Getting Started, Part 2

Oh boy!! I definitely have some catching up to do. I have been cooking crock pot meals faithfully. I just haven’t been writing faithfully. So let’s see – where do I start?

So far, the crock pot has produced 4 meals and has one in it as I sit here writing. I have enjoyed all of the meals. Greg has enjoyed ¾ of them. I must admit that I am lucky to be married to a man who will try just about anything, but he does have his limits.

The first healthy meal that found its way into the pot was a Slow Cooker Vegetable Minestrone. I found it in the Betty Crocker Simple Healthy Meals that called my name while checking out at the grocery store one day. It smelled heavenly as it cooked on that freezing cold day here in southeast Texas.

This was just the second meal I had made in the pot, so I am still learning how it cooks. Twice I found the light flashing on it and had to start over with the heating. I still haven’t figured out why it does that sometimes, although I did notice that if I took the top off to stir the soup, it would sometimes trigger the flashing. I have to wonder whether that had any affect on the cooking process. In the end, the pasta in was a bit mushy and made the soup quite thick, but the flavor was top-notch and I would recommend this to anyone who loves soup. Even Greg, who is not really a fan of soup, enjoyed this. And it is only 1 point per serving!!!

Slow Cooker Vegetable Minestrone

Prep time: 15 minutes
Start to Finish: 7 hours 35 minutes
Servings: 12

4 cups vegetable broth or 1 32 oz. carton Chicken Broth (I used a carton of Chicken Stock actually)
4 cups tomato juice
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 medium carrots, sliced (1 cup)
2 medium celery stalks, chopped (1 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (½ cup)
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (3 oz)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) organic diced tomatoes, undrained
1 ½ cups uncooked rotini pasta (4 ½ oz) (I used whole wheat)
Shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired (this might affect the point value though)

In a 4 to 5 quart slow cooker, mix all ingredients except pasta and cheese.
Cover; cook on Low heat setting for 7-8 hours or until vegetables are tender.
Stir in pasta. Cover; cook on High setting for 15 – 20 minutes or until pasta is tender. Sprinkle each serving with cheese if desired.

Nutrition Information Per Serving:
1 Serving: Calories 90; Total Fat 0g; Sodium 850mg; Total Carbohydrates 18g (Dietary Fiber 2g); Protein 3 g
Exchanges: ½ other Carbohydrates, 2 Vegetable
Carbohydrate Choices: 1



Let me say here that the only complaint I might have about this new Crock-Pot is the control panel. It really is a bit strange to me – only offering options of cooking on high for 4 and 6 hours, low for 8 and 10 hours, and warming. If your meal needs to cook on low for 6 hours, you have to be there to turn it down to warm at the correct time.

Up next: Greg DOES have his limits.

Getting Started

Well, here I go again! I have tried my hand at blogging twice, wrote one entry each time and disappeared. Blogging is pretty foreign to me, but I have recently begun to get very interested in lots of different blogs. I am sure the movie "Julie & Julia" has something to do with that. I began to notice that all of the blogs I have bookmarked have something to do with cooking and food. As I look across my bookmark bar, I see three cookie blogs, two baking blogs, and one slow cooker blog (okay - so I JUST added that one). Hmmmmm - seeing a pattern here? Might that give me some insight into my constant battle with the bathroom scale?

With Christmas still in my rear view mirror, I have a "new" toy to play with. Greg gave me (another) new Crock-Pot this year. I say (another) because he gave me a wonderful new one 2 years ago after I finally broke the one that had been a wedding gift more years ago than I can count. (Well, I can count up to 28. It's just that sometimes I choose not to count that high!) That wonderful item only lived for about 6 months, thanks to a 130 lb dog who is the biggest baby known to the animal kingdom during thunderstorms. So a new one joined our family this year. The box tells me this one has "removable stoneware", "shifts to warm setting automatically", is "dishwasher safe", has "recipes included", "uses less energy than conventional oven", and is "ideal for 7+ people 6 lb. roast". Never mind that we are empty-nesters with one adult already out in the world and one adult graduating from college in May. Good thing Greg loves left-overs.

So why do I have such a hard time sticking with this blogging thing? Could it be that I have simply been trying to blog about the wrong thing? Maybe the answer is as easy as finding just the right thing that to become obsessed with. With that thought in mind, I am giving myself an assignment. My mission is to find new and wonderful healthy meals to put in this crock pot. After cooking the first meal in my new toy straight from the cookbook that came in the box (which definitely did not qualify for this category), any meal that is not low fat, low calorie, and (for my Weight Watchers membership) low points will not find it's way into the crock pot. I plan to use it at least twice a week (more would put more leftovers in our fridge than we could eat in a lifetime!). Not only will this give me hopefully lots of great healthy meals for future use, but let's face it - every time I used this gift from my husband, he loves it!

So I will use this blog as way to document my journey down the road of healthy crockery. What do I expect of this? Do I really think anyone will read this or begin to follow it? Probably not, but if I can keep all of the recipes I try and my thoughts on them in one place, that alone is a victory for me. So here I go again!