http://www.southernplate.com/2013/05/slow-cooker-sloppy-joes.html

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes were one of my Mama’s favorite weeknight suppers for busy days and I’ve always loved them. I have my skillet Sloppy Joe recipe on here already(click here) but this one is what I use on those days where I don’t have time to brown my beef so I just throw it all in the slow cooker. Yup, you don’t even have to cook the beef (as long as you use lean ground chuck)! Toss it in, turn it on. Supper is ready when you are.

I grew up in a small neighborhood populated with families, kids, and bicycles. We’d all congregate at the vacant lot three doors down and across the street from my house. At best, it was only 1/2 an acre but all the neighborhood kids referred to it as “The Big Field”.

Once, we had a new neighbor move in named Miss Sandy. She had teenagers mostly and we didn’t know what to think about them. Then, one day Miss Sandy opened up her screen door and started making popcorn in her kitchen. It wasn’t long before the scent drifted across the road to my yard and curious kids began showing up. She peeped her head out the screen door with a grin and held out two brown paper lunch sacks, filled to the brim with freshly popped kernels. “Who wants popcorn?” We left a dust cloud as we raced over, not believing our luck as more and more sacks appeared until we were all sitting in her driveway on our bicycles, holding brown paper bags like we were some type of popcorn loving huffy bicycle gang.

About the time we finished our popcorn, someone rode by on a bicycle and yelled ”Hey! We’re going to play kickball at the big field. You wanna play?” and a slew of bicycles fell in line as we shouted behind us to Miss Sandy’s kids to join us, telling them that they just had to because we had so much fun there.

We played with new friends until we heard our Mama’s calling us and then we picked our bikes up off the ground and pedaled on back to our waiting suppers and hot baths that would wash our dirt necklaces off. After supper, a few of the kids made an appearance outside again to catch lightning bugs in jars with orders from our Mama’s not to get dirty again, then we’d head back into the house and watch a little television in our parents laps before heading off to bed.

I don’t think about those as the “good old days” like some people do, though. Because if you spend your time looking too wistfully to days gone by you miss all the good in days that are still here and yet to come. There is just as much good in today as there was in yesterday, that hasn’t changed, our appreciation and ability to recognize it has.

Now let’s make some Sloppy Joes.

Don’t forget to wash your dirt necklace off before coming to the table.

You’ll need: Diced tomatoes, Ketchup, Mustard (maybe), BBQ Sauce, and Sweet Relish.

And also some LEAN Ground Chuck, buns, and whatever you want to serve with your Sloppy Joes.

Note : A lot of this stuff is optional and you can easily customize this. You might want to add chopped onion, garlic, omit the mustard, etc. You really need to use the ketchup, bbq sauce, and tomatoes, but other than that knock yourself out playing with it.

And I really like to add a tablespoon or so of these puppies.

They aren’t enough to make it hot, but it is enough to give it a weeee little kick.

Okay so the beauty of this is that you can put your ground beef in the slow cooker uncooked.

See? This really is an easy one. Toss it in sometime in the morning with no prep work needed.

Chop up your ground beef a little bit.

Now, I know from emails that a lot of folks find the appearance of raw ground beef rather unappetizing. If you fit into this category, I strongly suggest that you have your servants prepare this meal. If you find yourself without servants, I strongly suggest you get used to the appearance of raw ground beef. It’s looked mighty fine to me going on about forty years now!

Add all of your ingredients in on top of your beef.

Stir that up good.

Then put the lid on and place this on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes

Ingredients

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes
1+1/2 pound lean ground chuck*
15 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon mustard (optional)
1-2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon diced jalapeno (optional)
8 hamburger buns, for serving

Instructions

Place raw* beef in slow cooker and break up with a beef chopper or large spoon. Pour all other ingredients over beef. Stir well to combine. Cover and cook on high, 3-4 hours or low, 6-7 hours.
Scoop out with slotted spoon onto buns. Serve hot and enjoy!
Makes 8
*Using lean ground chuck is crucial in this recipe because your meat will be terribly greasy cooking it this way if you use regular ground beef. However, if all you have is regular ground beef, simply brown it in a skillet ahead of time, add it to the slow cooker with all other ingredients, and cut cooking time in half.

http://www.southernplate.com/2013/04/slow-cooker-pasta-fagoli-small-batch-finding-clovers.html

Slow Cooker Pasta Fagoli (Small Batch) & Finding Clovers

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Yesterday I came in from the back yard with a hand full of four leaf clovers…

You know, some people think that four leaf clovers are hard to find but when I was a little girl my mother could always walk right up to a clover patch, look down for a few seconds, and pluck one right up.

It seemed she had a special gift for finding clovers, and as I grew older I came to realize she had a special gift for finding a lot of good things. In the middle of the worst storm, Mama could find a song to sing. When we came home with a bad hair cut, Mama could point out the one thing that made it just perfect and turn everyone’s opinion right around. When our school friends went away on trips we could never afford, Mama would invite all the neighborhood kids over to play in our back yard and fill our days with homemade popsicles and hosepipe tag.

She could find good in any situation as easily as looking down at a patch of hundreds of clovers and plucking out the one with four leaves on it.

I spent my childhood looking to her as my example and this morning, I got to thinking about those clovers and how much better I am at finding them now that I’m older. Now, when I walk outside and come back in with a handful of four leaf clovers my daughter exclaims with delight that I must be really good at finding them! I just smile and tell her that they’re there for anyone who looks. Like the special little moments in life, pockets of happiness, and reasons to be grateful.

Four leaf clovers aren’t rare. The people who take time to look for them are.

~takes a moment to look at the picture and let it sink in~

Alrighty, time to package my heart back up and get on to the cooking!

If you’ve never had this soup, you’re in for a treat and a half. It’s kind of like an Italian version of chili – and my family LOVES it!

There are all sorts of variations of Pasta Fagoli out there. Translated from Italian, it simply means “Pasta and Beans” and is traditionally an economical meatless dish. I like to add meat to mine but you can certainly leave it out.

I was originally inspired to make it due to my favorite soup, salad, and breadsticks treat at the local Olive Garden. This is not the exact recipe Olive Garden uses, of course, but it is close. This is also not the exact recipe found around the web, but it’s close enough to those, too. My recipe is a little more streamlined and makes about half as much as the other recipes do. My recipe makes about 4 quarts, which is a reasonable amount for a family. Leftovers reheat and even freeze really well, too.

You’ll need: Kidney Beans, Navy Beans, Beef Broth, Crushed Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce, Matchstick carrots (or carrots you cut yourself), diced onions, small ring pasta (or small pasta of your choice), and browned ground beef.

Note: I was tired the day I made this and decided to cook up some ground beef. As soon as I got it into the skillet I went and sat down to gift myself with a little time reading my latest Tamera Alexander novel…a while later I remembered my ground beef. Needless to say, it was a little overcooked but the beauty was that I was browning it for this recipe and since this is a slow cooked soup, that gives the overly cooked ground beef time to soften up a bit. Crisis averted. You know, really, most crises can be averted if we just refuse to let them become crisis in the first place, don’t you think?

You’re gonna need some seasonings, too. I’m using salt, dried parsley, and dried Italian seasoning.

Now if you’ve been with me a long time you may be thinking “Christy sure does use Italian seasoning a lot!”.

If you’re thinking that, you’re right.

I like it.

It’s good.

It’s cheap.

For me, it is the ketchup of dried herb blends! Having said that, if you would prefer to make it a little more complicated, feel free to come up with your own herb blend. I’m sure it will be great – or just give yourself a break and do it my way. It’s not like you don’t work hard enough as it is.

So basically, you dump everything in a slow cooker except for your pasta. I drained my beans but it’ll be just fine if you’d rather not.

Dump, dump, dump, dump, then….

Stir.

Now put the lid on it and let it cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

About half an hour before serving, stir in your pasta and put the lid back on so it can get done.

Top it with fresh grated parmesan if you want or just go my route and use some mozzarella. There is no rule that says you can’t use whatever cheese your heart desires – and if you find that rule written somewhere, just go ahead and break it.

C’mon, be a rebel with me. Speaking of rebels, we should start our own gang. We can wear yoga pants and ride Schwinn’s – the kind with the big comfy seats, not those factory puppies that give you a total of two square inches to balance your entire body weight on. We’ll get those little horns that honk like we had when were were kids and big tall flags to go on the back of our bikes so when we’re about to crest a hill, the kids will know we’re a coming! I used to have a battery operated loudspeaker on my bicycle with a little cb type handset that let me talk to people as I passed and that could come in real handy, too. “Hey Amy! What’s for supper?” as we drive by a friend’s house. Or the occasional “EHHH!” really loud if we see a kid, dog, or random person about to do something they should know better than to do. ~giggles~ That would be fun. Remind me to start a gang in my spare time. Y’all go ahead and pick out a name...

Oh look, our soup is done! If there are any leftovers, they refrigerate and even freeze well. I thought I’d have leftovers from this but after teenage son ate two bowls and husband ate three…then I myself came back for another bowl…it disappeared pretty fast.

Slow Cooker Pasta Fagoli (Small Batch)

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef (or Italian sausage), browned and drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup matchstick carrots (or 1 cup finely diced carrots)
28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
15 ounce can tomato sauce
15 ounce can kidney beans, drained
15 ounce can navy or cannoli beans, drained
15 ounce can beef stock
2 tablespoons italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 cup water
1 cup dried pasta, I'm using little rings.

Instructions

Place everything but the pasta into a 5-6 quart slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover with lid and cook on low, 7-8 hours or high, 3-4 hours.
Thirty minutes before serving, stir in pasta and cover again until pasta is done (about 20 minutes).
Serve topped with shredded cheese if you like.

To make on stove top, combine all ingredients except for pasta. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add pasta and continue to cook for 15 minutes more, or until pasta is done.

Makes about 4 quarts.

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Thursday, May 2, 2013