Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Another slow cooker Sunday...

This time it was our church’s monthly potluck dinner. We do this on the first Sunday of each month, enjoying a potluck meal together following the morning service. Then we have a 2 pm service instead of an evening service that week. It works out very well, and it’s always fun to see what other people will bring. It’s fun too, to plan something special and different to bring along to share. I don’t always bring a crockpot meal, but this time I did. It came from QUICK COOKING originally, and I only adapted it a little bit, for a change. Here’s the recipe:

MEATBALL STEW
3 medium potatoes, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1 pkg. (16 oz.) fresh baby carrots, quartered
1 large onion, chopped (or equivalent amount of frozen chopped onions)
3 celery ribs, sliced
12 to 16 ounces frozen meatballs, defrosted slightly in microwave and cut in halves or quarters
1 can tomato soup
1 can beef gravy
1 cup water
1 envelope onion soup mix (I used 5 Tblsp. of my own homemade mix)
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules

Place the potatoes, vegetables and meatballs in a 5-quart slow cooker. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Pour this over the meatball mixture. Cover and cook on High for 4 to 5 hours. Yield: 6 servings.

Of course, at a potluck people take smaller servings, so this went a long way. It was delicious -- so much so that I am going to keep a can of beef gravy in my pantry at all times! (I already keep tomato soup on hand, as well as a jar of my homemade onion soup mix. And I keep a bag of meatballs in the freezer to use in Italian wedding soup, so the basic ingredients for this stew are always around.)

I just realized, when making this stew, that frozen chopped onions are perfect when a slow cooker recipe calls for onion and you’re putting it together on a Sunday morning. No lingering onion aroma on your hands when you go to greet people!

In addition, I brought along Herbed Dinner Rolls and Luscious Apple Trifle, both from QUICK COOKING -- so you should be able to access them from TASTE OF HOME’S online Recipe Finder.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:52 AM

    Hi Mrs.T,
    I ususally have homemmade meat balls in the freezer, but they are uncooked. I make them ahead of time and freeze them on a cookie sheet. then store them in freezer ziplocks. Are the frozen meat balls used in this recipe browned or partially cooked. I wonder if I would need to brown the meatballs or cook them thouroughly first? I think browning them would help keep the shape. What do you think?
    This sounds like it is really good!
    Have a blessed day,
    Patty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, Patty -- you are so organized! The meatballs this recipe calls for are the bought kind. They are precooked. I think if I were you I would bake the meatballs and then freeze them to keep on hand for this particular recipe -- or any recipe calling for the purchased frozen meatballs. (I prefer to bake meatballs rather than browning them on the stovetop; it's easier and less messy and doesn't require any added fat.)

    This is a delicious stew. It was even better than I expected it to be. Hope you enjoy it too!

    I've begun making the dividers for my recipes-to-try binder. It's a lot of fun. I find messing about with scissors and glue and old catalogs very relaxing. And I will be so thrilled to have that pile of recipes-to-try all neatly organized. Thanks so much for the idea!

    God bless,
    Mrs.T

    ReplyDelete

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