Tag: crock pot

Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Pecans (Vegan)

Melissa King 96 Comments

Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Pecans.  The other day I happened to find an interesting recipe on Pinterest.  It was Vegan in the Freezer’s Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Walnuts.

I loved the idea of cooking the nuts in the crock pot.  Something I had never thought to try.  I am not a fan of walnuts, so I made slow cooked nuts with pecans.

 

slow cooker maple glazed pecans

 

My recipe is loosely adapted from hers.  These came out amazing!  I didn’t even cook them that long, but the maple syrup almost caramelizes.

So good! I love the salty sweet combo. It reminded me of the flavors in kettle corn.  The crock pot will seem like it’s going to be hard to clean.

Here is a trick.  Once the nuts are done, fill the crock pot with soapy water and turn it back on for a few minutes.  Then it will be super easy to clean.

Want to make this recipe?  Watch the video below!  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

Looking for more snack recipes?

Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Pecans

Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Pecans

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Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 2 hr

These Slow Cooker Maple Glazed Pecans are quite addicting and probably won’t last long! Enjoy!

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw all the ingredients in a crock pot
  2. Cook on low for a 1-3 hours making sure to stir often.
  3. Store them in a mason jar after they have cooled completely.

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Pear and Apple Quinoa

Melissa King 20 Comments

For those of you that have young children, you are very familiar with the baby food in squeeze pouches. Since my daughters struggled with eating, we went through a lot of them. They travel really well and it’s easy for kids to eat. However, they add up in price pretty fast and you are left with trash to throw away. I have been looking for a refillable squeeze pouch for a while now. Then I found out about a company called Little Green Pouch. They make easy to use refillable feeding pouches.

Olive Little Green Pouch

These little green pouches are:

  • BPA free, PCV free and phthalate-free
  • Freezable
  • Fill-able
  • Dishwasher safe
  • Squeezable (perfect for little hands)

Little Green Pouch is going to give away a large starter kit ($49 value) to one lucky reader. Contest is open to US and Canada residents only. Giveaway will end on November 27 at 12:00am CST.  Winner will be notified via email.  Good luck!

Little Green Pouch Giveaway

I knew when I first got the samples that I wanted to make a recipe to use in them. So I did a twist on my Crock Pot Applesauce.

This is a healthy recipe perfect for babies on soft solids as well as toddlers. My husband and I even enjoyed it and put in in our overnight oats. Great flavors!

Pear and Apple Quinoa

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Prep Time 30 min Cook Time 4 hr

A baby food you would be happy to serve to your child and eat yourself.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Throw all the ingredients except the quinoa in the  crock pot .
  2. Cook on high for about 3-4 hours. Once the apples and pears are soft and somewhat broken down, turn off the crock pot and let cool.
  3. Once cooled, add the quinoa and blend with an  immersion blender . If you don’t have an immersion blender , you can transfer mixture to a  blender and blend well.

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Recipe Notes

If you decide to use a blender, you may need to blend the mixture in 2 batches. It can be refrigerated for a few weeks and frozen for even longer. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Little Green Pouch but the opinions are my own.

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup (Vegan)

Melissa King 53 Comments

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup.  I love tomato soup. Back in the day, I used to really love Campbell’s tomato soup. You know the kind in the can that is loaded with sodium?

I used to bring one to work at least once a week. So I tried to create a homemade creamy tomato soup that is much tastier and with less sodium.

 

creamy tomato and carrot soup

 

Even though my creamy tomato and carrot soup tasted very much like tomato soup, the color of the carrot came out more than the tomato.

As I am writing this post, I am enjoying a bowl of this for lunch with a gluten free corn muffin as a side.  Yum!

 

Creamy Carrot and Tomato Soup

 

Want to make this recipe?  Watch the video below.  For more videos, you can subscribe to my You Tube Channel.

Looking for more soup recipes? I’ve got you covered.

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup

Creamy Tomato and Carrot Soup

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Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 5 hr, 30

Ingredients

  • 10 vine ripened tomatoes (or 6 cups tomatoes) peeled and rough chopped
  • 4 cups veggie broth
  • 3-4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 1 medium carrot diced
  • 2 celery stalks diced
  • 2 cups almond milk
  • 4-6 basil leaves
  • 2 T arrowroot
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Throw the veggie broth, tomatoes, carrot, celery, garlic, onion and salt into the crock pot and cook on high for at least 5 hours.
  2. Once the soup is done, add the milk and basil the blend with an immersion blender .
  3. You can also transfer the mixture into a blender and blend that way.

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Recipe Notes

If the soup seems a little on the thin side, feel free to add some arrowroot to thicken it up. We added about 2 tablespoons. We got about 5 servings out of ours. You can serve immediately or refrigerate for later. The soup is also freezable. Enjoy!

 

Creamy Carrot and Tomato Soup

Vegetable Soup with Millet

Melissa King 13 Comments

Soup season is here and I am loving every minute of it.  We always seem to have some soup stored away in our freezer.  It’s a huge time saver when life gets a little too busy.  This is my latest creation.

Vegetable Soup Watermark

If you can’t find millet, wild rice or brown rice would make a nice replacement.  I added the millet because I wanted the soup to be a complete and filling meal.  This is very simple to make.

Vegetable Soup with Millet

Vegetable Soup with Millet

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Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 4 hr Serves 5 servings     adjust servings

Ingredients

  • 4 celery stalks chopped
  • 4 carrots chopped
  • 1 onion diced
  • 8 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 cup red pepper chopped
  • 4 vine ripened tomatoes diced
  • 4 lg garlic cloves minced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp thyme (I used dried)
  • 1 tsp parsley (I used dried
  • 1 cup millet

Instructions

  1. To make things super easy, I prepared all the veggies the night before.
  2. In the morning, toss everything but the millet in the pot.
  3. You can do this recipe on the stove or in the crock pot .
  4. Just cook on high for the first hour and turn down to low for an additional 3 hours.
  5. Throw the millet in about 20 minutes before you turn the soup off. This made a good 5 servings. Enjoy!

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Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

Melissa King 153 Comments

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce.  Tomato Sauce is a lot like ketchup and BBQ Sauce, in the fact that you can’t seem to find a store bought kind that doesn’t contain processed sugar.

So, I set out to create a super easy, crock pot tomato sauce that tastes great with no added sugar.  When we got our co-op basket this past week, I saw a package of tomatoes on the vine and I knew I was going to use them for sauce.

This crock pot tomato sauce recipe is almost as easy as my Homemade Vegetable Stock.

 

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

This sauce is so easy that you really just throw everything in the crock pot and walk away.  Plus, it makes a ton.  We freeze it for those busy days when you need to make dinner in a hurry.

You can pull it out in the morning and let it defrost on your counter top all day.

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

Easy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce

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Prep Time 3 hr

Ingredients

  • 12 vine ripened tomatoes peeled and chopped
  • 1/2 onion rough chopped
  • 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley chopped
  • 10 basil leaves
  • 2-3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Throw everything in the crock pot and cook on high for at least 3 hours.

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Recipe Notes

I like to cook it longer because the longer it cooks, the more developed the flavor gets. If the sauce seems thin to you, you can thicken it with a tablespoon of arrowroot. You can also uncover and let it reduce while cooking. This sauce would also make a great sauce for my Rustic Vegan Pizza . If you like a super smooth sauce, feel free to blend it with an immersion blender.

Healthy 3 Bean Soup

Melissa King 37 Comments

Soups are great inexpensive meals to make that go a long way.  This 3 bean soup is my latest recipe.   I have a lot of my soups posted here.  You can use up leftover vegetables in the fridge and they also freeze well.  This 3 bean soup is very easy, budget friendly and healthy!  Can it get better than that?

soup2

This is my husband’s favorite soup.  He said it reminded him of Progresso soup without all the MSG and sodium.  My favorite is still the Split Pea Soup.  This soup is also vegan and gluten free.  I hope you enjoy it.

3 Bean Vegetable Soup

3 Bean Soup

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Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 8 hr

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups white beans
  • 1 1/2 cups pinto beans
  • 1 1/2 cups kidney beans
  • 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 4-5 carrots cut in circles
  • 4-5 celery stalks diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • 4-5 cloves garlic minced
  • 4-6 cups of stock (I used a homemade stock )
  • 2 T oil (I used walnut oil)
  • 1-2 cups water
  • 1 T parsley
  • 1 tsp sage
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. We used dried beans that we soaked overnight and then boiled them for about 20 minutes in the morning.  They are so much cheaper than canned beans and they taste cleaner too. 
  2. Throw everything in a pot and turn on high just to get the soup going and after it is boiling, bring it down to low and simmer covered for up to 8 hours if you like.

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Recipe Notes

I cooked mine about 6 hours. The soup can be cooked in less time if you keep it on high. I just think the longer a soup cooks, the more the flavors develop. If you had a pressure cooker, you can probably get it done in much less time.