Wendy's Chili

 Ingredients:

2 pounds fresh ground beef 
1 quart tomato juice 
1 (29-ounce) can tomato purée 
1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained 
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained 
1 medium-large onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups) 
1/2 cup diced celery 
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper 
1/4 cup chili powder (use less for milder chili) 
1 teaspoon ground cumin (use more for real flavor) 
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 
1 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 
1/2 teaspoon sugar 
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
(P.S. I would substitute ground turkey for the ground beef) ... 

 Instructions: 

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. 
Drain off the fat. 
Put the beef and the remaining ingredients in a 6-quart pot. 
Cover the pot and let the chili simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. 
You can also cook this in a slow cooker on low for 3 to 4 hours. 

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Zuppa Toscana

Ingredients:

1 lb. Italian sausages (use spicy to get that signature Olive Garden flavor)
4-6 russet potatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped 
1/4 c. REAL bacon pieces (optional) 
2 Tbsp minced garlic (about 3-4 cloves) 
32 oz. chicken broth 
1 c. kale or Swiss chard, chopped 
1 c. heavy whipping cream 
2 Tbsp flour

Directions:

1. Brown sausage links in a sauté pan. 
2. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut slices. 
3. Place sausage, chicken broth, garlic, potatoes and onion in slow cooker. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables and meat. 
4. Cook on high 3-4 hours (low 5-6 hours) until potatoes are soft. 30 minutes before serving: 
5. Mix flour into cream removing lumps. 
6. Add cream and kale to the crock pot, stir. 
7. Cook on high 30 minutes or until broth thickens slightly. 
8. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

3 Envelope Roast

Ingredients:

3 pound beef roast such as chuck roast 
1 envelope of dry Italian salad dressing mix 
1 envelope of dry ranch salad dressing mix 
1 envelope of dry brown gravy mix 
2 cups water 

Instructions :

Put the water in a measuring cup that is larger then the amount of water you are using. 
Now add and mix all three envelopes to the water. 
Mix until blended completely. 
Brown the roast (if desired). 
Add the meat to your cooker. 
Pour the water, salad dressing mixture over the roast. 
In the slow cooker cook it on high for about 4 hours on low about 8 hours.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Ingredients:

Potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt/pepper
seasonings (choice in shaker)
grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

boil some baby potatoes (I used red) until fork tender. 
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
Drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet, set potatoes on sheet 
use a potato masher, gently smash each potato down, rotating masher both ways (so it looks like a thick cookie). 
Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt/pepper and sprinkle cut fresh herbs and garlic over each. top with some lovely grated Parmesan cheese. 
Bake for 20 minutes. 
bake till crispy on the outside, soft in the middle,

try Rosemary, Thyme, or Italian spices for seasoning. 

Shirley's hearty Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

1/2 lb sliced bacon
1 cup chopped celery (small chop)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups diced peeled pototoes
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dill weed
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can cream-style corn
1 can evaporated milk
6 oz smoked sausage link cut into 1/4 inch slices (omit bacon & sausage for vegetarian)
if vegetarian, vegetable oil.

Directions:

In a large saucepan cook the bacon until crisp.
Remove to paper towels, crumble and set aside
Drain all but 2 tbsp of the drippings.  use vegetable oil if vegetarian prep
Saute celery & onion in drippings until onion is light brown
add potatoes and water
cover and cook over medium heat for 10 min
Stir in Corn, milk, sausage, dill and bacon.
cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 min.

serves 4-6

yet another pot roast recipe / article

copied from yahoo recipe page

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/ultimate-slow-cooker-pot-roast-184500766.html

Adapted slightly from House & Garden magazine (January, 1963) via Epicurious

Serves 6 to 8

1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 pounds rump of beef (or other roast suitable for slow-cooking, such as chuck)
2 to 3 tablespoons fat or oil
2 onions, sliced, or 10 to 12 small onions, peeled
1 to 2 carrots, scraped and cubed
Herbs and seasonings, as desired (we used bay leaf and thyme)
1 cup liquid (wine, bouillon, tomatoes, vegetable broth, etc.)
Other vegetables, as desired (we used baby red potatoes) 

1. Season the flour with the salt and pepper and pound the mixture into the meat with the edge of a plate.

 2. Brown meat on all sides in the hot fat or oil. Add the onions, cover and cook over low heat 10 minutes. Add the carrots, herbs, seasonings and liquid. Cover tightly and simmer 3 1/2 - 5 hours, until meat is fork tender. Add desired vegetables during the last 20 or 30 minutes.

 3. Slow-cooker variation: After browning the meat, transfer to a slow cooker. Pour off excess fat from the pan. Saute onions in the same pan until softened slightly, then add to the slow-cooker. Pour liquid into the pan, scraping up the browned bits. Pour liquid and loosened bits into the slow-cooker, and add carrots and herbs. Cook on low 8 hours or more, adding desired vegetables during the last 20 or 30 minutes. 

Every week, Food52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore unearths recipes that are nothing short of genius.

Today: A feel-good pot roast made in the slow cooker.

 Last month, I got an email from my mom titled "Thinking of you" -- it was a picture of the inside of her slow-cooker. 

"There's a lovely pot roast under there perfectly seared like a giant chicken fried steak," she wrote.

She must have been remembering my pot roast phase, or protracted slump, after I graduated from college. I'd just started a job I hated (analyzing car lease portfolios, if you must know) and I was weathering a breakup badly. The only thing I liked doing was planning what I would cook for dinner.

 But I wasn't in possession of anything as nice as a Crock-Pot, and certainly there was no Le Creuset braiser on the shelf next to my roommate's George Foreman Grill. My specialty was zucchini tacos with blue cheese. 

So what I longed for was pot roast -- in a loud, primal aching for comfort food -- and it's what I asked for when I went home to the people who could feed me better.

I suspect that my mom turns to pot roast for the same reasons, and maybe we all do. When life isn't great, pot roast is there, and it doesn't ask for much.

 All you need is an unruly hunk of beef, stacked in a pot with vegetables (pot roast begs you not to chop them evenly, or at all), and some liquid -- water, wine, stock, whatever. 

It bubbles along for a few hours, fills the house with happy smells, and at the end you get a pot full of meat that melts and falls to pieces, vegetables that have replaced their water content with meat content, and gravy. It makes its own gravy! The only thing it doesn't do is rub your back.

More: How You're Not Using the Best Part of a Sunday Roast

 

The recipe my mom uses follows this pared-down formula (plus four variations -- I have not included the one that calls for canned fruit syrup), but adds one more cathartic step: you beat flour, salt, and pepper into the meat with the side of a plate. I'm not sure why. It seems to create a thicker crust (adding to that crisp chicken fried steak factor), and a more lustrous gravy in the end. 

The recipe comes from an extraordinary woman named , a wartime journalist for CBS who found herself jobless after the war and had to turn to writing cookbooks.

The recipe comes from an extraordinary woman named Betty Wason, a wartime journalist for CBS who found herself jobless after the war and had to turn to writing cookbooks.

 My mom has adapted Wason's recipe for the slow-cooker -- something that Betty Wason didn't have in 1963 when her recipe was published in House & Garden magazine, but surely would have approved. By removing it from the realm of the stove and oven, you're that much freer to have pot roast at any time of year, whenever you need it. 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

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Ingredients 
2 Tablespoons Butter 
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast (or 6 skinless chicken thighs) 
1 Onion, finely diced 
2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup 
2 small packages Grands Jr biscuits (10 biscuits) 
flour 

Directions 
1. Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a greased slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover. 
2. Secure lid and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. 

About 30 minutes before serving, roll each torn biscuit piece in flour (to prevent them from sticking together), then drop into the slow cooker. 
Replace lid and cook remaining 30 minutes