Slow-Cookin' Magic!!

I don't know about you all, but I am in love with my slow-cooker. I experimented with two new dishes this weekend, and both turned out great. I did a pot roast with turnips and carrots, as a healthier riff on pot roast with potatoes, which is something I've made in the oven before. it turned out far better in the slow-cooker. That is the slow-cooker claim to fame, when cooking with "cheaper" cuts of meat, such as chuck roast, the long, low-temperature cooking allows the meat to become tender while staying moist and flavorful. Root vegetables (like turnips, potatoes, carrots) hold up well to slow-cooking, too. Dish #2 was chickpeas and spinach. I used dried chickpeas, very economical but more time is required for soaking, and french spinach, and even my toddlers ate it up. There are hundreds of great slow-cooker recipes, but here are the two that I used:

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Turnips and Carrots

Ingredients-

• 4 pounds chuck roast
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup water
• 4 carrots, cut into 3 inch pieces
  
• 2 onions, quartered
  
• 4 turnips, diced into 1 inch cubes

Directions-

1. Take the chuck roast and season with salt and pepper to taste.*
   
2. Place in the slow cooker and add water, carrots, onion, and turnips.
3. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours.

*Many recipes will direct you to first brown the meat on all sides in a large skillet over high heat. While this creates a nice crust and appealing look to the meat, it's not necessary.

Slow-Cooker Chickpeas with Spinach

Ingredients-

• 2 cups dried chickpeas (or 2 cans chickpeas)
• water
• 1 onions, diced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  
• 1 large bunch fresh spinach
• 2 bouillon cubes (chicken or vegetable)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  

Directions-

1. If using dried chickpeas, rinse and pick out any bad-looking peas. Put into a pot and cover with water; let sit overnight.*
2. Drain chickpeas, put into slow cooker. Add water to about 1 inch above peas, and add bouillon. Cook on high for 2-3 hours.
3. Dice onions, cook on medium high in olive oil. As they turn translucent, add tomato paste and mix together well. Cook another 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.
4. Add onion/oil/tomato paste mix to slow cooker, cook another 1-3 hours on high (until peas are easy to smush with a spoon; it took my batch the full 3 hours).
   
5. De-stem and wash VERY WELL the spinach to remove all grit. Add to slow cooker and cook on high 1 hour.
6. Mix softened spinach into peas and turn cooker to low. Cook another 1-3 hours, depending on how mushy you like your chick peas and spinach.
   

My kids loved this, and even ate the turnips and carrots from the previous recipe when I mashed everything together to a mashed potato consistency. Anything that gets them to eat veggies other than the potato I count as a huge success!

Cranberry-Orange-Apricot Coffee Cake

I am a big fan of baking from mixes. They fast, they're easy, you can buy a bunch when they go on sale and then you're prepared for every last-minute dinner invite, school function, or work social event.

I also love starting from a box mix and adding in some ingredients to make it unique--and often a little more healthy!

Here's what I did, starting with Krusteaz's Fat-Free Cranberry Orange Muffin mix.

Prepare mix as directed, but before adding the cranberries, add:

1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup quick-cooking oatmeal ("quick oats")
1/2 cup apricot preserves

Then add the cranberries (if desired; you could leave them out if you just wanted orange-apricot flavors).

Spray a bundt pan (or loaf pan or 8"x8" baking dish) and fill with batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

It's still a "dump-and-bake" cake, but adding oatmeal and wheat germ really cuts the sweetness, making it more palatable for a coffee cake, and makes it overall a healthier treat. Baking in a bundt pan gives it a nice brown, almost crisp, crust, which contrasts nicely with the moistness of the apricot preserves.