Snow In Georgia

If you're not from the south, you may not realize that snow in the south is a crippling thing. We don't own many snowplows, there's never (somehow) enough salt, and roads become impassible.  Which means school gets cancelled, work gets cancelled, and everyone's cold and hungry.

I've been working (more than) full time for a few months now, and it has definitely cut into my blogging time. But due to request, I am going to make it a priority to be more diligent.

Two days ago, I was looking at 4 people here in the house, 2 under the age of 10 who run and therefore eat constantly.  So I got up that morning at 5 resolved-- I will use ALL of my crockpots and make all my meals in them.  I almost succeeded.

Breakfast-- I used my new, latest, great toy, a itty bitty crockpot to make oatmeal.

My recipe:
1 cup goat's milk
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 pink lady apple
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. cinnamon.

Wash and chop the apple. Dump everything in and cook on high for about 2 hours.  Even the child that "doesn't like" oatmeal ate it up.

Lunch-- I pulled a frozen meal out of the freezer .. honey lentils that I made a while back.  I threw the ziploc bag, still frozen in a sink of water for 30 minutes.  Then pulled it out, loosened it, and stuck in a mid size crockpot on low until lunch time.  I made rice to accompany it.

Dinner-- I washed the small crockpot from breakfast and made spinach dip.
Spinach Dip:
1 block cream cheese
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 tbsp. sundried tomatoes, chopped finely
1/2 bag frozen spinach
1 dash tabasco
Dump all in small crockpot and cook on high for about an hour.  Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

The kids wanted spaghetti.  We make SEVERAL versions around here, but here's my latest:

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
olive oil
basalmic vinegar
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup mushrooms (I used frozen)
1 lb. ground turkey
1 jar ragu (I used Barilla)
2 tsp. rosemary
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp. oregano
4 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. black pepper


Throw all ingredients in the crock pot and turn it on low.  Cook as long as possible... the longer you cook it, the better it will taste.  I throw the meat in still frozen, and then wander by a few hours later to chop it up with a spatula down in the pot.
To serve, cook some noodles and dump the sauce over.  I use rice noodles, because we're gluten free.  Regardless, when you boil your water, before you add the noodles, add a tbsp or so of olive oil and a pinch of salt. It helps keep the noodles from sticking together and makes it all taste fabulous.

All this took less than an hour prep time, I also made kale chips, and everyone enjoyed cheap, healthy (ish) hot food all day long!