crockpot

Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Beef

Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Bee
Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Bee

Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Beef

Once upon a time, I went to a St. Patrick’s Day Feast at a friend’s house, and was scouring the internet for the perfect not-corned-beef-dinner item to contribute. This was my find…and has been a staple throughout the cooler months in my home. My daughter calls this the “beer beef,” but it isn’t just any beer, and it isn’t just any crock pot meal.

While I am not a Guinness drinker, simply because I am not a big drinker, I always have Guinness on hand specifically for this recipe (and another Guinness Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that is death by beer and chocolate).

So simple; brown your roast, place in a crock pot with onion, beef stock, spices, and pop open that can. I actually had to research the widget inside the can, which was awesome and I felt smarter and more worldly just by learning that this beer has a specific gadget to make the pour better and give the perfect amount of head to the glass.

I let this recipe cook low and slow, as in, “hey, we are snowed in all day and most likely tomorrow, I will make this recipe.” Because, nothing smells as amazing as a crock pot that you don’t have to mess with. Put the lid on and leave it alone for several hours (I go 6-8 on low depending on the size of the roast).

When you remove the top of your crock pot, the smell of beef and onion and the kick of alcohol makes you really thankful you aren’t a vegetarian anymore, sorry not sorry.

The roast falls apart, and the extra au jus can be simmered down, or served as is.

I serve this with a lot of vegetables and mashed potatoes, or fresh homemade bread, and it is amazing.

Simple, delicious, and hearty. You need to make this recipe whether it is Saint Patrick’s Day or not, and you won’t be sorry you did.

May the road rise up to meet you and may your table always be full.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

Click below for printable recipe.

 

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Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Beef

Guinness Slow Cooker Roast Bee
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  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 Tablespoon Oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Butter
  • 3 Pound Boneless Chuck Roast
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 2 Teaspoons Black Pepper
  • ½ Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Teaspoon Chili Powder
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 Can Guinness
  • 1 24 Ounce Container of Beef Stock
  • 2 Onions, root end removed and sliced in half

Instructions

  1. In a pan, heat oil and butter together.
  2. Brown roast on all sides.
  3. Move Roast into crock pot.
  4. Place onions cut side down into pan with remainder of butter, oil, and beef drippings from browning.
  5. Sear onions quickly and add to the crockpot as well.
  6. Sprinkle spices and bay leaf on top of roast.
  7. Add Guinness and Beef stock on top of roast until ¾ full, reserve remaining beef stock.
  8. Set crock pot on low for 6-8 hours, or until fork tender.

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Chicken Sweet Potato Wild Rice Soup

Chicken Sweet Potato Wild Rice Soup

My name is Chrissy, and I am a soup lover. There, I said it. There is nothing more comforting to me than a bowl of soup, with maybe a side salad, and warm, fresh bread. Throw a pat of butter into the mix and I am one spectacularly happy woman.

Now, I know soup is not everyone’s thing. Especially my son. Who wonders why his mother turns everything into soup.

Organic Wild Rice

But when you purchase a beautiful organic container of wild rice, and butternut squash is in full season at the farmer’s market, you marry the two with some chicken and fresh vegetable and call it a crock pot soup kinda day.

This recipe does require a little prep work, but then you are putting all of the ingredients into the crock pot and walking away, so over all the work is not overwhelming. I am also not a fan of touching raw meat, so the cutting up of the chicken is minimal.

Wild Rice Chicken Butternut Squash Soup

This recipe embodies all that is wonderful about fall. The chunks of squash retain their shape and yet are soft to the tooth. The chicken pieces fall apart and are so tender. Wild rice adds a unique flavor and color- and bonus, absorbs the moisture of the broth the longer you let it sit.

I warmed this soup up a few days later and it was almost risotto like in consistency, which was a pretty amazing happy little accident. You can always add additional broth to the soup if that happens and it is not up to your tastes. As for me, I added shaved parmesan cheese to the reheated soup and spooned my way to bliss.

Wild Rice Chicken Butternut Squash Soup.

I kept the spices for this soup basic, but you really could add sage or any other poultry seasoning to this soup. I used salt and pepper and left it at that.

Put all of the ingredients on low and cook for 6-8 hours, when the chicken, squash, and rice is cooked through. This soup is simple and lovely. I am even thinking it would work with left over turkey and shorten the cooking time.

In a season of gratitude, and typically abundance of food, simple is sometimes the best way.

Reheated soup has a thicker consistency!

I know on a Thursday (Friday Junior) or Friday night, a simple meal can mean we don’t do fast food or take out food. So healthy and easy can be a huge win. I wish for you healthy and simple and easy at least one night for supper this week!

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!
Chrissy

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Chicken Sweet Potato Wild Rice Soup

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Delicious chicken and wild rice soup with chunks of delicious butternut squash.

  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 Lb Chicken Breast, cubed into 1” cubes
  • 1/2 Onion (I used sweet white) chopped
  • 3 Cups Butternut Squash Cubed
  • 1 Stalk Celery Chopped
  • 1 Cup Chopped Carrots
  • 64 Ounces Chicken Stock
  • 1 1/2 Cup Wild Rice Blend
  • 1 Teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Pepper

Instructions

  1. Chop all vegetables, and cube chicken.
  2. Place chicken, vegetables, and chicken stock into crock pot.
  3. Add wild rice.
  4. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 Hours.

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The Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup That Never Made it to Cookbook Club

Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup

In the last month, I have listened to Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness four times. Yes, four. I will also be checking it out of the local library or purchasing the actual book, because I love it that much. It all started with The Gift of Imperfection, another book I have listened to several times. I’m slightly obsessed. Did I mention that I just bought the Power of Vulnerability by her as well?

I am a reader, and like my music playlist I can’t really say I am a one genre gal. I mix it up, all the time. That said, I love a non-fiction book that combines down to earth advice, from an authentic person, and where I learn that no matter how imperfect I may be or perceive myself to be, I am still lovable. I am still grounded. I am still Chrissy. Make me laugh while I am reading it? Even better.

Because, I am extremely imperfect. This isn’t horrible life sentence, but it isn’t my ideal either.

I have this awesome quote, I am not sure who the author is, but for a while, it was on every surface I could post it:

“You will be too much for some people. Those aren’t your people.”

If you have ever felt like your personality and your ideas were bigger than your body, then you get me. I have so much that extends beyond who I am as a person. This could probably be a diagnosis in the works…but I have been living this way for a really long time. So, I understand who I am, and who I need to be. I’m also too old at this point to pretend to be somebody else.

So who I am? I am perfectly imperfect. Hey, I read once that in Japan the cracks in precious pottery are filled with gold. The imperfections are highlighted and make the piece more valuable. Sign me up for the gold fillings.

I consider myself incredibly blessed to be able to surround myself with an amazing group of people. This is monumental. I love my quiet, but I need human contact. The laugh-out-loud, share your stories, build each other up kind. Give me authentic. Give me people to laugh and cry with. Those are my people. In this circle there are my family people, my life time friend people, my sports mom people, my work people, my book club people, and my newly found library cookbook club people.

What is a library cook book club? Exactly what it sounds like. Last year my friend (who is the librarian who coordinates this club in addition to other countless great programs) invited me in October. I had already committed to another leadership committee that met monthly on the same night. So every month I would think about this club with a forlorn feeling. Finally, in June, on the last meeting of the academic year…I got to go.

Oh the joy of collaborating with a group of people you don’t know other than that they love to cook. All age groups, all different careers, coming around a table with food to share. We pick a theme or a book, select a recipe, and bring it to a potluck at the library. I get to bring food into the library. Now haters who don’t get this…realize I am a Language Arts Consultant. I teach reading. I will be heard telling students that books are treasures. So, bringing food into the library is like that childhood dream I had of getting locked into the mall overnight and being able to have free reign.

Back to book club: We discuss how we changed the recipe; we talk about the flavors. We are there until the other librarian comes back to kick us out. It is A-MA-ZING. and I get to go.

Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup

This month the pick was from 365 Slow Cooker Suppers by Stephanie O’Dea. Now, if you are like me, when you present your food at any event, you want it to be stellar. Especially if it is at a cookbook club. Specifically if you have a food blog.

So, imagine my total dismay when even though I got up early to prep, and make this recipe, and leave it on low for the time it would take to cook in time for me to add the noodles and go to cookbook club…I get home and realize I NEVER PLUGGED THE CROCKPOT IN. Turned it on, but never. plugged. it. in.

Total shame. If imperfection had a sound track. Man, I would be lead singer.

I sent an emergency ALL CAPS TEXT to the coordinator.  CROCKPOT WASN’T PLUGGED IN!

Her response? “That happens, come anyway.”

Emergency run to the grocery store to buy baked goods that someone else made so I could at least show up with dessert. Even though I blog about desserts, all the time.

That being said, and all shame aside…the cookbook club was ever so gracious. They accepted that I was imperfect and welcomed me to their table and ate my store bought babka. I was humbled but I was blessed. Sometimes, we just fall short. We fall short and we make amends and life goes on.

This soup, which ended up being more of a noodle dish because I added so many more noodles, was delicious. Peanut chicken, with red peppers, and a little spice, and rice noodles that absorb the broth the longer you cook it.

So easy, so quick to prepare. Most of the ingredients I already had in my pantry, I didn’t find bean sprouts, so I left them out of mine. The hardest part of the recipe is cubing the chicken and slicing the red peppers. Everything else is thrown into a crock pot and left to cook. At the final twenty minutes I put in my rice noodles, and dinner was done.

My children and I ate this dish the next day. The day after cookbook club. And, it was pretty perfect. If I can dare to say it. (I am laughing as I write this).

Next month we all will bring our favorite cookies to the cookbook club table, and boy is that a hard decision (I am a girl with a serious cookie love list). I can guarantee this, I won’t disappoint. Those cookies will be stellar, and I will blog about them as well. But for today, I will rest in the fact that this soup is good the day after you are supposed to share it, and cookbook club people are very kind. In fact, if you look for kindness, you will find it almost anywhere. I may not be perfect, but I can be kind.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

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The Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup That Never Made it to Cookbook Club

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This delicious take on peanut chicken makes an easy and hearty crock pot meal! From 365 Slow Cooker Suppers by Stephanie O’Dea (Page 52)

  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thinly
  • 1 Cup bean sprouts
  • 3 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 (2 inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 Cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 Cup smooth, all natural peanut butter (I upped my amount of peanut butter to 1 Cup)
  • 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 Teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 6 ounce package of rice noodles, rinsed. (I used a larger package of noodles)

Instructions

  1. Use a six quart slow cooker. Place chicken, tomatoes, bell pepper, bean sprouts, green onions, ginger and garlic into insert. Stir in broth, peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce, and oil. The peanut butter will still be clumpy-don’t worry about it. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Stir well and drop in the rice noodles. Cover and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes. Until noodles are bite tender. Serve in large bowls with chopped peanuts, cilantro, lime, if desired.

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White Chicken Polka-Dot Chili

White Chicken Polka Dot Chili

Some days you want the same consistent thing.

And, some days, you want more.

That is life; and that is how I am with my white chicken chili. The chunk haters, the tomato haters, the crumbly haters be darned…or can at least appeased while I get the flavor I want.  I need more, I need different, and this is a nice spin on a classic.

Like when you play your playlist on shuffle…and suddenly that one song from long ago starts, and you think, “Oh yeah, I remember this song…Great song.” Suddenly you are 17, in your new-to-you-car, driving down the backroads of Connecticut and invincible.

Or, insert your young and carefree moment here.

Will this soup be the elixir to youth? Probably not, but its a nice way to mix up a stand-by in my house. Let’s face it folks, it’s almost winter. We need to keep the crock pot and soup recipes a-coming.

Using the crock pot means you throw the ingredients in, and walk away. That works for me as well. Because I have someone in my life who hates chunks of tomatoes specifically, I added the tomatoes with chipotle for this chili at the onset of cooking and then blended the ingredients prior to adding the beans. In truth, this chili is actually a really pretty light pinky peach color because of the tomatoes, but I thought calling this chili pink-polka dot chili a bit much. (Though in my head, that is what I call this).

Chili Ingredients

I also mixed up the beans (cannellini and black) to add a little more visual pop and flavor as well as texture. I added the beans at the end of the cooking, to avoid mushy consistency. I also added both cream cheese and with cheddar cheese to boost the creaminess as well as the flavor. I was very pleased with the end results.

So, RoTel tomatoes with chipotle…I saw these in my international aisle and thought, “Well hey.” If you want to add regular diced tomatoes that will do as well. I also added the green chiles and liked the flavor that resulted. I did use an immersion blender to break the chicken down as well as decimate the tomatoes, carrots, and chiles.

White Chicken Polka Dot Chili

The chipotle flavor is smokey and rich without burning your tastebuds. You get the warmth of spice without heat. You can add to the heat factor, it’s your chili.

Now, to serve. I treated this chili like a taco bar and put out fresh diced tomatoes, sour cream, additional cheddar cheese, and even diced lettuce, though I had no takers on the lettuce. I also served this up with super fresh salty tortilla chips, because, essentially soup is dip but better.

Can you feel the awesomeness of this recipe yet?

Another perk, it is not one of those soups that separates out and gets all icky the next day. My containers for lunch look fantastic. The cream cheese holds some sort of magic in it’s ability to hold the suspension. I’m so in love with a soup that is better the next day.

Oh, that everything would be better the next day. Like the coffee you forgot in the microwave, or the leftovers from that breakfast place. Just not as good after the fact.

Well, If pink and polka dotted soup doesn’t make you smile, maybe my apple cinnamon rolls will. But I am perfectly content with my circa 1990’s playlist, and a bowl of this deliciousness.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

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White Chicken Polka-Dot Chili

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White chicken chili with a smoky chipotle kick and the pop of black bean color!

  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

Scale

3 Chicken Breasts

1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic

1 10 ounce can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Chipotle

1 4 ounce can Green Diced Chiles

1/3 Cup Shredded Carrots

2 Tablespoon Better Than Boullion Chicken Flavor

32 Ounces of Chicken Stock

4 Cups White Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1 8 Ounce Package of Cream Cheese

3 Cans White Cannelini Beans (rinsed and drained)

1 Can Black Beans (rinsed and drained)

Instructions

  1. In a crock pot, place chicken breasts, garlic, Rotel tomatoes, green chiles, shredded carrots.
  2. Cover with chicken stock and cook on low for 6-8 hours, depending on crockpot.
  3. When chicken is fork tender and pulls apart, either shred chicken or use an immersion blender to make smooth consistency (as smooth as you choose).
  4. Add cubed cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and beans to soup mix.
  5. Continue to cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until cream cheese is melted and beans are warmed through.
  6. Serve with fresh diced tomatoes, sour cream, additional cheddar cheese or whatever you desire!

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On Divorce, Loss, and Beef Stroganoff

Browning Beef for Stroganoff

Do you ever associate certain recipes with a special someone? Like my mother’s meatballs, or her oatmeal raisin cookies, I am sure you too have recipes that belong to someone.

As in, you don’t really make them ever because, that is their thing, and they do it so well you don’t even attempt it?

That’s how it is with Beef Stroganoff; this was his recipe.

When you are involved in a divorce, no matter how hard you try, it’s complicated, and messy.

Even under the best of circumstances. Add a few states in between and an issue of addiction, there are very few things that are easy. There were some ugly and dark parts. I wasn’t always the nicest version of myself. I own that.

I did, however recognize and encourage the value of relationship between my children and their father. I knew in my heart that he loved them even when he couldn’t get out of his own way. And love them he did.

To draw a line between your way and his way and move forward, recognizing that this requires you to step back. Focusing on your children, and their relationship with their dad is non-stop-in-your-head battle. It’s a reminder that no, this isn’t about you. It’s about them.

Beef Stroganoff

You counterweight as much as you can and buffer as well. You become strong and keep your mouth shut as much as possible and take the phone outside when you don’t see eye to eye. When stuff goes wrong, and it did go wrong, you do what you need to do to be bigger, stronger, and not lose your positivity.

It’s such a dance. It’s like dancing on glass and looking good doing it. That broken glass dance is exhausting.

My kid’s Dad loved to cook. It was a common language we had, we cooked for the people we loved. We cooked for each other. He was an off-trail skier and an off-recipe cook, and he made it look easy. On one of our first real dates, he taught me how to fry an egg. And that was that.

So, of course in the break up, he kept his Kitchen Aid, I kept the Williams Sonoma Baking Pans, and he kept the Stroganoff recipe.

That’s the unrealistic and semi-humorous version.

I vaguely remember trying to make this when the kids and I first moved into our home, and it being an epic fail. I never made it again.

Then came the phone call one night, and suddenly, unexpectedly, he is gone. Forever.

You think about the last phone conversation when you said, “I love you.” and meant it. Your last texts where he tells you that you are an amazing mother, and you tell him how much the kids love him and need him. You invited him to the Easter table to share a holiday dinner with his family.

And those are the last words you say to each other.

The last words, thank God, were kind and filled with grace, and you are given this gift of ending things, on a good note. So many conversations that could have been our last were not, but this one was.

He told his son he was proud, he told his daughter he loved her.

And then he was gone.

So on the six month anniversary, when your son asks you to make Beef Stroganoff, you research every recipe and pray it comes out better than the epic fail from a few years before.

As if your entire happiness rests on this one meal.

Your son even goes to the grocery store with you to buy the ingredients, and reads the list to you so you don’t forget anything.

And you cook as if your whole heart is in it. Because, really, it’s what your kids remember, and its a good thing…you don’t want to mess it up. You pull out the crockpot to make sure the meat is tender. You add Cream of Mushroom Soup to the recipe to make sure the sauce is the right consistency. You hang out in the kitchen to watch over it. You and your memories.

The kitchen is where you do your therapy anyways.

Beef Stroganoff

So, you make the meal, and all of heaven makes sure that it comes out just right. You sit with your children, a threesome who have weathered quite a bit in the last decade, and you remember.

You think to yourself, maybe he might even have liked it, even though you know he would have added something else. That’s just what he did.

For once in your family, even the leftovers are eaten.

So many times I call my table “My Thankful Table,” because that’s where my heart lives. I have chosen to be thankful. In all things.

But for this one meal, with these two amazing children, my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude.

For all we had, and all we lost, and all that the future will hold.

Until we meet again.

Thank you for coming to the table,

Chrissy

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Beef Stroganoff

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  • 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
  • 3 Tbsp Butter
  • 1.5 Lbs Cab Stew Meat
  • .75 Lbs Cab Chuck Stew Meat
  • 8 Ounces White Mushrooms, sliced or quartered
  • 8 Ounces Baby Bella/Crimini Mushroom, sliced or quartered
  • 2 Tablespoons A1 Sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
  • 16-24 Ounces of Beef Broth
  • 2 Large Sweet Onions, chopped into good sized chunks
  • 1 large package of egg noodles of choice (we went with wide)
  • 2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • 3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 Cup Sour Cream
  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

  1. Saute garlic and butter in pan until tender
  2. Add stew meat and brown, turning frequently to get a nice color but not to cook.
  3. Add stew meat to crock pot along with onions, mushrooms, broth, and seasonings.
  4. Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or until meat is cooked, onions are tender.
  5. Add Cream of mushroom soup and Sour Cream and mix thoroughly.
  6. Cook for an additional 30 minutes to bring to temperature.
  7. On the stovetop, cook Egg Noodles in water until cooked. Drain and serve.
  8. Top Egg Noodles with a hearty scoop of Stroganoff mixture.
  9. With a thankful heart, enjoy.

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