Crockpot Cranberry,Chicken, Quinoa, and Green Beans - almost a "dump dinner"

        My camera battery is dead :(  I started charging it after last week's post and it still isn't charged.  *sigh*  Looks like it's time to get a new battery.  So you will have to settle for my description of the prep (really wasn't much) and the ingredients. Sorry :(

The players: 1 box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa, 6 chicken breasts(2 lbs), 1 pound of (12 oz fresh, 4 oz frozen) green beans, 1 15-oz can of whole berry cranberry sauce, 1/4 cup of  Vogue Cuisine GF Onion Soup Base, 1/4 tsp of Smoked Paprika, and 1/4 tsp of freshly ground black pepper.

Oh and since the recipe suggested using either pork or chicken, I decided to prep and make dinner for tonight and prep dinner for another night.   The recipe site actually wrote the recipes for prepping and freezing.  I just didn't feel like prepping it last night, so I made one today and prepped one for another night.  I prepped the second one with 2 lbs of pork tenderloin (instead of chicken breasts) in the freezer.

At the advice of the recipe author, I label the freezer bag first.  (Good thing they said that as the first instruction, because labeling the filled bag would be pretty dang tough)  What was my label?   "Cranberry, Green bean, pork tenderloin 2-18-15," of course.  I place the green beans in the bag first, then the onion soup mix, then the cranberry sauce, and the pork tenderloins last.  That way the meat will go in the crock pot first.  I will need to get a bag of green beans (fresh or frozen) before I make the tenderloin meal.  I only had 1 12-oz bag of fresh beans today, so I added in approximately 4 oz of frozen green beans to today's chicken dinner, resulting in 4 oz less in the bag of frozen green beans intended for the pork meal.

Speaking of which...things that drive me a little nuts- when a recipe calls for ingredients in amounts that don't match the amounts sold in stores. Spices, flour, sugar, oils, and flavorings of any kind are the only things that are ok to not match ;)  *shrug*

 Darnit!  I forgot to get all the air out of the pork dinner bag....be right back.  Ok.  now we wait 4 hours.  The recipe said 4-6 hours for chicken.  I set the timer for 5 hours, but I had to get myself some lunch before I sat back down....so we wait...

*more hold music.  different station this time, I promise*  While we wait,  I work on my other endeavor at Red's Stitch Niche

*BEEEEP*  BEEEEEP  *BEEEEP* Hrmmm - doesn't smell like much....it should smell awesome.  Time to see how I did or what I need to tweak for next time......

*hold music*

Ok, so apparently I put the quinoa on the wrong layer.  silly me.  it needed water to cook...i put it on top of the green beans...so they were the top layer. next time i will put the quinoa between the chicken and the cranberry sauce.

Pretty darn good, except for the crunchy quinoa.  "Tastes like Thanksgiving dinner," says BGS.   SCORE!!  For for those us lucky enough to live near a Capriotti's, it tastes a bit like a Bobbie®.  Double Score!

The chicken had little flavor and was a tiny bit dry.  So I think the next I make this meal the layers will be chicken on the bottom, 1/4 cup unsalted broth, soup mix, then quinoa, then cranberry sauce, then green beans.

I apologize in advance if Capriotti's is copyrighted or registered by the subshop and I didn't note it here.  I searched the website and couldn't find out anything.  If someone knows the proper notation, please let me know and I will correct this post.

Quinoa Plus Carrot-Apple-Pear Juice

I used the same basic recipe for the quinoa as yesterday, but today, I added 1 tbsp of Brewer's Yeast for the extra energy and complex B-vitamins.(nutritional info).  Diabetics or people with Hypoglycemia should consult their doctors before using brewer's yeast, because the yeast contains chromium, which may enhance sensitivity to insulin and affect glucose levels.


Turns out I really should have purchased Nutritional Yeast Powder to avoid tipping BGS' sugars.  He isn't diabetic, but we are trying to stave it off.  I prepared it the same as I did previously, but sprinkled the yeast on with the brown sugar.  He didn't taste the difference :)

Today's juice, however, was a different story.  even though he "approved" the recipe from Spark People, he was http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=514217 very outspoken about the fact that he didn't like it.  Oh well, I got some good pulp from it and plan on making carrot "cake" muffins this weekend.

Breakfast Quinoa and Vitamin C Juice - it's what's for breakfast

I don't remember where or when, but I read somewhere recently that quinoa (properties and benefits) was an excellent source of nutrition.  So I set out looking for recipes that used it.  The first one I found was to cook the quinoa in pomegranate-green tea.  I wasn't allowed to try it because my numbers were way off the week before (both pomegranate and green tea affect my numbers).  BGS did try it and wasn't fond of it.  He said all he could taste was the tea.  He finished his serving that night, but asked if he could toss out the rest.  Ok...one recipe done...time to search for more...to the internet!


I found a recipe for a lunch/side dish that uses pistachios and dried pineapple....a savory dish that uses scallions, raisins, and chicken broth (2 savory lunch/side dish recipes now)...a main course/lunch dish that uses chopped chicken breast, scallions, cumin (3 savory dishes)...and then I found a quinoa rice pudding that even has the rum and raisins and  today's breakfast dish that sounded delicious!

Quinoa Players

Prep time: 5-6 minutes.  Cook time: appx 20 minutes
Today's Breakfast Main Dish Players (for 1 serving): 2% milk, water, quinoa, rolled oats, oat bran, walnuts, cinnamon,salt, vanilla extract, brown sugar, and dried cranberries.

I got smart...I got the ingredients gathered and prepped last night, including putting the sauce pan on the stove last night after I cleaned up dinner.  This included putting 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk in a container and storing it in the fridge. Next I measured 3 tablespoons rolled oats (I didn't have rolled oats in my pantry, so I used instant - more on this later), 2 tablespoons oat bran, 1 pinch of salt, 1 pinch ground cinnamon, and 1 handful - appx 1/4 cup dried cranberries).  I also retrieved a bag of frozen mixed fruit from the freezer that included strawberries, mangoes, peaches, and pineapple chunks and set it on the counter to defrost for the morning juice

*Yawn* -*stumble down stairs* *let dog out* *rub eyes* *stretch* "brew" Donut Shop coffee and retrieve my milk/water mix from the fridge when I get out my creamer.

1.  Pour the milk/water into the pot already on the stove and add 2 tablespoons quinoa and bring to a gentle boil....do not walk away like I did.  I nearly had the whole thing boil over on me.
2.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
3.  Stir in the cranberries, rolled oats, oat bran, salt, and cinnamon.
4.  Cook, stirring frequently over low heat for 2-5 minutes or until the mixture begins to thicken.
5.  Remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice), 2 tsp brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

Serve immediately.   The recipe said that it should make two servings, given the fact that I doubled the recipe *all measurements above are 2x the original recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/good-morning-banana-nut-cereal/detail.aspx*, but it seemed like barely enough for 1 person, so I gave the whole thing to BGS for breakfast.

I don't know if it's because I used instant oats or if there wasn't enough liquid after the water/milk almost boiled over.  It's probably a combination of the two.  Who knows.  Either way, he enjoyed it and from the tablespoon I saved for myself, it was mighty tasty.  We will definitively try this again with other "additives".

The Juice:  I put the defrosted 16 oz bag of strawberries, peach slices, mango chunks and pineapple chunks in the juicer.   Big Mistake: I only got 4 ozs of juice out.  Apparently our Breville juicer

doesn't handle soft fruits - like blueberries, strawberries, etc all that efficiently.  Next time I will put it in the blender...who knew  we would need a juicer and  a blender to make juices....oh well....good thing I have my Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender so I won't have to wash the blender pitcher every time.

The juice tasted great anyway.  Just wish we had more of it :(

The photo is from today's juice has more chunks and bits in it, because I used the immersion blender instead of the juicer.  BGS was in a hurry to get to work, so I didn't pulse it all the way through.  BGS wasn't fond of the bits, but drank it anyway.