You see, we leave at about 5:45 - 6 in the morning. We don't usually get home until 5 at night. That's roughly 11 hours. If I don't fill it to the brim, anything cooking that's only half full is usually a bit, let's just say, extra tasty? by the time we get home. I was tired of burnt bolognese, and charred veggies when I used it. $10 solution later, I can start and stop it when I want. It's perfect!
This is one of those clean your freezer type meals.
In any event, this is an easy meal. Some bags of freezer veggies, a package of chicken kielbasa, and a can of beans or two and you, too, can have a tasty. minestrone meal. You don't even have to thaw all the frozen veggies out. You can toss them in frozen. You can add the turkey from Thanksgiving. You can add the chicken broth made with the carcass from the turkey. Speaking of which, I still need to cook the rest of the tasty goodness from the carcass to make some broth. I actually used some frozen chicken broth from about a year ago. It tasted yummy, still, and was a perfect accompaniment for this veggie soup.
This, plus the fresh zucchini, onions, peppers, and the frozen carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas made for an extremely tasty minestrone. It was very hearty and full of veggies and sausage. You simply throw it all in the slow cooker, set it and come home to a tasty dinner that can easily fill you up. S says that soup alone will not fill him up, so I made some cheddar cheese toasts to finish up the meal. The trick to melting fat free cheese is to spritz it with a little cooking spray.
Okay. For those of you that are new to my blog, S's step-mother is a nutritionist. She has based her nutrition program, PEP, on the USDA food pyramid. It does work. So, for those that don't want to omit carbs from their diet, please try PEP. You can consume A TON of carbs on this program and still lose weight. Yes. Eat pasta and bread and still lose weight. The key is to consume little to no fat. It's not easy, but it's possible. When we were absorbed in the program, we lost about 10 to 15 pounds in a couple of months. Insagn. I'm trying to get back on that bandwagon. After quitting smoking and getting older, my metabolism isn't what it used to be. I need help. So, I'm getting back on the PEP bandwagon.
I've created a spreadsheet that pulls ingredients for a meal, and meals from categories to make tracking counts easier. Yup. Leave it to me to turn it into a spreadsheet. Me? Write something down? NEVAH! *snickers*
Enjoy!
Slow Cooker Winter Minestrone with Cheddar Toasts
- 1 cup zucchini, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- 2 cups butternut squash, peeled and chopped
- 14 ounces canned tomato
- 2 cups celery, chopped
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 8 ounces turkey kielbasa, sliced
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 8 ounces artisan bread, sliced
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, fat free
- Combine first 11 ingredients (zucchini through thyme) ingredients in the liner of a slow cooked coated with cooking spray. Cook on low 8 to 10 hours.
- Top each slice of bread with cheese. Spray lightly with cooking spray, and broil 2 to 3 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
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