This is a super easy meal to cook in the crock pot when you are short of time or forgot to start it earlier in the day. It was super tasty and tender! And it’s French… ooo la la! ;)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 pounds beef stew meat
2 Tbsp oil
1 onion, sliced
8 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 cloves minced garlic
2-3 bay leaves
1 cup burgundy wine
1/2 cup beef broth
Dredge the stew meat in the flour, salt & pepper mixture. Heat oil in large skillet and brown meat on medium heat. Place beef in crock pot. Pour wine and broth over meat. Top with remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes.
This is one of my new favorite crock pot meals! I can make it in a snap and it tastes rather fancy and elegant. If I use frozen meatballs, it only takes a minute to throw it all together and cooks on high in only about 3 hours. We love it served over mashed potatoes but is also a lovely appetizer!
Whisk together:
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup merlot (or any red wine or cranberry juice)
2 teaspoons stone ground mustard (or any other hot mustard)
Pour over 30-40 meatballs.
Behind the fence in the backyard is completely overgrown with blackberries which means a freezer full of blackberry jam every summer! The best way to get rid of the extra is to make Blackberry BBQ Sauce.
1 cup ketchup
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup blackberry jam
1 teaspoon mustard
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
Mix it in a small bowl. Use as you would any other BBQ sauce.
I poured mine over a beef roast in the crock pot and cooked it on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
Shred the beef and serve on hamburger buns.
I have made this a couple of times now and we LOVE it! It is best served over mashed potatoes. I know most stews have potatoes in them but I like them over or topped with mashed potatoes best of all!
This stew is tasty, quick and easy and cooks in the crock pot while you’re busy doing other things that you want and need to do. What could be better?
2 pounds beef stew meat
1 pound mushrooms, quartered
1 stick butter
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon each of dill, garlic powder and dried onion flakes
1/2 teaspoon each of basil and ground black pepper
Combine everything in the crock pot and cook on high 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours or until beef is tender. Mix 2 Tablespoons cornstarch and 2 Tablespoons cold water until smooth. Stir into simmering stew until thick and well combined.
Serve over mashed potatoes.
I have never really successfully pulled off a good April Fool’s Day prank. And I have to say that I sort of had a complex about it. But not anymore… Yesterday I finally did it!
Our church has a potluck every Sunday night at our Family Nite service and I decided they would be my next target.
My contributions: Cake and a flower arrangement. Or were they???
Just when I began to despair that I had failed yet again, one of the youth group members took a slice of cake. I thought the reaction would be immediate. But he just slapped the piece of cake onto his plate with the rest of his desserts and went and sat down. How could he have not noticed??? Had I failed AGAIN after all??? Another girl took a piece and nonchalantly walked back to her table. I felt defeated. Well, at least I was going to get to take home my really yummy Flower Pot Mud Pie and I’d just eat the whole thing to make myself feel better…
No such luck, my children could no longer hold it in and (knowing what was really in the pot) eventually helped themselves to the dessert. At about that same time, I overheard quite a bit of laughing from the youth group table. Maybe it had worked after all??? Then I heard the, “Hey! What is this?” At the same time, Katie walked over half smiling and simply says, “I’m mad at you.” I have to confess that knowing I had made Katie mad actually made me very happy! ;o)
It turned out Robert hadn’t noticed either that his piece of “cake” was made entirely out of meat. Half of his table could clearly see this but all he saw was pink “frosting”, hence the laughter. Oblivious to all this, he went to take his first bite and exclaims, “Wait, is this meat?” The table begins to roll with laughter. It worked beautifully! About 5 minutes later, Katie walks back over to me and says, “Now I know why you did that!” Now I had to laugh.
No one suspected that my cake was actually meatloaf, nor that my flower arrangement was a dessert in disguise. But both were very delicious and were a big hit all the way around!
So if you’re looking for a fun and delicious prank for next year, here is the recipe for my Meatloaf Cake. The recipe is a bit of a variation on Sweet Anna’s smoky mini meatloafs. I also have to confess that this is the very first meatloaf that my family has enjoyed and only the second one I have ever made since being a grown-up!
3 pounds lean hamburger (I had 3 1/4 pounds)
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/2-1 cup diced onion
2 cups milk
3 teaspoons salt (I didn’t use that much)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Mix all ingredients together. I use my Kitchen Aid mixer but you can also do it by hand.
Press into a greased 9x13 metal baking pan. (you don’t want them to see through it).
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon Chipotle Tobasco sauce (or more or less to taste)
Whisk together and spread on top of meatloaf.
Bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until it temps at 160-165.
*Mine had quite a bit of liquid around it when it was done baking. You can drain it off if you like but I just moved mine into another clean 9x13 baking pan.
When the meatloaf is almost done, prepare one 13oz box of instant mashed potatoes according to package directions. After they are done, whip them extra smooth with an electric mixer.
If you want to, add a bit of food coloring before whipping to give the potatoes that pretty frosting look. I did most of my potatoes in pink but left some white for decorations.
“Frost” your “cake” generously, making sure to cover it completely. If desired, serve with a lovely flower arrangement for dessert… ;o) See recipe HERE.
Fall is the ideal time to cook with your crock pot! This meal was just what I needed on a day full of canning and errands, not much time to cook.
First I made a batch of Slow Cooker Beef & Mushrooms from Sweet Anna’s.
Then came a big pot of mashed potatoes from our garden!
For those of us that like squash, I baked up two acorn squash with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a bit of hot chili powder. The sweet hot combination was fantastic!
The green beans were for those who wouldn’t eat the really delicious acorn squash.
Remember, some of the best comfort foods come from your slow cooker…
