 peeled, chopped apples

Beat sugar, eggs, and butter. Slice in bananas. Mash them with a spoon or a potato masher.  Add baking soda, vanilla, and flour. Fold in chopped apples. 

Place a round piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the crockpot and rub butter around the sides. Cook on high for 1 hour and then cook on low for 1 or 2 more hours until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. 

You can also bake the cake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees in the oven instead of the crockpot. 

Tip: When the cake is cooling remove the lid. We forgot to do this so our cake was a little gooey on the top. 

Crockpot Ham Sauté with Cranberry Orange Barley Pilaf

Chris and I love food. We have tried dieting off and on for the last three years since we got married but nothing seems to take the weight off. We have decided to take a different method to dieting. Instead of depriving ourselves of the things we love, which we would only be able to do for a limited amount of time, we have decided to add healthy things to our diet instead of taking bad things away. Our theory is that if we had enough healthy items we wont have as much room for the bad stuff, but can still enjoy them once in a while. We are not going to diet we are just adding good things to our menus.

A few months ago, I was reading an article in the Kids Times about how healthy barley is. I had never cooked with it before, but decided to give it a try. Koreans really like barley and drink lots of barley tea. Chris tried the tea when he was sick, but said it tasted too grainy. So I decided to look up some recipes. I found several. The next step was to find barley. Most American recipes calls for Pearl Barley. I could not find it. Instead in Korea I am using Sweet Barley.

This recipe is a combination of two recipes that I found and combined together. Most of the barley recipes that I am going to try I found at www.barleyfoods.org

Start with the Pilaf, it takes some time to cook.

Cranberry Orange Barley

1 TBS olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 cup pearl or sweet barley
1-1/2 cups cranberry apple juice
3/4 cup fat-free chicken broth
1 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

In a frying pan heat the oil. Add the garlic and sauté  for 1 minute. Add the barley and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cranberry juice, broth and grated orange peel. I grated the orange right over the pan. Bring it to a boil. The next step it is lower the heat and let it simmer for 45 minutes. I don't have the space or proper pan to do this so I throw the mixture into my Crockpot on low for 45 minutes and the barley comes out just right.  This also leaves the frying pan available to make the ham saute. When the 45 minutes are up add the cranberries, almonds and orange slices to the pot and cover and cook for 10 more minutes.

Start chopping all the vegetables for the Ham Sauté as soon as you are done with the Pilaf. It takes a lot of time to chop all the vegetables.
Ham Sauté

1 TBS Olive oil
1/2 cup onion chopped
1/2 cup celery sliced
1 cup carrots sliced
1 cup mushrooms sliced
1 cup chicken broth or water
1 tsp gingerroot minced
1 TBS cornstarch
3 TBS soy sauce
3 TBS rice wine vinegar
2 TBS honey
2 Tsp sesame oil
1 cup cooked ham or pork tenderloin

Sauté the onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms for 1 to 2 minutes in olive oil.  Add the chicken broth and bring it to a boil for 3 minutes. 


In another bowl combine the cornstarch with the remaining ingredients minus the ham.  Add it to the pan of vegetables. Cook until thick about 3 minutes. Add the ham and stir until the ham is warm. 


Serve over the Barley Pilaf. 

Crockpot Potato Soup with Clams

This recipe was for plain potato soup but the soup was bland so we added clams to it, which improved it greatly.

6 small potatoes chopped not peeled
1/2 medium onion chopped
water
3 strips of bacon
1/2 lb (200 grams) fresh shelled clams chopped
2 cups of milk
1 TBS Butter.

Place chopped potatoes and onion in crockpot. Add just enough water to cover the potatoes. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Add the clams and turn the pot to high.

Fry the bacon in a frying pan. When crispy, crumble it and place it in the pot. Add about 2 cups of milk or cream and the butter.

Stir just until the milk or cream is warm.

You can add all the ingredents in the morning. We don't because we often forget to buy the clams early. We like to use only fresh clams and we often forget to buy them the night before. (Except the bacon, it is best added just before serving.

You do not have to use a Crockpot to make this meal. Just boil the potatoes like you would for mashed potatoes. When they are soft add the other ingredients. Heat until warm and serve.

Chris likes this as a soup. I prefer clam chowder. So I took the leftovers (only one serving) the next night, and put it in a frying pan. I brought it to a boil slowly being careful not to scorch the milk. Then I took half a cup on cold water, added 1 TBS flour and shook it up. I added it to the pan and stired until it became thick. So I had a nice filling chowder.

Crockpot Coffee Cake

Crockpot Coffee Cake

Batter:

1 ½ cups flour

2 ½ cups baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 egg

¾ cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup flour

¼ cup butter, softened

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.  Beat eggs until frothy. Beat in the sugar and butter. Beat until well blended. Add the milk and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients slowly; do not over mix or it will be dry. Pour into a well greased crockpot. (I rub butter along the bottom and sides.

Mix together the topping ingredients and pour over the batter, spreading evenly, but do not mix it in with the batter.

Cover the crock pot for two hours turning it on low. Check after 1 ½ hours.  It is done with the sides are crisp and it is not longer gooey in the middle. Try not to lift the lid too often or it will not cook evenly. 

Crockpot Scalloped Potatoes

One thing that we can find a lot of in South Korea are potatoes. I had to get used to vegetables that still had dirt on them though. Tonight when my husband went to wash the potatoes his hands turned black with dirt.

5 potatoes, rinsed and chopped. Don't peel them.
1 whole large onion, diced
1/2 cube of butter (I used a whole cube and it was too much)
2 sliced green onions
Lots of mushrooms of your choice, there are plenty in Korea (I used 3 different kinds)
Garlic, minced
Season salt, or regular salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup diced ham or tenderloin (optional)
1/4 cup colby jack cheese (optional)
1/4 cup chedder cheese (optional)
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese (optional)

1. Mix the onions, green onions, mushrooms, garlic and meat together in a bowl. I was going to layer these items like a lasagna, but didn't have time and it turned out great like this. 
2. Layer your mixtures in the following order potatoes first, then add a dash of salt or season salt
3. Next add the veggie/meat mixture. 
4. Place a pat or two of butter on the next layer.
5. Sprinkle with cheese. You can mix all three cheeses together. I choose one cheese for each layer.
6. Continue placing the layers in the above order until the pot is full. 
7. Pour the 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk over the top. 
8. Cooking on high for at least 3 hours or until the potatoes or soft. You can also cook it on low for eight hours. 

When I made this recipe it was very delicious. I let it cook all day on low. You can use it as a classic potato side dish or add the meat and cheese to make it a one dish meal.

We think this meal might work well without the cheese, but have yet to try it that way. I have found that cheese is very expensive in Korea, so I am trying to reduce my use of it. The original recipe that I based my recipe on did not call for cheese.

Time Saving Tips:

Prepare your vegetable and meat mixture ahead of time and freeze it until you are ready for use. You can pull it out of the freezer the night before you make the dish.

I buy my cheese in 2 lb blocks from Costco. When we first open it my husband grates all of the cheese and then places it in gallon sized freezer bags and put them in the freezer. Whenever we want cheese we just reach in and grab what we want.

 Here are some of the ingredients. Right after I took this picture I looked in the fridge and found several other items that I wanted to add.

This is what the pot looked like after I filled it up and before cooking it.

Crockpot Lasagna

16 oz Prego spaghetti sauce

4 lasagna noodles *

½ lb hamburger

Mushrooms

Mozzarella cheese shredded

Cheddar cheese shredded

Fennel seed

1 onion chopped

1 tsp of sugar

2 bay leaves

Salt

Garlic

1. Brown hamburger in a frying pan. Add onion and garlic.

2. Cook until hamburger is no long pink.

3. Mix the sauce and hamburger mixture.

4. Pour a small layer spaghetti sauce in the Crockpot.

5. Add a layer of noodles. You will have to break them to make them fit.

6. Add a layer of cheese.

7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you run out of ingredients.

8. The top layer should be Cheese or sauce.

9. Cook on high for 1 hour (you can skip this step if you won’t be home)

10. Cook on low for 3 to 8 hours. The longer you cook it the better it will taste, but you really only need to cook it long enough to melt the cheese and cook the noodles.

I had lasagna noodles mailed to me from the U.S. Some on them broke in transit, but that is OK for this recipe since you have to break them to make them fit in the Crockpot.

I found my spaghetti sauce at Costco. I always add other ingredients to give it more flavor. I cooked it for 8 hours the week before and used some of the sauce for spaghetti and froze the rest to save for my lasagna. I added fennel seed, 1 onion chopped, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 bay leaves, salt, and garlic.

Crockpot Baked Potatoes

4 potatoes (or as many as you need that will fit in the pot)

Foil
Cheese
Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt
Butter
Salt

1. Wash each potato

2. Stab potatoes with a fork several times.

3. Wrap in foil

4. Place in the bottom of the crock pot and cook for 8 hours on low.

5. Do not add water.

6. When soft remove foil and top with cheese, plain yogurt, butter and salt.

7. You can also place your foiled potatoes on top of other items that you are cooking in the Crockpot. They don’t need water so don’t submerge them.

8. If cooking the potatoes with other items just give the outer layer of foil a quick rinse before removing it to help prevent messes.

Crockpot Pork Roast

3lb Pork Roast

Salt or Season Salt to taste
2 whole cloves of garlic chopped into quarters
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 potatoes chopped in bite sized pieces
1 whole carrot cut into sticks
1 cup of chopped or sliced Mushrooms
1 cup Broth or Water

1. Make little slits in the roast and insert the pieces of garlic.

2. Rub with salt and any other seasonings that you want to add.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan.

4. Brown roast for about 2 minutes on each side. (to save time you can omit the browning process, but it adds to the flavor of the roast. I didn’t brown my first one because I was in a hurry)

5. Place roast in Crockpot

6. Add veggies

7. Cover with liquid. I used the left over BBQ sauce from my ribs earlier in the week. It gave it a good flavor but the BBQ sauce flavor wasn’t too strong. It was very good. You could use water or broth from other meats such as chicken or beef. If you make a lot of veggies you can also save the water that you boiled them in.

8. Cook for 8 to 10 hours on low.

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

This recipe is so easy

1 bottle of Bullseye BBQ Sauce (at Lotte Mart)
1 lb of beef ribs
4 potatoes
1 small container of plain yogurt
Foil
Salt or Season Salt


1. Place the ribs in the bottom of the Crockpot.


2. Season with salt


3. Pour the entire bottle of BBQ Sauce over the ribs.


4. Add ¼ cup of water to the BBQ Sauce bottle. Replace the cap and shake to get all the sauce out. Pour into the Crockpot.


5. Stab four large potatoes with a fork several times. Wrap them in foil and place them just on top of the ribs. Don’t submerge them.


6. Cook for 6 to 10 hours on low.


7. When the meal is ready, pull out the potatoes and rinse them with water before removing the foil to get rid of any sauce.


8. Since I can’t find sour cream at a decent price in Korea, I use little containers of plain yogurt (not vanilla). It tastes the same but is cheaper and healthier.


9. You can also add corn on the cob wrapped in foil. I haven’t tried it yet.


10. Always save your sauce. I put my sauce in the fridge overnight and then removed all of the fat that was on top. Save the sauce for a Pork Roast or other meats. You can freeze it until you are ready to use it.

Crockpot Refried Beans

I love bean burritos. It is one of the things I miss from America. I have tried exactly one Mexican resturant in Korea. It was over priced and I didn't like the burrito. So I have taken matters into my own hands. 

If you don't have a Crockpot you can cook the beans in a regular pot or a skillet for several hours until they are soft on a low heat. Make sure you check them often and don't leave them unattended. If I were to use the Crockpot I would have no  problem turning it on and leaving the house all day. Don't do this with the skillet or regular pot. 

1 onion chopped into large pieces

2 cups of chicken broth*
1/3 bag of pinto beans
8 strips of bacon cut into 1 ½ inch strips
3 garlic cloves cut in half
Season salt or regular salt**
All of the ingredient amounts are approximate. You can’t go wrong just throwing things in.

1. Soak your beans overnight. The more times you rise them and the longer you soak them the less gas. I soak mine in the Crockpot.

2. In the morning drain and rinse them. Rinse out the Crockpot and add the beans. You can pick out the ones that don’t look good or that are black.

3. Add all ingredients to the Crockpot. Cook on high setting for about 8 to 10 hours.

4. When the beans are soft. Drain them but save the bean water.

5. Place the beans into a frying pan and start smashing them. I used a potato masher***.

6. Slowly add some of the bean juice back in until they are the consistency that you like them.

7. Some people use butter or olive oil when refrying the beans, but I didn’t find it necessary.

Korean Notes:
* I have not found chicken broth in Korea. I had cooked a chicken in the Crockpot with veggies earlier in the week and saved the broth.

** Remember when using seasonings in the Crockpot that you have to use double the amount you would normally use. My rule of thumb is put in the amount you normally would and then do it a second time. I had a bottle of Johnney’s seasoning salt shipped over from the states. It is our favorite seasoning.

*** I found a hand potato masher at Home Plus for a very cheap price. You should also be careful as it can damage your frying pan.

I now have a blender. Instead of mashing the beans in the frying pan I place 3/4 of the beans in the blender and blend until they are smooth. Then I place them in the frying pan and add the non blended beans for a perfect texture.

Crockpot Chicken

1 whole chicken cut in pieces

1 cup of water
Salt or season salt to desired taste
1 cup of mushrooms chopped
1 large onion diced
1 large carrot chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped in half

1. Place rinsed chicken pieces in Crockpot.

2. Add chopped vegetables

3. Add desired amount of salt (always use more in the Crockpot)

4. Add water until the chicken is slightly covered

5. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

6. Serve

7. When the broth has cooled drain it into another bowl. Freeze the broth and save it for other recipes such as refried beans.