Slow Cooker Spanish-Style Couscous

     I'm still on the fence about slow-cooker recipes that require you to do cooking outside of the slow-cooker. I just want to chuck everything in there and forget about it. I'll make exceptions for ground meat. Nobody wants slow cooked ground meat. That just sounds nasty. After this recipe, I'll also make an exception for couscous, because it takes almost no time to make. The Wife and I really enjoyed this recipe. We tinkered with the ingredients and came up with a winner. It was simple and with a switch to turkey, a healthy meal. As always, any notes and changes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Spanish-Style Couscous
via Crock-Pot Quick & Easy Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (we had a bunch of ground turkey patties in the freezer, so we used 1.5 pounds of those instead)
• 1 can (14 ounces) beef broth (I don't keep cans of broth on hand. I just filled an empty can with water and dissolved a beef bouillon cube in it)
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (you should know by now The Wife doesn't like green peppers, so we went with red instead)
• 1/2 cup pimiento stuffed green olives, sliced
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
•  1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon Pilsen Latino Seasoning from the Spice House
• 1-1/3 cup water (this is for the couscous. DON'T put it in the slow cooker!)
• 1 cup uncooked couscous (we found a really good roasted garlic and olive oil couscous at ALDI)

Directions

1. Brown meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring to break up meat (I've never seen a recipe tell you to break up the meat before. Are there people out there just chucking a big wad of meat in the pan and hoping for the best?) Drain fat.
2. Combine broth, bell pepper, olives, onion, garlic, cumin, thyme and meat in slow-cooker. Cover; cook on LOW 5 hours or until bell pepper is tender. 
3. Bring water to a boil over high heat in a small saucepan. Stir in couscous. Cover; remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with fork (don't forget to take the cover off before fluffing or you may encounter some difficulties). Spoon couscous onto plates; top with beef mixture (use a slotted spoon for getting the beef mixture out. There's going to be a fair amount of liquid left in the slow cooker).

Good times!

Spicy Won Ton Soup via Foodista

     I had planned on making this soup recipe for my wife's birthday. I let her sift through my recipes and pinboard and pick out what she wanted. She found this recipe for Spicy Won-Ton Soup on Foodista. I made a fair amount of changes to this recipe out of necessity.  I didn't have a couple of the ingredients in stock and made substitutions. I also ended up doubling the recipe because I used a pound of meat. Plus, we had an unexpected guest so I needed to pad out the broth to make sure there was enough for everyone. Fortunately I had a bunch of chicken stock in the freezer. The soup was a big hit and very tasty. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Spicy Won-ton Soup
via Foodista

Ingredients

Wontons
1/2 pound ground chicken or ground turkey (I didn't have any ground turkey or chicken in the house and didn't feel like grinding it myself. I did, however have a pound of ground pork, which I used instead)
1/4 cup carrots,  minced
2 stalks spring onion, minced (I used green onion. I figured it was the same thing. I also used 4)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (I used 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper(optional) (hot peppers are never an option. Stop living in fear. However, in this case I left them out because my wife didn't want a super spicy soup. If mama ain't happy, nobody's happy)
salt and pepper to taste
won-ton wrappers (Didn't have these either. However, I did have egg roll wrappers which I ran though the Kitchenaid pasta roller on the thinnest setting. *POOF!* Instant wonton wrappers)

Broth
2 cups chicken broth (I ended up using double this amount because I had so many won-tons. Please use your own chicken stock. Don't use boullion unless it's an emergency)
1 teaspoon  fermented soy bean paste or black bean paste or chili (I found a jar of black bean sauce with garlic at the grocery store that looked promising. I used that instead)
1 teaspoon sliced ginger (I went berserk and used over 2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon soy sauce or fish sauce (season to suit your taste)
1 stalk spring onion, sliced diagonally for garnish (totally forgot to do this)
Baby bok choy or Chinese broccoli (Accidentally bought Chinese CABBAGE instead of broccoli. I just cut up some of that and used it. No harm done)

Directions

1. Mix filling in a bowl. Place one teaspoon in center of won-ton wrapper and fold in half, sealing edges with water.
2. Boil 2 cups of chicken broth. (Or however much you ended up using) Add fermented soy beans (or black bean and garlic sauce) and ginger . Drop won-ton balls and continue cooking until won-tons starting floating. 
3. Add baby bok choy (if large, cut in half lengthwise) or sliced Chinese broccoli (Or Chinese cabbage). Cook until vegetables are blanched.
4. Remove from heat. Season with extra soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste (Yeah, there's probably enough sodium in here already. Maybe skip the extra soy sauce and salt unless you're a huge fan of hypertension.) Garnish with spring onions and serve.

Good times!