Slow-Cooker Chunky Beef Chili

I wish I could get a picture that does justice to the amount of leaves, dirt and food left on my floor from our Halloween celebration. It's pretty impressive. I should be sweeping and mopping but I'd rather blog and ignore it.

Halloween this year swept thru like a raging storm. I volunteered to be in charge of my son's preschool party -- why? Because I'm insane. (wow, that was loud.) I will say, the snacks probably saved my life because that little platter of fruits, crackers, veggies and cheese was the healthiest thing my 3-year-old consumed all night. During set-up, the teacher didn't disguise very well how tough the day had been after classroom trick-or-treating and parades and costumes (can you imagine potty time for 20-some kids in costumes, omg). Whole new level of respect for teachers!

Then our party at home started and even before we could eat, the trick-or-treaters began knocking. Since my kid was already jacked to the max, we decided we'd let the chili sit on warm in the Crock Pot (slow-cooker bonus!) and go pound the pavement for a bit. So. Much. Fun! Our neighbors really get into the spirit of Halloween, which is merely a warm up for what Christmas brings.

When we returned, we dove into the chili right away. It rocked! It was chunky, meaty, hearty and spicy. And prep was so easy it's almost ridiculous it turned out so good. As the weather turns colder, I will be making this again 100%. This dish screams to be fed to hungry football fans...

The Chili Ingredients

2+ lbs ground beef, lightly browned and drained (I used fattier beef, c'mon it's Halloween, who cares.)
Kirkland no-salt seasoning
6 oz can of tomato paste
2- 16 oz cans of Bush's Chili Beans (I used medium spice)
16 oz can of black beans
2 Tbsps minced garlic
1 pkge chili seasoning
1 cup ketchup
1 onion, chopped
10 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)

The Bar Ingredients

Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped onion
Black olives
Corn kernels
Sour cream
Fritos corn chips

Directions

ln a skillet, lightly brown your ground beef and drain it. Add some very hefty shakes of the no-salt seasoning for added flavor. Stir well and simmer for a few minutes.
Add all chili ingredients to the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
Top with chili bar ingredients of choice.

Adapted from the Crockin' Girls Hearty Chili recipe.

***

As a bonus, I'm going to post Emily's Pumpkin Dip which was a whipped creamy amazing little appetizer (or dessert) that I went to town on as soon as she put it out. With ginger snaps, it's like mini bites of pumpkin pie. Sooo good! I'm sorry I didn't get a pic so you'll just have to believe it's incredible without a photo -- for now.

Pumpkin Dip

1 block cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Cool Whip (or to taste)

Soften the cream cheese and blend everything together with a hand mixer.
Chill for 30 minutes.
Serve with apples, pears, graham crackers, or ginger snaps.

Slow-cooking to perfection.

Graham turned into Grahambo for his very first Halloween. Except he's far too sweet to play the part very well. 

Our trick-or-treaters, young and old, ready to go! You can see how jacked out of the gym my child is...

"Mom, I'm gonna need you to replace all of my pureed squash dinners with  this Milky Way bar from now on."

Big shout out to my sister-in-law Michelle for her candy corn Rice Krispie treats!

And just for fun, this spooky house rocked, complete with bubble and smoke-machines. Plus, they gave out full-sized candy bars so now Emily is going to stalk them every year.

Simple and Delicious Beef Stew in a Crock Pot / Slow Cooker

I just found the easiest, most delicious beef stew recipe for the slow cooker/crock pot. Best part is it made two different meals! I’m not much of a meat eater, actually, but there’s something about slow-cooked beef and pork that makes me absolutely LOVE it. This recipe was so good, so easy, and low cost that it’s going to become an official recipe in the rotation. Which, is like, the highest form of flattery for a recipe.

Ingredients

1 package Stew Meat

2-3 potatoes, chopped

1-2 cups chopped carrots

2 packages French onion soup mix

1 tablespoon beef bouillon

2 tablespoons oil

Directions

Heat oil in a skillet and brown stew meat. Add chopped potatoes and carrots to the crock pot. Top with browned meat. Add soup mix and beef bouillon and as much water as you want. I made mine really brothy because I wasn’t sure how much water I’d need. I added about 6 cups of water. Which paid off for the second recipe (see below). Cook for 8 hours. Serve with crusty bread, or cheesy bread.

 

Night Two Ingredients

Leftover Stew

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup rice

Night Two Directions

Heat leftover stew and cook up some white or brown rice. When rice is done and stew is hot, melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat and add flour. Stir together and heat up to make a roux. Slowly add about a cup at a time of stew broth until sauce is thick and creamy. Serve rice on bottom and use a slotted spoon to gather stew pieces and put on top of rice. Generously smother with your homemade gravy.

Making the roux

 

 

Ladel-ing some broth to add to the roux. Yes, I totally made up that word.

 

 

Home made gravy!

 

 

I thought the first night was good. This was even better. YUM!

And, since it’s Halloween, one of my favorite times of the year, here’s a picture of my fun crazy boys:

 

Southern Living

Since I don't have many fabulous slow-cooker recipes up my sleeve, I turned to my "slow-cooker" pinterest board to see what inspired me enough to pin and found  a pin for 30 Classic Mardi Gras Recipes, clicked on it and came across very delicious looking New Orleans Red Beans and Rice recipe. I knew this would be perfect for us for dinner and would make enough to share with my frozen dinner club. And I though it was unique, but Jolie beat me with a red beans and rice recipe!

It was really good, but next time if I was home (which I'm often not, since as Amber pointed out the beauty of the slow cooker is letting it work for you while you're away at work) I'd throw in the sausage later so it didn't cook quite so long. And Curtis and I both agreed it would be really good to add some shredded chicken, shrimp and okra... guess we had gumbo on our minds! But the recipe was great as is and hit the spot!

We're currently trying to find a balance of Graham's bed time and cooking and eating dinner at night. Every evening it's the question of do we do Graham's night time routine and then cook and eat late (which can be more relaxing, but I'm usually starving by the time we get to dinner) or try to balance playing with Graham in the evening while we cook and eat? We haven't quite nailed down the perfect formula. Speaking of Graham, when I saw this recipe my plan was to make a small batch for him on the side with no meat... but I forgot. Don't worry, we still fed him.

And when we made this I was obviously raring to eat because I didn't bother breaking out our real camera, just got a quick, not-so-pretty, shot with my cell phone. But I included the pretty image from pinterest (above) so you can envision what it's supposed to look like.

Slow-Cooker New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

Southern Living

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound dried red beans
• 7 cups water 
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 pound andouille sausage, sliced
• 3 tablespoons Creole seasoning
• Hot cooked rice
• Garnish: sliced green onions

 

Directions: 

1. Place first 8 ingredients in a 4-quart slow cooker.
2. Cook, covered, at HIGH 7 hours or until beans are tender. Serve with hot cooked rice. Garnish, if desired and add salt to taste. 

Here's Graham-bo at nine months! He has two teeth, pulls up, opens drawers, cabinets and plays in Murray dog's water dish, so it's a whole new ball game around here!

"Mom, want to see how far I can chuck these pumpkins?"

Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore {Guest Post}

This is from my friend Christie who is (lucky for me) part of our frozen dinner club. She delivered this and it landed on my list of top 10 favorite frozen dinners. And since it was a slow-cooker dinner, I asked her to guest post! 

Christie writes:

I adapted this recipe from one in a William’s Sonoma cookbook.  A good friend of mine brought it to us after I had our second son, and we loved it.  It was especially nice to have something a little different than the standard “new baby” meals (lasagna or enchiladas anyone?)   I asked for the recipe and found out it was cooked in the crock pot and I loved it even more!  The original recipe calls for using one whole, cut up chicken, but I use a mix of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs.  They are so tender by the time they are done cooking you can shred them and then you have wonderful, hearty sauce to server over your favorite starch (pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, etc) or you can serve it as a stew with crusty bread to dip in it. 

The one drawback is that there is a lot of prep work for a crock pot recipe.  However I’ve found that the prepped ingredients freeze beautifully, so you can do all of the prep work, freeze in a gallon ziplock bag and then just pop into the crock pot the day of for a delicious meal that evening.  The added advantage of this method is that you can make 2-3 meals worth at once and then you have several easy meals all ready to go in your freezer or to share with friends who are in need of an easy, home cooked meal. 

William's Sonoma

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 Tbs. salt, plus more, to taste
• 1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste
• 1 chicken, 3 1/2 to 4 lb., cut into 8 serving pieces
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 red or yellow bell peppers, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, halved and sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 can (28 oz.) crushed plum tomatoes
• 1 Tbs. dried oregano
• 6 oz. button or cremini mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

Brown the chicken
On a large plate, stir together the flour, the 1 Tbs. salt and the 1 1/2 tsp. pepper. Coat the chicken evenly with the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken pieces, in batches if necessary and cook until golden brown on both sides. Transfer the chicken pieces to the slow cooker or to your ziplock bag(s) if you are freezing for later.

Cook the chicken and vegetables
Return the fry pan to medium-high heat. Add the bell peppers, onion and garlic and sauté until they start to soften, about 3 minutes. Pour in the wine and broth, and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Stir in the tomatoes and oregano and bring to a simmer. Pour the mixture over the chicken.

If cooking immediately, cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 4 hours or the low-heat setting for 8 hours.

If freezing, seal & freeze for up to 3 months.  Thaw in the refrigerator the night before and then finish cooking as directed above in the slow cooker. 

Add the mushrooms
About 10 minutes before the dish is ready, stir in the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and serve.  

Red Beans and Rice

I’ve always wanted to make a red beans and rice type recipe that you hear all about from New Orleans.  The only trouble is I have children that won’t eat the spice and I am not a big fan of meat.  How do you accommodate the family?  Well here is what I came up with and I did the user-friendly Slow Cooker version.

In a skillet on Medium heat cook the:

Onion

Green Pepper

3-4 cloves of Garlic (garlic in everything for Rachel)

Trader Joe’s 21 Season Salute  or other spice favorites

(This is also where you would throw in some spicy cayenne pepper if you didn’t have kids.)

6 Chicken Sausages sliced up (or you could use the veggie dog substitute)

Throw the heated mix into your Slow Cooker along with the red beans.  (I used 2 cans but some better cooks soak their beans overnight.)  I also added 2 cups of cooked brown rice at this point, while others like to put their mix over the rice at serving time.

Very important!  Add 2+ cups of water (you could substitute broth) so it can simmer together.  I would add more depending on how long you are going to keep it in the Crockpot.

I’m sure my version doesn’t compare to the spicy, ham soaked original but I felt good about feeding my children something healthy and hot for the evening (plus you throw cheddar cheese on anything and they'll eat it!)  Those are the only two requirements.  The next night we ate leftovers (good with tortillas) after another full day of curriculum night, Walk a Thon, and work.

Here is a picture of Mason on the first night after a full day of school, piano lessons, soccer practice, and now eating standing up while doing homework.  This is the kind of month we are having.  I never thought I would be the family or mom that is signed up for everything.  We only do one sport at a time but things tend to all pile into one time/day and you end up saying yes to everything because you want things to go well for your children and follow through with your commitments.  I’ll let you know how that theory works out for me in the next year.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches

It’s not that I hate my job, OK? It’s just that there’s too much of it. It’s always getting in the way of the stuff I really want to be doing. Like cooking. And blogging. And blogging about cooking. And running. And reading. And taking a dog I don’t have on a walk. And playing with my kids. And shopping for cute boots. And anyway, my job has been getting in the way of what I want to be doing so much that I haven’t blogged for two months! So it’s totally fitting that this month is slow cooker month. Because lately, I don’t have time to cook and blog and blog about cooking. So I’ll make this real short and sweet.

Having a slow cooker is like having a sister wife who has stayed home all day slaving over a delicious meal. Except the sister wife is a robot and she doesn’t plan on stealing any kind of domestic goddess credit for herself and instead showers all of the praise onto me as soon as I walk in the door.

"It smells delicious in here Amber. And you look great today!"

We had some friends coming over for the Seahawks game so I asked my sister wife to make pulled pork sandwiches. Sister wife worked hard. I accepted the praise. It was totally delicious.

Pulled Pork Ingredients
3 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 can (12 oz) tomato paste
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory and Brown Sugar sauce

Rolls/buns of choice
Coleslaw

Cole slaw Ingredients
1 package rainbow slaw
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions
Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Combine all pulled pork ingredients except the Hickory and Brown Sugar sauce. Cook for 6-8 hours. Sometime in between, combine Coleslaw ingredients, cover and place in the refrigerator. Shred the pork when it’s done and add the Hickory and Brown Sugar sauce. Serve on toasted buns or rolls topped with Coleslaw.

 

 

 

 

 Now if only my sister wife could clean the bathroom...

Slow-Cooker Cheese Steak Sandwiches

A few weeks ago, I found this at TJ's:

Really wanting a cheese steak sandwich at that moment, I knew I'd settle for making tacos with it. So I bought the sirloin and in the freezer it went. Then, at random, a slow-cooker recipe for cheese steak sandwiches popped up on my Pinterest feed, and seriously, how can one deny that I was totally meant to make cheese steak sandwiches for slow-cooker month?

Thank you Sarah Marie, whoever you are, for this amazing slow-cooker recipe. I added to it a bit, but not much.

Slow-Cooker Cheese Steak Sandwiches
Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

1 lb. round steak, cut into bite sized strips
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 medium onion, sliced
1 can French onion soup
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Lawry's seasoned salt
hoagie style buns
Provolone cheese, sliced
Beechers flagship cheese, sliced (optional)
Butter

Directions

Place steak, pepper strips, onion slices, French onion soup, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic, garlic powder, and seasoned salt into slow cooker and stir together thoroughly. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.

Melt some butter or margarine in a small bowl. Brush the hoagie buns with the melted better, then place ¼ of the steak mixture on each bun*, and top with a slice or two of cheeses. Wrap each sandwich in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

*The steak mixture will be somewhat soupy, so when dipping it out to put on each sandwich, turn the spoon slightly and let the broth drain out before putting it on the sandwich. You will have broth leftover in the slow cooker at the end.

Slow-Cooker Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I make shredded chicken in the crock pot way too often. It's just that it always turns out good no matter how much I mix it up ingredient-wise. Today's shredded chicken creation is nothing short of Pinterest-worthy perfection for that busy mom who needs to build out her crock pot board. I would totally pin this...

So I may have slightly over-filled them...

Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Serves 4-6

2 large chicken breasts

2 cups spicy barbecue sauce (I used Stubbs spicy)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 packet of taco seasoning (or more)

1 can spicy black beans (I used Trader Joe's cuban style)

2 cups cooked rice

Head of lettuce (I used butter lettuce)

Put everything but rice and beans in the slow cooker and let it cook on high 4-6 hours or slow 8-10. (I let the chicken cook alone for an hour before adding the other ingredients.) If you're home to do this, start pulling chicken apart a few hours into it. Keep shredding as you go so it can soak up those juices. Add beans and rice in the last hour of cooking. I'm not big into corn but I bet it would add a nice crunch if you added it in. Rinse and pat dry the lettuce pieces and fill with chicken mix. Add hot sauce, buffalo wing sauce, sour cream or keep it plain -- it's so good!

My lettuce was still alive...and reduced price. Score!

This guy had 4 hugely-filled wraps. I think he liked it.

As with all my shredded chicken creations, this will undoubtedly become tacos or enchiladas tomorrow night. Bonus.

October Theme: Slow Cooker Meals

My favorite kitchen tool is featured this month--my personal chef, the slow cooker. Like magic, it makes a good meal that makes me look good to the fam. I hope they never know any better...

PS: I'm going to make it my mission to get a good photo of split pea soup someday.

2-in-1 Meal: Carnitas to Pulled Pork & Caramelized Onion Paninis

Like Missy I went the slow cooker route with a Mexican theme. We had a few friends over for dinner so night one I made carnitas in the crock pot for tacos and then Curtis and I used the leftover meat for paninis, and then more tacos, and then paninis again and it went on and on - we had enough shredded meat for several meals!

Night 1: Carnitas

Ingredients:
Pork Butt or Shoulder
Rub made up of your favorite spices
Chicken broth
Can of tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Chilies (optional)

Tortillas
Your favorite taco toppings such as cheese, cabbage, salsa, onions, cilantro, avocado, lime wedges and sour cream.

A day (or two) ahead rub your pork all over with your favorite spices (I used a 7 lb. pork shoulder from Costco and rubbed it with taco seasoning, chili powder, brown sugar, cumin and a few other random things I had in the spice cabinet - there's really no science to it). Place fat side up in the slow cooker and put in the fridge until the day you're ready to cook it.

That morning pour in some chicken broth, canned tomatoes, large chunks of onion, fresh garlic and dried chilies if you'd like. Cook on high for 8 - 10 hours until the meat is falling apart.

Shred the meat and use as carnitas for tacos.

Night 2: Pulled Pork Paninis 

Sourdough bread
Leftover pork
BBQ sauce
Onions, caramelized
Provalone cheese

Pile everything on your sandwich and toast in a panini press or frying pan.

And because babies are cuter than tacos and sandwiches, here's the latest of Graham:

2-in-1 Meal: SW Chicken and Beans to Queso Cheese Enchiladas

Lately I've been into slow-cooker shredded chicken over rice, mainly using salsa or fire-roasted diced tomatoes and a few shakes of taco seasoning. When I discovered what to do with the leftovers, this 2-in-1 meal quickly became part of our regular dinner rotation...

Night 1: Slow-Cooker Southwest Chicken and Black Beans over Rice

2-4 large chicken breasts, fresh or frozen
2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can green chilies
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 small can of sliced black olives (reserve other half for night 2)
1 can black beans, rinsed
Optional: chopped onion and/or sliced bell pepper
Salt and pepper, few shakes of each

If the chicken is frozen, give it a couple hours on high in the crock-pot and once it is thawed, add everything else but the olives, bell pepper (if using) and black beans. Turn the heat to low and let it cook 4-5 hours in the tomato goodness. During the last hour of cooking, add the bell peppers, olives, and black beans. Stir well. Dish up and serve over rice.

Whatever is left, rice and all, mix it all up and put it in a container to be used for enchilada filling for night 2.

Night 2: Queso Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

Filling from night 1
Flour tortillas
Mexican blend shredded cheese
Enchilada sauce (I no longer make my own ench sauce because I love TJ's bottled stuff)
Chili con queso cheese sauce
Optional: sour cream, leftover black olives

Drizzle a little enchilada sauce in baking dish,enough to cover the bottom. On a separate plate, warm tortillas in oven or microwave and load them up with chicken filling and shredded cheese. I stuffed about 7, enough to fill one baking dish. Cover with enchilada sauce. Then layer queso cheese sauce on top. Top with leftover olives. Cook at 375 for 30 minutes, covered. Serve with a heaping dollop of sour cream and stuff yourself!

{Guest Post} Moroccan Lentil Soup

The other day Murray and I joined our favorite neighbors Joan, her daughter Jenn and Murray's bff, Maggie the yellow lab, for a walk and as usual we talked food while we walked. The girls called me out for my lack of posts on Taco Tuesday (right, I've been meaning to get back on top of that) and then told me about their recent cooking adventures and plans. Naturally I asked for their recipe and convinced them a guest post for soup and stew month would make our fan club (it's out there, right?) really happy! They came through!

From Joan Clarke: 

I’m what you might call “accidentally vegan,” since my daughters turned pescatarian and vegetarian on me over the last year, and they have befriended vegans and people with allergies to dairy products and eggs.  I’m a huge fan of slow cooking, because everyone can eat when they want, and leftovers abound to take to work or school.  I briefly considered writing a book called “365 Days of Vegan Slow Cooking,” but I ran out of steam on day four.  This recipe, for Moroccan Lentil Soup, is from day two.

I don’t like vegan recipes that say they “taste like” chicken, beef, etc. – it’s vegan, for crying out loud, taste like the ingredients!  This is a tasty meal and it makes a lot.  The leftovers are great and can be frozen, or you can just cut the ingredients in half if you aren’t feeding a crowd.

I’m a neighbor of Emily’s and honored to be a guest poster on this auspicious blog!

Moroccan Lentil Soup
Recipe by Joan Clarke

Makes 12 servings

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped carrots
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground pepper
6 cups vegetable broth or low sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
3 cups chopped cauliflower
1-3/4 cups lentils
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups fresh spinach
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Heat all in a soup pot over medium heat, add onions and carrots and cook until somewhat softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic, add cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and pepper and stir until fragrant.  Add broth, cauliflower, lentils tomatoes and tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer partially covered , stirring from time to time until the lentils are tender but not mushy.  Stir in spinach and cook until wilted, 5 minutes.  Just before serving stir in cilantro and lemon juice.

Slow Cooker:  Place all the ingredients except spinach, cilantro and lemon juice in a 5 quart or larger slow cooker, stir.  (I put in enough vegetable broth and water to cover everything but not a lot more.)  Cook until lentils are tender (4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low).  During the last 30 minutes stir in the spinach.  Just before serving, stir in the cilantro and lemon juice.

Adding spinach 30 min before go time

TJ's 2-ingredient Party Meatballs

I love party meatballs. Does anyone not love party meatballs? And as if they weren't already ridiculously easy to make, Trader Joe's just made it easier.

This is your secret weapon:

Place frozen party meatballs in slow cooker.
Pour entire contents of stir fry sauce on top.
Cook on high for an hour (maybe little longer).
Stir occasionally.
Keep cooker on warm and let people dig in.

I had to taste test a few (dozen), hence, why the amount of meatballs looks a bit "thin":

No-Stress Beef Stew

Yesterday I started taking inventory of all the food prep I have to do for Christmas and then second-Christmas and then New Year's and beyond. I started thinking of my food assignments in the coming weeks...and I suddenly lost all motivation to cook dinner. Sorry fam.

If you're ever having a day where you're kinda feeling like that too, here's a really easy way to put something on the table, thank you random person on Pinterest:

No-Stress Beef Stew

Stew meat chunks

1 packet each: Ranch Dressing, Italian Dressing and Brown Gravy 

2 cups water

Veggies -- I had carrots and potatoes, frozen peas and frozen pearl onions

Toss it all in the slow cooker, cook on high for 6 hours. (I added the peas in the last hour.) Serve.

Aaand she's back!

This is seriously almost too good to be this easy.

Pulled Lamb Gyros with Homemade Tzatziki and Greek Potatoes

I was totally freaked out when Megan chose Lamb as March’s Ingredient of the Month.  I was raised in a mostly vegetarian family and although I am not currently a vegetarian I have absolutely no knowledge when it comes to cooking anything other than fish or chicken.  As soon as I read “Lamb” I was transported back in time to a BBQ we had in which we had invited my friend Heather over for dinner and she had kindly contributed the steaks.  I over-cooked them.  I am still embarrassed.

That’s my fear, really: that I will have a beautiful piece of meat in which a creature’s life has been sacrificed and I will not do it justice.  And I couldn’t bring myself to mess up a piece of Lamb because there was even more on the line this time; I mean, let’s face it: Lambs are way cuter than cows.  And for some reason that means something to me. 

While researching Lamb recipes I came across a recipe for “Pulled Lamb” made in a Crock pot and I thought, “Eureka!”  If there’s one thing I DO know how to do, its Crock pot.  And pulled chicken in a Crock pot is like, the best thing ever for burritos and tacos and… “Eureka again!”  I’ll make a pulled Lamb Gyro.  Thank you to Closet Cooking, I didn’t have to go far to find the recipe.  Add in a side of Greek style potatoes, and Voilá! Dinner!

Pulled Lamb Gyros
Pulled Lamb (see below)
Tzatziki (see below)
Diced Tomatoes
Diced Red Onion
Crumbled Feta Cheese
Pita Bread

Directions: Set all ingredients up taco-bar style and let your family or guests pick and choose their toppings.  Pair with a yummy Greek salad or Greek style potatoes (recipe below).

Pulled Lamb
2-3 pounds lamb shoulder or leg (boneless if possible)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion (sliced)
2 cups water (Closet Cooking didn't add any water but I figured I should after watching it cook for a while and feeling like it was going to get dry.  Better to have too much juice than not enough.)

Directions: Combine all ingredients except onion and water and marinate Lamb overnight.  In the morning, put lamb and marinade in Crock pot and add water and sliced onion.  Cook at least 8 hours.  The meat will literally fall apart.  So yummy!  Make sure to remove all pieces of bone.  I took all the meat out with a slotted spoon and shredded it with two forks, then left it in a bowl and covered the bowl with tinfoil to keep the heat in.  (The preparation process the night before was incredibly easy and was done by the time my boys had watched their night-night show.)

Um, yum.

Tzatziki Sauce
1 cup Greek Yogurt
1 ½ large cucumbers peeled, quartered, seeded and shredded
2-4 garlic cloves, minced (depends on how garlicky you want it)
Teaspoon diced fresh mint
½ lemon, squeezed
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions: Peel cucumbers, cut them into quarters, seed them, and shred them.  To get the juices out, I wrapped the shredded cucumber in a paper towel and squeezed, squeezed, squeezed.  I repeated that with about two more paper towels.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix.  I made this the night before too, so that all the flavors would meld.  If you prefer your tzatziki to be smoother, you can also put the cucumbers in the food processor.  I like having the texture, so grated was good enough for me. 

Hello, gorgeous.

The hardest part was preparing the cucumber but after making my very own tzatziki I felt incredibly accomplished!

 I now dub thee, a Grecian Goddess!

Greek-Style Potatoes
These were whipped up at 3:30 in the afternoon after the lamb had been cooking all day and my husband said, “What are we having with our gyros?”  Uh.  Quick google. “Oh, great!  I found a recipe that calls for ingredients we already have!”  After 10 minutes the potatoes were in the oven and I was back in my comfy spot on the couch watching How to Train a Dragon with Ansen.  I am super-mom.

4-6 large potatoes, peeled and quartered (or eigthed, as I chose to do.)  No, that’s not a word.
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup olive oil (do less of this though, my potatoes were a little too oily)
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
½ lemon, squeezed
2 chicken bouillon cubes

Directions: Combine all ingredients in an oven safe baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  That’s it.

Are you salivating yet?

I said I was super-mom before but that pissed you off, didn’t it?  That’s why I included the picture below so as to hopefully restore some of my street-cred.

I know, can you even believe I let my two-year old wear Christmas jammies in March?

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