Crockpot Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

Another good one from A Year of Crockpotting, found here, though I halved the recipe and used turnips and sweet potatoes instead of rutabagas. This one takes a little more prep, to wash/peel/cut up the veggies, but it's tasty. I ate this with quinoa for dinner (omg yet ANOTHER vegetarian meal! I'll need to get a pork recipe up here soon)

Ingredients:
~1 pound carrots
~1 pound turnips
~1 pound parsnips
a large sweet potato
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-2 T olive oil
-1/2 tsp kosher salt
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1/2 tsp basil

To make:
Peel and cut the veggies into 2 inch chunks.

Put all the vegetables into your crockpot, and add the olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Toss with your hands to coat fully coat the vegetables.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-5. The vegetables are done when they have reached desired tenderness.

Baked Sweet Potato with Garlic Green Beans & Quinoa

A vegetarian dinner omg :-0

I had a large sweet potato and a bunch of green beans that really needed to be used soon, and no meat in the house :-0 But this nearly all-plant-based dinner (there was butter involved) was tasty, filling, and pretty as well.

Baked Sweet Potato
Here I followed the instructions in the Cook's Illustrated Best Recipes cookbook, modified here for a single potato:
Scrub the potato and lightly prick with a fork.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Rub the potato with olive oil (I used the lightly flavored kind, for sauteeing).
Put the potato on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Bake until a knife tip slips easily into the center of the potato, 40-50 minutes.
Dot with butter and season with a little pepper.

During the last ten minutes or so of the potato's baking time, I prepared the quinoa and garlic green beans:

To make the quinoa: Rinse 1/3 cup of quinoa in a strainer. Put quinoa and 2/3 cup water into a saucepan, bring to boil over medium heat. Lower heat a bit and simmer until water is gone (but no longer!)

To make the beans: heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a skillet/saucepan. Add about a clove's worth of minced garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add green beans and a handful of edamame (more green, and protein!), and about a tablespoon of butter. Cook and push around till the baked potato comes out.

Probably you could skip the olive oil with the beans, and just cook the garlic in butter (I just didn't think of adding butter till after I used oil)

Slow cooker chicken and sweet potatoes

Another easy comfort dinner made in the slow cooker.

Ingredients:
~2 lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks
4 or 5 medium-large sweet potatoes
3/4 cup honey mustard salad dressing
1 tsp crushed dried rosemary

Preparation:
Peel and quarter sweet potatoes, place in slow cooker.
Remove skin from chicken, place in cooker over yams.
Mix rosemary and dressing in a bowl, pour over chicken and sweet potatoes.
Cook on high 3 1/2 hours.

Makes enough for 3 or 4 dinners. When the chicken was almost done, I steamed some green beans to have on the side.

Oven-braised lamb shanks with sweet potatoes

This is a really straightforward use of lamb shanks, which are a meat I really like. The quantities below are for 1-2, depending on the size of the lamb shank and appetite.

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium/large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bullion cube (chicken)
2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced (peel if you like, I don't)
1 large lamb shank, or 2 small ones (I used 2 shoulder shanks tonight)
1/3 cup white wine
1 bayleaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (fresh is better if you have it, of course)

1. Put oil in casserole dish, making sure it covers the bottom. Put lamb shank(s) in, roll around in oil until they are covered completely.
2. Pre-heat oven to 180 c (350 f), and put lamb in. Let it cook for 10 minutes or so, until lamb starts browning.
3. Remove lamb, and insert onion (and cover dish). Put back in oven until onion starts going clear (about 5-6 minutes for me)
4. Add garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper, and return to oven for 2-3 minutes.
5. Stir everything well, and add lamb and sweet potato slices. Cover about halfway with water, and add wine, bayleaf and crumble the bullion cube into the liquid.
6. Cover the casserole dish, and put in oven for 45 minutes. Turn the lamb shanks over, then cook for about 45 more minutes, when lamb is so tender it falls off the bone.
7. Optionally, If you like your meat a bit crispier, turn the meat over once more, and cook for 10-15 minutes uncovered.

If you feel like it, once you remove the lamb and potatoes, you can strain the liquid, reduce it and add a little flour to make a gravy. I don't normally bother.