Kitchen Aid to the rescue

After all the gross information last week in the news about commercially bought ground beef, I decided that the best thing to do was buy the Kitchen Aid Food Grinder attachment so we can make our own.  My step-mom had this when I was growing up and I remember her making the most amazing meatloaf with fresh selections of meats.  The Kitchen Aid website says that the attachment is good for making breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and grinding up fruits and veggies too. 

Lemon pepper chicken

Yesterday before work, I decided spur of the moment to put a meal together in the slow cooker.  That isn't a usual thing for me, partly because we don't always have the ingredients and partly because in the morning I'm in such a rush.  So while the girls were getting dressed for the day, I dug out my slow cooker and threw in a few handfuls of baby carrots, some frozen chicken tenders, and poured a little lemon pepper marinade over it.  I set the slow cooker for low and it cooked a little over 8 hrs.  My husband made microwave "baked" red potatoes when we got home and dinner was very good.  It was a nice, simple meal for just being thrown together.

A few notes: When using chicken tenders, they cook faster, so it would have been better to take them out at the 6 hour mark probably....ours were moist until you let them sit out of the juices for more than a few minutes.  I think the time would have been perfect for chicken breasts.  Also, I could have added additional vegetables with the carrots, but I didn't want to take the time to cut anything up.  We have done a similar recipe before where we added mushrooms and potatoes and it was really good. 

Sauteed asparagus

Sorry there isn't a picture for this one.....it was amazingly wonderful and none were left over.  My husband is the creator of this recipe.  When I got home from work on Valentine's Day, he made us a wondeful meal including this asparagus.

Wash a trim 1/2 bunch of asparagus.
Melt 1/2 T butter in frying pan.
Add asparagus and cook on low heat, covered, 5 minutes.
Add seasoning (he used lemon pepper).
Cover and cook until tender (about 5-7 minutes).
Serve and enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast- freezer update

I took my frozen bag of pot roast out and made it yesterday.  I don't think that I will try that again.  The carrots and celery were mushy, some of the potatoes were done and some weren't, and the meat didn't fall apart like it was supposed to.  Maybe I did something wrong, I'm not sure.  It cooked on low for 5 1/2 hours, then high for 3 hours.  I think next time I will just freeze the meat, then thaw it out all the way before using it in the slow cooker.