Crock Pot Caramel (One Ingredient Only...Really!)

I'm sure that this "tip" (I can't really call it a recipe, seriously.) is all over the Internet. But I hadn't come across it until someone posted a recipe for a bundt cake in a crock pot with this caramel sauce cooking in the center (to create the hole in the cake). So I figure there has to be more people like me, who didn't know this tasty nugget of information. And who doesn't love homemade caramel sauce?

It's easy.

Take one can of sweetened condensed milk. 

Remove label. 

Set can into crock pot.

Fully cover the can with water. 

Set crock pot on high. 

Cook for 4 hours. 

Remove from crock pot. 

Let can cool. 

Open. 

Stir. 

That's it. Done. It looks like this after removed and put into a mason jar.

I wanted to save what we didn't use that night, and I was curious how much it made in regards to a mason jar, as I think it would make an amazing gift basket. Think: Caramel sauce in the center of a basket, some nice nuts in a tin, and a basket of delicious apples. What could be better? 

Mashed Cauliflower

I have a serious love affair with potatoes. I feel guilty cheating on them. But sometimes you have to be a little responsible, I suppose. And so I sometimes (sorry taters) make a mashed cauliflower. Tonight I omitted the chicken stock I usually use for a healthier take and it was actually fantastic. I was surprised and felt guiltier than ever. I still love you potatoes!

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper to taste

Other Utensils:
Large pot
Strainer
Food processor/blender/potato masher
Bowl
Spoon
Cutting Board
Knife

Directions 

 

Set large pot of water to boil. Salt water!

 

Cut head of cauliflower into small florets and wash.

 

When water reaches a roaring boil, toss in all the cauliflower.

 

Cook for 10 minutes or until veggie is very tender.

 

Strain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water.

 

Pour cauliflower into blender or processor (or mash by hand if you're not as lazy as I). Blend.

 

Add 1/2 of the extra virgin olive oil.

 

Add 1/2 of the reserved water.

 

Process (or mash) further.

Add the remaining oil.

 

Process more!

 

At this point it is up to you if you want to add more of the reserved water or not. As little or as much as you'd like to get the consistency you're looking for. The cauliflower retains water as you cook it, so if you "over water" it will be runnier. Still tasty, but watery.

 

Add butter, salt, and pepper and stir until butter melts completely. You can add more butter, I imagine a lot of people would. I just err on the side of letting people add it as they wish when they eat it.

 

Now then, taste it! Marvel at how you're eating cauliflower and not potatoes.

 

Tip: Not everyone loves cauliflower. To help those people along I suggest some parmesan cheese (grated) just sprinkled on top. Also awesome? Topped with green onions.

 

Note: Depending on size and consistency I would say a medium to large head will feed 3-4 adults very comfortably. But sometimes it doesn't seem like much when you're done. (Maybe because I am so hungry by the time it's over.)

 

Enjoy, but please don't tell potatoes I let you in on this secret. I think I'm already in hot water with them!

Cake Mix Cookies - 4 Ingredients!

I saw a recipe for this floating around Facebook a few weeks ago and decided to try it. I can't find an original poster. And was feeling guilty. Until I was given a box of recipes from the 70s-90s and saw that this was in there, too. Apparently it's been around forever. So we decided to try it. Each batch yielded from 28-36 cookies. Depending on size. That's up to you!

  

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
1 container cool whip (8 oz.)
1 egg
1 cup of powdered sugar - just for dusting on top (the amount you use is really up to you)


Other Utensils:
Bowl
Whisk
Foil
Cooking Spray
Ladel (or small ice cream scoop/melon baller)

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cooking sheet with foil. 

Spray foil with cooking spray.  

Combine egg and (defrosted) cool whip in large mixing bowl

Add cake mix and stir until all incorporated.

Ladle spoonfuls of batter onto foil covered cooking sheet. 
 

Sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar (or not, your choice).

 

Cook for 10-12 minutes.

Remove foil from pan and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes and then remove from foil gently. 

Try not to eat them all. That's the important step.  

Two other options we tried recently pictured below (Top: spice cake, bottom: pineapple)

 

Tips: 

* We used sugar-free cool-whip to cut back on the sugar content and there was no change in taste or texture at all.
* We only dusted half of them with the powdered sugar so that you had options. 

* Use a melon baller or small ice cream scoop to get the batter from the bowl to the sheet if you can, way easier and way less messy. 

* Pineapple was different and awesome. Next time I make it I think we'll throw in a handful of chopped up cherries, too!

* Spice cake tastes like Christmas, seriously. Try it. 

* Devil's food? Totally sinful and I'm not just saying this to be pun-ny.

* I tested my cookies, like I would a cake - by taking the largest one and poking it with a fork and cooking until it came out clean.

 

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Apple butter has no butter in it. I know, I know. Your mind is blown. You are welcome. Instead it is just a wonderful buttery like substance that comes from cooking down the apples with the right amount of spices and water. And then blending until perfection. It's easy.

This is how you take this:

And turn it into this:

And  yes, even with them being little apples. And even with them having bad spots (or some of them being that bad) you can turn them into delicious apple butter. Listen carefully, kids. (I'm kidding. It's so easy you don't even have to pay attention.)

• Get some minions. Have them core, peel, and cut the apples. I make them into smaller chunks because...well, my apples are small. It's easier that way. Plus, less blending.
• Throw the apples into a huge bowl. 

I used probably 30-35 of these small apples that someone graciously donated my way so I could figure out how to make excellent apple butter. I would imagine that a dozen or dozen and a half "normal" sized apples would suffice.

• The trick is take the amount of mixture I'm about to lay forth and make sure the apples are coated thoroughly. Not sprinkled upon. Coated. That's the trick, folks. They need to look brown and tasty. If you have extra "stuff" leftover after you coat your apples? Cut another. Seriously. Just do it. (If you need more to make them look coated? Make some. You seriously can't mess this up. Throw in a spoon of brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and half a pinch of allspice and go!)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

• After you have coated them thoroughly, throw them in the crock pot. Take the bowl you were thinking about licking and don't. Instead add 1 cup of water. Swish around to get every speck of tastiness and then dump it into the crock pot. Stir it around. There should be enough water to at least cover the bottom of the crock pot. The apples do NOT need to all be covered.

• I cook mine on med or med/high until I go to bed and then turn it down to low. In the morning it will look like tarry, sticky (barely juicy) mess, more than likely. If it doesn't? Pop the lid and vent it and cook on high for a bit longer until it does. If you have too much juice (This has only happened to me once) just use a slotted spoon to remove everything else. Or strain it and reserve the juice in case your apple butter needs more liquid (mine didn't but you can never be too careful I suppose.)
  
• I have a ninja food processor. So I just throw it all in there and blend for maybe 20 seconds and it's butter consistency. Use your immersion blender or counter top blender the same way.  

Voila. Seriously. That easy.

Feel free to tell me how wonderful your version was.

I will say I used a Splenda blend on one batch and no one knows the difference. It tastes just the same to me, for sugar content conscious folks.

It is seriously that easy. And while it's good right away? It is even better after you put it into the fridge and let it get cold. It will firm up wonderfully and the spices seem to marry even more. It's fabulous on toast, biscuits, English muffin - pretty much anything.

I was given a ton of zuchinni around the same time and was making mass amounts of zuke bread, too. I had a few people put it on their loaf of zuchinni bread and rave about it, too.

Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have a food problem. Meaning I am one of those people who will fill your Facebook feed with pictures of what I am cooking. I feel like I should apologize, but I just don't. Because it usually is amazing food. So...you're welcome? Instead of I'm sorry...? Heh.

This particular picture was met with many - "ew, that looks gross." or "What is that?" or "Interesting...?" instead of the usual "That looks great!" I would like to pretend that this swayed me not to post this here. But I can't, not. Because a.) It's tasty b.) It's easy. So ignore the fact that you think it looks gross (it isn't pretty, I won't pretend it is...) and just try it!

Ingredients:
2 Acorn Squash
1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 medium onion
2 stalks of celery
1/3 cup sour cream


Other Utensils:
Skillet
Knife
Wooden Spoon
Cutting Board
Baking Dish large enough to fit all 4 halves of squash

Directions 

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees  

 

Cut acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds

 

Cover bottom of baking dish with water (just enough to barely cover the bottom)

 

Place squash into pan cut side down

 

Cook for 35-40 minutes (until it is almost fork tender when you remove it from oven)

 

While that cooks

 

Brown one pound of sausage with onion and celery, making sure to crumble it as it cooks

 

Remove from heat when cooked and stir in sour cream 

 

When acorn squash is fork tender, stuff them with the meat mixture

Return to oven for 15 minutes until heated through

 

Enjoy!

GLUTEN NOTE: Gluten free is easy here. But as always, check your ingredients to make sure there are no hidden things you weren't aware of. 

HEALTHY NOTE: I usually use turkey sausage and a low-fat sour cream just to make it healthier as you go along. But it is just as delicious without these modifications, I imagine.

Fruit Cobbler

I agonized over what to call this. For a lot of reasons. First, it's not REALLY a cobbler that most people think of. Second I could have called it "Blackberry Cobbler" or "Blueberry Cobbler" or "Peach and Raspberry Cobbler" Or "Berry Cobbler" (which would include blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) or I could have called it "Black and Blue Cobbler" (with blackberries and blueberries) .... the possibilities are pretty endless with this dish. I have made it with most fruit imaginable and it's amazing. Just try not to eat the whole thing because it isn't exactly healthy. But I have cut down the sugar and butter from when I first saw/tried/fell in love with the recipe from the Pioneer Lady. Check out her recipe here because: credit where credit is due.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk (almond/soy/your favorite substitute works fine here)
1/2 cup butter (that's one stick)
1 cup Self-Rising Flour
About 2 cups of fruit of your choosing (I prefer fresh but frozen will work as well)
1 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar (or splenda/sweetner of your choosing)
Cooking spray (I prefer to use something like a coconut spray, myself)

Other Utensils:
Bowl
Microwave safe bowl
2 quart baking dish (shallow is better)
Spoon for stirring (a whisk if you're feeling ultra cooking show-ish)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl

Stir together one cup sugar and one cup self-rising flour.

Stir in one cup of milk.

Pour melted butter into bowl with other ingredients and stir.

Spray baking dish with cooking spray.

Pour the batter into the baking dish.

Scatter fruit around the top evenly.

Shake remaining sugar on top of the fruit.

Bake for one hour until the cobbler is golden brown and bubbly.

Serve. Try not to eat entire dish all at once.

I usually serve mine with fresh whipped cream because if you're going to go? Go big or go home. But it's also tasty with low-fat, sugar-free frozen yogurt, a plain vanilla ice cream, or even cool-whip in a pinch.


Tips: First, I substitute most if not all of the sugar for something like Splenda, often. I don't even usually use the 3 tablespoons of sugar on top (her original tasty recipe calls for 1/4 cup there) and just sprinkle some lightly on the top. I sometimes will use soy milk instead of regular milk, as well. The tree nut allergy prevents me from using an almond milk, but I would imagine that's an added health benefit as well as just as tasty. I cut the butter from greasing the pan and used a coconut spray just because this dish was already so full of sugar/butter/tastiness that I was trying to save flavor and make it a bit healthier.

But I'll tell you another secret - her recipe is fantastic. I fell in love with how easy and wonderful it was and almost felt bad "messing" with it. But with diabetic friends/family eating it and attempting to not go buy bigger clothes on my end? I had to try a few little tweaks here and there. And it still turns out tasty. Although, I really believe that nothing will kill you in moderation. (Problem is: her recipe is so good there's no moderation for me there!)

Pro tip: This really is amazing. I can say that because it isn't like I thought it up all on my own. I have taken to doubling the recipe, at this point, and making it in a 13X9 pan so that I have enough to go around if there are more than a few people that stick around to eat this after dinner. 

Corn Dog Pie

I feel absolutely ridiculous and terrible even pretending to call this a recipe. Because it's that easy, folks. No joke. I try to cook healthier (I don't pretend it's healthy, just healthier choices here and there) but this does not fall into that category. This is a corn dog, In a pie. No one is pretending that corn dogs are good for you. But they are one thing: tasty. And so is this.

The basic premise is this: Take your favorite corn bread recipe, chop hot dogs and add them into the mixture. Pour it into pans and cook. Done. Tastes great. I'm sure someone else had done this before. But I had made corn dog muffins before (too much cinnamon, they were terrible. Think: cinnamon flavored hot dog. Ew.) and I can make a mean corn muffin or even homemade corn bread. But I wanted a corn dog, and I wanted it to be easy and less messy than trying to make them into muffins and make sure each one had enough hot dog, etc. So voila. I thought I was a genius, at the time. I'm sure I wasn't and this has been made 1,000 times over.

Tip: I would make this with my favorite corn bread recipe. Which I will post for you sometime soon. But this night I was lazy and just used a Jif box for corn bread. I suggest if you are pressed for time, like I was? Do it. It's just as good and you'll appreciate the sleep you have later. I'm all about making things fresh and making them from scratch as often as you can. But again, I was craving a corn dog. So I wasn't - clearly - thinking about healthy and awesome. I was just thinking tasty. This worked. So again, here's the "recipe" but I hesitate to even call it that!

Ingredients:
2 packages of your favorite cornbread muffin mix (or homemade, recipe to follow)
**Follow their recipe for making the bread, this recipe was for Jif's**
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
6 hot dogs
Cooking Spray

Other Utensils:
2 8inch round pans
Fork
Spoon
Spatula

Directions

Preheat oven according to your recipe's indication (Mine is for Jif, again and it was 400 degrees)

Mix eggs and milk

Stir in both boxes dry ingredients

Cut hot dogs into small rounds (throw ends to the dogs if you are like me and won't eat them. Don't ask....)

Fold hot dogs into corn bread mixture

Spray cooking pans

Distribute evenly into both pans

Cook for 15 minutes and check them (toothpick should come clean when inserted in the middle)

Take out

Be ashamed it was that easy

Let cool for 5 minutes (at least)

Cut

Enjoy with ketchup and/or mustard and pretend you are at the county fair

Tell all your friends how fancy you are for having made corn dog pie

I would imagine that you don't really want to follow that last step. Or if so omit the word "fancy" from the sentence. Just tell them you made it. Heh.