Dinner Issues of Late

While we’re doing this garage project I’ve been struggling to get dinner on the table while still helping out outside. What’s been making it worse is that we have limited daylight now, and that will be even worse after this weekend. I like to cook, I like to cook well when I have time, and I like to use good ingredients.

It requires time, planning, etc, to do elaborate meals. We don’t have the time for planning right now, much less cooking. I have been trying to freeze leftovers so we have them in the future. I’ve also been trying to do more crockpot dinners. I have had good and bad luck with the crockpot, and I’m starting a list of meals we definitely liked and meals we definitely didn’t. I’m hoping to start crockpotting at least twice a week, while freezing the leftovers.

Here is a list of what we’ve been doing:

Beef Stroganoff: it uses stew meat, onion, mushrooms, both cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup, black pepper, a packet of onion soup mix, and sour cream (added right before serving). You serve it over noodles. We love this recipe, and it is easy, I just need to remember to have soup on hand. No browning of meat beforehand, no mixing ingredients in a separate bowl, and minimal chopping. Everything just goes in to the pot and gets stirred up.

Stuffed peppers: we did this last week and it was a success. Again, no pre-cooking of anything. Dump a can of whole tomatoes on the bottom of the pot, then place halved peppers on that. Mix onion, the rice from a box of Spanish rice, ground beef, some bread crumbs together and stuff the peppers. Then mix a can of tomato soup, some water, and the seasoning packet from the Spanish rice together and dump it over the peppers. Easy, tasty.

Moist Drumsticks: 3lb drumsticks with skin removed in the pot, then cover with a mix of tomato sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, some garlic. Cook, then take sauce and heat it in a saucepan until boiling and add some cornstarch to thicken it up. Very very good.

I’m trying a new recipe today: Flank steak with pineapple bbq sauce. Sliced or shredded sweet potatoes on the bottom, then the flank steak in cubes. Then, mix up onion, pineapple with juice, bbq sauce, ground ginger, some water, chicken broth and dump it over the meat. We’ll see how it is. (*it was great!)

I have a few others but I can’t remember them right now. I also have a few that were terrible. I tried a recipe called Creamy Swiss Steak once, and I don't remember why but it was inedible. I don’t have good luck with chicken in the crockpot usually, too, they always turn out mealy and icky. I tend to stick with beef a lot.

My all-time favorite crockpot recipe is Apple Pie.

What is your favorite crockpot recipe?