Lazy Girl Chile Verde Pork Stew

This is variation of one of my all time favorite ways to cook pork, Chile Verde.  However, the recipe I have always used calls for tomatoes, which are RED, and not VERDE (green) at all, so it has always bugged me a bit that the end result was a reddish dish.  In this recipe, I have substituted the tomatoes with canned tomatillos instead.

As I was making this, my hubby walked in and said "aren't you going to brown that pork?". To which I answered,"No, I am not" feeling a bit grumpy at being challenged about being a accomplished lazy girl. Now, honestly people, I do realize that browning adds carmalization and therefore, more flavor.  BUT, in this case, there is SO much more flavor ingredients in this dish, you honestly should save yourself some time (and a greasy stove top) by skipping the browning and throwing it altogether in your crock pot.  Set it, forget it, do something awesome with your day and come back to a great dinner.

Serves 5-6 
Ingredients

3lb pork, large, cut into large chunks
1 large can (14 oz) whole tomatillos, with juice
1/2 onion, diced small
1 small yellow bell pepper, diced small
2 jalapenos, diced small
1 small can (4 oz) diced ortega green chilies
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped small (about 1/2 bunch)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tbsp cumin
1 tsp oregano

Topping:

• green onions
• cojita cheese or feta cheese (optional)

Add all the ingredients to the crock pot, and cook for 8 hours on low.  Serve with green onions and cheese, as desired.

Below is a picture of the crock before I cooked it. I didn't brown the pork, as I guess, I am a lazy girl. LOL.  You can definitely brown it before starting your crockpot, and it just might be even better.  Me?  I can't decide if this stew is actually better for having browned the pork first.

Puerto Rican Red Beans

Big and bold flavors and combination of beans, bacon, spices and potatoes.  
A different way to enjoy beans without the regular sweetness.  These would be great as a side dish for smoked pulled pork, grilled meats, or even as a main dish!
   

Serves 10-12 (freezes well)
Ingredients

1 cup chopped bacon, thick cut, if possible
1 Bay leaf

1 Bell pepper, medium, chopped

1/4 cup Cilantro, Fresh

2 tsp Garlic, chopped

1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 Onion, medium, chopped

1 Potatoes, large "waxy", chopped in large cubes

6 cups Broth, or water

4 Tbsp Tomato paste

1/4-1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tsp Paprika, smoked

1 tsp Cumin

3 cups dried small red beans or 15oz. cans rinse and drained
3 Tbsp of mild hot sauce, like Green tabasco or Frank's Red Hot

Chop all the veggies and all ingredients to a crockpot. Give it a stir to combine well.  Cook at 8-10 hours on Low for dried beans until they are tender.  Or, about 3-4 hours with canned beans (until potato is tender).  Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Lazy Girl Pot Roast with Easy Molé Sauce

Yummy tender pot roast with a terrific but easy molé sauce.
Molé sauces are known for their complex flavors, each one adding some nuance to the sauce.  Chocolate, fruit, spices, nuts- every cook has her version.  This one was an easy one that I came up with one day when I had a pot roast I wanted to make on a chilly day.
 
This is perfect for tacos, burritos, over rice, over polenta, as filling in tamales.... how do you want to eat it?

Servings: 10 to 12

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Mexican Style Chili Powder

2 tsp Dried Oregano

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Cumin

2 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce), minced

2 1/2 – 3 lb Beef Pot Roast, visible fat trimmed

1 Medium Onion, chopped

1 - 28oz can diced Tomatoes With  Juice

3 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

8– 10 cloves  Garlic, peeled

6 dates, or 1/4 cup raisins (optional)
3 Tbsp peanut butter


Cook on low for 6-8 hours. The meat should be very tender and will shred easily.
Carefully remove the meat from the crockpot and put on a platter.  Add the liquids to a blender and let it settle a bit.  Skim off as much of the fat showing on top as possible.  Blend the remaining liquid into a great sauce.  You will have more sauce than you might need, but this would be great on top of enchiladas, or other grilled meat.

Serve the meat with extra sauce on the side, or shred the meat and mix the sauce with it.

With the meat, I removed whatever fatty bits I could see and then "chunked" or shredded the rest of the meat.  You could also slice it, or serve it whole, serving at the table.

Black Bean and Hot Link Soup

 

Today we took our usual Saturday long walk, but it was SO cold out we needed to warm up when we came home.  Since I still had a lot of hot links in the freezer due to the last Costco run, I decided to make a black bean and hot link soup.  This one is hearty, spicy, somewhat healthy and will warm you up.  
 
This soup started from a very spicy vegetable stock that I made last week (don't worry you can use canned stock).  Often times I will simmer lots of veggies trimmings and make stock, this day I added the cores of the jalapenos... so essentially the seeds.  After about 10 minutes of simmering, I tasted the stock and almost blew the top of my head off!  Immediately, I fished the two jalapeno "cores" out of the stock, hoping it would not get any hotter.  I was left with stock that I couldn't use for my mushroom soup, so I put it in the fridge to consider what to make. It was perfect for this one, so I didn't add the jalapeno that I included below.


You could serve this with a little creme fraiche (or sour cream) and some cornbread on the side!  I have two favorite cornbread recipes, Sweet & Spicy Cornbread or Good Ole Basic Cornbread. I love to make a batch of soup on the weekends and save some for the week's lunches.

This soup was finished in just about 35 minutes, but would be good to do in a crockpot and simmer on low for the day.
 

Makes about 8-10 cups
Ingredients

1 cup onions, diced small
1 cup celery, diced small
1/2 cup carrots, diced or sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, minced (optional) 
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cans black beans, drained (2 are shown, but I did use 3)
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 hot links, sliced and diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
4 cups beef, or vegetable stock 
Salt & Pepper, as needed 

Saute the onions, celery, carrots and garlic in the olive oil for about 3-4 minutes over medium high heat.  Add the black beans, tomatoes, spices, hot link and beef stock.  Simmer over medium heat for 25-30 minutes.  If you want some thickness to the soup, smash some of the beans with a tomato masher.

Serve and enjoy!

Here it is just before I added the stock and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
 

 

Savory Moroccan Pot Roast with Olives and Preserved Lemons

Lemony, salty, briney- yummy exotic flavors with all the comfort of Mom's pot roast.
Okay, maybe someone's Moroccan Mama.
I decided to call this "savory" Moroccoan because most Moroccan dishes have an element of sweetness, but not this one.  I've done a very different Moroccan Pot Roast before in 2011.  It's one of our family favorites, however it has different flavors for sure.

You can buy Preserved Lemons, or make them with my recipe here.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

1 pot roast (2-3 lbs)
Olive oil
salt and pepper

1 small onion, diced
1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp grated ginger
3/4 cup water or broth
1-2 quarters of preserved lemon
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
2-3 garlic cloves
2-3 Tbsp olive brine (optional)

1/2 cup of olives, sliced of quartered
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper a pot roast, cutting some slits into the roast and pushing the garlic into them.  In a large dutch oven over medium high heat, sear the roast getting some brown crust on each side.  Put on a plate and reserve for later.

In the same pan,  saute the onions until starting to soften and brown.  Add in the turmeric, ginger, minced preserved lemons, broth (or water) and the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, add the meat back to the pan.  Cover and remove from the stove top. 

Bake at 350 for 2-3 hours.   The pot roast is done when it's very tender and slices, or shreds easily.   Taste the sauce, adjusting for more salt and pepper, if needed.  Add the cilantro and the olives.  Serve over cous cous.

Here's the sauce simmering

Seared pot roast

Here it is ready to go

The finished dish, served on a bed of pearl couscous

Lazy Girl Crockpot Lemon Artichoke Chicken

Really too hot to cook.
It is super easy to be lazy when it's like this, don't you think?
Why not prep this one the night before and put it to cook before you head to work?

I love my crock pot, no matter the season.
It makes just as much sense in the summer as it does the fall and winter.

This mixture is bold & lemony, very tender and pretty low calorie and carb too.
If you don't really love, love lemon, then I'd only use 1-2 lemons instead of 3. 

One more thing, I was so hot and lazy the day I got this ready to go, I didn't even brown the chicken as so many recipes say you should.  I just didn't feel like it, and frankly, I'm not sure it made that much difference.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

1 onions,diced
2-3 lemons, each cut into three thick slices (hard ends removed)
1 can whole artichokes, mostly drained of the brine
2-3 garlic, crushed and chopped
2-3 Tbsp capers
1/2 cup white wine (something like pinot grigio, or sauv blanc)
3 chicken boneless skinless breasts, cut into three chunks each
4 thighs, boneless &skinless, cut in half
Fresh Pepper (don't add salt, add at the end if needed)
Fresh parsley, for serving

Add onions and garlic to the bottom of a crock pot that has been sprayed with oil.  

Add cut up pieces of chicken, then slices of lemon, artichoke hearts (with about 1/4 cup of brine), white wine and fresh pepper.  

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the lemon slices and add the fresh parsley.  Stir carefully as the chicken is very, very tender and will shred a little. Serve over noodles, rice or quinoa.

Here's what I was making on this date over the years:

2 years ago:  Shrimp and Cream Cheese Omelette

4 years ago:  Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs 

Other Lazy Girl Crockpot Posts:
Chicken with Coconut, Lime & Peanut Sauce
Chicken Cacciatore
French Onion Pot Roast with Cheesy Toasts
Greek Pork and Garbanzo Stew
Hot Links, Red Beans and Rice
Salsa Chicken
Sesame Chicken
40 Clove Garlic Chicken
Black Bean Chili
Mamacita's Mexican Chicken and Dumplings
Tuscan Pot Roast
Lazy Girl Beef Barley Soup

French Onion Pot Roast with Cheesy Toasts

We love French Onion soup.
We love pot roast.
So... why not do them together?
Oh,  I know just about everyone has used a packet of instant french onion soup mix at some time in their life to liven something up, but REAL french onion soup is so different and way more delicious, especially with pot roast. Think of it like a "de-constructed" french onion soup with loads of tender beef, and accented with cheesy bread that's not soggy. 

The sweet smell of cooking onions is a fantastic way to enjoy the coming dinner, however, if you don't want that permeating your entire house, I've heard of people doing it outside on their deck, though you better make sure it's under cover, just in case it rains.

One note, about the whole garlic, I did that in order to be able to easily remove it at the end, as I wanted a sweet onion flavor, and not a ton of garlic.  You could even omit the garlic, or if you love it, go ahead and slice it up and leave it in.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

2-3 lb pot roast, trimmed of excess fat
salt and pepper
olive oil

5-6 onions, sliced
3-4 springs fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves, whole
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine (it's sweeter and more tangy than red)
salt and pepper

8-12 slices of firm french bread
Some butter
White cheese- Gruyere, Jarlsberg, Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack or Parmesan
Chives, optional 

Spray a crock pot with some olive oil.  Slice onions and add to the crock pot.  Add whole garlic and fresh thyme.

Salt & pepper the outside of the pot roast, and sear in a hot pan over medium high heat until it's browned on both sides.  Add to the crock pot.  Add chicken stock and white wine, and about a teaspoon of salt.  Cook on High for 6-7 hours, until the onions are softened and the beef is very tender. Add additional salt and pepper, if needed.

After 7 hours, mine looked like this.  I removed the garlic, and the thyme stems, and carefully broke the meat into pieces.

To make the cheesy toasts, spread butter lightly on the bread, toast under the broiler for 1-2 minutes until lightly browned.  Add cheese, and chives, and toast again until they are bubbly.  Serve at once.

Lazy Girl Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

I'd never made chicken cacciatore before, but somehow it was just calling to me to try.
I had people coming for dinner, so why not?
I love a good red sauce with veggies and meat, so chicken and mushrooms seemed like the thing to do. I love an easy, hearty dinner that pleases a crowd.  Here's the one.

I used huge sliced portabello mushrooms which were a very meaty choice, and I later considered you could even make a vegetarian cacciatore with more veggies if you used all portabellos instead of chicken.  Just an idea.

My photo isn't too great above, but I had a dining room full of people, and a glass of wine in my hand when I took this.  I think that shadow is my big head. 
Salute!

(I show whole tomatoes and a larger can of tomato sauce, 

but do use crushed tomatoes and a smaller can of sauce or you may have too much sauce.)

Serves 6
Ingredients

12 chicken thighs,bone-in with skin on

16 oz. sliced mushrooms, crimini or button

1 onion, sliced 

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

2 small carrots, peeled and sliced

5 garlic cloves, crushed and minced

1 cup red or white wine

1 14 oz canned tomato sauce

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 Tbsp pesto, or 1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
Fresh Italian parsley

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Season chicken with salt, pepper and sprinkled oregano. 

Heat a heavy cast iron skillet, drizzled with olive oil.

Place chicken skin side down and do not move it until it reaches a deep golden brown and it's easy to turn, brown other side for a few minutes. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, carrots, garlic, salt and pepper to taste, saute for 5 minutes until they start to soften.  Add to the crockpot.

Add wine and crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Toss in 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and pesto or dried basil.

Place the chicken on top and add any of the juices.

Cover and cook for 4-5 on High, or 8 hours on low.

Garnish with fresh parsley.

Serve with pasta, polenta or warm crusty bread.

 

Lazy Girl Crockpot All Beef Chili

My second Lazy Girl post this month.
It says volumes, doesn't it?
We're all so busy, weather's sucky and we want comfort food.
Here's another one that's very easy, comforting and delicious.
A side benefit?  No beans while you are cooped up inside with your nearest and dearest...

This one is great on its own, over rice, or on a sandwhich.  Hearty, spicy and yummy.

I bought the beef sirlion tip steaks at QFC (Kroger) at a "Buy one, get one" which makes it pretty economical as I paid about $9 for over 3 lbs of lean beef.  Here's what I used in the photo below, but any kind of beef would probably work.

Serves about 8
Ingredients

1-2 Tbsp oil
3 lb Beef Top Sirlion Tip steak
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp Smoked paprika
1 teaspoon granulated garlic, or fresh chopped
3 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp Masa corn flour, mixed with 1 Tbsp water (optional)
Salt & Pepper

Salt and pepper the tip steaks on both side.  Cook for 1-2 minutes on both sides in a hot pan with a tablespoon or two of oil.  Remove and allow to cool, then cut into chunks and add to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients (except the Masa flour mixture, and save the salt and pepper for the end).

(this photo is from my Lazy Girl Beef Barley Soup, but the technique is the same)

Cook on Low for 7-8 hours. 
Add the Masa corn flour/water mixture and stir into the chili.  Also to cook for another 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until it thickens a bit.

Here's what it looks like before cooking:

Other Lazy Girl Crockpot Posts:
Chicken with Coconut, Lime & Peanut Sauce
Greek Pork and Garbanzo Stew
Hot Links, Red Beans and Rice
Salsa Chicken
Sesame Chicken
40 Clove Garlic Chicken
Black Bean Chili
Mamacita's Mexican Chicken and Dumplings
Tuscan Pot Roast
Lazy Girl Beef Barley Soup