I have been talking extensively in podcast episodes (see Five Tips for Efficiency in the Kitchen HERE) and in blog posts about my cycle cooking (PODCAST) and just the general idea of preparing meats to be used in dishes. (See my Shredded Chicken post here.)

Having meats ready to use in recipes is one of the best kitchen efficiency tips that I can give people. It truly makes creating a quick meal doable.

I am going to be posting tons of recipes for using crumbled ground beef, ground turkey, or a combination of beef and turkey. So, here are some steps to help you cook ground beef in the crock pot quickly to either freezer in quart bags for later use or to use immediately.

Here is what I do:

1. I place six to twelve pounds of ground meat in small chunks in my crock pot, depending on the size of crock I am using.

2. I cook this on high for three hours or so or low for six hours or so. (My crock pot is super hot!)

3. Then I drain this meat into a colander and let it cool a few minutes or more in the colander.

4. As soon as it can be handled, I crumble it up with my hands (you can use a potato masher, if desired).

5. Normally, I do one of any of the following at this point:

a. Place all of the meat back in the crock pot and make something—chili, sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce with meat, taco meat! Ideas are endless.

b. Bag and freeze part of it and put part back in the crock pot and make a soup—chili, pasta e fagiloi, ground beef stew, etc.

c. Put part in the fridge for a meal later that week and use part in the crock pot as described above.

When I was a homeschooling mama with lots of kids in school, this method forced me to come up with a meal. I mean, the meat was already ready!!! Easy peasy.

Try it. You’ll like it! And check back often (or subscribe to the blog!) for dozens of recipes using crumbled meats!

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If you follow our Crock Pot posts, you have read about the many soups and stews that I do for our lunch on the days that we teach classes. Our oldest son is soup-crazy, so I started the tradition for him as he comes to teach with me each week.

Classes are over for the summer, but I do want to continue the crock pot tradition because so many of the entrees in the crock pot are so simple–and one dish!

Today I did a beef roast, potatoes, carrots, and green beans in the crock pot. While I don’t have a specific recipe for you, I do have many tips and ideas for the weekly “meat and potatoes” meal that I do.

(See the notes in “Low Carb” and “Family-Friendly Low Carb” annotations beneath the “recipe” to make lower-carb, lower-glycemic number, more nutritious roasts and veggies. They will all use the same methodology that I am describing below.)

Here you go:

1. By knowing that one meal is going to be “meat and potatoes” (preferably all in one dish) meal, I know every week that one meal is “covered,” so to speak (without too much planning and thinking). (Listen to my podcast episode, “Five Tips to Become More Efficient in the Kitchen,” to learn about keeping ingredients on hand for a certain number of quick meals!) My meat and potatoes meals usually consist of one of the following:

~Cheesy potatoes with ham
~Beef roast with veggies (like above)
~Pork roast sided with potato wedges in oven or with the veggies in it (like above)
~Pork roast that is more of a sweet and sour type sided with rice (not true meat and potatoes!)
~Beef stew
~Chicken stew
~Meatloaf with whole potatoes and/or carrots and/or rutabagas and/or radishes around it
~Beef roast with mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower (seldom–too much extra work!)

Final product–beef roast with potatoes, carrots, and green beans

2. I almost always cook my roasts in cooking bags—even if they are in the crock pot. I don’t usually buy expensive cuts of meat, so the small price I am paying for the “oven cooking bag” helps make the meat more tender.

3. Sometimes if I find one of those pork roasts or corn beef roasts with the seasonings already in the packet or on the meat, I go for them! Something about knowing the meat is tenderized and seasoned makes that day’s main meal feel really easy!

4. I seldom cook my vegetables in with my meat. It sometimes tastes as though the potatoes are overcooked in order to get the meat done, etc. Thus, I always steam+ my veggies in the micro and add them to the oven bag (or dump the oven bag the last bit) during the last hour or two to mix flavors. (If you are not opposed to using a microwave oven, I encourage you to do more and more cooking in it. I put fresh veggies in (one type at a time), put a 1/4 cup of seasoned broth on them, and cover–and steam cook in the microwave until nearly done. I also do this on stir fry night for stir fried veggies, like carrots, that take longer to cook than the other stir fried veggies I am using.) +For potatoes, I often use my “potato trick.”

5. To make stews (chicken or beef), I cut up my meat and put it in the crock pot early in the day with either store bought soups or homemade soups and a small amount (cup or two, depending on size of crock and amount of meat) of rich broth. (If using canned broth, I add base to the broth to deepen the taste.) I also add onions, bay leaves, and other seasonings. This becomes my “starter” for my stews. Then later in the day, when the meat is nearly done, I add the steamed veggies as described above in number four.

6. The richest, best beef roast I make is rolled roast with mushroom soup, deep broth, onions, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Before I put the roast in that mixture, I rub it with a tablespoon or two of coffee, some garlic, and my All Purpose Seasoning Mix. This makes the best gravy ever!

I love having a day each week dedicated to “meat and veggies.” It fills my four guys up–and gives my mind a partial day off from thinking about dinner too much! Happy crocking!

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): These can be very low carb if you switch up the veggies that you add. The lowest carb veggies that you might want in one of these dishes are rutabagas, radishes, Daikon radishes, onions, celery, and green beans. They rutabagas and radishes are good potato substitutes. I highly recommend that you pre-cook your rutabagas and radishes in deep broth with seasonings (either in the microwave or on the stove). I don’t fully cook my potatoes and/or radishes/rutabagas, but cook them about eighty percent done in the seasoned broth. Then they are ready to add to my meat near the end.

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): While white potatoes are high in carbs and high on the glycemic index, you can still make the “meat and veggies” types of meals on a healthier eating plan. For one thing, if you have small children or teens (who need the carbs), you can still use white potatoes, but also use carrots and green beans (and possibly make the ratio of potatoes to the others a little lower–fewer potatoes). Carrots have been villainized by the low carb industry for years, but carrots are only slightly higher in carbs than green beans (8 carbs per half cup vs. 4 carbs per half cup..compare to potatoes at 12 carbs per half cup). Also, when combining the three vegetables, your average carb count for the vegetable portion of the entree or stew is eight carbs, certainly a healthy number for most people who are not eating keto or extremely low carb.

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): How can a Stella make this home-made meal type each week and not spend too much time? Few ideas: (1) Buy roast seasoning packets (some come with the bags), so that seasoning time is greatly reduces, and you don’t have to think about what seasonings to use; (2) Use canned, store-bought soups for parts of the liquid and to make no-mix creamy gravies at the end; (3) Use Veg-All canned large stew vegetables in place of the veggies. No chopping, cleaning, or cutting. Just be sure to add them near the end and in the liquid/broth, so that they are well seasoned. (4) Use store-bought baby carrots and frozen green beans. Use the deeply-seasoned broth and zap them in the micro before adding to the meat/cooking bag.

Homemade Hannah (HH): This is very homemade! You can make this completely whole-foods as written above. You can also make your own soups to add creaminess to the final product (or to make a stew rather than roast). You can also make your own seasoning combinations, such as my Italian Dressing Mix or All Purpose Seasoning Mix.

Freezer Cooking (FC): This is one of those “have these ingredients on hand each week to make this type of dish” recipe rather than a freezer entree. However, you could create a “meal starter” packet with meats and vegetables: (1) Place the piece of meat in freezer bag and pour seasoned broth over it (not covering it; just as described in “recipe” above); (2) Toss frozen green beans and frozen carrots and frozen onions all in another bag with some seasoned broth. (Or cook baby carrots til nearly done and toss with frozen green beans and onions with seasonings.); (3) Put the two bags down in a larger bag and label. To use, defrost in bags. Put meat and liquid into cooking bag and cook as directed in “recipe.” Add pre-cooked veggies bag of ingredients in towards the end (as described above). In this way, you do have a “freezer starter”–and it is all one dish, full meal! (Love that part!)

Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): I have done my roasts as described in this post ever since I can remember. I learned the coffee granules trick twenty-five years ago, and a deep, seasoned roast with the gravy made from that soup/coffee/broth combination is always on our Christmas day menu!

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): Most meats that are good as roasts/stews are more fatty than the typical E meal for THM, so under nearly all circumstances, this would be an S meal. You need to tweak the veggies to keep the carbs at five to six grams or so. If you find meats that are under six or seven grams of fat (i.e. lean pork roasts or if you want to do a skinless “chicken roast,” you could use more carby vegetables and create an E crock pot “roast and veggies” entree.

Sugar Free (SF): No sugar added! Be sure to check your cans if adding canned soups, sauces, or veggies to your entree.

Gluten Free (GF): This can definitely be-free if using the gluten-free seasoning mixes and no soups that contain gluten-laiden thickeners.

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This “recipe” doesn’t necessarily call for one of my mixes, but I use my All Purpose Seasoning Mix in my roasts/stews.

The post Crock Pot Tuesday: Beef and Pork Roasts in the Crock Pot appeared first on Character Ink.

I have been working on recipes for my newlyweds–Jonathan and Maelynn (son and daughter-in-law married in August 2014) and Will and Kara (daughter and son-in-law married in January 2015). I like to categorize my recipes just like I have done with all of my mega-cooking/freezer cooking recipes for the past twenty-five years…according to type of meat/main ingredients. For freezer cooking, this is ideal because I can cook up twenty, thirty, or forty pounds of that type of meat and put a lot of entrees together quickly.

So….I thought I would share on the blog some ideas and recipes that I have been putting together for my kids. So….here is the general information for Shredded Chicken. Watch for recipes soon!

(1) You can cook boneless, skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts in a variety of ways. My personal favorite is putting breasts and thighs in the crock pot overnight (an hour on high then the rest of the night on low) then when I get up in the morning, I take two forks and stir/shred all the chicken. I often put some of the chicken back in the crock pot and make one of the entrees below. (You can also put the chicken in before work/school then do the shredding and use part of the chicken that evening.) The rest of the chicken I put in zip lock quart bags and label. I like to put a half a cup to one cup of broth in the zip-lock bags to keep the chicken moist. (If you don’t need the broth when you make your meal with the meat later, you can drain it and pitch it.) Oh, I put a half a cup to one cup of broth in with the raw chicken when I cook it in the crock pot.

Use shredded chicken for chicken noodle soup!

(2) You can boil your chicken to use in shredded recipes, but I never do this as I’m always afraid it will boil the taste out of them. Others do though. You can also prepare your chicken three other ways: “poach” it in the oven with lots of broth covering it–be sure you check it with a meat
thermometer if you do this as you don’t want to overcook it; microwave it–kind of poaching it like in the oven–again, don’t overcook and in this case, be sure the chicken is completely covered with broth and plastic wrap so it doesn’t have tough edges.

Important Note: If you do not shred your chicken while it is warm (after it gets cold or after it is refrigerated), it is ten or twenty times or harder to shred– and will take a lot longer (and will probably need cubed, not shredded). It is a five min job if you do it while chicken is warm.

(3) Shredded chicken is good in tons of ways–I will list some below. It used to be a staple for me when the olders were little–in chicken tetrazzini, chicken lasagna, hot chicken sandwiches, chicken rice casserole, soups, etc. It is an inexpensive way to make a meal because it
is not very expensive to start with AND it is often used as part of a dish rather than the main entrée.

(4) A lot of recipes call for chicken or mushroom soup–it is better if you can make your own, but I would start out just buying it and using it as is. It helps make a lot of meals really fast. A lot also call for chicken broth. I use chicken base to make my broth, but you can buy cans of broth and then make it richer by adding some chicken base or granulated chicken bouillon.

Watch the blog for upcoming shredded chicken recipes, including chicken noodle soup, chicken strata, arroz con pollo, hot chicken sandwich filling, BBQ shredded chicken, chicken tacos, and more!

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I found a great way today to make two soups quickly–one that is an easy family favorite and one that works for my husband’s low carb eating lifestyle. 

The first one, Cheeseburger Potato Soup, is one of the easiest soups I make. I am all about Sandra Lee’s Semi Homemade books and recipes, and this one could easily qualify as one of hers! Unfortunately, I don’t have a “real” recipe–so bear with me while I try to get it down in writing! 😉

Here is how I made it.

1 to 2 lbs of ground beef (we like a lot of meat in ours)
1 (32 oz) bag of frozen hash browns (cubed)

The post Crock Pot Wednesday: Cheeseburger Potato Soup and Cheeseburger Carrot Soup appeared first on Character Ink.

Image from sonomatowns

As we head into fall, I am saddened that I won’t be able to just walk out the back door and get Ray Baby’s veggies everyday! I am still heading out there often and getting a tomato here and a green pepper there–I haven’t given up completely. However, very soon that obscure tomato or tiny pepper will not even be there to pick. Sadness…

On the other hand, it is time to turn my attention to buying (and even harvesting in my “fall garden”) and preparing fall vegetables.

Here is a list of what I will be looking for to use in cooking low carb this fall:

1. Beets—very low carb, deep purple means very nutritious

2. Broccoli–very low carb and my sons like this veggie steamed with cheese, so that is a win-win

3. Cauliflower–low carb–plus I will use it for cauliflower pizza crust and cauliflower rice–and I will stir fry it along with broccoli and zucchini for oriental dishes as well as just for sides

4. Eggplant–I have never cooked with eggplant, but it is relatively low carb, deep purple for all of that nutrition–and I have some recipes pinned to try it out!

5. Garlic–I didn’t even know this was a fall vegetable, and I definitely use it year round. I know everybody loves fresh everything, but I couldn’t live without my jar of minced garlic in oil that I can dip into and get those aromatics going (along with onions and peppers) as the beginning of tons and tons of low carb veggies and stir fries.

6. Green beans–I have my fifteen year old watching his favorite show on Netflix this afternoon and snapping tons of green beans! I can use them so many way–I love putting them in the crock pot with potatoes and ham or sausage for my kids–then pulling out a heaping serving of just the green beans for Ray Baby!

7. Kale–I have some winter kale seeds that I am planting this weekend! Anxious to see if they really grow in the cold weather that the package says they will grow in. Ray enjoyed the kale chips I made him for a snack a few weeks ago–but kale is pricey, so if I can get this winter kale to grow, I will be excited!

8. Zucchini—I have been harvesting and cooking zucchini all summer! I froze it three weeks: a. shredded for breads, muffins, etc. (anxious to try out my new almond flour and swerve sweetener!); b. cubed with yellow squash for casseroles and stir fries; c. sliced (also bagged with sliced yellow squash part of the time and sometimes by itself) also for stir fries, but Ray Baby likes the sliced zucchini just to steam in a little broth and season it (though he’s not the best seasoner! lol).

I am also looking forward to using three “fall” herbs:

1. Basil
2. Rosemary
3. Thyme

Though my sons would have me using four of them–and they would have to sing it: “Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme”–they love to follow me through the kitchen when I am cooking, carrying those four spices in their hands and waving them in my face while singing “Scarborough Fair”! Kids–never a dull moment!

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I have two identical crock pots–this one with three sizes of “crocks.” Thus, I have six removable crocks in three sizes (two of each size) to do this multiple-crock cooking I am describing in this post. Now the bad news: both times I cooked this dish, the lasagna noodles became very soft, almost dissolving type of soft. I like my pasta al dente, so I wasn’t thrilled with the texture. Also, it is much soupier than traditional lasagna. However, my guys liked it (not as well as traditional), but enough for me to keep it in my repertoire and use it again for “Crock Pot Wednesday”!  (I have wondered if refrigerating the crocks of lasagna and keeping them for a while before cooking them might have added to the soft noodles. I will update this after trying this recipe again with cooking it as soon as it is made as opposed to storing it and cooking it later. However, I have frozen pans of lasagna for twenty-three years now, and it has never affected the texture of the noodles.) I did this recipe four times for two huge crock inserts. (Each crock fed eight to ten people.) As it is given below, I think the recipe would fit in a six or possibly even four quart crock pot and would likely feed four or five people. Be sure you keep it on low. (My kids turned it on high for an hour to rush it along, and it burned the sides and bottom. However, my slow cooker is extremely hot. My high is more like super high; my low is like high; and my warm is like low!)  Ingredients– 1 lb ground beef Lasagna noodles 1 regular jar spaghetti sauce  1 1/2 cup cottage cheese (or ricotta) 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 to 4 eggs (I like to stick extra eggs in everything!) 1. Mix ground beef and sauce in large bowl, reserving 1/2 cup or so of sauce by itself. 2. Mix cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and eggs in large bowl. 3. Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Pour the reserved 1/2 to one cup of sauce in bottom of crock. 4. Place two uncooked lasagna noodles (broken in half to fit in the crock) over the sauce. 5. Spread 1/3 of meat mixture over noodles. 6. Spread 1/2 of cottage cheese mixture over meat mixture. 7. Spread 1/3 of mozzarella cheese over cottage cheese. 8. Add another layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (two again, broken in half). 9. Pour the other half of the cottage cheese mixture over the lasagna noodles in this layer. 10. Add 1/3 of mozzarella cheese. 11. Add another layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (two again, broken in half). 12. Add remaining meat mixture. 13. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. 14. Cook on low for four hours; do not overcook. I get very confused about the order and amounts in lasagna recipes, so here is a quick recap of the order: a. 1/2 cup to 1 cup sauce alone b. Two uncooked lasagna noodles c. 1/3 of the meat mixture d. 1/2 of cottage cheese mixture e. Two uncooked lasagna noodles f. 1/2 of the cottage cheese mixture g. 1/3 of the mozzarella h. Two uncooked lasagna noodles i. Rest of meat mixture j. Rest of mozzarella

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Watch our blog (and FB page) for our new summer series, “Power Hour,” in which we will share recipes (with varying amounts and numbers of servings) that you can make in an hour (or less with some young helpers!) and make four to six (or more if making for three or four people) freezer entrees.

If you have always wanted to try freezer cooking, but an entire program of one whole day (or week!) of cooking feels overwhelming to you, our “Power Hour” might be just the thing to get you over the fear of freezer cooking!

Think your family won’t like the foods? I have been freezer cooking for twenty-three years this summer, and while I have definitely evolved as a freezer cook, I have hundreds of recipes that my family loves–and not just layered or bagged casseroles either! Some of our favorites that I will be sharing with you include potato casserole, braised beef cube mix, meatloaves, meatballs, sausage rice stir fry, parmesan chicken breasts, poor man’s steak, spaghetti pie, meats for stir fries and fajitas, and much more. And you can do each one in under an hour!

We’ll post our first one the week of June 9th, so stay “posted”! 🙂 And share with your friends!

The post Power Hour: Introducing Our “Four to Six Freezer Foods in an Hour” Program appeared first on Character Ink.

“Uncooked” ready to turn on high. (I precook and assemble the night before, stick in fridge, then pull out and cook the next day.)

Easy peasy crock pot meal today!!!

I have a HUGE crock pot. It is actually an amazing one that has three sizes of inserts, so you can do super large, kind of big, and smaller {for dips, small roasts, etc.}.

My favorite crock pot– https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=14764453&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CPrx5-DOs7UCFQ84nAodPUUABw

Ingredients–sort of

4 lbs of turkey, skinless kielbasa sausage, cut into rounds
4 lbs of potatoes, peeled and cubed approximately the same size as sausage rounds
2 lbs of frozen green beans
1 or 2 large onions, cut into chunks (I like to stir fry them before adding them.)
pork/smokehouse/ham base (to make “broth”)
Forward (Penzy spice)
Garlic and herb seasoning
basil
black pepper

1. Precook potatoes by steaming in micro or boiling on stove top. (I like to precook my potatoes if I am making a dish where the other ingredients are nearly cooked or fully cooked.)

2. Mix all spices into 3 cups of hot water. Use the amount of base you like for your “broth.”

3. Toss half of the meat and veggies into the crock pot and pour half of the liquid over.

4. Toss second half of the meat and veggies into the crock pot and pour rest of liquid over.

5. Cook–since mine needs to be done in three or four hours, I put it on high for an hour and low for two. You could put it on low for a long time. My crock pot has a WARM setting, so I move into that fairly quickly.

Note: If you do not have the largest crock pot, cut this in half! It makes a full large crock!

The post Crock Pot Wednesday–Sausage, Potatoes, and Beans appeared first on Character Ink.

I have discovered new-found freedom in cooking ground meat in my crock pot. This week’s Low Maintenance Chili is an example of this. While I do not have the exact ingredients for the chili (I usually just throw my chili together), I do have some notes on using the crock pot for the meat AND the soup–and for spending very little time doing so.

This “recipe” takes about 15 mins of work time on the part of the cook and only two dishes–the crock pot insert and a strainer/colander to drain the grease. This is a perfect dish for my Crock Pot Wednesday in which I assemble on Tuesday, stick in the fridge, and cook on Wednesday morning. The fifteen minutes of work is really just stirring the meat some and opening the cans and dumping them in.


Ingredients (sort of)

5 lbs of ground beef, uncooked
3 large cans of tomato juice
2 large cans of chili beans or light red kidney beans
1 lb of tiny pasta (ABCs or Acini di pepe–see note below)
chili powder
cumin
beef base
minced onion (or large whole onion, diced finely and cooked until translucent)
garlic powder
oregano


1. Put the 5 lbs of ground beef into a huge crock pot and turn on high.
2. Cook for one hour on high; remove lid and break up/stir with potato masher or other implement you usually use to break up ground meat as it cooks.
3. Cook on low for two more hours (stir once or twice).
4. Drain grease from crock pot/meat thoroughly and put meat back in crock pot.
5. Stir in other ingredients. May need water to finish filling it up–just add more beef base if you use water.
6. Spices–I usually use a lot of chili powder and minced onion; a little of the others; and a TBSP or two of beef base. (The beef base takes away the tomato-y taste/bitter taste that chili can sometimes have. If it still has this, I will add a tsp of sugar or Splenda too.)
7. Either cook now on high for an hour and low for three or four hours or stick crock insert in fridge until you are ready and cook for 90 mins on high then three or four hours on low.

Note about pasta: Cooking foods with pasta in them in the crock pot yields two potential problems for me–1. The pasta doesn’t get done, so I often precook it; 2. If I precook it, or the dish cooks in the crock pot for a long time, the pasta swells up and gets grainy. My family likes pasta in their chili, so I switched to these tiny pastas that do not require precooking but do not swell up so big either. They were a hit!

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