Valentine's Corned Beef & Cabbage

I know that St. Patrick's Day is coming up, but I thought that Valentine's would be a perfect time for me to enjoy some much craved Corned Beef & Cabbage!  I am glad that I did, because it was delicious!  Very easy to make! 

Ingredients:

2.5 lb Corned Beef Brisket

Tarragon

1/2 Cup Chicken Stock

1 tea bag of finely ground Earl Grey Tea

Directions:

Place the corned beef brisket in the slow cooker and season on both sides with the Tarragon.  Cook with the fat side up.  Spread the spice packet over the top of the brisket and sprinkle the Earl Grey Tea on top as well.  

Pour the chicken stock into the cooker on the sides to preserve as much of the seasoning on the top of the corned beef as possible.  Add water until the level of liquid comes up to just the top without covering. 

Cook for high for about 2 hours and turn down to low for about another hour to hour and a half.  The roast is now done and ready to serve! 

Season all over the corned beef

Fill with chicken stock and water just to the top of the corned beef and cook with fat side up

Serve & Enjoy

Superbowl Chili & Pizza Bicuits

I was lucky enough to have a lot of family in town for Super Bowl Sunday which gave me the opportunity to cook.  I made some slow Cooker Super Bowl Chili and some Pizza Biscuits!  Here are both of the recipes in case you would like to try making some on your own!  Enjoy, it turned out delicious!

Slow Cooker Super Bowl Chili

Ingredients:

2 lb Ground Hamburger
Seasoning (Garlic Powder, Mediterranean Spiced Sea Salt, Crushed Red Pepper, Basil, Thyme)
1 12oz can Tomato Paste
2 14.5 oz cans Diced Basil Oregano Tomatoes
1 15 oz can Black Beans
1 15 oz can Great Northern Beans

1 Zucchini (peeled & chopped)
5 Radishes (diced)
3 Celery Stalks (chopped)
3 Garlic Cloves (minced)
1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley (Chopped)
1 Cup Chicken Stock
Shredded Cheese to top

Directions:
Put the ground hamburger into the slow cooker and turn the heat up to high.  Generously season the meat. Add the tomato paste and then fill the can of paste with water and add to the slow cooker.  Add both cans of diced tomatoes and both kinds of beans. Stir to mix.  Add the vegetables and stir to mix thoroughly.  Top with the chicken stock and make sure that everything is stirred to mix.  Cook on high for about 3 hours.  Be sure to stir periodically.  Turn the slow cooker down to low and continue to cook for another hour or two.  If you have more time you can keep on low or warm for several hours until you are ready to eat.  Serve and top with shredded cheese and a dash of basil.  Enjoy! 

Add the hamburger to the slow cooker and season the meat

The beans and tomatoes I used

Add the tomato paste, tomatoes and beans to the slow cooker

Add the veggies & parsley

Add the chicken stock and stir

Serve with cheese sprinkled over top and a dash of basil

 Pizza Biscuits

Ingredients:
1 Cannister of Refrigerated Biscuits
3-4 Mozzarella Cheese Sticks
Pizza Sauce
Basil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Lay the biscuits out on an ungreased cookie sheet just like you would for making biscuits normally.  Cut the cheese sticks into 3 or 4 pieces and press them down into the middle of the biscuits.  Spoon pizza sauce over top of the cheese.  Just enough to cover, but not so much that it is dripping onto the pan.  Add a dash of basil to the top.  Bake in the oven for about 8-11 minutes until the biscuits have risen and the cheese is melted.  Allow 5 minutes to cool, serve and enjoy!  You may serve with extra sauce if you want to dip them.

All the ingredients you will need

Place the biscuits on the cookie sheet

Press the cheese into the middle of the biscuits

Spoon pizza sauce on top of the cheese

Cook and enjoy :)

Christmas Corned Beef Recipe

Grocery shopping with the Christmas crazy crowd while deliriously sick leads to things like buying corned beef brisket instead of regular beef brisket, as well as, accidentally leaving your car on and running the entire time you shop.  I don't recommend it to anyone haha.  Luckily I love corned beef and this made for a delicious Christmas meal.

Ingredients:

3 lb Corned Beef Brisket

Seasoning (Thyme, Chophouse Steak & Beef Rub, Mediterranean Spiced Sea Salt)

1 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock

1 tea bag of finely ground Earl Grey Tea

Directions:

Place the corned beef brisket in the slow cooker and season on both sides with the seasoning.  Cook with the fat side up.  Spread the spice packet over the top of the brisket.  

Pour the chicken stock into the cooker on the sides to preserve as much of the seasoning on the top of the corned beef as possible.  Add water until the level of liquid comes up to just the top without covering.  Open the Earl Grey packet and sprinkle it all around the slow roaster.  

Cook for high for about 2 hours and turn down to low for about another hour to hour and a half.  The roast is now done and ready to serve! 

Season the brisket in the slow cooker

Serve & enjoy

Slow Cooker Chicken Chili

Easy and delicious, as long as you can plan ahead to make it.

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground chicken

1 sweet potato (peeled & shredded)

4 Celery Stalks (chopped)

1 Red Pepper (seeded & diced)

3 garlic gloves (minced)

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans (drained)

1 15 oz can of mayocoba beans (drained)

1 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (basil, garlic, oregano)

15 oz chicken stock

1/4 Cup instant tapioca

1 tsp Tarragon

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Basil

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

 Directions:

Add all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Stir at least every 2 hours.  Serve with optional sour cream, shredded gouda cheese, and sliced green onions.

Add ground chicken, and vegetables

Add the beans

Add the remaining ingredients

Stir up and start cooking

Serve & Enjoy!

Beef Roast & Veggies Recipe

As the weather turned cooler this weekend, I wanted to make something to warm us up and happened to have a beef roast on hand that was ready to be cooked.  

Ingredients:

2 lb Beef Roast

2 Cups Red Wine (can substitute beef broth)

3 Cups Water

Seasoning (Garlic, Rosemary, Sea Salt, Bourbon Brown Sugar)

2 Cloves Garlic

4 Stalks Celery (Chopped)

3 Potatoes (Peeled & Chopped)

3 Carrots (Peeled & Chopped)

 Directions:

Season the beef roast and place into the slow cooker.  Add the wine and water and cook on high for 1 hour.  Add the Garlic, Celery, Potatoes and Carrots.  Cook on Low for another hour.  Roast will be tender and ready to eat.  Serve and enjoy!

Season the roast and place into the slow cooker

The seasoning I used

Add the wine & water and cook on high

Add the veggies and cook on low

Serve and enjoy!

VOTE FOR WHAT I SHOULD COOK! OCTOBER EDITION!

Welcome back to voting for what I should cook the October edition.  September was such a hit and so much fun to see the votes and cook something that I may not have chosen for myself and would have been missing out.  Due to the huge success I have decided to make this a monthly thing!  So come on and vote for what I should make next weekend for dinner and dessert.  One of the entrees from last month has made it over to become an option again for this month as well as a few desserts that didn't quite make it for the win!  Come on and vote and enter any suggestions for things that you would like to see for next month's voting challenge.  Thank you so much for your participation because without your votes, there would be nothing chosen for me to cook!

In case you want to see the voting from last month check out : September's Options

And to check out the winning dishes that I made go to: Burgundy Pork & Apple Raz Crumble

MAIN DISH

Option A:  Slow Cooker Chicken Chili

I don't use my slow cooker nearly as much as I should, and am always looking for great new recipe inspiration.  I love messing with Chili and this looks like a great recipe to try.

Original Recipe:

slow-cooker-chicken-chili













Option B: Creamy Baked Pumpkin Risotto
It's that time of year again.  Fall, comfort food, pumpkin everything.  And this recipe looks interesting and delicious!

 Original Recipe:
Creamy Baked Pumpkin Risotto












Option C: Chicken and Dumplings
 Another delicious comfort food, I used to sneak as many of the dumplings as I could and eat them all when I was little haha.  As an adult I always add extra when I cook it for myself, but I haven't made it in many years, so it would be great to revisit it.

 Original Recipe:
Chicken & Dumplings












Option D: Caramel Apple Pork Chops
 You can't have fall without caramel apple, so what better to add than pork?  Pork is always great for adding anything sweet to it, it really complements the sweet flavors.

 Original Recipe:
Caramel Apple Pork










DESSERTS

Option 1: Caramelized Banana Pudding

One of my all-time favorite desserts is banana pudding, this looks like a delicious twist to an old favorite!

Original Recipe:

caramelized-banana-pudding

Option 2: Rice Pudding with Cherries

Rice Pudding AND Cherries, and there is also WHITE chocolate, I am salivating just thinking about it!

Original Recipe:

Rice-pudding-with-cherries

Option 3: Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake 

I love fall for all of the delicious Pumpkin recipes and I also love cheesecake.  What better than cheesecake and pumpkin all in one bite?

Original Recipe:
 Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake









Option 4: Carrot Layer Cake

Carrot cake used to seem like such a weird concept to me when I was younger, but as I have grown older I have learned to love the flavor sensation in my mouth as well as the amazing cream cheese frosting, however I have never attempted to make a carrot cake myself, so this would be my first try.

Original Recipe:
Carrot Layer Cake












Now you have seen the 4 main dishes and the 4 dessert choices.  Please vote by selecting a Letter and Number so that I can go shopping and get everything.  Voting will close in one Week and then I will cook the selected dish and dessert and post my version of the recipes along with step by step instruction with photos of what I did.  Thank you very much for your support, I can't wait to see what you have selected for me to make!