Easy One Pot Meal

In the winter when days are short and cold there's nothing like coming home to a hot home cooked meal. Except as the main cook in my house, I usually am the one who has to cook it, not come home to it. That's why I love my slow cooker, because it allows me to come home to a meal that took minimal time, and prep work and is fresh, easy, and delicious.

Most of us take the slow cooker out once a week for cholent and it sits unused on the shelf, just taking up space the rest of the week. So take the slow cooker off the shelf and get ready to use it because the possibilities are endless. From soups to one pot meals it all is in one pot, the crockpot.

I came up with this easy recipe, you can play with it and add or subtract things as you please, what I'm really teaching is a method.

Ingredients

1 onion diced

1 tsp. fresh chopped garlic

1/2 package to a whole package ground beef

2 stalks basil leaves

4 mini vine tomatoes quartered or any type of tomato diced

2-3 baby bella mushrooms ( I find that these hold up better and have a meatier flavor but any type of mushroom will do)

4-5 fingerling or red bliss potatos cut in rounds

3 tbsp marinara sauce mixed with 1/2c cup Kedem sherry cooking wine ( or any red wine you have lying around)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Turn the slow cooker to keep warm. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil at the bottom of the pot. Toss in the garlic and onions. Add the meat and break it up with the side of a wooden spoon. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the meat.Toss together so the meat mixes with the garlic and onions. Add in the tomatoes. Pull the basil leaves off of the stems and tear the bigger leaves in pieces. Drop them in the pot. Add the mushrooms and potatoes and pour the sauce (marinara and wine which you've combined) over everything and give a quick stir to combine the ingredients.

Turn up the slow cooker to low heat and let cook for 6-9 hours.

Come home and enjoy!

( Remember you can substitute any ingredients with what you have in the house)

Campfire Cholent

This cholent is a fan favorite for resident's of Washington Heights. I came up with the recipe only about a year ago, but it is already a big hit in the neighborhood if I should say so myself.
We named this the "Campfire" cholent at the Mt. Sinai shul cholent cook-off this past winter, due to one major ingredient... baked beans.

• 2 cans pareve baked beans
• 1 container of vegetable broth
• 3/4 cup of barley- you can make it more or less depending on preference
• Pearl or regular onion chopped into chunks
• salt
• black pepper
• cumin
• 1 log of frozen kishke
• "Shabbos" meat

In medium to large size crock pot, combine cut up meat chunks, baked beans, 3/4 cup barley, onion, vegetable broth and spices. Stir to combine. Drop in kishke in it's second outer layer. Turn the crockpot to low. Start the cooking process either thursday night or friday morning and let the cholent cook on low till right before shabbat. Then turn the crockpot to warm and enjoy campfire cholent all shabbos long!