I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised at the abilities a crock pot brings to the cooking repertoire. It might have taken me most of the last five years to learn how to cook, but I am finally taking the lead more often and preparing food so Wife can just get home and relax after her long trip back and forth now that she is driving to San Antonio every day.
For the first three years, I just played dumb and relied on Bill Miller, Whataburger, Panda Express, and the rest of the fast food here in Southpark Meadows to survive during the week, always figuring we would eat home cooked meals on the weekend. Well, I guess Wife has kind of lost her mojo because she too isn't dying to jump in the kitchen to rattle some pans. Because of how we eat nowadays, it is not the worst thing, since we rely a lot on the grill outside for starters. I love grilling on a Sunday and then enjoying the leftovers Monday and even Tuesday. Yesterday, I took the 2-3 breasts I had grilled, stripped them of all the meat, cut it into cubes and put it on top of some salad for lunch. Sometimes, I like to take some leftover sausages and beef and cut it up and mix it with some eggs to make some tacos.
The crockpot has been used sparingly, but it usually delivers. Last week I made a pork butt which was very good, then the leftovers stayed in the fridge for a few days, but Wife eventually took that meat and mixed in some eggs to turn it into Sunday morning breakfast. Not only is the meat easy to prepare this way, we are eating most of it, very little gets thrown away weekly.
Today, I made a beef stew which was a first time for me. I bought a pack of beef meat already cut into chunks, about four pounds, and put it in the crockpot with a quart of beef broth, a whole onion cut up, and plenty of spices. I put it on at 8:00am and it looked about ready by 4:00pm. At that point, I added a bunch of vegetables from a frozen bag to complete the meal. Wife got home after 6:00pm and microwaved a small bag of cauliflower rice to mix it in, but as she said, it really didn't need it.
I am trying not to get home and eat a heavy meal at night, so I just got a small bowl to taste my creation. I thought it was very good, the meat was tender and broke apart while I tried chewing it. It went down perfectly with a big spoon, I could have had another bowl if I wasn't trying to diet.
I have another pork package labeled "carnitas" for probably next week, being that it is Thursday tomorrow and I already have a whole cut up chicken ready to go. We are then having a party of sorts for Baby A and he wants me to smoke him a brisket and ribs for his buddies. We will be in the weekend in no time.
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