Wearing my favorite cozy navy suede uppers, tan sherpa-lined slippers from Lands End, I headed into my kitchen to see if I had the ingredients for an impromptu soup supper. Firstly, I checked the freezer. I had a whole chicken, chicken drummettes, turkey burgers, ground turkey, chicken nuggets (What? I have kids!), and a stack of Lean Cuisines. Nextly, I checked the pantry. I had 33% less sodium Swanson's Chicken Broth, Lipton Dry Onion Soup Mix, cans of garbanzo beans and black beans. (I had some great coupons and they happened to be on some amazing sales so I had about 10 cans of various soup. I continued to focus on my goal of MAKING HOMEMADE soup - NOT heating "store bought" soup.) Lastly, I checked the refrigerator. I had baby carrots, a half of a yellow onion, and a container of Olivia's Spinach Salad.
"I should be able to make something great," I thought smiling to myself. "Oh, I should pull out my crock-pot." Mind you, my crock-pot was purchased back in college about 20 years ago. It's really made of electrified crockery. I store it in it's original box and I still have all the original paperwork, just in case there is a problem and I need to have it repaired. One of the sweetest things about it is the country-style multicoloured-ivy painting on it which seems to evoke images of the hot, savory, delicious comfort foods sure to be simmering inside. Someday, I'll get one of those fancy digital steel slow cookers with the removable liner and all; but, for now, my little brown & tan crock-pot will suits this tradly family just fine -thank you very much. And I rather love this "old faithful" and enjoy bringing her out for a spin every now and again.
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| Rival Crock-Pot Circa 1988 Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. |
In words, here's what I did -
Defrosted the chuck roast in the microwave almost fully.
Lightly salted and peppered the roast.
Heated a non-stick skillet and covered the bottom of the pan in a light Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Browned the roast in the pan.
Chopped half of a yellow onion.
Rinsed and patted dry about a cup of baby carrots.
Put the vegetables in the crock pot.
Put the hot browned roast on top of the vegetables.
Opened a pack of the dry onion soup mix.
Poured a cup of water over the top.
Gave it a quick stir.
Cooked it on high for about 3 hours. I know you're not supposed to do so; but, I"m my own woman and I actually stirred it a couple of times. Each time I lifted the lid, I lifted it straight up, just high enough to fit my little Pampered Chef stirrer in there for a quick stir and put the lid back on ASAP with a little twist of the lid to be sure that there were not air bubbles between the lid and the pot.
Cooked it on low for about 2 hours.
This is basically the recipe from the Lipton Dry Onion Soup Mix box without the potatoes. Still, the house smelled wonderful and the husband and I enjoyed it. There was little work and while it was a wee bit salty, the roast was flavorful and tender. With a small side of rice and a salad of baby spinach with chopped tomatoes with Ken's Lite Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing, we had a lovely hearty cold weather meal.
I ended up preparing beef franks for the lads.
What I need to do is to be proactive and actually have better soup items on hand as a stock item. Now, I need to find some good EASY homemade soup recipes that don't involve roast chuck and preferably no mix. I'm off to visit Allrecipes.com.
What I still haven't quite figured out is how one uses the crock pot on high without the need to stir and disturb the slow cooking process. There was definitely some sticking and had I not stirred, there would have been some unhappy faces on the parents as they joined the children and had to eat beef franks for dinner. Even after all these years, I'm still learning...life is good.
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