Crockpot Mushroom Risotto

I’ve been playing with recipes for risotto and concocted something I really like based on Farah’s recipe over at Cooking Jar. I made a few changes but nothing huge – reduced butter from 4 TB to 3 TB, added a large sprig of fresh thyme, used reduced-sodium broth instead of regular, and doubled the parmesan cheese. Oh, and I steamed frozen peas to add instead of using canned. Actually, I added peas and carrots because that’s what was in the freezer, but that wasn’t planned.

Oh, and I made this in my new 4-qt Crockpot. Perfect size!
Makes 8 servings.

Calculated at MyFitnessPal

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 8 oz. portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 shallot/ 1/4 yellow onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 cups Arborio rice
• 4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• 1 cup peas (frozen peas, steamed)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Melt the butter and cook mushrooms, shallots and garlic over medium high heat for 5 minutes or until mushrooms have browned and liquid has evaporated
2. Add in rice, stirring to coat for 2 minutes
3. Spray the slow cooker with cooking spray and add rice mixture
4. Pour in broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add sprig of thyme.
5. Stir to combine and cook on high for 1 hour 30 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed
6. Once it’s cooked, remove thyme. Stir in peas and cheese and mix well
7. Dish and serve hot

Recipe: Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

This recipe originally came from somewhere but I’ve adapted it so much I have no idea where it started. It’s one of my favorites and I make it often. Nutrition counts will vary depending on some of your choices.

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cubed in large chunks
3/4 C. soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
1/3 C. rice vinegar (or cider vinegar)
3/4 C. loosely packed brown sugar (or 1/3 C.+2 Tb. Truvia brown sugar)
2 cloves garlic, minced

Spray crockpot with cooking spray. Add cubed chicken. Combine other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on High for 3 hours. Then:

1-2 green peppers, cut into large chunks
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
Up to 1/4 C. cornstarch
Cashew nuts (optional – I usually leave out to reduce calories)

Steam veggies with water in microwqve for 3 minutes; drain. Add pineapple, water chestnuts, and veggies to crockpot and stir. Add cashews if desired. Recover and cook on Low for one hour.

Remove some liquid from the pot and mix with cornstarch in separate bowl. I remove about 1/3C. of liquid to a measuring cup and use smalll whip to combine thoroughly until there are no umps. Pour into crockpot, stir, and heat until sauce thickenes. Start with a smaller amount of cornstarch to see how thick it get. If you want thicker, repeat step.

Serve over rice. I usually use 1/3 C. rice with 1 C. chicken. Makes 6-7 servings, depending on how many veggies you use. Freezes well.

Recipe: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

SparkRecipes is a wonderful site with recipes submitted by members with nutritional information for everything. It’s not Weight Watchers or any other plan but having the nutrition makes it easy to figure out points values (if that floats your boat) or other things to watch for such as lower fat, carbs, whatever.

One of the most popular recipes is for Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while.  I made it today, with some variations suggested by some of the people who made comments.  It was awesome and will be added as a regular option.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (approximately 1 1/4 lbs)
1/3 packet reduced sodium taco seasoning (or regular if you can’t find the reduced sodium)
1 C. fresh salsa
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 C. fat free sour cream

Spray crockpot with cooking spray.  Place chicken breasts in bottom and sprinkle with taco seasoning.  Pour salsa on top of that, followed by black beans and corn.  Top with cheddar cheese soup.  Leave in layers; do not mix.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Shred chicken with a fork.  Turn off heat and stir in FF sour cream.  Serve over rice.

Yield:  5 servings, approx. 2/3 C. each = 5 points  (rice not included)
Supposed to be even better as leftovers, which could be folded into tortillas or turned into a quesadilla.

Brunswick Stew

The best Brunswick Stew I ever had was cooked out over an open fire at a Mennonite fair in Virginia. It tasted smoky and the meat had fallen apart until everything was thick and totally yummy. I got the original version of this recipe from a WW cookbook almost 20 years ago. It no longer bears much resemblance to the original – I added the smoke and started using the blender to replicate that Mennonite stew of long ago. More vegetables helps it stretch.

Feel free to tinker with it yourself or use fresh instead of frozen, though you may need to add a little bit more liquid if you do that. I’m lazy and the frozen ones are faster. This isn’t really spicy, but it’s thick and one of the staples of my winter menus.

Crockpot Brunswick Stew

Serving size: 1 1/2 cups
Yield: 6 servings @ 5 points/serving

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, Cubed
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes [use 1 with chilis for a little extra zing]
1 can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons liquid Smoke flavoring
1/2 Cup White cooking wine
1 tablespoon Better than Boullion Chicken Base
1-1/2 C. frozen corn kernels
1-1/2 C. frozen green beans
1-1/2 C. frozen lima beans
1-1/2 C. frozen sliced carrots (optional)
Red pepper flakes to taste
3 bay leaves

Spray crockpot with cooking spray.

In the crockpot, combine onion, chicken, Worcestershire Sauce and Liquid Smoke until chicken is thoroughly coated. Add other ingredients, mix gently, and cover. Cook at low heat for 10 hours.

Using a measuring cup, remove some liquid and chunks to a blender. Pulse on “puree” setting until color changes and contents purees. Return to pot and stir. Repeat until the stew is thick with chunks of chicken and vegetables. Base should NOT be clear liquid.

Serve in bowls. Freezes well.

Note: this is also really good made with lean boneless pork chops instead of chicken. I thawed the wrong thing once and made it anyway, and it was great. I’ve often made it with 1/2 chicken and 1/2 pork.

Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken

I found this recipe on the WeightWatchers.com message boards (must have etools account or a WW monthly pass for access) and made it this weekend. It’s an easy recipe, tasted yummy, but was a little bit messy because I overcooked it and the chicken fell apart. Oops. The meat was just fine but it made retrieving and picking it out a bit of a challenge.

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Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken
1 whole chicken
olive oil cooking spray
Lawry’s seasoning salt
aluminum foil

Spray inside of crockpot with olive oil cooking spray. Clean chicken inside and out. Spray chicken with olive oil cooking spray. Sprinkle with seasoning salt. Note: Do not put any water in the crockpot. Roll 3 or 4 wads of aluminum foil into 2”-3” balls and put them in the bottom of the crockpot. Place the chicken, breast side down, on top of these aluminum foil balls.

Cook on HIGH (will not come out the same if cooked on LOW) for 4-6 hours. (My 4.5 lb chicken cooked for 5 hours and it was too long, so keep an eye on it). Remove skin before serving.You have to use the aluminum to get the deli taste. This chicken tastes very close to one you would buy, precooked, in the deli section of your supermarket.

Yield: 1 chicken
Points: 1 point per ounce of chicken

The original recipe had a variation: to wrap up individual small potatoes in foil and place them in the bottom of the slow cooker to make the foil balls. I tried it and it was very messy. The potatoes ended up sitting in chicken fat and got punctured by the falling apart chicken (the bones had a life of their own, apparently). I threw out the potatoes because they were too fatty. Next time I’m making this with just wadded up foil balls. But I will make it again!