Penne Pasta with Broccoli: This Week's Easy One Pot Meal

I liked it, but I think it needed both more broccoli and more cheese. We added a little extra parmesan, gave it a bit of salt and pepper, and then, it was good!

But I think next time, I'll add some fresh broccoli to really yum it up!!

What have you been cooking lately?

See you Thursday!

Jeanine

I Think It's Becoming a Favorite...

Today, we decided to bring back an "old favorite" for tonight's easy one pot meal, though it's really not that old yet. It became a favorite pretty quickly.

Family Day: An Easy One Pot Meal to Celebrate

We had a wonderful dinner on Monday for family day and then, had the leftovers tonight! It was spaghetti and meatballs, beanpot style.

The only thing that went wrong was that I didn't put the spaghetti in for long enough. It was a little too al dente, if you know what I mean.

But it was all good by as leftovers!! I can't wait to make it again!

See you Thursday :)

Jeanine

Wordless Wednesday: A Repeat Easy One Pot Meal

Pot Roast: A "Comfort Food" Easy One Pot Meal

Confession: this is not what we are having for dinner tonight. It's what I wish we were having! I could not even wrap my mind around getting dinner ready tonight in the beanpot.

So this is what I found for you, instead...

A pot roast recipe from Everyday Food.

Hopefully, I will get myself back in gear and come up with a beanpot recipe to try in the next few days and when I do, I'll take pics and come show all of you!

See you Thursday!!

Jeanine

Easy One Pot Meal: Beans in the Beanpot

We had a wonderful dinner on Tuesday night, with baked beans and bacon!! In fact, there were no leftovers and we had planned to leave some.

Here's the Recipe

Ingredients

Two cans of baked beans
4-6 tbsp. of maple syrup
1 tbsp. of brown sugar (I use cane)
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 tbsp. of dijon mustard
6-8 slices of cooked bacon

Instructions

Stir all the ingredients together (I would add the bacon after everything else has been blended and then, stir again)
Bake on low in the crockpot or 250 degrees in the beanpot for 3 hours

Barbecue Chicken Slow Cooking One Pot Meal

Easy One Pot Meal with BBQ Chicken

I forgot to take pictures but must tell you that experiment number two on my slow-cooking beanpot was a success!

However, I think I am learning that I prefer slow cooking and lower temperatures to get-it-done-faster and higher temps. But yesterday, we had errands to run and by the time I was back, with groceries put up and the oven warmed, it was mid-afternoon.

So I cooked it at 350 degrees for two hours. It was great, but not as tender as I would have liked. Today, I added bacon and mild cheddar cheese and warmed it up at 200-250 degrees and it was even better. We had sandwiches that were the absolute yummiest!

Didn't think of taking a picture of them, either, until I was halfway finished with mine.

Cleaning Up

I did have to run the hot water and let the beanpot soak while we ate because the I forgot cooking spray at the store and the butter just didn't work this time :).

However, it came right off and the pot is now resting comfortably in the dishwasher.

Tomorrow's Dinner

Tomorrow is cooking day for homeschooling and we picked mac and cheese. I haven't decided if I'm ready for that again so soon or would rather wait until next Friday. But an even more important question might be, do I have anything else?

I definitely don't feel like trekking back to the store just to make something different. So at this point, tomorrow's dinner is anybody's guess.

See you then!

Jeanine

Guess What's Slow Cooking Right Now?

Today was our first day back to homeschool and as part of the end of our homeschooling day, we not only decided on the easy one pot meal made with chicken barbecued in the beanpot, I let my son do all of the preparation except for pouring in the barbecue sauce.

Our meal is cooking in the oven right now! I'll let you know tomorrow if it was as yummy as I expect it to be.

Our day went well today! But we got a later start than planned so our dinner meal will be about an hour later than it usually is.

We began with tea and meditation, and then ate a quick breakfast before the start to our first homeschooling day of the year! It was fun to start again and I look forward to getting the rhythm of our days established so I don't even have to think about what to do first and what to do next.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Leftover Mac and Cheese, a Slow Cooking, One Pot Meal

Leftover Meal

After we finished dinner last time, there was still enough left in the beanpot for another meal. So I just put the beanpot in the refrigerator and took it out today for tonight's dinner. It is stoneware, so it's safe for the oven, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher.

But it is not a good idea to take it from the fridge and put it in the hot oven right away. I let it sit out for a couple of hours so it could return to room temperature.

I warmed it up at about the same temperature (200 degrees), and added some butter to it before I put it in and after I took it out to wake it up a little.

Just As Good

Our meal tonight was almost as yummydelicious as last night's except for missing that elusive fresh-from-the-oven thing that makes it just that much better on the night you cook it.

As I ate, I continued to marvel at how good it was! You know, when I am out at restaurants, I am wary of ordering macaroni and cheese because sometimes, it's not quite right. The cheese is too sharp or too gooey, or there's too much of it, or the texture is just off in some other way.

So it's dawning on me that when you are the one cooking it, if it turns out okay, you can create something that tastes exactly the way you want it! That amazes me!!

Best Slow Cooking Mac & Cheese I Have Ever Tasted!!

Oh...my...god!!

That macaroni and cheese truly was the best I have ever tasted. I cannot believe that I, reluctant cook, ordinary homeschooling mom, basically still a novice when it comes to new meals, made a mac and cheese that tasted that good!!! And I was so worried that something would go wrong.

I expected it to be crusty and dry but it surprised me and was anything but. It was just like I like it, not too cheesy, not too dry, soft and yummy comfort food!


I feel excited, now, about all my other planned one pot meals!! I asked my son if that wasn't the best mac and cheese I have ever made (I've only tried it once or twice before, I think) and he agreed rather enthusiastically that it was, LOL!

Here's what I cooked it in...

And I got the recipe from Three Ingredient Slow Cooker Comfort Foods.

Now this book's recipes are designed for a slow cooker that has "high" and "low" settings. Obviously, with my beanpot, I used oven temperatures. So I altered it a smidge. I cooked it at 250 degrees for 2 1/2 hours and that worked out perfectly!!



See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Three Homeschool Meal Plans

  

This year, I have been letting my son participate as much as possible in planning our homeschooling year.

We decided together which holidays we would incorporate into our homeschooling this year and he told me which ones he had had enough of for now. We decided that Fridays would be our cooking day and he asked to choose one meal a month to learn to cook by himself.

So today, we did a lot of meal planning. We used the beanpot cookbook and two other slow cooker, one pot meals cookbooks...

(1) First, we chose the eight meals he would learn during the school year.

What we're going to do is cook the same thing every Friday for a month with me helping until the last Friday and on that day, if he feels comfortable, he will cook without me. At least half of the eight meals are pasta (we love pasta) but I did coax him to branch out a bit and add some meals that were not pasta-based.

(2) Next, we planned the meals for September. My plan is to try something new on Mondays and Wednesdays, do the meal on Friday that he has chosen, order pizza on Saturdays (for pizza and game night) and have leftovers on the nights in between.

(3) We need to plan our sandwich lunches, too, but we’ll get to that another day this week. I like how quickly you can put lunch together if you make sandwiches, but they must be tasty!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Homeschool Cooking

My nine-year-old son is quite the budding young chef! We have been baking bread and making cookies and stirring spaghetti sauce together for years now. Late in the afternoon, we wait to hear "Hey, y’all!" and then, settle in to see what Paula Deen is cooking. Occasionally, we try something she’s made, usually a pasta dish.

And he now makes our oatmeal in the morning, except for pouring the boiling hot water on our Kashi apple-cinnamon oatmeal. I do that part!

So he has asked to cook some things all by himself.

What’s a homeschooling mom to do? Obviously, we will make cooking part of our homeschooling this year. Last year, we did it with baking bread using bread mixes. This year, I am planning to teach him to make at least 5 meals (a school week’s worth) by himself.

Though I still don’t have my beanpot, I did get another cookbook in this afternoon. This one has three-ingredient slow cooker, one-pot meal recipes.

I suspect we will pick our five from there. I’ll keep you posted!

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

P.S. I suspect that one of them will be the meal we had for lunch today: baked beans and bacon. Yum!

Just Hit the Motherlode of Slow Cooking, One Pot Meal Recipes

Today, a great big cookbook came in the meal, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. I wasn't expecting it to be so huge. Can't wait for my beanpot to arrive so I can try some of the recipes. I already have some great ideas to choose from for my first one!

At the grocery store today, I wanted to stock up on chopped chicken, onions, tomatoes and the like, but when I looked at the dates for most of them, I was afraid they wouldn't last enough.

So I'll load up next week!

I was telling my son about it and he was excited, too!

The beanpot recipes will be fun to try, too. A lot of them only have 2-3 ingredients. And only take a couple of hours.

See you tomorrow!

Jeanine

Looking Ahead to My First Slow Cooking, One Pot Meal...

My Beanpot

Just checked on my beanpot! It should arrive sometime next week. I can hardly wait to get started cooking in it!!

I ordered a couple of cookbooks that haven't gotten here, either, but I have seen another recipe I think I might try...

Beanpot Chicken

Place 5-6 breasts of chicken in the bean pot and pour 1 can chicken broth and 1 can of cream of celery or broccoli soup.

Add a few garlic cloves if you choose. Slow cook at 300° for several hours and serve over egg noodles or rice.

Option: add broccoli florets for the last few minutes.

Doesn't that sound yummy? With only 4-5 ingredients altogether, that you just dump in the pot!