A Better Bag of Groceries

Slow Cooker Recipe: Chicken Paprikash

Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 07:11 AM

I am not putting away my slow cooker for the summer.

If anything, the beautiful weather is even more of a reason to keep using it!  When we get home from our busy work days, we want to enjoy the lasting daylight with our kids.  My son wants us to join him for one-on-one basketball and we love to take family bike rides, so if we come through the door to dinner ready and waiting for us, this is much more likely to happen.

This month’s Family Circle caught my eye and landed in my shopping cart. 

I think it was a combination of the beautiful lilacs on the cover, the promise of low-cal, slow-cooker recipes, and the low price of $1.99.  In any case, I did find some time to flip through and check out the recipes.  We made Chicken Paprikash this week and it was awesome!

The recipe was pretty “healthy”, but I found a couple of ways to make even more nutritious by trading up by making some substitutions for better NuVal scores.

Oh, and it was so easy!  I actually put it together on Monday night in about 15 minutes, while making my actual Monday night dinner, wrapping up my workday, watching the kids, and getting ready to go teach Pilates.  How’s that for multi-tasking?

Then, before leaving for work and school Tuesday, I put it on the slow-cooker.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces (NuVal score of 30)

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces (NuVal score of 100)

1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed (NuVal score of 91, if my husband had purchased Bird’s Eye Deluxe White Pearl Onions.  BUT, he mistakenly purchased Bird’s Eye Pearl Onions in Real Cream Sauce with a Delicious Touch of Sherry which score a 24)

2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce (NuVal score of 68  for Testa’s)

3 Tablespoons paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup reduced fat sour cream (See how I substituted for a better NuVal score below)

Cooked egg noodles, for serving (See how I substituted for a better NuVal score below)

Directions:

1.  Coat slow cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray.  In medium-size bowl, toss the chicken thighs with flour. 

Combine in slow cooker with green beans, onions, tomato sauce and 1 cup water. 

Stir to blend, then add 1 tablespoon of the paprika, the salt and pepper.

2.  Cover slow cooker and cook for 4 hours on HIGH or 6 1/2 hours on LOW.

3.  In a small bowl, whisk sour cream with remaining 2 tablespoons paprika.  Scoop 1/2 cup sauce from slow cooker and gradually whisk into sour cream.  Slowly stir sour cream mixture into slow cooker.  Serve paprikash over noodles.

Some Notes on This Recipe

OK, so first of all, the recipe tells you to cut the boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1-inch pieces.  But probably since I was multi-tasking, I missed that part!  So, I put the chicken thighs in whole.  And they came out great!  They just fell apart.  My cooking time was longer than the recipe (because we are gone for longer than 6 1/2 hours) so this was probably a good mistake on my part.  So, my advice?  Skip that cutting of the chicken and cook it on LOW for 9 1/2 hours.

Now this one is kind of funny.  My husband did the grocery shopping on the Saturday before this dinner.  Every Saturday morning, we grab a cup of coffee and review the week ahead together and plan out all of our upcoming activities and meals.  Of course, for us, this includes blog giveaways and recipes too.  Grocery shopping kind of alternates between the two of us, depending on who has what going on that particular Saturday.  We go over the menu, the recipes, make the list together, and one of us runs with it.  So my husband knew he had to find some frozen pearl onions, but he bought “creamed” pearl onions instead.  Oops!

I’ll tell you – in my early days of blogging, I probably would have gone back out and bought the correct onions.  But now I kind of roll with it.

So, I prepared the creamed onions according to the package directions – 5 minutes in the microwave.

Holy heart attack!  Look at those! 

Then, I put them in a colander and rinsed off all the cream sauce.

Voila!  About 1 cup of pearl onions, just as the recipe called for.  Whew!

OK – now for the Trade Ups.

This recipe called for reduced-fat sour cream.  But I never use sour cream anymore.   I always replace it with non-fat plain Greek yogurt instead.  Hood Light Sour Cream scores a 31 on the NuVal scale.  Chobani Non-Fat Plain Greek Yogurt scores a 93. 

That’s a pretty good trade-up, and I find that it tastes almost exactly the same.

And finally, I traded up the egg noodles for Dreamfield’s Rotini. 

And here’s why.  I know that egg noodles would be the more Hungarian accompaniment for this recipe.  But my NuVal experience tole me that egg noodles don’t get the highest Nuval scores.  For example, Amish Kitchen Wide Egg Noodles only score a 12 on the NuVal scale.  There are some egg noodle alternatives out there, but I haven’t had much luck.  We tried a whole wheat egg noodle to accompany a German recipe that I made a few months back and the result was not good.  The leftover noodles sat in our refrigerator for days – looking all grey and pathetic.  So, I made the executive decision to forgo egg noodles this time and instead turn to one of our old favorites, Dreamfield’s Rotini.  Perfect!

The Verdict

Well, my Taste Test Team LOVED this recipe and gave it the two thumbs up.  Well, everyone except my son, who gave it one thumb up.  He found it kind of spicy, which is typical for him.  Next time, I would either cut back on the paprika or take out his serving before doing the whole paprika/Greek yogurt mixing thing.  This recipe is a keeper – especially for summer.  Gotta love that 15 minute prep time that can be done the evening ahead.

Enjoy!

Posted by: Melissa 6 comments

Posted in: Slow Cooker Recipes

Tags: Slow Cooker Recipes

Slow-Cooker Solution: German-Style Beef Roast

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 08:15 AM

Like most Modern American Families, ours is a mish-mash of many different heritages, but the one country that is probably the most strongly represented among us – is probably Germany.  My husband’s father was born of German immigrants, so I guess that makes my husband 1/4 German, right?  Anyway, he grew up having an “Oma” and an “Opa” who spoke German and who made German food, so now and then, I like to try my hand at learning to make something German.  I must admit, a lot of traditional German food is really not to my liking (bratwurst, eeek!) but I did find this German-Style Beef Roast recipe  for the Slow Cooker that looked pretty easy and it went along with my New Year’s resolution to become one with my Crock Pot.

Ingredients

• 1  2-1/2- to 3-pound  boneless beef chuck pot roast (We used a top loin and we kept it to 1 1/2 lbs for our family of 4.  NuVal score for top loin is 30)
• 1  tablespoon  cooking oil (We used Canola oil, NuVal score of 24)
• 2  cups  sliced carrots (NuVal score of 99)
• 2  cups  chopped onions (NuVal score of 93)
• 1  cup  sliced celery (NuVal score of 96)
• 3/4  cup  chopped kosher-style dill pickles (We haven’t scores these Boar’s Head dill pickles yet, but Claussen Kosher Dill pickles score an 8 )
• 1/2  cup  dry red wine or beef broth
• 1/3  cup  German-style mustard
• 1/2  teaspoon  coarse ground black pepper
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cloves
• 2    bay leaves
• 2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 2  tablespoons  dry red wine or beef broth
•     Hot cooked spaetzle or cooked noodles (See note below)
•     Snipped fresh parsley (optional)

Note:  I’ve looked a lot at pasta scores since working for NuVal.  There are some fantastic pastas that score a 91 on the NuVal scale, and I’ve always noticed that the lowest scoring pastas are egg noodles.  If you want to be traditional here, you might go with Gia Russa Spaetzle Enriched Egg Noodles, which score a 24 on the NuVal scale.  Alternatively, Food Club, a private label brand sold at many supermarkets around the country, makes a yolk-free egg noodle which scores a 57 on the NuVal scale.

Directions:

1.  Trim fat from meat. If necessary, cut roast to fit into a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker. In a large skillet brown the meat on all sides in hot oil. Drain fat.

2.  Chop carrots, celery and onions.

3. Chop Pickles

4. In the cooker, combine the carrots, onions, celery, and pickles.

Place the meat on top of vegetables. In a small bowl combine the 1/2 cup red wine, the mustard, pepper, cloves, and bay leaves.

5.  Pour over meat and vegetables in cooker.

6. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours. Remove the meat from the cooker and place on a serving platter; cover with foil to keep warm. (Note:  Be sure to cook on very, very low if going for the low and slow method.  In fact, you may want to add more liquid.)

7. For gravy: Transfer vegetables and cooking liquid to a 2-quart saucepan. Skim fat. Discard bay leaves. In a small bowl, stir together flour and the 2 tablespoons wine. Stir into the mixture in saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Serve with vegetables, gravy, and hot cooked spaetzle. If desired, sprinkle with parsley.

The Verdict

I always tell the truth here at A Better Bag of Groceries – so here it is.  This recipe gets an A+ for aroma.  When I pulled into my garage that evening and got out of my car, I thought I was in the Black Forest!  It smelled so good!  I would recommend adding more of the broth and/or wine for cooking because the liquid dried up a bit – or be sure to keep your slow cooker on very, very low.  Sometimes recipes need some tweaking – and this one may need a little – but it sure was unique and my husband appreciated the effort.

Yesterday’s Giveaway

Congratulations to Commenter #23 Cathy.  You’ve won yesterday’s Almond and Apricot giveaway.  Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can mail your prize out to you.  Thanks to everyone who entered.

Posted by: Melissa 1 comment

Posted in: Slow Cooker Recipes

Tags: German Recipes, Slow Cooker Recipes

Slow-Cooker Recipe: Guinness-Braised Corned Beef

Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 06:57 AM

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day – back by popular demand – I share with you my favorite recipe for Corned Beef.  This one is from Cooking Light Magazine and it goes in the slow cooker.  It’s Guinness-Braised Corned Beef. 

It’s sooooooo good.

Ingredients

Directions

Combine first 11 ingredients in a large electric slow cooker, stirring until well blended; top with beef.

Cover and cook on HIGH 8 hours or until beef is tender. Remove beef; cut diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch slices. Discard broth mixture.

For more corned beef recipes and ideas on how to throw a great St. Patrick’s Day party, check out last year’s St. Patrick’s Day post: How to Throw a Green Party

NuVal in Another New York Supermarket Chain!

Today, Tops Friendly Markets, which has 126 stores in Upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania, announces that they have introduced the NuVal nutritional scoring system in their stores.  As the NuVal Customer Manager for the Northeast, I have been the Project Co-Lead for Tops, and I have been dying to tell you about this exciting launch.  Check out the Tops website  to learn more.

Posted by: Melissa 2 comments

Posted in: corned beef, Slow Cooker Recipes, St. Patrick's Day

Tags: corned beef, Slow Cooker Recipes, St. Patrick's Day, Tops

Overnight Oats!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 08:10 AM

I have a confession to make.  I am an Oatmeal Hoarder.  That’s right.  Any day now the crew from A&E’s Real Life Series “Hoarders”is going to show up on my doorstep and force me to clean out my kitchen cabinet.  It all started when I discovered all the amazing NuVal  scores that hot oat cereals get.  I just kept tossing different brands into my shopping cart like a squirrel storing nuts for winter.  And before I knew it, my cupboard overfloweth.  Some of my favorite hot oat cereals taking up valuable cabinet space include:

Hodgson Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal:  NuVal score of 58

Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats:  NuVal score of 58

Quaker Old Fashioned Oats:  NuVal score of 57

Quaker Steel Cut Oats 100% Whole Grain:  NuVal score of 60

And then there is the the Grand Daddy of them all – the one that not only takes up the most space in my cabinet, but it also scores the highest among the hot oat cereals in my personal kitchen cabinet – John McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal Hot Cereal.  It gets a NuVal score of 91.

Let’s just say that this can has been collecting a little bit of dust.  Why?  Cooking time.  John McCann’s require at least 20 minutes of cooking time.  Many steel cut oatmeals require 30 minutes!  Who has that kind of time in the morning?  Yes, we go through a lot of the Hodgson Mill Oat Bran with its quick 5-minute cooking time and my daughter likes the Quaker, so we make that a lot too.  Quick, quick. 

My friend Robin, who writes the Miss Conduct column  for The Boston Globe Magazine, told me a long time ago (probably before a layer of dust had formed on top of this can) that she made her steel cut oats in her slow cooker – overnight!  So that when she gets up in the morning, they are all ready and waiting for her.  Well, with my husband threatening to call Hoarders, I had to try the Slow Cooker method. 

Now, of course, I had just made Pepper Steak  in the slow cooker over the weekend so despite the fact that it had been washed, it still had a peppery-steaky aroma.  I gave my slow cooker another really good wash.  And then I added 4 cups of water and 1 cup of oats. and set the slow cooker somewhere between 1 and 2.  I have an old slow-cooker with a setting that goes from 1 to 5. 

Interestingly, I had a restless night’s sleep that night.  It must have been the oats!  I went down to the kitchen after midnight to get a drink of water and I found that the oats were really bubbling, so I set the slow cooker as low as it would go.  I am glad I did, because the results were perfect!

These oats are so creamy – you will swear that someone put cream in them!  You will wonder why you ever ate any other kind of oats.  You will ask yourself why you waited so long to make overnight oats.  It is soooooo easy.  Water + oats + plug in slow cooker and put it on low.  That’s it.  And you will wake up to a wonderful smell and breakfast waiting.  What a treat on a cold winter’s morning!  And soon, I will have more space in my kitchen cupboard!

Question of the Day

Which part of your house/apartment do you most need to clean out?

Yesterday’s Winner

Speaking of oatmeal, yesterday’s giveaway was a tough one!  The correct answers were:

Bob’s Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal:  NuVal score of 55

Bob’s Red Mill 100% Whole Grain Steel Cut Oats:  NuVal score of 58

Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal:  NuVal score of 91

And the winner of the giveaway is commenter #22, Kristy from the blog, Casual Dish.  Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries.com with your mailing address so that I can mail your (heavy) prize out to you!  Thanks to everyone who entered!

Posted by: Melissa 6 comments

Posted in: Oatmeal, Slow Cooker Recipes

Tags: Oatmeal, Overnight Oats, Quaker Oats

Cooking With Catherine Katz: Turkey, Bean, and Thyme Pot au Feu

Friday, January 21, 2011 at 08:07 AM

Welcome to Cooking with Catherine Katz, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries.  Catherine is the wife of Dr. David Katz, the founder of ONQI, the algorithm which fuels NuVal scores.  Together, she and David have created a collection of healthy recipes in a cookbook titled The Flavor Full Diet.  About a year and a half ago, I discovered that Catherine was a fan of A Better Bag of Groceries  and we’ve been collaborating on the blog ever since.  Catherine is awesome!

As loyal readers of ABBG know, my 2011 New Year’s Resolution is to use my slow cooker more often.  I find that our weeknights go more smoothly when we walk in the door and dinner is almost done and the slow cooker is a great tool for that.  I’ve gotten such great feedback – both on the blog and in person – about this Crock Pot Project, so I’m keeping it going.  In fact, I have found that Crock Pots are not just for Moms.  Two of our twenty-something staffers here at NuVal, both just bought Crock Pots and have told me, “Keep the slow cooker recipes coming!”  Crock Pots – they’re not just for Moms!  So, for this installment of Cooking With Catherine, I leafed through The Flavor Full Diet and consulted with Catherine to find a recipe that we could translate into a slow-cooked meal.  She recommended Turkey, Bean, and Thyme Pot au Feu.

This is such a winter recipe.  It will make you want to just put on your Uggs and wool sweater, wrap yourself in a warm blanket, cozy up in front of your fireplace with a glass of Cabernet and a nice bowl of this yummy Pot au Feu for the night.  Perfect!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (Nuval score of 11)

3/4 cup sliced baby carrots (NuVal score of 99)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (NuVal score of 93)

4 garlic cloves, thickly sliced (NuVal score of 91)

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless turkey breast (NuVal Score of 48)

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Pinch of salt

1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes (NuVal score of 81 for Del Monte No Salt Added)

2 cups fat-free chicken broth (NuVal score of 2)

3/4 cup red table wine

2 cans (15 ounces each) small cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (NuVal score of 57)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a skillet.  Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the turkey, thyme, bay leaf, and salt and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. 

Turn the turkey to brown on the other side.

Stir in the tomatoes (with juice), broth, and wine and set it on your slow cooker on low for 7 – 9 hours.

Add the rinsed cannellini beans and bring your slow cooker to high for about 10 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Note:  Observant readers might notice some rosemary in my photos.  I was preparing this for my crock pot at about 9:30 pm one night this week, and when I went to retrieve my thyme, I discovered that I was down to about 1/2 teaspoon.  Oh no!  What’s a blogger to do!  Substitute.  Like I said, it was kind of late when I was putting this together in the Crock Pot, so instead of checking a real reference chart for a spice substitution, like this great one from Darmouth College, I sang that Simon & Garfunkel song “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme….”in my head.  So, I added a teaspoon and a half of rosemary.  Hey, it worked!  But if I had checked the Dartmouth chart, I would have known that good substitutions for thyme are basil; marjoram; oregano; or savory.  So much for Simon & Garfunkel!

The Finished Product

This truly was an experiment.  Neither Catherine nor I knew how this recipe would translate from her original version (intended for the oven) to the slow cooker, but it worked out perfectly.  I think the key was to save the cannellini beans until just before you are ready to serve – otherwise, we would have come home to one mushy stew! 

Catherine’s Original Directions

For those of you who would like to try the one hour oven version, you would bring the tomatoes, broth and wine to a boil and then add the beans.  Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and bake it for one hour.  Catherine says that this dish fills the whole house with wonderful smells and she is right.  Whether they’re parsley….sage….rosemary…thyme….or another spice!

Yesterday’s Cookbook Winner

Congratulations to Commenter #42, Kbaker!  You have won a copy of The Cleaner Plate Club!  Lucky You!  It’s a wonderful cookbook.  Please email me with your mailing address at abetterbagofgroceries so that we can get the book right out to you.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

Posted by: Melissa 3 comments

Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Slow Cooker Recipes

Tags: Cooking With Catherine