Monday, January 24, 2011

Lunch today

I decided to take a lesson from Odie over at The Simple Life and put one of my kitchen items to work. I have this totally great crock pot that I rarely use. I don't know... maybe big appliances scare me - who knows. I use it for chili or for green rice (that's broccoli and cheese casserole) but not really much for COOKING.

Last night, Keith discovered a head of cabbage in the crisper (I'd bought it for Ron as a replacement for lettuce because he likes cabbage better) and wanted to know if I could fix corned beef and cabbage. I don't buy corned beef. I like it OK - once or twice a year - but it's too salty to think about purchasing on a regular basis. I did, however, have a beef brisket in the freezer.

Frozen solid like a rock. I took it out and defrosted it for a bit so I could cut saw it in half (it wouldn't fit in the crock pot in one piece). Once I did that, I added a can of beef broth, a can of chicken broth, a bunch of dried chopped onion (no fresh onion in the fridge), and some seasonings. Put the setting on low and went to bed.

It was smelling pretty good this morning but didn't have much in the way of taste. Plus, I'd forgotten to trim the excess fat off the beef so I had some cleanup to do. Added some more seasonings and some fresh (but frozen) green beans that a friend had given me last summer. Added pepper. Bland. Added some salt. Not much since we have this sodium restriction at out house, but a bit. Added a bag of miniature carrots.

Keith came in behind me and added some chopped garlic, some bay leaves, and some jalepeno pepper juice. He also added "Triple Italian" seasonings (not sure what all was in it).  He added some frozen corn.

It was beginning to smell really good, so I did a taste test and discovered the veggies were done and the brisket was very tender. Time to add the cabbage and turn it to warm so the cabbage didn't become mush.

I had to have a bigger taste test...


I'm very pleased to report that it passed with flying colors. Not only is this lunch today, but will be dinner tonight (with biscuits) and probably lunch tomorrow.

Very, very good! And, since it's really cold outside, it warmed me up nicely.

What's for lunch/dinner at your house?

11 comments:

SkippyMom said...

Sounds delicous Tee! You know I am a huge fan of corned beef and cabbage, but I have to avoid it too [SALT!]

We are having Ghoulash tonight. Nice, yummy meal for a cold day. [Wallene's cooking. YAY!]

Southhamsdarling said...

That sure looks good Teresa! Lots of goodness in there. We had roast chicken - delicious!

Rae said...

Sounds good. I am a crockpot cooker too. Anything that saves me time and dirty pans is right up my alley.

BB said...

When I had a crock pot years ago, I always made a brisket, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, can of cream of mushroom soup and a packet of onion soup mix. Set it and go. It was heavenly. This made me think of it. It's been a long time since I made a pot roast.

Kristen said...

Let's call that January stew!! Looks sensational! Send me some! We had taco Monday. (the one of 5 meals we always eat) I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch and a grapefruit - so not a January Stew.

Jimmy said...

That sounds so good, you can hardly go wrong cooking in a crock pot :)

Anonymous said...

I'm using my crock pot to defrost some pea soup in my freezer. I'm making bread to go along with it. Yum!

Chief aka Dad http://unsoundreasoning.blogspot.com said...

I had a pepperoni roll...warmed in the nukeawave for 30 seconds...mmmm, mmmm, good

Marla said...

Oh my heavens, that looks and sounds delicious.

It was leftover spaghetti for us tonight. These 10 hour workdays take some getting use to again.

Nancy said...

Love it! A little of this and a bit of that and - voila!

Sandra said...

That does look delicious! And with all that cabbage, it'll get your insides running like a fine sports car :)
I have a crockpot that I've recently begun making more use of. It's so convenient, I don't know why it stayed stowed away under my cupboard for 10 years.