Slow Cooker Pork Stew

Crockpot recipes are my favorite meals to prepare for dinner because it's something I can get ready in the morning or the night before, and then when I get home and I'm tired, dinner is ready to go.

This pork stew recipe is a mixture of different recipes I've tried over the years and tweaked to make my own. It's fairly easy. The only thing is, while you can eat it on its own, it's far far far superior on a bed of white rice (which will take some extra time when you get home, but not too much). Thankfully, rice is easy.

Slow Cooker Pork Stew

Stew Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds pork stew meat (cut into 1-inch cubes - I buy it pre-cut at the store)
1 packet of dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 TSP beef bullion
1 cup water
3 carrots (sliced)
1/2 onion (chopped)
1 stalk celery (sliced)
1 can whole tomatoes (keep the juice, don't drain)
2 cloves garlic (crushed) or 2 TSP garlic powder
2 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP smoked paprika
1 TSP rosemary
1 can of green beans
1 can of yellow corn
Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown pork stew meat in non stick skillet

Rice Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked white rice
2 cups water
1/4 TBSP butter

Directions:

1) First start by browning the pork stew meat over the stovetop in a large skillet (I prefer a non stick pan that is easier to wash...)

2) While the meat is browning, get all the other ingredients ready and start chopping up the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.

3) You'll also want to open up the cans of green beans, corn, and tomatoes.

Chop your veggies

4) Cook the water in the microwave until bubbling (a few minutes) and add in the beef bullion. You can also use beef broth if you have it on hand, but I use bullion to save money (and because I can never remember to buy cans of broth).

5) Put the beef in your slow cooker with the dry onion soup mix, the beef broth, carrots, celery, chopped onion, green beans, corn ,and tomatoes.

6) Pour in the seasonings (smoked paprika, salt & pepper, and rosemary) and mix into the pork stew.


7) Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours

8) Once home, heat the water in a pot and add in the butter until the water is boiling.

9) Add rice and stir into pot. Cook for about 30 minutes until rice is tender.

10) While rice is cooking, add the cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water, and then turn the heat to high and stir until the stew is thickened.

11) When rice is done, pour stew over bed of rice and serve!

Chicken & Sausage Spaghetti Alfredo

This recipe is something I developed on my own. This recipe is for my fellow moms out there who love Fettuccine Alfredo but either 1) forget to buy fettuccine, or 2) want to add a little spice to the normal recipe.

This one is a combination, adding in peas, sausage and chicken to the normal recipe. The other big change is fettuccine. The reason I don't use fettuccine is because it takes so much longer to cook fettuccine, and when you're in a rush (because kids don't always let you cook leisurely), spaghetti is a faster noodle to cook. And my kids will actually eat it.

Chicken & Sausage Spaghetti Alfredo

Ingredients:

1 12oz pkg of spaghetti noodles
1 8oz pkg of pork sausage
2 chicken breasts (thawed)
1 cup of frozen peas
1 15oz creamy Alfredo pasta sauce (Bertolli, Ragu, Classico, etc.)
Parmeson cheese
1 Tsp Olive or Vegetable Oil
Dash of salt
1 1/2 Tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tsp onion powder

(Don't you love how few ingredients there are for this recipe? Me too)

1) First, start off my thawing out the chicken breasts in the microwave and cutting them up into cubes (or buy them pre-sliced or pre-cubed from the grocery store). If you freeze your sausage after buying it - I do this - start thawing it out in the microwave too.

2) While your chicken and sausage are thawing out, start boiling water. I always add a dash of salt and oil into the pot of boiling water.

Cook peas with spaghetti noodles

3) When the water is boiling, add your noodles. I break the spaghetti noodles in half before cooking them because I've found it's easier for little kids to eat. Not to mention the noodles (drenched in sauce) don't end up leaving as many stains.

4) Add frozen peas into the boiling pot to cook with the noodles.








5) Cook the cubed chicken breasts and sausage in a frying pan and add in the seasonings. Ground up the sausage and mix together with the chicken.

Cook chicken with sausage meat

6) Once the noodles are soft and peas are cooked, drain water and set said.

7) Once the chicken and sausage are thoroughly cooked, add into the noodles and peas mixture.

8) Add in the Alfredo sauce and cook for 5 minutes on the stovetop.

9) Serve in bowls and sprinkle parmeson on each serving.

10) Enjoy!

Why do I love this recipe?

It's easy, it's fairly healthy. Alright, the sausage and Alfredo sauce aren't that healthy, but at least it has a vegetable, meat, and carbs combined in a meal that kids will eat.

Chicken Stir Fry

How do you get your kids to eat their vegetables?

This is pretty much the most difficult thing for kids, next to bed time, not hitting, wake up time, yelling indoors, and no running at the pool. But over the years, I've found one solid answer: pretend they're not vegetables. And the best way to do that is: sauce & seasonings.

That's why Chicken Stir Fry is one of my all-time favorite dishes, because it's relatively healthy (if you forget about all the sodium in soy sauce). It has chicken, a lot of vegetables, and rice. And the nice thing is, if you're missing a couple vegetables, you can always add different ones. This time, we didn't have peas in our house, so we worked around it.

Any vegetables you're missing, you're fine. Let's be honest here. If your kids are eating even one vegetable, it's cause for celebration.

Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:
1 6oz bag of Frozen peas
1 6oz bag of Frozen green beans (or canned)
1 6oz bag of Frozen corn (or canned)
1 6oz bag of Frozen broccoli
1/2 medium-sized onion
1 1/2 cups of uncooked white rice (or other type is fine too)
2 thawed chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 cup soy sauce (light sodium)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
1/2 TSP powdered or minced ginger
1 TSP garlic powder (or minced garlic
1 TSP smoked paprika
2 whole carrots (can use mini carrots)
1/4 TBSP butter
1 TBSP vegetable oil
Salt & Pepper for seasoning

I try to keep this recipe really simple (if you're the type that likes natural veggies that aren't pre-frozen, etc., you might be reading the wrong recipe blog). Time is important. I'd rather use my time playing with my kids than slaving over a hot stove. Or taking a bubble bath. Or relaxing. Or just about anything other than slaving over a hot stove.

Directions:

1) Rice is going to take the longest. So I measure out 3 cups of water (adding in a pinch of salt and butter) on the stove and once the water is boiling, add in your rice. (The rice is always half the amount of water you add. So if you want more rice, add more water)

2) Next, if you're using frozen chicken, start thawing it out in the microwave.

3) Add oil to your wok and cook on medium heat. Then chop the carrots and onions and toss them in the wok (they need to cook the longest)

4) Then add in the rest of your vegetables and close the lid on the wok to cook.

5) Next chop your chicken breasts into cubes and toss them into the vegetable mixture in your wok.

***There's another option to this if you want your chicken to be a little more sauce-y (see what I did there?) and you have extra time. Marinate the chicken with the soy sauce mixture described next) and then chop the chicken and add to the vegetables.

Marinating your chicken in the soy sauce mixture

6) The sauce is the best part. Mix the brown sugar, cornstarch and soy sauce together in a small bowl, and then pour onto the chicken and vegetables.

7) Season the chicken and vegetables with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.

Combine chicken and vegetables!

8) Let your chicken and vegetables mixture cook for another 5-10 minutes (depending on how hungry your family are and how long they're willing to wait) and then serve over rice.

9) Enjoy your kids eating vegetables without whining (hopefully).

Yum!