for jeff. crockpot-goodness

So jeff got a crock pot. In celebration, i'm posting the very first thing I ever learned to pot. In a crock.

Crock pot rib stew

1 rack of pork ribs
1/2 bottle of fav bbq sauce
1 cube chicken bullion
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp creole mustard (or dijon)
3 russet potatoes, cubed (i never peel then, just clean them really well)
1 1/2 c baby carrots
1 stalk celery, diced
1 c red wine
1-2 tbsp honey or brown sugar
4-5 cloves of peeled garlic
water
1 tbsp seasoned salt
1 tsp ground pepper

Brown ribs on each side in a large skillet (cook them over high heat until the sides turn brown). You will probably have to cut them up to make them fit, so brown in small batches. You don't HAVE to do this, but it carmelizes the outside of the meat and adds flavor. Transfer the ribs to the crockpot. Add celery, onion, carrots, potato, the bullion, mustard, spices, and garlic. Add wine, bbq sauce, and top off enough water to make it about an inch from the top of the pot. Basically, put everything in the pot, but leave enough room for the thing to simmer.

Turn the crockpot to low. Go to work. (you can prep this all the night before and refrigerate the container, and just pop it in before you go to work). Come home, put on a pot of rice, noodles, barley, or whatever. Take a large, flat spoon and a glass or jar, and skim off the inch of fat at the top. Stir the pot. Let it sit for 4 minutes. Skim off the new 1/2" layer of fat (you will let the jar or glass cool and either dump the contents into your trash or toss the entire jar). Serve up ribs and enjoy, the meat will literally fall off the bone.

You can use the same technique with any sort of stew friendly meat.

I took pics of all of this, but i'm out of time.

poor gurl lunches

I see folks all the time eat the cup-o-soup lunches. Now I LOVE ramens (or any instant pho noodles either for that matter), but eating them with freeze dried peas and corn is no way to go.

Invest in some better noodles! Instant pho or rice stick noodles are 30-50 cents a piece (instead of 20), about 20% less sodium, and usually under 200 calories for the entire pack (under half of normal ramens), and come will all sorts of goodies to adjust the flavor... some get HOT. Or, get some exotic ramens or udons with many flavoring packets!

Toss in some sliced and destemmed shittakes (about 4 will do ya), 1 sliced green onion, some sprouts (if you have em), some shredded carrot, a couple pieces of surimi/tofu/or krabstick, and some snow or snap peas (i prefer snap, they keep better), and VOILA! In 5 minutes, you have a lunch your coworkers are truly envious of! Not to mention, it all costs about $1.

+ ++ +

= ENVY

GRANOLA!

Mom used to make granola when i was a kiddo. I remember the smell of our house as the oats and honey were toasting. nothing in a bag can match it, EVER. Since mom couldn't really tell me how she made granola, I winged it. This is the best version.

GRANOLA

1 tub rolled oats
honey (to taste - usually about 1/2 c)
1 c floured dates
1 c sliced almonds
1/2 c coconut flakes
1/8 c flax seeds
1/2 (or more) c veggie oil
2 tbsp vientnamese hot cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c cashews, broken
1 c sunflower seeds

preheat oven to 400. mix oil, 1/4 c honey, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small bowl. mix oats and oil mix and put in a big pan to toast. bake about 30 min, stir every 10 min, or until oats start to toast more thoroughly. taste for sweetness, add more honey if needed.add all the fruit, coconut, and nuts, and toast for about another 20 min, stirring every 5. When done, cool for 1 hour so that it will clump nicely. You can swap out fruits and nuts if you want too.

ratio goes like this
4 oats
1 fruit
1 nut a
1 nut b
1 coconut
1/2 flax
1/2 seeds

this particular time it was

oats

coconut

almonds

1/2 c chopped raw cashews

sunflower seeds

8 dates, chopped

1/4 c dried blueberries (they were freaking expensive though, not sure if i will do that again)
vanilla

cinnamon

flaxseeds

lazy dinners

veg pita sammiches and hummus stuffed black olives

1 pita
smear with hummus, a bit of goat cheese, roasted red peppers, sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, salt, pepper

OMG HEAVEN.
I made d's with chicken and stuffed it with black olives with fresh hummus from T'afia's farmer's market booth..

Some Basic (but new) home cookin.

This is lovingly pilfered from my post from yesterday on facebook.

So today, i whipped up 3 really good recipes.
The middle one is the only one that can be made veggie. This is kind of everyday style home cooking, but new recipes.

Key ingredients:


FRESH shittake mushrooms and


Bonito and soy based soup base (usually called memmi, tempura sauce, or bonito soup base).





You can find the soup base and noodles in the Asian isle from Krogers, and the mushrooms by the.... well... mushrooms.

(the pic shows somen noodles, but you get the idea. still my cooking)

Udons
Fresh Udons are the best! For a variation, add a couple of pieces or chopped crab stick a couple of minutes before the snow peas or a scrambled egg. Even if you buy the udons in the package (for 89 cents... you know those), use the broth and still tastes better.

1/4c soup base
3 cups water
1 thumb size piece ginger, unpeeled, and halved
2 servings dried udon noodles
8 fresh shittake mushrooms, cleaned and destemmed
1 handfull of snow peas
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 c diced tofu

boil udons and shittakes in 3 cups of water for about 8 minutes, till noodles are tender. drain, and run under cold water. remove mushrooms, slice, set aside. Put 3 cups of water with soup base. Add sliced mushrooms, tofu, and ginger. Bring to a boil, fish out ginger, taste, add more soup base if needed, add noodles and everything else and turn off heat. Serve!




Stir fried yum
I love shittakes. Not only are they good for you, but they are hearty enough to be a meat substitute in many dishes.

2 handfulls fresh shittakes, cleaned, destemmed, and slides in thirds
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups sugar snap peas
sesame oil
olive oil
1/4c bonito soup base OR 1/4 soy sauce with 4 tbsp sugar dissolved in it
some red pepper flakes

make a swirl of olive oil and a swirl sesame oil in a pan over med high heat. add mushrooms and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes, until all oil is absorbed and a couple of the edges of the mushrooms brown. Add 1/2 c water, and cook for another 5 minutes. add bonito sauce and about 1/2 c water and snap peas. Toss frequently, cook until peas are steamed




spicy squid salad
I had a squid salad the other day at nidda thai that was phenominal. this is not AS good, but still pretty damn good. Not to mention, it only costs about $5 to make, cause most of the stuff i already have in my fridge.

1/2lb calamari steak
6 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce
sugar (to taste)
3 red dried chilis, crushed (really, to taste. I added 4 and it was perfect heat for me)
black pepper (to taste)
1.5 c shredded green cabbage
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped and de-seeded
3 green onions, sliced

Boil calimari in 2 c of water until it starts to cool. Rinse with cold water and put in a plate in the freezer to cool it off. Add all veggies into a tupperware (covered) bowl. Mix it up a little bit, shake it. Mix fish sauce, a little pepper, chilis, sugar, and lime juice in either a bowl or a shaker jar. Mix until sugar is dissolved. taste the sauce to make sure it is sweet, it should be a nice combo of sweet and sour... Remove calamari from the fridge and cube into little 1/2" cubes. add to veggies. add fish sauce mix to bowl, cover tightly and SHAKE. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes, pulling it out to shake everything up about every 5 minutes. Shake and serve on a bed of lettuce if you like.