Slow Cooker Sausages with Sauerkraut & Potatoes

Hello world!

My son is six months old as of last weekend and I’m starting to feel like I can manage some culinary adventures again.  I don’t want to get overambitious, as I tend to do, so I’m starting slow. Today I’m trying a recipe from RealSimple (love that site!) for sausages with sauerkraut and potatoes to be cooked in a slow cooker.  The crockpot is my new best friend.  I’m especially excited to serve this meal with the suggested pumpernickel bread.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds red new potatoes, halved if large
2 cups sauerkraut, drained
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
kosher salt and black pepper
1 1/2 pounds bratwurst links
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
toasted dark bread (such as pumpernickel), butter, and whole-grain mustard, for serving

Method
1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, mix together the potatoes, sauerkraut, onion, broth, wine, caraway seeds, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Nestle the bratwurst in the vegetables.
2. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).
3. Sprinkle the bratwurst, potatoes, and sauerkraut with the parsley and serve with the toast, butter, and mustard.

I used chicken sausage, and since I didn’t have caraway seeds I used fennel instead.  The recipe calls for white cooking wine, but the German part of me wonders why it didn’t call for beer instead?

We came home to a yummy smell emanating from the kitchen – another reason I love the crockpot.  We toasted the pumpernickel, slapped on some butter and dug in.  Everything was pretty tasty, though I warn any “spicy-food-wusses” like me not to get andouille sausage as it packs quite a bit of heat.

My picture is pretty sad compared to the one on RealSimple, but trust me, it’s tasty.  If I make this again, I think I’ll replace the cooking wine with some good German beer.

ain’t got no time

 

Time is my enemy.

Such is life, I suppose. I love my weekends more than ever.

Festival!

I love festivals. There’s music, lots of stuff to look at, good people watching and mingling, and great food. Of course for me, it’s always about the food.

We took the little one to his first Folk Festival this past weekend and he did much better than we expected. He experienced his first klezmer dance instruction, Chinese opera, Middle Eastern percussion and Tibetan monks all in one day! And he got to take a very relaxing nap by the river.

As you can see from the picture, he was mesmerized by the Azerbaijani duo.  It’s strange to think that just a year ago he was yet to be.

I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to try the famous Trinidadian curry chicken and rice with pigeon peas as they sold out, but the Thai shrimp fried rice and spring roll more than made up for it.

Big tip for parents planning to take a newborn to a festival anytime soon  – back pack carriers rock!

pity party

I’m counting calories again. I worked really hard to get where I was right before I got pregnant. I was the healthiest I had ever been. I was eating well. I felt great. Self esteem was good. I had just bought two new bikinis and a size four skirt – I hadn’t been a size four in years!

Then the wonderful news came. I definitely enjoyed eating without remorse during the pregnancy. I have a big, healthy boy now so I shouldn’t be complaining. I gained 55 lbs. total and have since lost 30 lbs. I should be proud of that, but I’m so impatient. I keep telling myself I’m being ridiculous. It took nine months to put on, it’s not going to just fall off. But I really want to rock my old jeans again.

I’m angry that my body is so damaged and I can’t do everything I want to do. I am sick of elastic and want to be able to actually button a pair of pants. I want to wear my old heels again. I actually miss cardio – crazy but true.

I put away all of my pre-pregnancy clothes that don’t fit yet so I don’t have to stare at them anymore (notice I said “yet”. It will happen!). I have more clothes that don’t fit than do. I will get there again.

All of my frustration and body anxiety aside, I love being a mom. It makes me feel great to love and care for my son. My family is beautiful and I couldn’t ask for anything better.

MyFitnessPal – Free Calorie Counter

Howdy strangers

Damn time flies. 

So, we had a baby. He was a wopping 8 1/2 pounds and it wasn’t easy getting him here. I had a bit of recovery time to go through and although I’m still not 100%, I’m much better than I was.  And I have a perfectly healthy, beautiful son to show for it. I loved being home with him but unfortunately one must return to real living.  Here I am, one week back at work, paying for the childcare that I wish I could stay home and provide.  At least we are the first people he sees when he gets up smiling in the morning and the last ones to say goodnight to him.  And we have the weekends to get in tons of cuddle time.

I’m still cooking up a storm, but I use E-Mealz mostly, since I don’t have a lot of time for meal planning.  I’ve been using them for at least six months now and have been very pleased with their variety and simplicity.

I hope to start blogging regularly again.  Stay tuned…

e-mealz update

I’ve been using E-Mealz for almost a month now and I like it a lot. We don’t make every meal on the menu because some just aren’t our taste, but most of the meals we have tried have been great.  I have noticed that the vegetarian meal plan tends to be a little carb-heavy, but it’s very easy to switch out the suggested sides for something else. Plus the meal plan is meant for a family of 4 – 6, and since there’s only 2 1/2 of us, it’s easy to eliminate some of the starches. For example, last night’s menu was curried sweet potatoes with fresh green beans and rice – we just did without the rice and it was plenty of food.

Just for the convenience factor alone, I think it’s worth it. Given how busy we’ve been lately, and how that’s just going to increase over the coming months, this service saves me hours of meal planning every week.  That time will be all too precious once lil’ Lima Bean arrives.

Speaking of – only 82 days left! Yikes!

we’ll see how it goes

Since we’ve been doing so many house projects, and my belly is getting more difficult to tote around, I’ve been lacking the motivation to plan a menu and stick to it.  I heard about E-Mealz on a pregnancy forum and decided to give it a trial run.

Basically, they plan your week’s dinner menu for you with seven different recipes based on current specials and coupons (main course and side dishes).  They also provide you with a shopping list for your convenience.  I opted for the vegetarian menu and just made my first shopping trip for the new meal plan.  I spent about the same in groceries, but we’ll see if that changes in the weeks to come.

First on the list for tomorrow night’s dinner: Mrs. Bacot’s Zucchini Pie with a side salad.  Wish me luck!

different cravings

 I’m not craving Arby’s anymore. That morphed into a constant Subway craving a few weeks ago. Now I could care less about either of those and instead would be happy with a daily cola slurpee.  And extra bonus – the cold makes the baby kick!

I miss you Breyer’s

My husband and I love Breyer’s Fruit on the Bottom yogurts so much that we have switched grocery stores on multiple occasions when they stopped selling it. Although it’s not the ‘lightest’ of the yogurts, the ingredients are all natural and they don’t taste like a cup full of sugar. They have become a daily breakfast staple in my house – where digestive health is very important. A couple weeks ago I got a little worried when there were only a couple of these delicious little cups left on the shelf at our new, adopted grocery store with a “manager’s special” price tag on them. Then I was distraught when I went back the following week and they had removed the Breyer’s place savers all together!

Rather than complain to management, I emailed Breyer’s headquarters to ask them for a list of stores in my area where I could get these tasty necessities. They responded and told me that they had lost their licensing for this particular product and therefore are selling them in limited supply throughout the country.  They suggested in the mean time I could try their new Breyer’s Yo Crunch with flavors like Oreos, Butterfinger, or Snickers.  Really?  Rather than have my fruit filled, digestion soothing yogurt, you suggest that I try some candy-filled concoction that was developed to make unhealthy people pretend they’re being healthy?  I think you’re going the wrong way, my friend.

Now, here I am eating my last cup of Black Cherry Breyer’s Fruit on the Bottom yogurt, wishing things would go back to normal.  Please leave my vanilla ice cream alone.

UPDATE: I received a letter from Breyer’s thanking me for my feedback. They included two coupons for Breyer’s Yo Crunch.

Happy Seuss Day!

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” – Dr. Seuss