Easy Potato Soup in the Crockpot

This is one of my favorite soup recipes--it's easy, most people like it, and it makes a lot. I make the recipe from my Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook; I've put the link below to the same recipe on the Betty Crocker website. (The picture is from there as well.)

The main ingredients are hash brown potatoes, canned corn, and evaporated milk. I sometimes use shredded hash browns instead of the cubed kind. It calls for bacon; I usually use chopped up cooked ham to give it more substance.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Find the recipe--click here.

Grand Prize Zucchini Skillet Recipe

Simple, tasty, and a great use for summer garden produce--this one's a repeater.

It's a recipe I've had in my "possibilities" binder for years, and I should have made it years ago! It tasted much better than I thought it would given the ingredients. It must be the freshness of the vegetables--and the marvels of highly salty soy sauce and garlic powder, probably. It came out of a cookbook that focused on lentil recipes and I love the recipe title. (Unfortunately I cannot find the original source. Nor did I think to take a picture. Sorry!)

Alex actually did most of the cooking on this one which gives you an indication of its simplicity.

Grand Prize Zucchini Skillet

45-60 minutes total

5 servings

1 cup dried lentils, rinsed

2 cups water

1 onion, chopped

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 medium zucchini, sliced

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 medium onion, sliced (opt.)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Cook the lentils in the water (covered) for 30 minutes. Drain.

2. Saute the chopped onion in the oil in a large skillet.

3. Add the cooked lentils and the zucchini to the skillet and saute for 5 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes and sprinkle on 2/3 cup of cheese.

5. Arrange the onion slices on top of the cheese (this onion is optional) and sprinkle with the remaining 1/3 cup of cheese.

6. Sprinkle the seasonings over the vegetables. Steam, covered, until the tomatoes are tender.

Nutritional info per serving: 222 calories, 13g protein, 21g carbs, 10g fat, 24g chol, 170mg sodium, 6g fiber

Ingredient notes: We did not use the sliced onion since we don't care for raw or almost raw onions. The amount of vegetables is flexible as well-we used what we had that day. For soy sauce, we use Pearl River Soy Sauce from the Asian food store--our Mongolian renter bought it last year and we love it.

Basic Granola

This is the granola I made frequently while growing up, and it's the granola I make about twice a month now. I make it 12 cups at a time in a large roasting pan because Alex and I each eat 1/2 cup of it every morning for breakfast, often with homemade yogurt, so we go through it quickly. As the title mentions, this is the most basic recipe I use. We (I) do occasionally get bored with it so I have a maple version and a peanut butter version as well. I enjoy making granola because it ensures that every day we can have an easy, inexpensive, and healthy breakfast that will carry us through our mornings. I hope you enjoy it!

Granola

Adapted from the More with Less Cookbook

Anastasia Tuckness

12 c oats

1 c honey

1 c vegetable oil

1 c wheat germ (opt.)

1 c walnuts

Additional nuts or dried fruit as desired

Several good shakes of cinnamon and salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 while you measure oats.

2. Toast oats in oven 8 minutes.

3. Stir in wheat germ, walnuts, cinnamon, salt.

4. Pour honey and oil over; stir well.

5. Bake for 8 minute intervals, stirring after each one and checking for desired doneness.

6. Cool on rack.

7. Mix in other cereals such as Grape Nuts and All Bran and dried fruit.

Chippy Oatmeal Raisin Bars

These bars have always been my standby when I need something basic to have around the house for desserts and snacks--I almost always have all the ingredients in the house and they take 15 minutes to whip together. I found the recipe on the back of the raisin box when I was in middle school. Until recently, I didn't bring them to potlucks because I thought they were too plain--yummy for home, but too basic to share.

Last Saturday I brought two pans to work to share because we had a big project going on and we needed fast fuel to keep us going. Turns out these bars were exactly the right thing--enough sweetness to make them fun and easy to eat, enough solid energy calories (oats, raisins, etc) to keep you going on a long day. I hope you and your friends enjoy them as much as we all did!

Chippy Oatmeal Raisin Bars

from the back of the raisin box

15 min prep + 25 min bake

1 c brown sugar

¾ c butter (1 ½ sticks)

2 eggs

1 ½ t vanilla

¾ c flour

1-2 c chocolate chips (I use about 1 1/2 cups usually)

2 c oats (I use rolled; quick oats work too)

¾ c raisins

1. Beat sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour slowly.

2. Stir in chocolate chips, oats and raisins. Spread in lightly greased 9x13 dish.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.