Alex, my son, has another race today for cross country. So last night I fed him a homemade slow-cooker minestrone packed with healthy veggies, pasta shells and a little ground beef. Topped with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and it was pretty darn near perfect.
Can I just add this? The slow-cooker is the busy single working mother’s best friend. I’ve used it twice this week, and made enough dinners to last us a week and a half, for less than $25 total ingredients. Amazing!
INGREDIENTS
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 29-oz can tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
- 13.4 oz box (or can) of red kidney beans
- 13.5 oz box (or can) of garbanzo beans
- 1 small package lean ground beef
- 3 zucchini, chopped
- 1.5 cups frozen carrots
- 1.5 cups frozen green beans
- 2 cups fresh spinach, chopped.
- 1/2 pound dried pasta shells
- salt and pepper to taste
- ground parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
Mix the broth, tomato sauce, tomato paste, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, kidney beans and garbanzo beans together in the slow cooker, set to “high”. Cover. In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through. Add the ground beef to the crock pot mixture. Then add the frozen carrots, and frozen green beans and fresh spinach. Let cook on “high” setting for 3 to 4 hours. Add the dried pasta, cook until done, about another 40 to 60 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve in warm bowls, dust with parmesan cheese. Serve hot, with whole grain crackers or bread. Leftovers can be frozen.
I’m taking the frozen leftovers to the ranch with me tomorrow. Don’t know if the cowboy likes minestrone. Guess we’ll find out soon enough! I could always do like his mom used to, and tell him, “This isn’t Burger King, you can’t have it your own way. You’ll eat what you’re given, or go hungry, son!” Bet he’d LOVE that…ha!
Tagged: crock pot, food, healthy, minestrone, recipes, slow cooker
That was sort of the rule in my house growing up. If you complained about the food you had the choice of not eating it BUT you had to cook the next time around, plus any extra ingredients we had to buy ourselves. Needless to say, I was not a picky eater. Even as a teenager, I just loved the food!
I have a question though…. how to you keep your slow cooker clean? As a student-Wife-commuter-part time worker, I use my slow cooker a lot (I made a joke before the wedding that if I did not get a slow cooker for a present, Beloved would go hungry once I went back to school so his big brother’s family made sure they gave us one…a really nice one too). Unfortunately, no matter how much I wash it out after I use it, how well I dry it, when I put it up, the next time I take it out, it is scummy. It is really gross and I have tried several different types of soaps to clean it. I even tried storing on a shelf instead of the cupboard so it would be ventilated and I didn’t cover it up. But still it would get white scum inside. Do you think it absorbed something and is not healthy to use?
Beth – That’s such a great question! I had the same problem with my crock pot until I watched this video. What you’re seeing are mineral stains, and aren’t dangerous. They’re just ugly! http://video.about.com/busycooks/How-to-Clean-a-Crockpot.htm
Thanks for the heads up!