Author |
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Kiersten_love
Member
08-03-2001
| Tuesday, October 02, 2007 - 8:11 pm
Hi everyone, well its that time of year to start up the recipes for crock pot foods. I know I would love some really good recipes for chicken and for roasts and ribs too. 
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Treasure
Member
06-26-2002
| Tuesday, October 02, 2007 - 8:36 pm
I would be interested in seeing some tried/successful crock recipes for a Vegetable stew. I have tried to put one together and it didn't go well. Took about 8 hours on high and everything turned to mush, except the potatoes, carrots and parsnips.
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Twinkie
Member
09-24-2002
| Tuesday, October 02, 2007 - 9:04 pm
Treasure, that's probably because those are very "hard" veggies. They should go in first and other "softer" veggies should go in last.
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Treasure
Member
06-26-2002
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 9:02 am
Yep, I put the hard ones on the bottom just like I do for the meat stews. The brussel sprouts and green beans were frozen veggies, so I tried to thaw them a bit before putting them in. I even waited a couple hours before I put the green beans in. The green beans were mostly mush. The brussel sprouts were way over cooked. Took 8 hours to get the potatoes, carrots and parsnips a little soft. I am kinda tired of the same ole veggies, potatoes and carrots, in a stew. I want something else. So I am searching and experimenting.
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 9:20 am
Any canned or frozen veggies would only need around 30 - 45 minutes of cooking time. And there is no need to thaw frozen veggies. I'm not a big cabbage fan but my mom would put cabbage in about an hour and a half before the soup was done. It was great, melted in your mouth.
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 9:27 am
Another thing, 8 hours on high is too long. If you are going to cook something for 8 hours, do it on low. You can always turn it on high the last hour if needed.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 12:03 pm
Treasure- this one is really good.... Unbeef Stew Ingredients: 1 pound extra firm regular tofu 1 large onion chopped 1 quart vegetable broth 5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon tamari 2 cloves garlic finely chopped 4 of each large carrots and large peeled potatoes coarsely chopped 1 tomato seeded and diced 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon each of pepper and basil 3 tablespoons soybean margarine 5 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with water until not lumpy Directions: Freeze the tofu and then let it thaw completely. Drain the water from the tofu, and cut into slices and squeeze more water out. Then cut the slices into chunks and bake at 200 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet while chopping the rest of the ingredients (check the tofu about every 10-15 minutes so that it doesn't get browned - it should just be dried out, not burned). The tofu should be well dried out, like croutons. Place all of the prepared ingredients into a crockpot, stir well, and cook on high for at least 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. The stew is ready when it is thick and brown. It makes a lot! Serves: 8 Preparation time: 30-45 min. for preparing ingredients, then 8 hrs. to stew The freezing of the tofu is kind of a hassle- I do it, but not as well as you're "supposed" to... it turns out fine. The difference is that it's a little bit firmer if it's been pretty much dried out before the cooking. I use extra firm tofu and squeeze some, but I personally don't care if it's a little soft.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 12:05 pm
Here's another I got off the internet but I don't think I've tried it yet. Mushroom Stew Ingredients: 1 medium onion, finely minced 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 bag of frozen peas, save these for the last step* 2-4 large potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into eighths 1 basket of sliced button mushrooms 3 portabella mushrooms, cleansed and chunked (other mushrooms can be substituted) 1 8oz can salt-free tomato sauce 1 1/2 cup water 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetarian Worcestershire sauce 3/4 teaspoon thyme 2 bay leaves 5 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca 1 teaspoon black pepper, divided* Directions: Line the bottom of the cooker with the onions. Add the garlic on top of the onions, but be sure the layer of onions is thick enough for the garlic not to fall through and touch the cooker liner. Add potatoes and carrots. Add the mushrooms to the top of the other vegetables. Add the bay leaves. At this point, mix the tomato sauce, water, Worcestershire, thyme, tapioca, and one half of the pepper--this mixture will be a bit like mud, but it will cook into a sauce if you give it a chance. Stir well and pour over veggies. Cover and cook on low for six to eight hours. At the end of that time, stir cooker contents; add peas and the remaining black pepper. If you want to serve this right away, let the peas cook for five to fifteen minutes. Should you choose to store the stew, instead of eating it right away, add the peas after you've poured the stew into a container. The frozen peas will help you cool down a little faster than if you added them during the cooking time. Serves: 4-6 Preparation time: 6-8 hours
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 12:38 pm
Kaili, I saw your name and knew the recipes would be veg so I had to look. They sound good!
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 7:07 pm
If you try them, make sure you buy vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, otherwise you're eating anchovies. Yech. Keep that in mind with Gardettos snack mixes- they use Worcestershire sauce to flavor them. Just so ya know 
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Lawrie
Member
08-03-2002
| Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 1:11 pm
Where do you find vegetarian Worcestershire sauce? Do you have a brand name for it that I could google? I haven't used it for close to 30 years because of the anchovies but it is one of the few things that I missed when I went veg. TIA
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Cinnamongirl
Member
01-10-2001
| Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 1:17 pm
Ewwwwwwwwww...I love worcestershire sauce but NEVER looked at the lable...anchovies?? Ick 
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 2:08 pm
I just got it in the health food section at the grocery store- the brand I have says "Annies Naturals Organic Worcestershire Sauce"... I believe it would be the same Annie's brand that makes the TV dinners, canned "Bernie-Os" (instead of Spaghetti-Os) etc... Looks like this: Annies website Link
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Lawrie
Member
08-03-2002
| Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 11:03 pm
Thanks so much! I just emailed them to ask if it is available in Canada. There are some other products on their website that I might like to try as well.
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Ginger_720
Member
07-05-2007
| Friday, October 05, 2007 - 8:06 am
Hi, first time, and so glad I found you guys. I have had a question about crockpots since my first one. Even on 'low' everything seems to boil. My girls have all said the same thing. I don't think we're putting in too much liquid, but you do need some, whatever the recipe calls for. Anyone else? Thanks so very much
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Friday, October 05, 2007 - 10:19 am
Ginger, I have found that my crockpot seems to cook things faster then the receipes say, so maybe that is why you get the boil. I have to use a timer for my crockpot and usually cut the time in half or everything turns to mush. Then when I get home it if isn't totally done I just put it on high for an hour. I don't know if I have ever noticed it boiling though. I was thinking that maybe the newer crockpots have better heating elements or somthing because my old one took forever!
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - 8:49 am
I've posted this one before: Crockpot Pulled Pork One big pork roast 1 jar of your favorite BBQ sauce Several cups of water. Season to taste Place pork in crockpot with enough water to cover the meat. Cook all day or until tender and falling apart. Drain the water. Take a fork and shred the pork. I take it out of the pot to do it. Place the pork back in the pot, with the entire jar of BBQ sauce. Stir well. It's done! You can turn off the pot at this point. Serve over your favorite type of bread, rice, or without anything! It tastes good with cole slaw on the side. It's simply delicious!
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - 8:51 am
I made a pork roast with apricot preserves, dijon mustard, chicken broth and onion. It came out so yummy! It was like a sweet and sour. The meat was so tender. My family said it's a keeper.
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Whoami
Member
08-03-2001
| Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 8:48 pm
My tried and true pot roast recipe centers around the gravy. Configure what you want in your pot roast (meat, taters, baby carrots, mushrooms for us), and layer them in the crock to your liking (for us its taters on bottom, meat on top of taters, surrounded by mushrooms and carrots). We want to try baby corn in it next time too, but I guess its hard to come by fresh, and I forgot to look for it in the canned section. Gravy ingredients: 1 14oz can beef broth 1 10.5oz can cream of mushroom soup (condensed) 1 10.5oz can cream of celery soup (condensed) 1 pkg dry Au Jus mix 1 pkg dry onion soup mix Wisk in the dry ingredients into the beef broth (it mixes in better to the thinner liquid). Then wisk in the two soups. Salt and pepper (or whatever seasoning you prefer) to taste. The mixture will be a very ugly unappealing looking coagulated bowl of glop, but that's just cause its cold. Once it starts cooking down, it becomes a marvelous gravy, trust me! Pour gravy mixture over the top of the meat/tater/etc mixture. Turn the crockpot on and let it do its thing. The theory is, as the gravy cooks down, and makes its way to the bottom of the crock, it leaves its flavor in the meat. Also, if the meat has a fatty side, I set the fatty side up so the juices in the fat can cook down into the meat. At some point, during a spot check, if I think the fat has served its purpose, I scrap it off the top of the meat and discard it, and let the meat/etc continue cooking.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 9:30 pm
Ooo -- cool idea. My favorite stew sauce is super easy: 1 can condensed tomato soup (15 oz. size) 1/4 cup flour 1 cup red wine or water (spiced cherry wine is phenomenally good) 1 tsp. each: oregano, basil, thyme Salt and pepper to taste 1 beef bouillon cube We add a bit more pepper taste by using white pepper, but this is rich and wonderful, especially w/venison stew.
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Kiersten_love
Member
08-03-2001
| Friday, October 26, 2007 - 12:46 pm
Whoami, that sounds like a great pot roast mixture, I am going to try it exactly how you wrote it, thanks so much. 
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Whoami
Member
08-03-2001
| Friday, October 26, 2007 - 4:32 pm
Hope it works for you Kiersten! You'll have to let me know how it comes out. I didn't specify that you actually mix up the gravy mixture "in a bowl" before you put it over the meat/etc stuff. But I hope it was assumed. Also didn't add that we used to put onions in the meat/etc mixture, cut up like one would cut up onion rings. But, to be honest, our dog absolutely loves to partake in pot roast with us, so we don't put the onions in any more, as onions are deadly to dogs. In fact, I don't really even put the onion soup mix in anymore for the same reason, but I kept it in the recipe above for other folk's purposes. My sister layers the onions on the bottom (instead of the taters) so the meat doesn't stick to the bottom of the crock. When I used onions, I'd layer some across the top of the meat so the flavor could drip down into the meat while it was cooking.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Friday, October 26, 2007 - 4:35 pm
Who, how long and what setting do you put the crock pot on?
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Whoami
Member
08-03-2001
| Friday, October 26, 2007 - 4:55 pm
I cook it on low. I don't know if you should go by anything I do for length of time. Our hours at home are so odd, I cook things in the crock far longer than usually prescribed. Now that we have a crock that has a "warm" setting, I can at least cook until things look done, then put it on warm. For us, I put the crock on before I turn in for the "night" (which is usually really early morning). It cooks while I sleep, then I check when I get up. Once it looks done enough, I put it on warm, and wait for Mom to get up and be ready to eat. And that can be anywhere from 6pm to midnight or later. So mine can actually be in there anywhere between 10-18 hours (including warm time). I think the normal prescribed time for cooking a pot roast is 8 hours in the crock, but I'm really not sure. Sorry I don't have a more definitive answer. But all my crock recipes have always been "till it looks good." ETA: I did just Google pot roast/crock pot recipes, and looked up 3 of them. Two said to cook on low 8-10 hours, and one said to cook on low 6 or more hours, adding "the longer the better." Hope that helps!!
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Kiersten_love
Member
08-03-2001
| Friday, October 26, 2007 - 7:25 pm
Whoami, I figured you mixed it in a bowl first, but thanks for still letting us know. Also I think I will add the onions on top like you suggested. I will probably try this out once it starts to get a bit colder, cause that is when I actually take out the crock pot to use. Actually last year is the first year I started to use the crock again in over 20 years, and your recipe will be the first one of this year for me. Oh and I do usually put everything on low, I have my husband put the bowl in just before he leaves for work, and thats around 7:30AM, and I turn it off around 4PM and let it sit on the warm setting until we are ready to eat dinner. So all in all, thanks Who for a recipe that really sounds tasty. I will let you know how it turned out when I do finally cook it. 
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