crock pot

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

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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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Cheeseburger Chowder

Cheeseburger Chowder

There is one meal I make in which I have takers for leftovers. This is that meal. This is that soup. Typically my children are one meal wonders. They don’t like leftovers. At. All. Where I am always trying to make “just enough” for this reason, usually I am bringing lunches that clean out the fridge to work, which isn’t a bad thing. Thursday is usually leftover night, which has no fans at all. Except, maybe the puppy, who loves a leftover turkey slice or a hamburger warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds.

However, this Cheeseburger Chowder is the no soup left behind miracle in my house. Very easy, a recipe I have only recently started to make as a result of my friend Erika (of the Eggplant Rollatini), and Beth (of the mandatory fun), I make this chowder in the cooler months at least once every three weeks. In my world, that is a regular rotation. It still gets eaten, every time.

The one part of this recipe that I love is the chunks of Sweet Potato. So pretty, and healthy too.

Sweet Potatoes and Onions on Cutting Board

Cheeseburger Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

The one part of this recipe that I don’t love but it literally makes the chowder and it is not the same without it, good old Velveeta Cheese. (Is Velveeta Cheese)?

Yes, this soup holds ground beef, onions, crumbled bacon, sweet potato, and processed cheese product. I have made this chowder with real cheddar and the consistency was different, the taste was just as good, but a chowder thats soupy isn’t really chowder in my son’s eyes, so off to two grocery stores to find the block of orange wonder that makes this chowder.

Essentially this whole chowder is made in the crock pot. I pre cook the ground beef and onions and bacon because I like the consistency and the sweet potatoes

Bowl of Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder

Cheeseburger Chowder

cook in the crock pot with the melty cheese.

It can be prepped the night before, it is so yummy, and like I said, its a hearty well received soup in our house.

For serving, I either serve this with tortilla chips, or crumbled bacon, hot sauce, or extra shredded cheese. It’s also good with a fresh salad, so you feel good about basically eating a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries in chowder form!

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

Chrissy

 

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Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder with Sweet Potatoes

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Hearty Bacon Cheese Burger with chunks of sweet potato!

  • Author: chrissy@mythankfultable.com

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 Pounds 80/20 Ground Beef
  • 32 Ounces of Velveeta Cheese (The BIG BLOCK)
  • 1/2 Package Thick Sliced Bacon chopped into 1/2 inch dice.
  • 24 Ounces Beef Stock
  • 24 Ounces Beef Broth
  • 3 Sweet Potatoes, Peeled and Cubed
  • 1/2 Sweet Onion
  • 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Chop and saute 1/2 Sweet White Onion – set aside.
  2. In a fry pan, cook diced bacon until crispy. Drain off fat and add chopped onion
  3. Saute onion until translucent. Add bacon and onion to crock pot set on low.
  4. Fry your ground beef until brown and cooked. Drain off the fat and add meat to the crock pot.
  5. Add chopped sweet potatoes  to the crock pot and season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire.
  6. Add beef stock, and beef broth to crock pot.
  7. Cook on low heat 4 hours or until sweet potatoes are soft.
  8. Cube Velveeta cheese and put in crock pot. Turn heat up to High.
  9. Stir melted cheese throughout the soup until combined.
  10. Serve with tortilla chips, or soft rolls, and a smile.

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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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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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