Sweet Potato Corn Muffins

Things didn't go exactly as planned this week. Husband was sick and not in the mood for hearty eating. I had a few sweet potatoes left that I was planning on making oven fries with, but instead I figured I'd try to make something less perishable from them. Never mind all the baking stuff I already have around the house. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Cornbread and was off to the races.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 sweet potatoes or 1 (16 ounce) can sweet potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil (I used canola)

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately; pour into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Notes:
-Given my repeated failures baking any kind of cornbread with GF flour, I used regular old wheat baking flour just like the recipe says.
-I baked three sweet potatoes at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and probably should have kept them in there for an hour.
-I added a half teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
-I used light brown sugar, not regular sugar, and probably used closer to 3/4 a cup than a half.

The result was a little nutty, a little sweet, perfect for breakfast or a dinner side. I'll definitely make these again someday.

The Super Salad

BEHOLD. The Super Salad.

It contains all things good and delicious:

Spinach

Bacon

Hardboiled eggs

Avocado

Tomato

Carrot

Celery

Kalamata olives

Olive oil

Vinegar

It is the world's best and easiest-to-make dinner, if you make the bacon and eggs ahead of time. 

EVEN BETTER with pepitas, parsley, peppers, and broccoli--but that's the beauty of the super salad. 

No Onions, No Garlic: Comforting Crockpot Beef Chili

Ingredients and prices:

2 lbs of organic ground beef at Whole Foods. $16! :( this had better serve a goddamn village when I'm done.
28 oz can crushed tomatoes ($1.99)
16 oz can organic diced tomatoes, sodium-free ($2.99)
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped green bell pepper
2 zucchini, grated
1 16 oz bag dried kidney beans, hot soaked
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp oregano
4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

My last chili recipe used twice the spices and no sugar, and had paprika. I omitted paprika because I found some kind of insect nesting in my paprika I bought from Kalustyan's ew ew ew ew. To do: find spice jars.

The beef was frozen, so I put it in the slow cooker first on high and added the crushed tomatoes for a couple of hours.

Once it was tender enough to be broken into pieces, I added the vegetables and spices.

After about an hour I added the hot soaked kidney beans. (Note: Beans are very high FODMAP foods. Omit if to reduce FODMAPs.)

Then I cooked on low for another three hours. Truth be told, it could have used more time to soften up the beans... or I could have just used canned beans. But overall, it turned out great.

Serving suggestions: in a bowl with cheese and tortilla chips; in a taco with avocado and cheese; on a baked sweet potato (pictured above) with cheese; on a hot dog!

Blueberry Banana Ginger Breakfast Bread

So, what to do with all my leftovers?

After some intrepid Googling, I found this recipe for Blueberry-Banana Muffins with ginger.

I adapted it to work with the ingredients I had on hand, and my laziness. Namely, substituting rice flour for whole wheat flour, fresh ginger for dried, adding more sugar, and using whole flaxseed instead of ground because I didn't feel like grinding.

This is NOT a low-FODMAP food, due to all that wheat flour and who knows what else. But it was delicious. In fact, it only made for 4 servings. Cost-wise it's a disaster on its own, but given I'd already bought all these ingredients for other purposes at some point, it worked out well.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup all-purpose unbleached wheat flour

½ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup whole flaxseed

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp candied (crystallized) ginger, very finely diced

1 egg

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 tsp fresh mashed ginger

¼ cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1½ cups ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 large)

1 carton fresh blueberries

Instructions:

1. Combine dry ingredients (oats, flours, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, candied ginger) and set aside. 

2. In a new bowl, beat sugars, egg, oil, and vanilla extract; add ginger and banana and mix well. 

3. Mix together with dry ingredients. Fold in blueberries. 

4. Pour mixture into a well-greased bread loaf pan. 

5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes or so. 

It was very, very moist, and could have been cooked a little longer. And perhaps taken fewer blueberries. But it was good! Success! 

Wednesday: Chicken Egg Drop Soup with Ginger (Low FODMAP)

I've gotten into the habit of cooking a whole chicken every Sunday, and saving the juice/meat/bones for uses later in the week. Last Sunday I made both a huge batch of bone broth (using frozen bones from 3 chickens, 1 turkey, set at 24 hours in the crockpot) and also made a whole roast chicken in the crockpot (1 organic chicken, rub with salt and pepper, set on low for 8 hours) I'm having fun coming up with uses for all of it.

To top it all off I came down with some sort of bug, and it being January and all, it's the perfect time for variations on chicken soup.

I drew on this post from the Kitchn for inspiration and added a few other goodies, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's a little on the light side for dinner, but served with the right side dish could make for a good staple. 

Ingredients (per serving):

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup precooked chicken meat

1 egg, whisked

Crushed fresh ginger to taste

Optional:
Handful of salad greens

Fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Soy sauce to taste

Hot sauce to taste

Green onions (not for low-FODMAP diets)

Instructions:

1. Heat up chicken broth and chicken meat. Add ginger, salt and pepper, salad greens if you're using them, and stir. Bring to a boil and turn off burner.

2. Stir in whisked egg.

3. Add lemon juice, soy sauce, hot sauce, and anything else your heart desires and your gut can tolerate.

4. Serve and eat fast.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

Prep time: 10 min.

Servings: 1
Agony rating: 2/10. 
Taste and stuff: 8/10. Bonus points for being super healthy and warming!

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

It's hard to parse out the cost of the ingredients, but I'll approximate this was $2 worth of chicken and stock, $0.70 per egg, and $0.50 for little dribs and drabs of everything else - or $3.20 per serving. A little more expensive than I'd thought, but it's mostly about the chicken. 

Sunday: Green and Red Bell Peppers with Sausage and Celery

This week's grocery haul, for $99.33:
-3 green bell peppers
-3 red bell peppers
-1 bag celery
-1 bag organic carrots
-1 bunch parsley
-1 head broccoli
-5 tomatoes on the vine
-1 box prewashed baby spinach
-1 bunch bananas
-1 carton blueberries
-1 jar pitted Kalamata olives
-Small bottle of low-sodium soy sauce
-1/2 lb roast chicken and 1/3 lb pepperjack cheese from the deli
-3 Fage yogurts
-4 cans Sixpoint Sweet Action Ale
-2 bags tortilla chips
-1 whole organic chicken
-1 package (5 links) pork sausage
-1 box instant oatmeal, variety pack
-1 can unsalted roasted peanuts
-6 organic eggs

I carried it all home on my back, like a sherpa. I'll probably need to get more salad greens later in the week, along with ginger, lemons, and anything else I forgot.

Yesterday's dinner was pretty slapdash, as in, I made it up on the fly, but I'm happy enough with how it turned out.

Green and Red Bell Peppers with Sausage and Celery

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 pack sausage
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
2 stalks celery
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, unsalted
Rice (5-6 cups cooked)
Not pictured: canola oil, pinch cumin, pinch oregano, pinch cayenne, salt and pepper, hot sauce, chicken stock

Instructions:

1. Cut sausage links into small pieces. I like slicing quarters. Brown in large saucepan in a neutral-tasting oil, like canola.
2. Chop celery into small pieces. Add to sausage, stir, and let soften.
3. Chop green and red bell peppers into small pieces. Add to the pot, stir. Wait 2 minutes.
4. Add can of diced tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Add spices as you like.
5. Make large amount of rice using leftover chicken stock.
6. Serve with hot sauce.

I served this after a hefty Super Salad (spinach, celery, olives, tomatoes, carrots, parsley, olive oil and vinegar) and it made for a quite satisfying, almost-too-heavy meal.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

Prep time: 20-30 min. Chopping, chopping, watching football, chopping.

Servings: 4
Agony rating: 3/10. 
Taste and stuff: 7/10. 

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

I, um, threw away the receipt by accident, but the sausage was $5.99, the can o'tomatoes $2.99, so it's safe to estimate the total cost was no higher than $14 including the vegetables (and that's aggressive) or $3.50/serving.

This afternoon I'm making bone broth in the slow cooker, with a freezer's worth of leftover chicken and turkey bones. At the recommendation of a Ukrainian friend, I removed the bones after 24 hours and pounded them with a meat hammer (er, really an ice cream scoop) to let some of the marrow out. Then I put them back in. Eventually I'm going to add some bay leaves, peppercorns, etc but I don't want things to get bitter.

At some point I'm going to slow roast a whole chicken in there, to give us meat for the week... and more bones!

Meal plan for the week:

Breakfast: Bananas and oatmeal (him) broth, berries, and yogurt (her)
Lunch: Sandwiches (him) ??? (her)
Dinners: Peppers and Sausage with rice; Superveggie salad with roast chicken and hardboiled eggs; Use leftover rice and chicken to make chicken and rice soup (with lemon and ginger?) or egg drop soup

Friday: Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Homemade Low-FODMAP Taco Seasoning

No onions, no garlic, no problem. In accordance with my husband's new low-FODMAP mandate from his doctor, I tried my hand at a low-FODMAP variation of my usual pork shoulder taco recipe. Basically this means ditching the beans and storebought salsa and taco seasoning. This one turned out pretty tasty, though next time I might have a heavier hand with the spices.

Ingredients:

Frozen pork shoulder from Whole Foods (they cut off the skin! woohoo!)
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, no sodium
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 grated fresh carrot, for sweetness
Lime juice to taste

Homemade low-FODMAP taco seasoning:

2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper

Pour diced tomatoes into crockpot and lay pork shoulder on top. Surround with frozen corn and add spices and carrot. Since my pork shoulder was frozen and I want to eat it tonight, I put it straight into the crockpot and set it on high, then switched to low after 6 hours for 10 hours total.

Serve with corn tortillas, shredded pepperjack or cheddar cheese, lime, and fresh chopped cilantro. Add avocado or sour cream if your gut can tolerate FODMAPs. 

Monday: Low FODMAP Crockpot Turkey Chili

There's nothing better than curling up with a bowl of hot chili on a brisk November day. But what to do if you're trying to avoid beans, onions, and garlic--ie the basic building blocks of chili? Turns out, it *is* possible, with a little creativity and elbow grease, to make low-FODMAP chili. (The secret's in the cumin and oregano...) I cobbled this recipe together from a mishmash of recipes I found online. You can easily substitute ground pork or beef for the turkey, or add other low-FODMAP veggies like squash. I'm definitely planning on making this again soon!

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground turkey (leg meat)
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 zucchini, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz. can low-sodium diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
4 teaspoons paprika
7 teaspoons oregano
8 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like it spicy)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa

1. Brown turkey in a saucepan with a tablespoon of a neutral-tasting oil, like canola.
2. Chop and grate vegetables and add to crockpot. Measure out spices and add. Open cans of tomato stuff and add. Stir.
3. Scoop browned turkey onto the vegetable mix. Cook in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.
4. Serve in a bowl with shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream and avocado if you tolerate them.

This came out really lovely, maybe a little intense on the spices, but the cumin and oregano completely compensate for the lack of FODMAP foods like onion and garlic.

I used 1.2 lbs of ground turkey and was disappointed when this only made about half a crockpot's worth of chili. Kind of a waste. Next time I'm adding more turkey and veggies, with the same amount of spices. 

Sunday: Easy Delicious Low-FODMAP Lemon Rosemary Chicken With Zucchini and Arborio Rice

The temperature in Brooklyn dropped precipitously the past few days, and I have a hankering for some hot comfort food. This recipe for One-Pot Lemon Chicken and Zucchini with Rice from Simple Bites is one of my favorite recipes of all time and fits the bill perfectly. It' super easy to make, consists of simple ingredients, and tastes amazing. And it's a one-pot recipe from start to finish, using a Dutch oven, and leaves minimal dishes to wash afterwards. I modify the recipe slightly to accommodate for low-FODMAP needs and I just use regular lemons since my grocery doesn't have Meyer ones. Plus it's one of zillions of uses for chicken stock, which I still have plenty of from the past few weeks. Note to self: DEFROST the chicken stock well before...

Ingredients:

1-1.5 lbs deboned skinless chicken thighs
Canola or other light cooking oil
1 cup arborio rice
1 1/4 cup chicken stock
2-4 zucchini, sliced in rounds
2 lemons
Dried rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat inside of a 4-quart dutch oven with a neutral-tasting oil.
2. Rinse rice until water comes out clean, then pour into the dutch oven. Add broth and stir.
3. Arrange chicken on top of the rice, and season with salt and pepper.
4. Slice 1 lemon into rounds and arrange on top of chicken. Add the zucchini on top of the lemon. [NOTE: if you're cooking with garlic, add the garlic to the zucchini.]
5. Halve the other lemon and juice half over the top, reserving the other half for serving, if desired. Top with rosemary sprigs and cover.
6. Bake in oven for 45 minutes. [NOTE: The original recipe calls for 35-40 minutes, but I like mine a little slushier.]

Remove lemons (or at least tell your diners they're just a garnish!) Sprinkle with Parmesan before serving, if so desired. Makes 4 servings. 

Thursday: Fall Vegetable Stew with Beef

This morning I took the butternut squash out of the crockpot and let it cool off. 

I had a bunch of vegetables left over from previous recipes and some carrots and kale from the farmers market. So last night I prepped all the vegetables and stuck them in the fridge. This morning I mixed all the ingredients and set the crockpot for 6 hours on low.

Ingredients:

Cooked beef from making beef stock
2 zucchini, sliced in rounds
1 bunch of carrots from the farmer's market, sliced in rounds
1/2 head broccoli, chopped
2 red potatoes, quartered
1 bunch elephant kale from farmer's market, chopped
1 bunch fresh sage, parsley, and thyme
1 16 oz can unsalted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn
4 cups beef broth 

Remove the herbs, and serve with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

Voila! Beef stew.

For dessert we had the butternut squash with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt. Yum!

Tuesday: Low-FODMAP Thai Chicken Noodle Soup with Fresh Carrot, Cilantro, and Lime

Today I went all high culture and made a low FODMAP variation of this recipe which I found on the back of a Thai Kitchen box of rice noodles. It took virtually no prep time--because I already had the chicken stock made, thawed, and chicken meat cooked.

Ingredients:

1/2 package (4 oz) rice noodles

1 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken meat

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup water

4 cups chicken stock 

1 carrot (peeled or julienned)

2 tablespoons Thai Kitchen fish sauce (ingredients: anchovy, sugar, salt)

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt to taste

1. Boil 8 cups of water; remove from heat. Add rice noodles and let sit for 3 minutes. Strain and rinse with cold water; set aside.

2. In your serving bowls add chicken and cilantro; add noodles. Set aside.

3. Bring water, chicken stock, carrot peelings, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir well and remove from heat. Pour over chicken, cilantro, and noodle mix and serve hot.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

  

Prep time: 10 min. Boil water, chop cilantro, squeeze limes, peel carrot. 
Servings: 2 (makes 4-6 with more noodles and doubling measurements)
Agony rating: 3/10. 
Taste and stuff: 7/10. Very light and could use a little hot sauce.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

Rice noodles: $4 per box, and I used half a box, so $2
Organic carrot: $0.75

Cilantro: $0.99 bunch, used about a handful so $0.25
Limes: 5 for $1, so $0.20
Cooked chicken: left over from weekend, but probably around $5 worth
Chicken stock: left over from weekend

Total cost of stuff I had to buy special: $8.20
Cost per serving: $4.10

VERDICT: SUCCESS. 

Low FODMAP Chicken Tortilla Soup with Cilantro and Lime

This week worked out well in terms of all the food prep I did Sunday. On Monday we had chicken broccoli bake leftovers. Tuesday was beef stew leftovers. Wednesday was spinach salad with cooked chicken (from the stock-making Sunday,) olives, and pumpkin seeds. Thursday was the least successful - I made quinoa pasta and covered it with the faux celery pesto, olives, more cooked chicken, olive oil and parmesan. That was kind of meh. Celery leaves and parsley are VERY overwhelming-tasting, it turns out. 

So tonight I wanted to use some of that rich chicken stock as well as the rest of the cooked chicken.

I got my inspiration from this post on The Kitchn which features six easy ways to turn chicken stock into dinner. They all sound great, especially the rice and egg soup. But since I had all this cooked chicken already I decided to give this one a try. It's low-FODMAP and low sodium if you decide to keep it that way (if you have a light hand with the tortilla chips, that is.) This turned out great and I can't wait to try all the other chicken stock recipes.

Ingredients:

Chicken stock
Shredded chicken
16 oz can unsalted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen sweet corn
Shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese
Chopped cilantro
Crumbled tortilla chips
Fresh lime juice
Salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

Heat chicken broth until simmering. Add shredded cooked chicken, corn, and can of diced tomatoes. Heat until hot. Pour into bowls and top with crumbled tortilla chips, shredded cheese, lime juice, and cilantro.

FACTS AND FIGURES 
  
Prep time: 10 min. Open can of tomatoes, chop cilantro, and slice and squeeze limes. 
Servings: 4.
Agony rating: 1/10. Super easy if you have the cooked chicken already.
Taste and stuff: 8/10. Delish.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

Organic diced tomatoes, salt-free: $1.99
Garden of Eatin' Yellow Tortilla Chips: $2.99
Kraft shredded Mexican cheese: $2.50; about half a bag so $1.25
Frozen organic sweet corn: $2.99/10oz, so about $0.50 worth
Cilantro: $0.99 bunch, used about a handful so $0.25
Limes: 5 for $1, so $0.20
Cooked chicken: left over from last weekend, but probably around $14
Chicken stock: left over from last weekend

Total cost of stuff I had to buy special: $7.18 without the chicken; $21.18 with
Cost per serving: $1.80/$5.30

VERDICT: SUCCESS. 

FODMAP Free Sunday

This weekend I got busy in the kitchen making FODMAP-free foods for the fam.

#1: Whole Chicken Chicken Stock (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

Organic whole chicken including giblets
Handful fresh parsley from farmers market
3 stalks sad little celery from farmers market
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 carrot from the farmers market

Put it all in the crockpot with a buncha water and set to 20 hours on low. Results TBD. I'll take the cooked chicken out tomorrow and use for salads/sandwiches.

#2: Chicken Broccoli Cheese Bake (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
Organic chicken cutlets
Olive oil
1/2 head broccoli
Parmesan cheese
Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper

Cook rice, cook chicken in dutch oven. Steam broccoli. Mix it all together and bake for 15 min. Went over well. But will it reheat? Probably four servings.

#3 FODMAP Friendly Pumpkin Bread (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

1 cup canola oil
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups quinoa flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix oil, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and water; add flour, bp, bs, salt, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla; stir a little. Preheat oven to 350. For muffins, bake for 35 min. For bread, 50 min. These were DELICIOUS. Half the muffins are already gone. Probably all that sugar + oil! {NOTE: The bread was a little squishy near the middle. Might need to bake it longer at a lower temperature.}

#4 Fall Beef Stew (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

1 lb organic beef chunks
1/2 cup or so of quinoa flour
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 16 oz can salt-free diced tomatoes
2 carrots from the farmers market
5 turnips from the farmers market
5 red potatoes from the farmers market
1 tiny celery stalk chopped up real small
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 2/3 cups water
1/3 cup dry red wine
1 tsp thyme

Coat beef chunks in flour, salt and pepper; brown. Add liquids and stir in the rest of the flour; add veggies and spices; bring to a boil and pop in the oven for an hour and a half at 350 degrees.

The beef was really tough, there were too many turnips, and while the carrots and potatoes were perfect consistency the turnips were very soft. But the flavor of the sauce was great. Wish I had beef stock and more wine on hand. Makes roughly four to six servings.

#5 Poor Woman's Pesto-like Power Spread

Is there such thing as a FODMAP-free garlic/pesto substitute? I made this one up. It's pungent and thrifty, but who knows if it will actually get eaten.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups turnip greens, celery leaves, parsley, broccoli
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan cheese
Balsamic vinegar

Boil water. Dip greens into the water for 30 seconds. Blend in blender. Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper,  splash of balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese to taste/consistency. Apparently this is very nutritious, if somewhat overpowering, and I probably should have cooked the turnip greens. Will try on pasta or crackers (?) Maybe a sandwich spread? Next time add kale, spinach, basil. Call it Soylent...

FACTS AND FIGURES
 
Prep time: I spent about four hours preparing everything, but that includes chatting with a friend and doing all the dishes.
Servings: Hard to tell; probably 4 each of the entrees.
Agony rating: 7/10. Peeling and chopping; browning meat; measuring ingredients for pumpkin bread; ay ay ay.
Taste and stuff: So far, so good!

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

I tossed the receipt, and bought many other things at the grocery, but the cost of all this food probably came in around $70-$80. That includes the fancy organic meat and the organic farmer's market vegetables and eggs. So overall this will probably come in around $6-$8 a serving once I use all the chicken in the slow cooker, which while not stupendous is certainly doable.

VERDICT: A day well spent. We will have breakfast and dinner for almost a full workweek. SUCCESS.

Dinner Under $2: Red Beans and Rice

The onion and red beans (and who knows what else they put in that Carolina mix) make this one bad for no-FODMAP folks, but it's otherwise a good bet.
The inspiration was a Hunts can of tomato sauce with onion, celery, and green pepper. These three ingredients, often known as the "holy trinity" of Louisiana cuisine, are the foundation of any good jambalaya, gumbo, etc.

Ingredients:

12 oz sweet Italian sausage
16 oz Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Onion, Pepper and Celery
8 oz Carolina Red Beans and Rice mix
1 tbsp butter





First, slice and brown sausage. I used butter.

While your sausage is cooking, make your rice & beans. Add tomatoes and sausage at some point near the end. It might be a little liquid-y.









Serve with hot sauce and smiles. It tastes just fine. I wish it stretched a little further, and also didn't contain enough salt - between the tomatoes and the red beans mix - to dissolve a football field full of slugs. But for a meal that took under 30 minutes to prepare, I'm not complaining.






FACTS AND FIGURES
 
Prep time: 40 min. Heat the pan, cook the sausage, cook the rice, etc ec.
Servings: 4.
Agony rating: 2/10. Really, just monitoring the sausage.
Taste and stuff: 6/10. Not bad.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

12 oz sweet Italian sausage: $3.99
16 oz Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Onion, Pepper and Celery: $1.34
8 oz Carolina Red Beans and Rice mix: $1.19
1 tbsp butter: marginal cost is essentially free
Servings: 4
Total cost of stuff I had to buy special: $6.52
Cost per serving: $1.63

VERDICT: SUCCESS. Add hot sauce.

Crockpot Chicken Sausage Stew with Peppers, Potatoes, and Mushrooms

So this meal was kind of a fiasco. I made it like a week ago and just got crazed the whole time. Inspiration for this one comes from Stephanie O'Dea's A Year of Slow Cooking, which is an excellent blog that you should read.

OK. Start by going to the grocery on Sunday. Or sending someone else to go. Acquire the following:

Two 6-packs of healthy chicken sausage
Two regular old potatoes
Two green peppers
Two red peppers
One carton mushrooms
*One carrot (Leftover from another recipe)
*Two sticks celery (Leftover from another recipe)
Optional & not pictured: Onions, broccoli, salad greens on the verge

Here's where it started to go wrong.

Chop vegetables into hearty chunks. BUT: Don't do it the way I did it, which was to start with the celery and peppers and then do carrots and potatoes last.

Not like this!

I tossed them in olive oil and, it being a Sunday night, stuck the whole thing in the fridge so that the cooking could commence Monday morning.

Then I woke up on Monday, looked at the recipe again, and realized that I was supposed to layer the vegetables in order of density. Because this is how slow cookers work. So I picked out all the peppers and mushrooms and celery and put them in a bowl. Remember, they are still covered in oil.

First this.

THEN add these.

Then I sliced up the sausage, threw it on top, turned the thing on low for six hours and ran to work.

Four hours later, I realized that I forgot to add any liquid to the mix. (The original recipe calls for a few cups of wine or water.) I indulged a few fantasies about my house burning down and/or my dog being driven insane by the smell of scorched chicken sausage... but thankfully, that's not how slow cookers work.

I got home and dinner was more or less ready.

Before.

After.

Better yet, the veggies had so much liquid in them that they provided a cup of juice. Crazy.

I served this over rice, with salt and hot sauce. It was filling but unremarkable.

FACTS AND FIGURES
 
Prep time: 30 min. Peeling, chopping, fretting, re-sorting, rice cooking, etc.
Servings: 6.
Agony rating: 3/10. Peeling and chopping veggies takes time.
Taste and stuff: 6/10. Not bad.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

Oh yeah, I also lost the receipt. So here is a guesstimate based on past prices/prices on label.
Chicken sausages: $6.99 ea x 2 = $13.98
Peppers: $3?
Potatoes: $2?
Mushrooms: $1.50
Celery, carrot: acquired earlier
Rice: $1?
Total cost of stuff I had to buy special:~$22?
Cost per serving: $3.67. Maybe.

VERDICT: SUCCESS. Add hot sauce.