crockpot recipes | A Heavenly Home

Slow cooker / Crockpot meals

By Jacquelyn | February 29, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

When Bradley and I arrived home from work Friday afternoon, we were both extremely exhausted. We barely had enough energy to scrape together a dinner, and then I ended up falling asleep on the couch almost immediately afterward.

Sabbath morning I threw the ingredients of one of my favorite recipes (White Bean and Pumpkin Lasagna) into the crockpot. I turned it on low right before leaving for church, and it was ready by the time we arrived home about two thirty.

This is the photo of the lasagna from the official recipe on Vibrant Life. Mine never turns out this pretty – perhaps it is the gluten-free lasagna noodles or the fact that it all becomes mush.

Mine may not be picture perfect, but it is so yummy! I’ve made it for a few Sabbath afternoon luncheons with guests and friends from church, and always get compliments (and the guests often take seconds).

So we were able to enjoy a relaxing and delicious meal around the dining table, and then we were off to see my sister and brother-in-law’s vespers concert at the Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Check out Cyiza Music!)

It was a beautiful concert with a powerful message.

After the success of the lasagna on Sabbath, I think I’m going to try doing a crockpot dish most Sabbaths either for Sabbath dinner on Friday evenings or Sabbath lunch on Saturdays. I think I would also like to do a crockpot dish maybe once or twice during the week, too. Anything to cut down on the amount of cooking and then cleaning by hand that I have to do.

You see, the dishwasher in our rental house scares me after it almost caught fire. Seriously, there were sparks flying from the outlet under the sink. A leaky faucet was dripping water right onto the outlet. The ancient and terrifying machine has been unplugged ever since.

Unfortunately, no dishwasher means tons of dishes to hand clean and I don’t have the time or energy right now to keep up on all the dishes. I will spend half an hour in the morning washing all the dishes and by lunch time there will be a mountain of new dishes. I just cannot keep up, because I’m too exhausted or sick.

I think crockpot meals might help, even a little bit. I have three crockpot recipes: the pumpkin lasagna, lentil soup, and quinoa/sweet potato chili. But I need to find more recipes that are vegan and gluten-free or I can easily convert to being vegan and gluten-free. Then I have to make sure we get all of the ingredients ahead of time during our biweekly grocery trips.

I would like to try Vegan Jambalaya and Aloo Gobi (spiced cauliflower and potatoes) sometime soon.

Do you have any favorite crockpot recipes?

Five bean sweet potato chili

By Jacquelyn | May 3, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

This last weekend our church’s Pathfinder Club held a fundraising event, a Pioneer Festival. It was a fun mixture of a fall festival with stations for the Pathfinders to earn and/or demonstrate various parts of the Pioneering Honor. Some of the stations included corn husk doll making, butter making, and more. We also had plenty of games like Tic-Tac-Pumpkin, tug-of-war, three-legged race, needle in a haystack (a large crochet needle) and hayride.

As for food and refreshments there was old fashion lemonade, popcorn, cornbread, three different types of chili, and funnel cakes.

I made one of the chili and was pleasantly surprised with the amount that was eaten. I was a bit nervous as I had never made this chili before, but I have to say that it was delicious! (It could have used a tad more sea salt, but I did not want to make it too salty for those guests who are watching their sodium intake.)

I decided to share my original recipe here with you.

Five Bean Sweet Potato Chili by Jacquelyn Van Sant

Gluten-free, vegan

Ingredients

1 can kidney beans (preferred organic and no salt)
1 can black beans (preferred organic and no salt)
1 can pinto beans (preferred organic and no salt)
1 can white/navy beans (preferred organic and no salt)
1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (preferred organic and no salt)
1 can of crushed tomatoes (28oz)
1 can tomato paste (6oz)
1 can of green chiles (4oz)
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 bell peppers
1 medium-to-large sweet potato
1 medium-to-large yellow/sweet onion
Sea Salt
Cumin
Chili powder
Paprika

Instructions

Chop the fresh vegetables (onion, bell peppers, and sweet potato) in large chunks.

Open, drain and rinse the five cans of beans and add beans to your crockpot. Rinse quinoa well in a very fine strainer and add to crockpot. Open the other cans (tomatoes, tomato paste, green chilis) and the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot. Add your spices (sea salt, cumin, chili powder and paprika) and stir until all ingredients are well mixed.

Cook chili on low for 8-10 hours or high for 5-6 hours.

Servings: A lot! You will have leftovers so enjoy your chili over the course of a week. Leftovers can be put in freezer-safe containers and frozen.

Allergy Warning

Please check all ingredients for possible allergens before preparing for someone with a food allergy or sensitivity.

The nice thing about chili is that you can so easily substitute ingredients to meet your personal taste preferences or to accommodate many food sensitivities/allergies. I intentionally avoided gluten and corn, though the canned tomatoes and chiles do contain citric acid that can be derived from corn so the chili is not guaranteed corn-free.

If I were to use fresh tomatoes and chiles instead (I had considered it but decided to save a little money), then the chili would have definitely been corn-free. If you truly want to know exactly what is in the chili, you could use dry beans instead of can, but be sure to soak them thoroughly overnight and rinse well before cooking.

I had not thought about putting a sweet potato or quinoa in chili before, but I saw both used in two different chili recipes online when I was doing a little researching, and being the daring person that I am, I decided to use both. Also, the bell peppers I used were orange so the finished chili looked quite beautiful and delicious with the bright orange of the peppers and sweet potato chunks. There were numerous compliments on the chili.

Chili is the perfect food for the crockpot. You can cook the chili on low over night or while you are at work or on high for a few hours earlier in the day and serve nice and hot for dinner.

When the chili is served, you can add more sea salt to taste and/or top with your favorite chili toppings. I like putting chili on a cup of brown rice and topping with a sprinkle of vegan cheese. Enjoy!

Tag: crockpot recipes