Crockpot Party!

This past Friday, one of the new graduate students had a crock pot party at his apartment. Everyone was bringing over crock pot creations to share. Inspite of my crock potting skillz, my offerings did not turn out as I wanted.


Brownie Pudding Goo


Spinach Artichoke dip


Tatertot casserole

Recipes

Brownie Pudding

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Tatertot Casserole
frozen tater tots or hash browns
cream of mushroom soup (I tried to make my own with coconut creamer, but it did not turn out well)
TVP or frozen Boca crumbles (I prefer the boca crumbles
frozen spinach

Mix together in a crock pot crock. Heat on low for about 3 hours. Stir occasionally. Season to taste, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder, etc.

Notes
Brownie Pudding - I accidentally mixed together the pudding part of the recipe into the brownie part. You are supposed to just put it over top and cover the crock pot. So, it turned out to be brownie goo, instead of brownie pudding. It was still good, just not what I expected. Meh.

Spinach Artichoke Dip - this one is always good. Success!

Tatertot Casserole - I put this together in the crock pot on a whim. I was going to do lentil soup, or falafel, but I thought I would try this. I tried to make my own cream of mushroom soup since I couldn't find a non-dairy version at the store. I sauteed up some diced mushrooms, added coconut creamer, added corn starch, then brought to a boil until thickened. I mixed that with the hashbrowns and reconstituted TVP (the hippy store did not have frozen crumbles) and then cooked for a few hours. I added some frozen spinach at the end to give some color and maybe flavor. This came out being so bland and boring. I even added some maple syrup to bring out a bit of sweetness. My lovely husband took care of throwing away the entire 3 qt pot of this. I would like to try this again, but I think I need to work on the cream of mushroom soup part. FAIL

Chocolate Coconut Cake

This was another recipe for my Slow Cooker Challenge. It was a snow day yesterday and I thought that baking a cake in my slow cooker would be perfect.

The sound of the cake was fantastic - chocolate, coconut milk, coconut flakes, what could go wrong? It smelled wonderful while it was cooking, but I think I left it on a bit too long. There was 1 cm layer of burnt cake around the outside.

I did not take a picture of the monstrosity. At least the icing is good.

I cooked it directly in my slow cooker instead of in a water bath as called for in the recipe, so that probably had something to do with how it came out. I'll try one of the other cake recipes and see if I can improve upon my method. Regardless, the cake itself was a bit flavorless and needed the icing to taste good.

Mushroom Risotto

Another recipe from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Click here to see all my posts about recipes from this book.

I had really high hopes for this recipe. I really enjoy risotto and I thought that the method of cooking it in the slow cooker would make it easier and delicious.

This turned out to not be the case.

I don't know if it was the porcini mushrooms I bought or if making risotto in the slow cooker is not a good idea, but this came out tasting terrible. The mushrooms smelled a bit like human feces. I had never bought dried porcinis before, is this normal? After about 1.5 hours in the slow cooker this was a gelatinous goo and not creamy risotto.





I think I am going to try this recipe again, but without the mushrooms and maybe see what it looks like after an hour.

It was a good thing we bought rolls at the grocery store - mini sandwiches for dinner. I toasted my bread and put on tofutti cream cheese, sriracha, pickles, lettuce, and onions. It went perfectly with my tortilla chips.