beauty that moves: August 2009

Hi! I'm not sure if I'm completely done with my morning and night series (thank you for being okay with the change of pace around here), we'll see. I think I might have one more week in me... next week.

I didn't pick my camera up once yesterday which leaves me with no morning and night photos to share. So for today, I thought I would ask a question that I've been meaning to ask you for quite some time now. What is your best crock-pot recipe? I want to better my relationship with this handy kitchen appliance, it seems useful and practical, but usually it produces meals that seem like, well, like they've been sitting in a crock-pot for 8 hours. Do you know what I mean?

But the idea of a crock-pot is very appealing. A slowly cooked, made from scratch meal, ready and waiting when you walk in the door. How lovely is that? The problem is, I currently have only one recipe that is working for me (and I've tried many). I'm not really into things like "throw a bunch of chicken into the pot and add canned cream of mushroom soup." I'm also realistic about not being able to duplicate a freshly sauteed pasta dish filled with fresh pesto and sun-dried tomatoes either. But there has to be some middle ground. Maybe a good curry dish? Some hearty mediterranean type stews? Any ideas?

Wouldn't it be great if we built a Crock-Pot Recipe Box within the comments? It would be so amazing! The best of the best right in one easy to find place. I envision all of you popping into the comments and doing one of three things:

Share your prized crock-pot recipe right here within the comments. This works great if you don't have a blog.
Share a link to an already existing fabulous crock-pot recipe. Maybe it's on your own blog or elsewhere on the web.
Write a post (maybe with a photo!) on your own blog and come back here giving us a link to it in the comments.

I'm going to leave this post up over the weekend, it might take a few days to build our collection (especially if you wanted to create your own post with a pretty picture and link back to it from here). It will be great to watch our recipe box fill up, then I'll create a button to have over on the sidebar so we can all easily locate this post again when we're planning our weekly menus. Does this sound like it could work?

I'll start things off by sharing the recipe that is photographed above, my one tried and true success! ;)

Santa Fe Beef and Beans

1 # boneless beef roast, cubed/diced small. We use venison
2 cups salsa
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (I cook big batches of beans and keep them in the freezer for easy use)
1 1/2 - 2 cups corn (from the freezer)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 Tablespoons sucanat or maple syrup
1 Tablespoons tamari/soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, according to taste
shredded cheese for the table, cheddar or Mexican blend
a pot of cooked rice to serve it over

Place all ingredients into crock-pot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve over brown rice and top with shredded cheese. To make this vegetarian, just skip the meat and double the beans! If I get home very close to dinner time, I put on a pot of white basmati rice for the quick cooking time, if I have enough time I make brown rice. I've also served this over egg noodles.

Okay, now it's your turn. Give us your best one! Oh, and spread the word too, we want lots of recipes! I hope you all have a great weekend, mine will most certainly involve a crock-pot. ;)