busy mum moussaka

With lots of these lovely Lebanese eggplants in our garden I decided to make moussaka the other night.

 As it was so hot, I decided to save heating up the kitchen and use my slow cooker.

 First, I cut the eggplant in half and fried them on both sides in a little olive oil.

(if you are using a conventional eggplant you should cut them in 1cm thick slices and if it is not fresh I would suggest you salt them for 1/2hr and then rinse off, because these are fresh from the garden and very sweet there is no need to do this)

The beauty of my slow cooker is that it has a searing pan, so I just used it and it saves on washing up.

 Once they were brown I set them aside on a plate.

 Then I browned 1kg mince and added a bottle of passata sauce. some cinnamon, cumin and coriander a little sprinkle of Celtic sea salt and some pepper.

The finished product because it was cooked in the slow cooker had a bit too much sauce, 

so next time I would only use 2/3 of the bottle.

 I layered the eggplants on the bottom.

Then I tipped in the meat.

 I mixed together 2C grated cheese, 500g ricotta and 1/2 C Greek yoghurt, then spread it over the meat.

I sprinked some extra grated cheese and paprika on top and grated over some nutmeg.

Then I put it in the slow cooker for 1hr on high and 1hr on low.

Serve with a garden salad.

Now this is where there should be a photo of the finished product, but I wanted to take one the next day with the leftovers but forgot, then when I was out the kids ate them- oops!

We are really enjoying these Lebanese eggplants, they are lovely roasted in the oven too!

friday favourites- crockpot

I know I haven't been regular with my Friday Favourites posts,
 it has been more a problem of having too many posts and not enough time to do them all in.

I must say I am a recent convert to the humble crockpot/slowcooker.

I have only had one for a little over a year.

My aunt actually gave me one years ago that used to be hers but when I looked at it I realised that there was no way I was going to fit a meal for our family in it, so I passed it onto someone with a smaller family.

More and more recipes have been appearing on the internet and when a friend got one and raved about it my interest was piqued.
After a little searching and looking around comparing prices, sizes and how they worked I bought an 8L slow cooker with a searing pan, this allows me to brown the meat in it on the stove and then just throw in the rest of the ingredients and turn it on without having an extra frypan to wash up.

 here it is working away cooking dinner, think the outside could do with a clean!

The crockpot has really come into it's own over this winter's soccer season.

I have made Friday nights a slow cooker night as I need to take B4 and The Girl into soccer training and I don't get home until 5:30 or later and B1 and B2 are usually heading out to play soccer and referee at that time or earlier and are not home until 8:30pm so they need to eat before they go.
If I have put the crockpot on earlier in the day they can simply serve themselves and eat before they leave and not have to grab some junk food at the soccer match.

Then the rest of us can eat when VCH gets home from work.

Last week B2 was playing a 6pm game in a neighbouring town and VCH was providing the transport so they just ate when they got home at 8pm and the rest of us had ours earlier.

Last week we used the crockpot 3 nights in a row.

Wednesday I made a potato bake in it before I took the kids to kids club and bought some fresh fish at the local fish monger- leather jacket it was delicious!

Thursday night B3 made crockpot lasagne- this is the second time we have made it and I have to say it is the most delicious and easiest home made lasagne I have ever come across, I used gluten free pasta sheets.

Friday night we had easy chicken curry, I add sweet potato to it and later will add some greens 1/2 hr before it is ready when I add the coconut cream.

Another family favourite is taco chilli chicken.

We are getting ready for an international night at church and this year we are having an Indonesian night, so I am practicing some recipes, tonight we are having rendang padang  (beef curry) and I found a slow cooker recipe for it so I will let you know how it turns out.

We have also enjoyed Marnie's stuffed Capsicum's
and a slow cooked lamb hot pot
and also this beef stew
Some other things we like in the crockpot are corned beef and pickled pork and irish stew.

What are your favourite things to make in your slow cooker?

shared at:

busy mum taco chilli chicken

 I shared with you a couple of weeks back how on Monday's we have fish as it is a day I can go and grab some fresh fish at a local fish mongers and then make a quick dinner once I get home.

Fridays is my other day to cook during the week

The other three days the older three boys cook depending on afternoon commitments - this changes every term, each term we look at who is where-when and then work out the best possible schedule.

This term B1 does Tuesdays, B2 Wednesdays and B3 Thursdays.

We try to have a vegetarian meal one night, a mince meal one night, a chicken meal and of course a fish meal.

Coming back to Fridays.

I have chosen Fridays to be a crockpot night during terms 2 and 3 because the two big boys are either refereeing or playing soccer on Friday night and I like them to be able to eat before they leave at around 5pm.

As I am still at B4's soccer training it needs to be something that they can just dish out, 

then the rest of us can eat when we are ready.

Last night B2 and VCH left early to get to a town about 40 minutes away for B2's game so they actually ate when they got home about 8pm.

The crockpot is perfect for this and saves them buying a meat pie or sausage roll at the canteen. 

I tried a new recipe on Friday night that I thought I would share with you.

 It was a winner!

I found this on Pinterest and have Australianised it.

 Taco Chilli Chicken- in the crockpot

1 onion

1 x 420g can kidney beans

500mls tomato passata

300g frozen corn kernels

2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used 1 large 800g tin)

1 packet of taco seasoning- or you could make your own

1T cumin

1t chilli flakes

pinch cayenne pepper- depending how spicy you like it feel free to add some more

1kg chicken thighs

chopped fresh chilli (optional)

fresh coriander chopped

Combine first 9 ingredients in a slow cooker and then place chicken on top and cover. 

Cook for 10 hours on low or 6 on high (I actually think this was too much and next time plan on cooking it on auto which is 2 hours high and then turns to low for 4 hours).

Half an hour before serving remove chicken and shred (a handy hint I saw on a blog was to put it into your Kitchen Aid with mixing attachment and turn on low- B2 did this for me since I was at soccer training and this worked really well).

Return chicken to slow cooker and mix through.

 

We served it in bowls with some corn chips on the side, fresh guacamole, sour cream and a sprinkle of coriander. 

You could also sprinkle some cheese over the top and add a fresh salad. 

Alternately serve in taco shells with salad.

To make guacamole: mash an avocado, add finely chopped red onion, tomato, coriander and a squeeze of lime or lemon. 

 Serves 10- with 8 of us we had enough left over to make a layered mexican dip and serve it with corn chips for lunch the next day.

I put a tub of softened mashed cream cheese on the bottom put the rest of the chilli chicken - that I had warmed on top added some sour cream and grated cheese and popped it into the oven for 10-15 minutes, then I topped this with guacamole- delicious!

T = tablespoon

t = teaspoon

C = cup

Sharing at: