Sweet and Sour Beef Over Rice: Crock-Pot Recipe

I really want to get into the habit of trying new recipes more often. I'm thinking that will be one of my New Year's Resolutions this coming year, so why not start gearing myself up for it now.

It's funny all of the cookbooks we have. Joe and I used to pick up a new cookbook almost everytime we went to Sam's Club while we were first living together so many years ago.

Those cookbooks have gone neglected lately since Food Network has gotten so popular and recipes are so readily available on the Internet.

Since I don't have a lot of free time since Gracie's arrival, it's difficult for me to find time to sit at the computer in the guest room to browse for recipes. So, while she's in her bouncy seat or her swing, I like to sit on the couch and flip through the pages of some of our cookbooks.

The recipe I want to share today is from the Rival Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Cuisine cookbook. I'm thinking about trying this recipe this week. I'm sure that I will be making some changes to it (since I almost always change something in a recipe), but for now, I'll post it as it appears in the book.

Sweet and Sour Beef Over Rice

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. boneless chuck
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 2 Tbs. margarine or butter
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp. salt
• pepper to taste
• 4-6 carrots diagonally sliced

Directions:

• Cut beef into 1-inch cubes.
• Mix together flour, salt, and pepper.
• Dredge beef cubes in mixture.
• In a skillet, heat margarine and olive oil and brown beef cubes.
• Place browned beef in the Crock-Pot.
• Add remaining ingredients except for carrots.
• Cover and cook on Low for 8-9 hours or on High for 4-5 hours.
• Add carrots and cook on Low 1 1/2 hours or on High for 30 minutes.
• Serve over rice.
• Serves 6.

I'll be linking this Crock-Pot recipe to Dining with Debbie's Crock Pot Wednesday.

I will also re-post MY version of this recipe after I make it (later this week), either here or at My Vintage Kitchen (my food/kitchen related blog), so be sure to check back!

Soup Party aka Souper Bowl Party Crock Pot Style

My post for this week's Crock Pot Wednesday, isn't a recipe. But a tip involving the use of my crock pots:

Hubby and I wanted to host the last Super Bowl Party. Since I was pregnant at the time, I didn't want to spend that entire day cooking and washing dishes.

We decided to serve a pot of Chili and a pot of Chicken Corn Chowder and we ordered buffalo wings.

On the Thursday before Super Bowl, I did all of my chopping. Friday, I prepared the Chicken Corn Chowder on the stove. On Saturday, I prepared the Chili on the stove. On Sunday, before we left to pick up the wings, we put the Chili and Chowder in crock pots set on low. By the time we returned, we turned the crocks to the "keep warm" setting and started to put out some snacks (chips, veggie tray, cheese, crackers, etc). Everything was ready when our friends arrived.

Preparing the food ahead of time really helped to ease a lot of stress and helped to make hosting a lot more enjoyable. Clean up was simple since all of the cooking dishes were already done the two days before. I was able to visit with our friends and relax knowing that there was plenty of food being kept warm in the crocks.

I'm hoping to host New Year's Eve this year, (since I'd rather not be traveling with the baby this year) and if we do, I'll definitely be putting my crock pots to work!

Avoiding Morning Sickness Due to Cooking Smells

While I've been reading Kitchen Tips Tuesdays for some time now, this is the first time I am participating in Tammy's blog carnival. For more great kitchen related tips and solutions, be sure to check out Tammy's Recipes.



I have some serious issues with smells and fragrances. I'm very particular about perfumes and scented candles and even smells of food. This is the case on any normal day.

When I was pregnant, my issues with smells were magnified 100 times! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but one little smell of something cooking and I was off and running to the bathroom to...well, you know....hurl. Ugh! It was awful!

Cooking smells seemed to be the worst offender during my pregnancy. As a result, we were eating a lot of take out and fast food. That got old pretty quick. So did cold cereal.

After a few weeks of not being able to cook anything myself, my husband started to use the grill to make some quick meals. Grilled chicken or steak. He was using the grill just outside the garage door, so that he could keep warm in the garage while the food was cooking.

That gave me the idea to use my crock pot in the garage. We have an attached garage, so it's not too difficult to fill the crock pot in the kitchen and set it up on a table in the garage, keeping the cooking smells out of the house itself!

Plus, using the crock pot in the garage frees up the little bit of counter space I have in the kitchen.

On my other blog, I've posted a recipe for Crock Pot Ravioli. This was a favorite of mine while I was pregnant, because it was so simple and a definite fix and forget type meal.

I'm also sharing this tip on Crock Pot Wednesday, since it's crock pot related.

And I am also sharing with Works for me Wednesday. It worked for me!