Another Sausage, Sauerkraut and Potato Recipe, but with Apples!

     Bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato dishes are as ubiquitous as man-buns on hipsters. Why does the world need another one? No clue. Good thing this one isn't mine. I pinched it from a recipe book and then made a bunch of changes. As far as I'm concerned, these dishes generally taste about the same. This one had enough changes that it was actually fairly tasty. I'm still not a big fan, but The Wife enjoyed it, so it will stay in the rotation. Mostly I avoid dishes like this because they are absolute sodium bombs. I can gain 3-4 pounds of water overnight after eating something like this. Not even joking. Just serve it with copious amounts of beer to keep the system flushed. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Another Sausage, Sauerkraut
and Potato Recipe
but with Apples!
(via Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining)

Ingredients

• 5-6 bratwurst links, cut into 1" pieces (I'm always leery of bratwurst; my father referred to it as "gray meat." We went with a package of Johnsonville "Irish O'Garlic" sausages.)
• 5 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed (we just scrubbed them and cubed them. I generally refuse to peel a potato)
• 27 ounce can sauerkraut, rinsed and drained (we used a 24 ounce jar, just to be difficult)
• 1 medium tart apple, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (HAHAHAHAHAHA, no. You've already got kraut and a pack of sausages in there. If there's one thing this recipe does NOT need, it's more salt. 
• 1 teaspoon Old World Central Street Seasoning from Spice House (yeah yeah, it's got salt, but a ton of other good things in there!)

Directions

1. Brown bratwurst/sausages on all sides in skillet (did they mean all sides of the sausage, or brown the sausage on all sides of the skillet? I tried browning the sausages on the outside of the skillet and it made a hell of a mess)
2. Combine remaining ingredients in slow cooker. Stir in bratwurst/sausage and pan drippings (Pan drippings? Seriously. They mean grease. You cook half a dozen processed meat tubes in a pan and you get grease. Pan drippings sounds like a Satyr with venereal disease)
3. Cover. Cook on high 4-6 hours, or until potatoes and apples are tender. (It took us about 5 hours)

BONUS! Click HERE to see the video replay of the live stream we did of cooking this recipe!

Good Times!

Pumpkin Pie Pudding

     I'm sure if you checked your cabinets right now, you would find a can of pumpkin lurking about. Go ahead and check. I'll wait.

     You found one, didn't you? If not, you just didn't look hard enough. I assure you, it's in there. The point of this exercise is to find that can and be rid of it in the simplest way possible that doesn't involve just throwing it in the trash. With a couple more ingredients, you can chuck it all in the slow cooker and have pumpkin pie pudding! All right, it's not really that exciting, but it does taste exactly like the filling of a pumpkin pie. This shouldn't be a shocker because if you check the ingredients, that's basically what you have thrown in the slow cooker. Stop complaining and cover it with whipped cream. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Pumpkin Pie Pudding
via Fix It and Forget It Lightly

Ingredients

• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 12-ounce can evaporated skim milk (just used regular evaporated milk. I can't stand skim)
• 3/4 cup Splenda (calories or tumors...hmm. I went with 3/4 cup granulated sugar instead)
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk baking mix (didn't have the low-fat variety. Just used regular buttermilk mix)
• 2 eggs, beaten or 6 egg whites (I don't feel like storing a half dozen egg yolks and I'm certainly just not going to shitcan them. I went with the 2 egg option)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest (I was feeling lazy and didn't want to zest a lemon that I actually had on hand. I used dried lemon peel from a jar instead)

Directions

1. Spray slow-cooker with non-stick cooking spray (this inside)
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Stir until lumps disappear.
3. Cover. Cook on LOW 3 hours.
4. Serve warm or cold.

Good times!

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken

     It's always a good thing when a recipe has versatility. When I'm slow-cooking, I'm generally cooking for the week. I want to make something that can be repurposed into a few different meals. This chicken dish from Fix-It and Forget It Lightly has that flexibility. On its face, you could just eat this as is. You could throw it over some rice. The first time we had it, we used it to fill tacos. The next night I baked a couple potatoes and used just the veggies along with cheese and sour cream to top them. This will certainly enter regular rotation in the slow cooker. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken 
via Fix-It and Forget It Lightly

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4" wide strips (Look, we all know the chicken is just going to fall apart from the slow cooking. We threw the chicken breasts in whole)
• 2 tablespoons dry taco seasoning mix (really? I'm going to rip open an envelope of taco seasoning and then just use part of it? Screw that. We used the whole envelope)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 green pepper, cut into strips (you should know by now that the wife doesn't really like green peppers. We used a yellow pepper)
• 1 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1-1/2 cups chunky salsa (I used my own proprietary recipe that I would be glad to sell you for an unreasonable price)
• 1 cup nonfat Mexican-Style cheese, shredded (Didn't have nonfat. You'll get over it)

Directions

1. Toss chicken with seasoning and flour in slow cooker.
2. Gently stir in vegetables and salsa.
3. Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours, or on HIGH 2-3 hours, until chicken and vegetables are cooked through but are not dry or mushy. 
4. Stir before serving.
5. Serve topped with cheese.

Good times!

Beef Barley Lentil Soup

     As I've mentioned before, The Wife loves her soup. It doesn't really matter what time of year or what the weather. She will almost never say no to a bowl of soup. I'm pretty sure it's due to some previous psychological trauma, but there's not much to be done for it now but give her soup. I'd hate to be responsible for causing a psychotic break. Anyway, she found this recipe in one of our cookbooks and made it herself. If was a good, hearty soup with a nice savory flavor. Next time I would use diced tomatoes instead of stewed. I'm not a big fan of enormous wads of tomato floating in my soup. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Beef Barley Lentil Soup
via Fix It and Forget It Lightly

Ingredients

• 1 lb extra-lean ground beef (we openly mock this ingredient and use 73/27 ground beef. Bring on the grease!)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups potatoes, cubed
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• 1/2 cup medium-sized pearl barley

  

  Pearl barley, not Bailey. Totally different. Make sure you add the right one.

• 8 cups water
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules (that's a lot of sodium. We used a single bouillon cube)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omitted. There's already enough sodium from the bouillon and canned tomatoes)
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning (we ended up using a full teaspoon. The Wife likes lemon pepper)
• 2-14 ounce cans stewed tomatoes, undrained

Directions

1. Brown ground beef with onions in a nonstick skillet, drain. 
2. Combine all ingredients except tomatoes in slow cooker.
3. Cook on LOW for 6 hours, or until lentils and barley are tender.
4. Add tomatoes. Cook on LOW for 1-2 more hours.

Good times!

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Potato Soup

     With winter around the corner, the slow cookers are seeing regular use. One of our standards is a soup for the week, the heartier, the better. We found this recipe in a cookbook we keep forgetting we own: Fix It and Forget It Lightly. This book is a treasure trove of healthier options for the slow cooker. We went with the Cream Cheese Potato Soup. It is a rich and satisfying soup, and with the substitution of neufchatel for cream cheese, fairly low in fat. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Potato Soup
via Fix It and Forget It Lightly

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup ham, diced
• 5 medium-sized potatoes, diced fine
• 8 ounce package fat free cream cheese, cubed (as always, we used Neufchatel)
• Half an onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dill weed
• 1 tablespoon Old Taylor Street Cheese Sprinkle from The Spice House

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker
2. Cover. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are as soft as you like them.
3. Turn to low until ready to serve (We turned ours to warm. YEAH! WHAT NOW?)

Good times!