Sunday, March 22, 2015
Top 10 Slow Cooker Potluck Dishes
Were approaching a 3-Day weekend, and many of us will be attending barbecues, picnics, and family events. Dont arrive empty-handed!
Instead, load up your slow cooker with one of the following crowd-pleasing dishes. Ive listed the recipes in countdown order--- if you have a favorite, please chime in below. Happy Labor Day!
10) Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. This is filling, delicious, and is different enough to gain lots of attention on the buffet table. Easy to stretch by serving rice, and fixens like sliced avocado and tortilla chips.
9) Lima Bean Casserole Cassoulet. I love serving this to guests and listening to the conversation. "what type of beans are these?" "Im not sure. some sort of large pinto beans or something?" I usually wait until the pot is practically empty before coming clean that they were lima beans.
8) Honey Lentils. Delicious, nutritious, vegan vegetarian, and such a fun offering to bring to a picnic. I get the nicest emails about these lentils!
7) Pesto Spinach Lasagna. I need to run to the store to pick up the ingredients for this! You have never had a better vegetarian lasagna. So so good.
6) Hirino Psito. This is a wonderful main dish to serve to guests. Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, and beer mix together to create a savory sauce that perfectly compliments the sweet contrast of brown sugar and cranberries. Win!
5) Brie with Apricot Topping. To make this more user-friendly for guests, insert an oven-safe dish into your large slow cooker and load the ingredients into the dish. Then remove the dish (use mitts!) and serve with your favorite crackers (we like Glutino a lot). Do not add water in the crockpot around the dish.
4) Pomegranate Beef. When we host a dinner for new friends, I usually make this. This keeps picky older relatives happy, along with the kids (note to self: I need to update some of these photos!). Ive made this for television audiences, and served it at the Disneyland Food & Wine Festival, where the kitchen chefs gave rave reviews, which made me cry. This recipe was also featured on Oprah.com!
3) Cream Cheese, Sausage, and Rotel Dip (mommy crack). The ingredients are odd, the taste is not. Make this and youll be happy.
2) Potluck Beans. We cant have a potluck countdown without potluck beans, now can we? These beans have bacon. Nuff said.
1) Original Taco Soup. Feeds a bunch, easy to throw together, and everyone LOVES it. This has been our number one potluck bring along for the past 12 years.
Honorable mention: Black Beans with Cilantro. I ran out of numbers--- this is a great bean recipe.
Enjoy your long weekend!
Honey Garlic Chicken Slow Cooker Recipe
QUIET QUIET QUIET
I may go do cartwheels on the back lawn...
right after I watch a soap opera marathon while eating a box of bon-bons...
This is a quick, easy, and super-tasty chicken recipe. Id highly recommend using thighs--- they hold up better in the slow cooker and dark meat just tastes better. :-) I use boneless, skinless thighs. If your thighs have bones and skin, fish them out of the pot before serving (the chicken will separate from the bone and itll be pretty easy).
The Ingredients.
serves 4
1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (4 or one thigh per family member)
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup soy sauce (La Choy or Tamari wheat-free are gluten free)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup honey
The Directions.
Use a 4-quart slow cooker (if using a 6-quart, this will cook faster. Check after 3 hours on high, 5 hours on low).
Put the chicken into your cooker. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, then pour evenly over the top.
Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 (Id go with low---).
Serve with basmati rice and steamed or roasted vegetables.
The Verdict.
My kids adore this chicken. The ketchup and honey taste a bit like barbecue sauce, but slightly more tart. The basil gives it a different, herby flavor which I like a lot. If you are into freezer meals, this is a great candidate--- load all the ingredients into a freezer bag (raw chicken, the sauce ingredients) and then freeze. Thaw the bag overnight in the fridge, then plop the ingredients into your cooker for a fast morning plug-in.
Enjoy!
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Im on a diet what are the permitted drinks
When following a diet to lose weight, it is important to drink a lot, at least 1.5 liters per day, to help the body eliminate waste. However, be careful, many beverages can affect weight loss. Little review different drinks, and preferred to avoid.
Beverages allowed during dieting
- Water is the only drink that the body needs and provides no calories. Drink tap water, the Plain water or spring water, sparkling water in nature. Attention flavored waters, some may contain significant amounts of sugar. Read labels and choose only those that are not sweet (or may not contain artificial sweeteners).
- A sugar-free fruit juice glass added (or 100% juice from concentrate) is allowed, but it is calorie and should be considered in your diet as the equivalent of a fresh fruit. However avoid fruit nectars as they undergo addition of sugar (sucrose) in addition to the natural sugar from the fruit. Also avoid fruit juice beverages (type Oasis®) because they contain only 10-25% fruit with added water, sugar and additives.
- All soft drinks (cola, lemonade, sodas and orange, and lemon extracts ...) are allowed, with the sole condition that they are "light", that is to say, sweetened with a sweetener intense (aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame potassium) because they are so non-caloric. However, these drinks are to limit or to book some occasions because they have the disadvantage of maintaining the taste for sweetness.
- Coffee, tea and herbal tea: coffee (espresso, filter, soluble), tea and herbal teas are allowed, provided the drink without sugar or sweeten with an intense sweetener. However, it is highly recommended to get used to taste its unsweetened hot drinks. Cappuccino and chocolate with milk and sugar should be avoided.
Drinks to avoid while dieting
- Drinks with fruit juice and milk, briquettes sweet flavored milk, syrups classic ...
- Alcohol is strongly discouraged because very caloric (including cider, beer, wine ...). During a diet, it is recommended not to allow a glass of red wine occasionally (festive meal).
Enjoy The Harvest Of The Season
As the Sun enters the sign of Libra, day and night are again in perfect balance. Temperatures begin to drop, leaves begin to fall, and once again, the element of Change moves into our lives. In truth, change is the one constant in the Universe that we can rely on.
Around the time of the Summer Solstice, I set an intention to change my relationship to food. And oh, what changes have ensued.
Transitioning to a raw foods lifestyle has had a significant effect on me physically. My body has let go of roughly 50 pounds; chronic heartburn, fatigue, headaches, and joint pain have vanished.
Perhaps more significant than my bodys physical changes, are the internal changes taking place. Heres a bit of what Ive learned about myself:
Around the time of the Summer Solstice, I set an intention to change my relationship to food. And oh, what changes have ensued.
Transitioning to a raw foods lifestyle has had a significant effect on me physically. My body has let go of roughly 50 pounds; chronic heartburn, fatigue, headaches, and joint pain have vanished.
Perhaps more significant than my bodys physical changes, are the internal changes taking place. Heres a bit of what Ive learned about myself:
- Certain foods trigger the phenomenon of craving for me. Before, my foods came in bags, boxes and cans. My three basic food groups were refined sugar, refined flour and trans fats. Foods falling into those three groups trigger a physical craving for me. I want more, more, more. Eliminate those foods, eliminate the craving.
- The compulsion to overeat is emotional for me. Its all related to how Im feeling. Sad, angry, lonely, tired, bored...Ill turn to food. I have a holy hunger that no amount of food can satiate, because its not a physical hunger. I have to discover ways to feed and nourish my Spirit.
- Certain behaviors can trigger unhealthy food choices for me: eating standing up at the kitchen counter; eating in front of the fridge; eating in the car; eating in front of the television. Eliminate those behaviors, eliminate the risk of making poor choices.
The contents of my kitchen and pantry sure have changed dramatically since the start of last season. Gone are the prepared and processed food items. I am so blessed to live within 20 minutes of a half dozen farmers markets. As I was gazing upon the bevy of fresh local produce I scored this weekend ~ squash, cabbage, lettuce, eggplant, cucumber, collards, tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, apples, pears, grapes ~ I was overcome by the beauty and bounty of the seasons harvest. And, it got me thinking about my own experience of the harvest.
First and foremost: its hard work. We sometimes have the mistaken notion that once weve done the work of preparing the fields, planting the seeds and tending their growth, when harvest time comes, we can sit back and enjoy. But the work doesnt end ~ it just changes, and the important work of gathering in and preserving begins.
Now is the time to look back over the season, at the goal(s) we set, the work we put in, and deciding whether what manifested is what we really intended. It is time to process, to assimilate. Did it work out the way we intended? Whether it did or not, we have gained valuable information. This is stored and becomes part of us and our wisdom grows stronger.
So, we separate the wheat from the chaff ~ what nourishes us stays in the plan to strengthen us, what doesnt is kicked out to the compost pile. Those lessons will fertilize next seasons garden.
I like the fat is bad
Set food, sauces, lean meats, cheeses, pastries, desserts, fatty acids (lipids) will be all over the place there are a bad popularity: to produce an individual weight and several regarding its varieties, that block up veins.
Yet weight will be great, tender on the taste, foods fun origin.
How you can cope?
Individual junk in addition to popularity
Nothing is basic in the field of lipid!
Theyre composed of different fat linked to one another, because the balls of a diamond necklace.
Dependant upon his or her structure, there are:
saturated fat,
monounsaturated
in addition to polyunsaturated.
Theyre within almost all types of weight nevertheless with different size collected from one of foods to an alternative.
Mono in addition to polyunsaturated fatty acids, which come largely natural oils in addition to bass, have a very popularity internet marketing perfect for health and fitness, specifically the particular cardiovascular system, specially poly.
Condensed fat, that happen to be located largely with animal fatty acids (those butter, cream, cheeses, lean meats in addition to frosty cuts) include lengthy experienced the popularity opposite to the issue to be baptized "bad fatty acids inch. dropoff screen
The truth is, the particular saturated fat will not be almost all seeing that negative because you consider.
A few are usually also beneficial, including butyric p -- located largely with butter in addition to dairy -- that has a protecting effect versus colon cancer malignancy.
Moreover, any difficulty . individuals unpleasant saturated fat will not be usually crooks with all the cardiovascular system, a minimum of individuals via dairy.
Body fat isnt harmful... in excess of other ingredients
The actual rational effect anywhere there is certainly weight, there are more calories in addition to usually in a modest quantity. A good ill-fated tablespoon regarding extra virgin olive oil, brimming with great mono in addition to polyunsaturated fat, will be ninety days calories in one fell swoop!
Thats why the particular seek out weight since it has furnished in recent times a solid popularity which enables an individual weight.
Yet new scientific studies have shown that this lessening with the merely weight within the diet plan did not really impact bodyweight. And also among those which adopted rigid diet programs to lose his or her extra few pounds, individuals receiving slimmer very best experienced a lttle bit restrictive weight diet plan.
Body fat, it can be perfect for well-being
The peel regarding buttered loaf of bread nicely, it can be a lot better than some loaf of bread by itself, also whether it is very cool! Similar report with regard to mother nature or even strawberries with whipped cream or even whipped. Asparagus with mousseline spices great, it can be totally sexy, and also a dark chocolate mousse.
Body fat, it can be great, it can be nice, it can be great therefore you sense better after you take in.
Yet this is simply not the particular gustatory joy by itself that delivers that well-being. A good research with the College regarding Leuven, on non-obese females, exhibited that it had been the particular lipids on their own ended up in charge of that profit.
In a lot of them, scientists perfused weight inside the particular stomach in addition to with other saline. As well, that they exhibited these pics which may make sure they are unfortunate.
Utilizing fMRI (functional Permanent magnet Resonance Imaging), that they calculated the fact that was going on within their head and possess located that people who experienced weight within the stomach ended up a lesser amount of unfortunate when compared with people. This particular as a result of episode with the release of a hormone within the digestive tract, which then will stroll within the head in addition to tickle within the right way mental locations.
There may be thus zero problem regarding starving absolutely weight or even chance currently being unfortunate in addition to frustrated brushing!
Exactly what great doses regarding weight?
ANSES (National Wellness Stability Firm diet plan, surroundings in addition to labor) that establishes the particular recommended dietary allowances, proposes "neither an excessive amount none weak hands fat" in addition to established a variety involving thirty five in addition to 40% day-to-day calories given by these types of.
However in these types of, saturated weight should never surpass 12%.
Preferable to move quick on merchandise that contain a whole lot:
simply by degreasing red lean meats ahead of cooking (or leaving behind these weight within the dish)
cooking with extra virgin olive oil, not really butter,
simply by eating lean meats from time to time, certainly not day-to-day, fair helpings regarding mozzarella dairy product (40g)
but by eliminating almost all business merchandise that contain side acrylic (look labels) since it will be rich.
Easy on the weight or sweets
Many fatty acids or nice, variety dark chocolate cafes, pastries, cookies, confectionery, the rocks cream, and so on. are usually true draws in because they are speedy to help unbalance the diet program.
Certainly, in a modest quantity, that they bring a whole lot (too) calories in addition to, additionally, the particular sweets that they incorporate merely presents prefer to work with once again! Specifically that crunches at entire rate (except the rocks cream), and so, they cannot sense entire.
Experiencing these instead of take rapidly, leaving behind the particular burn within the lips, savoring quite a few tender in addition to sexy sounds they feature knowning that are usually great, it truly is particular to eat fewer and do not slip thus within the sweets trap. Merely complete the particular experience some dark chocolate being certain (e)!
New to the anti cholesterol diet!
You have too much cholesterol? The first step is to look at the side of your plate and put you on anti-cholesterol diet. Or it may not be as restrictive as it was. While it is based on limiting fats, a study suggests that the introduction of certain foods would just as effective in the fight against cholesterol.
When the anti-cholesterol diet is a must ...
People with high cholesterol levels should adopt a diet low in cholesterol to regain normal blood levels of cholesterol and thus reduce their cardiovascular risk.
Let us recall that too much cholesterol is bad for the arteries. Excess cholesterol tends to be deposited inside the artery walls, forming what are called atherosclerotic plaques. The latter reduces the diameter of the arteries and may clog, but they can also detach and migrate through the bloodstream into the brain, causing a stroke.
A support for reducing cholesterol levels is essential. If drug treatments are very effective (statins), they do not replace the anti-cholesterol diet, and are often prescribed as second line.
Relaxation of anti-cholesterol diet
The classic anti-cholesterol diet is to reduce its intake of lipids, particularly high cholesterol foods. However there are some food categories which are known to have anti-cholestérolémiantes properties. To test the effectiveness of these foods, the researchers designed a diet including regular consumption of these foods. Called Portfolio, it is to focus on the following foods:
soluble fiber (psyllium, oat ...)
plant sterols, particularly through margarine enriched with plant sterols,
soybean (soy milk, tofu, soy meat)
almonds and walnuts.
Some 300 volunteers with high cholesterol were assigned to follow either the classic anti-cholesterol diet or the Portfolio diet. Others have taken a cholesterol-lowering drug, a statin.
Their bad cholesterol (LDL) cholesterol was measured at the beginning and end of the study, 6 months later.
What result in reducing cholesterol?
We notice that the most effective diet is the Portfolio, with 13% reduction in LDL cholesterol, against 3% with the conventional system. As to the statin, it is twice as efficient as the Portfolio scheme, which also indicates that the Portfolio scheme has the effect of a half dose of statin! And that results in a theoretical 11% reduction in the risk of stroke with the Portfolio diet, while statins have demonstrated their ability to reduce mortality in many studies.
In conclusion, the "anti-cholesterol" diet should be considered in a much more comprehensive way. Limit fats and cholesterol-rich foods remains a basic setpoint, which it makes sense to integrate the consumption of foods that have the property of reducing cholesterol.
CrockPot Harvest Stew Recipe
Day 287.
Here is a cozy stew certain to warm you after a day of pumpkin-picking. Or after a day of spending $5 a pop for a corn maze, hay ride, pumpkin cannon, inflatable bouncer, pony rides, or kid-size tractors.
Or after a day watching other people pay $5 a pop for those things, and then deciding to get your pumpkins in front of the grocery store.
The Ingredients.
--1 pound lean ground turkey or chicken (I used chicken)
--1 yellow onion, chopped
--3 chopped garlic cloves
--1 can kidney beans, rinsed
--1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
--3 red potatoes, peeled and chopped
--1 acorn squash, peeled and chopped
--1 whole can tomatoes and chilies (rotel)
--4 cups chicken broth
--1/4 tsp cloves
--1/4 tsp all spice
--salt and pepper to taste
The Directions.
Use a big crockpot for this stew. I used a 6.5 quart eLume.
Guess what? I didnt brown the meat. If you are using extra lean ground turkey or chicken, there really isnt a need--the only worry about using beef or pork is the fat content. If you prefer those types of meat, or already have it on hand, brown on the stove top and drain before adding to the stew.
I used my moms microwaving-the-squash trick for cutting the acorn squash, and it worked. It worked so well, Im not scared to buy squash anymore. I microwaved it on high for 2 minutes. It sizzled and freaked me out, but it cut easily, and I used a paring knife to cut away the skin.
Peel and chop all of the vegetables, and add it to the crockpot. Break up the ground meat with your fingers and add it in. Dump in the kidney beans and the can of tomatoes and chilies. Add the broth and the seasonings. Stir well. It will look like there isnt enough liquid, but more will be made from the vegetables and meat. I promise.
Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours. I cooked ours on low for exactly 8. It was perfect.
The Verdict.
My parents and brother ate this with us (well, the kids had toquitos), and we (the grown-ups) all liked it a lot, and had 2 bowls each.
Well, maybe my brother had only one bowl because he was going out to eat.
Anyhow, it was good.
Adam suggests next time using stew meat instead of the ground meat for a more-filling meal. He was pretty hungry a few hours later.
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