I have big news to share. I used my crockpot twice within TWO days last week.  I know, right? Amazing. And SO nice!  The day prior to making this, I made an absolutely huge pot of beef stew (I could barely jam the lid on). My goal has been to start working on some meals that I can double up so we eat them for dinner and then I have leftovers to freeze for when the baby comes (which is supposed to be in like 3 weeks, eeek!).

I  had this recipe saved in my Reader when I first caught it in Apple a Day because I loved the ingredient list and especially liked that it was a homemade barbecue sauce without the use of refined sugar.  Call me crazy, but I actually prefer pulled chicken to pulled pork and the fact that this was made with chicken and healthy to boot sealed the deal.

I liked that Kelsey used chipotles in adobo (one of my favorite ingredients, as you know) in the sauce, rather than a can of diced green chiles and chipotle powder.   The chipotles give this sauce a nice smokiness and add some more heat.  I also added some aleppo chili powder, which is slightly fruity, to complement the honey, and some cayenne for a little more spice, too.  The sauce does has a little kick (which we love) from the chipotles and the cayenne, but I wouldn’t say it’s overly spicy. Just use your judgment and use less chipotles or cayenne if you don’t like a lot of spice.

We  both really liked this and I especially loved how easy it was.  I made the sauce the night before, as well as slicing the onion.  Neither takes particularly long, but I figure why not get some prep done ahead if you can, especially if you are making this on a workday (which I was).  It took me less than 5 minutes to press some garlic and throw everything all together in the slowcooker before work.

Slowcooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken

Heavily adapted from EatingWell / much less heavily adapted from Apple a Day

1 (14 oz.) can tomato sauce
3 chipotles in adobo, finely minced, and 2 tsp. adobo sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 to 4 Tbsp. honey
1.5 Tbsp. smoked paprika
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. aleppo chili powder
3 lbs. boneless/skinless chicken thighs and breasts (I used mostly breasts, plus 2 bone-in thighs I had & skinned)
1 large onion, thinly sliced in half circles
4 cloves garlic, minced

Whisk together the first 9 ingredients (through aleppo chili powder).  Spray your slowcooker lightly with oil and then place the chicken inside. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Scatter the onions and garlic evenly over the top, and then pour the barbecue sauce over the top. Cook on low for 5 hours (I just let mine go all day while I was at work, so closer to 10).  Shred the chicken with two forks and, if desired, continue to cook for a little bit with the lid off to allow mixture to thicken.

Now, onto the food.  For some reason, when I did all my cooking magazine recycling, I couldn’t bare to get rid of my Saveurs.  So, they moved with us to our new condo.  But now, it turns out we’re going to need every teeny tiny cubic inch of space we can get our hands on to store baby-related items, so the Saveurs came out of hiding and had to be picked over.   One great thing about going through old magazines is that it’s almost like reading totally new ones.  I vaguely remember seeing a special section on the cuisine of Cyprus when I first read the magazine a couple years ago, but I would have never actually recalled it on my own. Rediscovering it was great, and this stew in particular caught my eye.

This stew is really easy to make with very few ingredients, but it tastes great.  Bean stews like this are very popular in Greek cuisine in general, but especially during Lent.  The only change I would make to the recipe next time is boiling the fava beans for a few minutes and then peeling them.  This was my first time working with dried favas, and I just thought the texture of the final product would have been better without the skins.  You can buy them without the skins, apparently, but when I bought these (a looong time ago) I obviously did not take that into consideration.  Perhaps because of the skin issue or because my favas were a little old, I did have to add more broth to this recipe and also cook it a bit longer than the original recipe called for.  So, just keep that in mind, as this recipe does already cook for quite a bit of time already.

I wished we  had some feta around because I think it would be great crumbled over the top (and probably would have made for a better photo, too).  Depending on how strict your diet is during Lent, I would recommend trying some feta on top if you make this.  That said, it’s perfectly delicious on its own with some crusty bread to sop up the sauce.  This is really, really filling. I definitely think 6 is on the closer end to the serving size.  We had this with a salad and a little bread and were stuffed. I had plenty leftover to freeze.

Koukkia Kounnes (Fava Bean Stew with Garlic, Thyme, & Bay Leaves)

Adapted from Saveur
Serves 4-6

1 lb. dried fava beans (preferably peeled or peel them yourself)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling if desired
6-8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
5 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (I ended up using more)
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Place the dried fava beans in a bowl or pot, cover with water by 3″ and let soak for 8 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.  Drain the beans and set aside.

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat, and add the oil.  Add the onion, garlic, thyme, and bay, and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Add the drained fava beans and broth to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered, until beans are tender and broth has thickened, about 2.5 hours.

Season the stew with salt and pepper and stir in the lemon juice.  Ladle into a bowl and drizzle more olive oil over the top, if desired.

Casseroles get a pretty bad rap in the food/culinary community.  And yet, there are very few people I know who don’t find casseroles extremely comforting and tasty–maybe because so many grew up on them.

A lot of people automatically associate casseroles with Campbell’s cream soups, but they certainly don’t have to be made with them if you don’t want them to be.  Like all convenience foods, the components of a casserole can easily be made from scratch.  Not only is it easy to do with ingredients you more than likely have on hand, but this way you know exactly what you’re eating and can control the sodium level.

In the very, very few times I’ve made stuffing, I have always opted for staling the bread myself overnight, but at some point I bought unseasoned bread cubes to try out.  Well, months and months later, half the bag was still sitting in my pantry, so I decided rather than just make stuffing, I’d make one of those nostalgic chicken and stuffing casseroles.  If you have extra bread, just cut it into cubes and lay it on a cooling rack or cookie sheet to dry overnight.

I wanted to keep this relatively healthy so I didn’t use a lot of fat/flour in my roux. I still think my mixture was plenty thick enough but if you don’t, you can either start with more butter and flour, or you can add a cornstarch slurry at the end until you get the thickness you want.  I also didn’t dot butter on top of the stuffing, but by all means, feel free to do so. This is pretty much the epitome of casseroles. It’s certainly not show-stopping but it’s easy, comforting, tasty & simple.

Chicken, Mushroom, Pea & Stuffing Casserole

Serves 4
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2 Tbsp. butter or Smart Balance
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup strong chicken broth/stock, divided (preferably warm or at room temp)
1/2 cup milk (preferably warm or at room temp)
1/4 cup grated (about 2 oz.) pecorino romano or parmesan cheese
1 lbs. cooked and shredded chicken breast (made from about 1.25 lbs. raw, I prefer roasting or poaching mine)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1.5 cups cubed, staled bread (left out overnight) or unseasoned bread cubes
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
scant 1/4 tsp. ground sage
scant 1/4 tsp. ground marjoram

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly spray a 1.5 – 2 qt casserole dish.

Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the mushrooms and bay leaf. Cook until the mushrooms are tender and have lost most of their moisture.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the flour. Cook until the mixture turns a light golden brown.  Slowly add 3/4 cup of chicken broth and the milk.  Whisk out any flour clumps and continue to simmer until the mixture bubbles  slightly and begins to thicken, just coating the back of a spoon.  Stir in the chicken and the peas, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the caserole dish.  Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top.

Mix the remaining 1/4 cup of broth with the staled bread and the herbs. Place the mixture on top of the chicken mixture.  Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.

But, every once in a while, I want something a little different and maybe a little more indulgent without being TOO over the top bad for you.  These are green veggies, of course—just like I’m not one for steaming, I’m not really one for coating them in cheese sauce, either. As good as that may be. :-)

While I love roasting green beans, I also really enjoy them blanched and then tossed with a little oil or butter, usually some garlic, and occasionally some walnuts or pine nuts.  Blanching gets green beans just tender enough while retaining that gorgeous bright green color.  You’ll never get that color with frozen or canned green beans.  Add a little bacon to blanched green beans and really, what could go wrong?

Green Beans with Shallots/Garlic and Bacon

Serves about 4
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1 lb. green beans, trimmed
2-3 slices bacon, chopped
1 Tbsp. butter
1  shallot, sliced or 2 cloves garlic, minced

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the green beans and boil for about 3 minutes after the water has come to a new boil.  Place the green beans into a bowl of cold ice water to shock them, or run them under very cold water.

Meanwhile, heat a pot or large saute pan over medium heat and add the bacon.  Cook until it’s as crispy as you like and then remove with a slotted spoon.  If there is more than 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat in the pan, drain it off until 1T remains.  Add the butter to the pan.

Cook the shallots or garlic until tender, and then toss in the green beans. Stir just until heated through, and add the bacon back in. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For such a long title, this dish has a very short list of ingredients and is ridiculously simple to make.  It basically came about from random ingredients I had around and wanted to use up.  I was initially going to make a red pepper pesto, but decided to just add the cheese to the chops instead and skip out on the herbs altogether, since I didn’t  have any fresh herbs around that day.  All of the flavors were very complementary, and we really enjoyed this meal! I served the pork chops with some triple corn cakes and some sauteed  garlicky kale.

Manchego-Stuffed Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper-Pepita Sauce

Serves 2
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1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 pork chops (I used bone-in)
thinly sliced manchego cheese
2 Tbsp. pepitas
1/2 cup sliced roasted red peppers
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.

Using a paring or utility knife, slice pockets into your pork chops, or nearly butterfly them. Stuff the chops with thin slices of manchego (about 1/2 oz. for each chop).  Season the pork chops with kosher salt and fresh pepper.

Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet or saute pan over medium heat and then add 2 tsp. of the oil.  Once hot, add the pork chops and brown on each side, about 1-2 minutes (don’t cook them through). Move the pan to the oven and allow the pork chops to finish cooking (8-15 minutes, depending on thickness and whether chops are boned).

Meanwhile, make the roasted red pepper sauce.  Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the pepitas. Toss a couple of times and let them heat until fragrant and they start to turn golden brown.  Combine the pepitas, roasted red peppers, vinegar, remaining 1 tsp. olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste in a mini food processor and process  until smooth.  Serve the red pepper sauce over the pork chops.

I made these quite simply with your standard (or, at least, my standard) braising liquid – broth and wine.  I always like adding just a bit of tomato paste to braising liquids because I feel like a little goes a long way in terms of depth of flavor.  Since I only made two shanks, I used my smaller casserole (3 qt.) rather than my larger dutch oven. I did have to brown the shanks separately, but otherwise the size was perfect so that the braising liquid went high enough up the pot (covering about half of each shank).

These were delicious, flavorful, and indulgent. Even though braising has such a comforting/homey feel to it, there’s also a great richness that comes from it.  I served this with a simpler version (AKA, one that did not have me standing over the stove stirring for 40 minutes) of barley orzotto/risotto with mushrooms & pecorino. I think it was the perfect complement, although some mashed cannellini beans, polenta, or mashed potatoes would be wonderful as well.

Braised Lamb Shanks for 2

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olive oil
2 lamb shanks
1 medium onion, cut in half and then thinly sliced
1-2 sprigs of thyme, or a scant 1/2 tsp. dried
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup red wine
3/4 cup beef broth

Heat a dutch oven or pan with high sides over medium heat and add enough olive oil to just coat the bottom.  Season the lamb shanks liberally with coarse salt and pepper, and then brown in the oil on all sides.  Remove from the pot.

Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the onion to the pot, along with the thyme.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are golden brown and slightly caramelized, about 10-15 minutes.   Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, and bay leaf until the garlic is fragrant.

Increase the heat to medium-high, and then add the red wine to deglaze.  Scrape up any browned bits at the bottom of the pot, and then add the beef broth.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the shanks back in, put a lid on the pot, and turn the heat down to a simmer.  Simmer for at least an hour, preferably closer to 1.5 hours.  Then, remove the lid, increase the heat a bit, and cook an additional 20 minutes to allow the liquid to thicken. (If you want it even thicker, you could always make a water/corn starch slurry and boil it at the very end).  Plate the shanks and spoon the reduced braising liquid over the top.

You may remember my post from last year, when I was on a mission to go through my old magazines and save any promising recipes while recycling the rest of the magazine.  Well, what became of that project was actually somewhat miraculous – I wound up with a binder full of recipes, separated by type of food and everything.  I’ve since made about 6 or 7 recipes from the binder (which is 6 more than I ever made when the magazines were sitting in a pile, intact).  It’s great to flip through when I am looking to use something with a particular ingredient, and in this case, the ingredient was shrimp.

This recipe was a winner because I had all the ingredients on hand already; plus it was a good excuse to use use chili paste, which I adore but never remember to use.  The only changes I made were to double the chili paste after realizing it wasn’t quite spicy enough for us, and to add cashews, which I thought were a great addition.  I served this over some brown rice with steamed peapods and it made a nice, healthy, quick meal (well, it would have been much quicker had I not had to spend time cooking brown rice – but of course, that’s easy enough to do).  I will definitely make this recipe again and hopefully this time it won’t take me 3 or 4 years. :)

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce

Serves 2
Adapted from Cooking Light

3/4 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp
1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
1 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. chili paste, such as sambal oelek
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 Tbsp. minced ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup cashews
3 Tbsp. chopped green onions

Toss shrimp and cornstarch together in a medium bowl.

Whisk together the juice, soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, and chili paste.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium-high heat and add the oil.  Stir-fry the ginger and garlic in the pan about15-30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the shrimp and stir-fry for 3 minutes.  Add the sauce, onions, and cashews, and stir-fry until shrimp is cooked through and sauce has thickened, about 2 more minutes.

I decided to go with the guajillo-spiced pork and potatoes, because I bought guajillo peppers in bulk and had plenty to spare.  Plus, we don’t eat a lot of pork (or at least, not in many forms other than tenderloin and chops), so it’s a nice change of pace.  This was, indeed, a winning meal. My husband especially liked it. This could not be easier to put together and even though the ingredient list is simple and short, the flavor is complex and delicious.  The best way to describe this is downright homey.  It was perfect for a cold winter evening (especially since I barely had to do any work to make it).

The night before we ate this, I cubed my pork roast and made the sauce so all I had to do the next morning was cut some potatoes and throw it all in the crockpot.  From the time I put something in the slowcooker until the time we actually eat it, it’s typically been a minimum of 10 hours.  Although this recipe called for cooking the pork and potatoes on high for 6  hours, I opted to cook on low while I was gone (roughly 10 hours).  When I got home, the meal was quite a bit soupier/runnier than I would have liked (no doubt cooking on high would have reduced and thickened the liquid a bit more), so I cooked it on high with the lid partially off for about an hour in an effort to thicken it up a  bit.  It did reduce, but was still a touch too liquidy for me, so if I cook this on low again next time I make it, I will reduce the amount of water by a bit. The leftovers, on the other hand, were the perfect consistency.

Guajillo-Spiced Pork and Potatoes

Serves 6 (well, we actually got 5)
Adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless

6 medium (1.5 lbs. total) redskin boiling or yukon gold potatoes, cut into 6 wedges
1.5 – 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, cut into 1″ cubes
8 medium (2 oz. total) dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into flat pieces (I used 10)
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved2 tsp. dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt
cilantro and chopped white onions (I used green) for garnish

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of your slowcooker and top with the pork.

Set a small (8″) skillet over medium heat and once it’s hot, toast the chile pieces, pressing them against the pan with a spatula until they are aromatic and lightened in color  underneath–about 10 seconds per side.  Transfer the chiles to a blender.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, oregano, Worcestershire, a generous amount of salt (about 1.5 tsp.) and 1 – 1.5 cups of water (I would choose this based on your slowcooker’s history for drying out foods, how much liquid is already in your tomatoes, etc. I will do closer to 1 than 1.5 next time).  Blend until as smooth as possible, and then strain the mixture through a mesh strainer directly into the slowcooker.  Mix everything together.

Cook on high for 6 hours (I cooked on low for about 10 hours and then a little on high when I got back so I could reduce the liquid slightly).

I wanted to use up some random ingredients that I had around that screamed Mexican to me, but I didn’t have any tortillas (or sour cream).  I considered just making my own tortillas (because I do love making them with masa) but then I remembered I had half a box of pasta shells leftover from the last time I used them, so I decided to go with a Tex-Mex type stuffing, rather than an Italian one.  I used spiced ground beef and made a tomato sauce that is somewhat enchilada-sauce like.   I season ground beef for tacos, etc. myself rather than use a packet, because I always have the spices around and those packets are often a sodium bomb.  But, if you want to make this recipe even easier and more quickly, you can just season your beef with a taco packet, and use a couple of cans of enchilada sauce in place of the tomato sauce I made. But I promise you that both are extremely easy to do and can cook simultaneously, so this recipe doesn’t take terribly long to prep.  In fact, rather than sautéing onions and garlic like I normally would for an enchilada sauce, I just used garlic and onion powder to save myself some time.

I actually only made half the recipe below, but that was a result of having random things to use up, like half a green pepper, half an onion, half a box of shells from last time, and half a pound of ground beef. I figure most people don’t have these quantities on hand, which is why I’ve made the recipe below a bit more manageable.

Excuse the pic – I find baked pasta dishes nearly impossible to photograph. :)

Tex-Mex Stuffed Shells

Serves 8
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1 box (12 oz.) large pasta shells
1 batch ground beef filling (recipe follows)
1 batch tomato sauce (recipe follows)
1.5 cups (6 oz.) shredded Mexican cheese mix (or cheddar, monterey jack, chihuahua etc.)

Tomato Sauce
1 large (29 oz.) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup broth or water
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 bay leaf

Ground Beef Filling
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, small dice
1 lb. lean ground beef
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup water (or beef broth)
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin
1.25 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. brown sugar
2 oz. cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.  Boil the pasta shells until al dente.

Meanwhile, make the ground beef filling and tomato sauce.   To make the sauce, combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan, along with salt and pepper to  taste (if you use broth, you won’t need much salt).  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let the sauce slowly bubble and simmer, stirring occasionally, as you make your ground beef mixture.

To make the ground beef mixture: Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.  Add the canola oil and once shimmery, add the onions and green pepper.  Cook for a couple of minutes until the vegetables begin to get tender.  Add the beef and garlic.  Cook the ground beef until browned, and then, if necessary, drain the fat off the beef.  Add the water/beef broth, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili powder, oregano, brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer over low heat until most of the water/broth has been absorbed.  Re-season to taste if necessary.  Allow the mixture to cool slightly before stirring in the cream cheese.

To assemble: Pour about 2/3 cup of the tomato sauce over a large baking dish (or two).  Stuff each shell with a tablespoon or so of the ground beef mixture, and place on top of the sauce in the pan.  Continue until all the shells are stuffed.  Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the shells, and then sprinkle with the cheese.  Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 until the cheese is bubbly and begins to brown.

Cannellini beans are one of my favorites and apparently, as he told me last week, my husband’s absolute favorite bean.  They’re delicious in so many things (one of our staples being this chicken, white bean, and spinach stew), but it’s not often I eat them on their own as a side.  I decided to mash them much like I do with our black beans and how I’ve recently done with pinto beans.  These are so easy and delicious.  They’re great as a substitute for mashed potatoes if you want something that is nice and starchy and will absorb juices (we  had these with a chicken breast and simple pan sauce), but packs more protein and fiber than your good ol’ yukon golds.

I was rather heavy handed on the garlic with these, using 3 fat cloves, but we found them delicious. Feel free to reduce the amount if you are not huge garlicphiles like we are.  I actually am starting to wonder if I’m becoming immune to the taste of garlic because I eat it in pretty much everything, and in large quantities…

Mashed Cannellini Beans with Rosemary and Garlic

Serves 2
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2 tsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 tsp. fresh chopped rosemary or 1/2 tsp. dried
3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 tsp. lemon juice

Heat a skillet over medium heat and then add the oil until shimmering.  Saute the garlic in the oil until fragrant and lightly browned, and then stir in the cannelini beans and rosemary.

Add broth to the skillet and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice off the heat and mash the beans with a potato masher.