Cinnamon Orange Beef Stew

Still trying to develop a repertoire of crock pot meals. Today, I wanted to use up some of the tangelos I bought. So I looked for orange beef stews recipes. Here's the result. 

1 package beef chuck

Juice and rind of 1 orange

1/3 large white onion, chopped

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 cup beef broth

Baby carrots

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Basically, combine everything in the crock pot. Put on low. Cook all day. I put it in around 7:30. We ate around 4:30. 

Personally, I think the orange taste was diluted. I would likely reduce the beef broth next time. My daughter, however, loved it. 

Beef Stew with a Tomato Soup Base

Continuing with the theme of crock pot meals, I offer this take on beef stew. It is based on my mother's meat loaf recipe. So far, I got high praise from my teenager. 

Ingredients:

Beef chuck, diced

2 cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup

1/4 cup mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

1/3 large white onion, chopped

1/2 pepper, chopped (honestly doesn't matter of green, red, yellow, orange or purple - but if you wanted heat, a jalepeno, chili or habenero pepper would do nicely)

Baby carrots

4 potatoes, peeled and diced

Spring each of rosemary, thyme and basil (I used purple basil)

Salt and pepper to taste. 

The recipe is very simple. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Put everything in the crock pot in the morning before going to work. Cook on low. Eat when you get home. 

In this case, I cooked the stew for a good 10 hours before I ate any. 

Pulled Pork

The school year is upon us. With sports, scouts and church activities, time is crunched. So, to make life easier, I am going to do a lot of crock pot, or slow cooker, cooking. That way, when I'm getting the kids ready in the morning, I can just spend a few extra minutes throwing ingredients in the crock pot, set it on low heat, and let it cook all day. 

Today's dish: pulled pork. 

Ingredients:

3 pound pork shoulder

1/2 white onion

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup apple vinegar

3-4 fresh tomatoes

A few mustard seeds.

For the rub (sorry, I eyeballed these):

Brown sugar

Bread crumbs

Nutmeg

Cumen

Paprika

Salt

Pepper.

To start, cut up the onion. I didn't cut it too fine, since I'm just looking for flavor. Put in the crock pot with the ketchup and vinegar. Press the garlic, and add to the crock pot. Slice up the tomatoes and add. Turn on low heat. Throw in just a fee mustard seeds. 

Mix the rub together. Spread over the pork shoulder. Put the rest of the run in the crock pot moisture. Put the pork in the crock pot. Cover. I put aluminum foil over the pot before I put the lid on. 

Cook for 8 hours. In my case, I put it in before 7:00am. The kids will be home by 3:00pm.