This is a great slow cooker recipe. I actually love and it really suits our tastes. The taste of the Hoisin sauce in this dish is perfect! What is nice, this freezes beautifully, freeze this entire meal into one gallon freezer bag, defrost overnight and cook. This is one of the seven "freezer to slow cooker" meals that I made a few weeks ago, I will make this again in a heartbeat. ~Enjoy! Diane
Mongolian Beef {slow-cooker} Ingredients 1-1/2 pounds Flank Steak, sliced or Beef Stew meat, cubed 1/4 cup Corn Starch 2 teaspoons Olive Oil 1 large Onion, sliced into thick slices 1 Tbs Garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon Ginger, minced ,optional 1/2 cup Soy Sauce 1/4 cup Hoisin sauce 1/2 cup Water 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 3 medium sized Carrots, cut into thin rounds 1 small can of sliced Water Chestnuts Chinese crispy noodles, for garnish, optional Directions: Cut flank steak into thin strips or cube meat into 1" cubes. In a Ziploc bag add beef pieces and cornstarch. Shake to coat. Add oil, onion, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, Hoisin, water, brown sugar, carrots and water chestnuts to slow cooker. Stir ingredients. Add coated flank steak and stir again until coated in the sauce. Cook for high 2-3 hours, or low for 4-5 hours until cooked throughout and tender. (I cook mine on High for 1 hour and then Low for 3-4 hours until tender) Sprinkle with Crispy Noodles, Serve over Steamed Rice.. Recipe & Photo by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home
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Super easy slow-cooker recipe that I also doubles as a great shredded chicken sandwich recipe! I loved the taste of this - making this and serving the chicken breast over rice with a vegetable side for dinner, and the leftovers were shredded right in the slow-cooker in the sauce, and served the next day on burger buns as BBQ chicken sandwiches served with a side of homemade coleslaw for lunch. It's a great recipe find from the folks over at Who Needs a Cape? from their "freezer to crock-pot series."
~Enjoy! Diane Applesauce BBQ Chicken {Slow-Cooker} Ingredients 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts 1/2 t ground pepper 3/4 cup chunky applesauce, 3/4 cup BBQ sauce, your choice 2 T brown sugar 2 tsp chili powder cornstarch/water Directions: Place chicken breasts and all the seasonings into a freezer gallon bag, seal bag and message all the ingredients together, freeze until ready for cooking. Thaw out overnight OR thaw for 15 mins on defrost cycle of microwave in the morning (mine doesn't fully defrost, it just gets all the ingredients to the point that it will slide out of bag and into Slow-cooker. I did make and mix in a cornstarch and water 'slurry' to thicken up the sauce near the end of cook-time. Cook on High for 6-8 hours, from frozen or 6-8 hours on low/medium, if the recipe is being cooked from 'fresh.' (always use a meat thermometer to ensure chicken is cooked properly) Serves 4 Diane's Recipe Note/s: 1) This is a 'Double Duty Recipe': If you have leftovers, the chicken can be shredded in the sauce and served on fresh hamburger buns for a great chicken BBQ sandwich. 2) If you can't find "chunky" applesauce, use regular and toss in one diced fresh apple into the slow-cooker with other ingredients when ready to cook. Recipe Adapted from: Who Need's a Cape? "Crockpot Applesauce BBQ Chicken" Photo by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home An Old Trend is New Again?"
-or did it just never go away- Back when we had a youngster in the house (15+ years ago) weekends were meant for hiking, canoeing, fishing and exploring in our camper, I often made meals ahead of time and used my fancy 'seal-a-meal' to package up healthy and tasty dinners in advance that we could reheat in our camper. It's been a LONG time since I've shopped and made 'pre-cooked' meals but, with the trend I've seen popping up everywhere lately, I thought I'd give it a try once more. Our household is down to just us two adults and often, dinner is the last thought on our minds throughout the day. I think having a few freezer ready meals on hand will help alleviate the panic of "what should we have for dinner" that we face about twice a week... I went ahead and tried a few meals that go from freezer to slow-cooker (crock pot). I chose 7 meals that encompassed beef, chicken and pork for variation. I took the time to log how much 'actual hands on time' it took to organize, prep, bag and clean up after all these meals, I would say - with certainty (and I am pretty well organized) it took me $70 in items that I didn't have on hand ($40 for all the meats involved plus, $30 in produce or spices). Shopping aside, it took 90 mins to Label, Prep and Bag everything and another 20 mins to cleanup. There are some meals that had less ingredients and were easier to just plop and seal...Keep in mind too that I did this all alone, extra help would definitely speed things up! My advice to you - find meals your family will actually enjoy. I've seen posts touting "so many meals in so many minutes" and right now, I am not sure where they came up with their timing. I found it much, much easier to collect the various recipes that I wanted to try, and compile my shopping list. I say, start with 5-7 crock-pot/slow-cooker recipes and see how it all goes. Figure out if it's worth the time and effort in advance for your family. I lucked out and there were sales at my local Safeway on every meat item I needed to purchase! I had a tidy savings in sales alone of $25 overall for my seven meals (that included hand-trimmed chicken breasts, cubed and packaged pork and beef as well as boneless, skinless chicken thighs that were well trimmed.) If I had to trim and cube those meats, the timing on these recipes would have grown - adding at least another 20-30 minutes to the overall prep time. Some Hints: have lots of measuring cups and measuring spoons ready to go. I had a set for dry measuring and a set for liquid measuring which sped things up. I had a nice big trash can at my side too - you will appreciate this advice because, once you get going you will quickly realize how much you toss away, in scraps, peels and packaging. I also wrote down on the face of each freezer gallon bag in sharpie permanent marker - the date, the contents and cooking instructions. All my meals will work best of taken from the freezer the night before and placed in the fridge overnight to 'thaw'. The Best hint/tip I can offer is to use a meatloaf pan in the packaging process!! I placed my gallon baggies IN the pan which then supported the contents going in without tipping over the bag - worked like a charm! and of course, slow cooker liners make for easy cleanup when you are ready to cook your meals - if you don't want to use those - make sure to coat your slow-cooker with olive oil - which will also aide in quick cleanup. Here are the Recipes I assembled: Seven (Freezer to Slow-Cooker) Meals in 90 minutes prep time: Beef Tips in Gravy from Family Fresh Meals Orange Chicken from Frugal Girls Green Chile Pork Stew from Who Needs a Cape? Ranch Chicken Tacos from Who Needs a Cape? Chicken Cacciatore from Southern Living Mongolian Beef from Recipe Critic Applesauce BBQ Chicken from Taste of Home I will update this post as we cook and eat each meal listed above. I hope this post gives you a little insight into what you can expect when preparing meals ahead of time. I know, I look forward to tasting all these recipes and finding or creating new ones to share! ~Enjoy! Diane Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home |