I love my crock pot

So, part of my plan for this year is to eat better, which means eating at home, and not eating pre-packaged junk. To that end, I went the other day to Central Market with my shopping list. side notes: 1. I do NOT eat fish, shrimp, or other water dwelling creatures. AT ALL. I don’t particularly like the taste, and it doesn’t particularly like me, so we came to an agreement that I won’t eat them and they won’t do nasty stinky things to me. It’s a plan I can live with. 2. There are several common veggies that I just can’t stand, sometimes it is a texture thing, sometimes it is a flavor thing, sometimes both. That list includes: eggplant, raw tomatoes, broccoli, onions, most squashes, avocados, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, canned green beans, beets, cucumbers, most peppers, artichokes, asparagus, mushrooms, shallots, and leeks. 3. There are some veggie rules that I have: I cook with purple onion, finely chopped. I eat grilled zucchini sometimes. I cook with red bell peppers. Cucumbers-bleah, dill or sweet pickles-yummy! Raw cauliflower-yummy, cooked-bleah. Mushy carrots SUCK. 4. I don’t do asian food, though I do stir-fry stuff on occasion, but not with asian spices 5. I’m not big on pork particularly, other than bacon. 6. I LOVE beef, unfortunately, it’s reached a point that beef really dislikes me most of the time these days, unless it’s VERY high grade (and therefore high-dollar). Thursday was my shopping day and by the time I finished all my errands, I just wasn’t in the mood to cook anything, so I wound up skipping dinner. Friday I made a couple of individual meatloaves, using ground bison. I’ve done it before, and it was fabulous. This time around, I messed up and used tomato paste instead of sauce, and the result was VERY acidic. Fortunately, I’d only cooked one of them, the other is in the freezer, and I’ve gotten information on how to correct the acidity once I thaw the other one to cook it. Paired with ½ a small baked potato, and a salad, I was pretty happy with the meal I had that night. Saturday, I woke up early and put some beans in the crock pot. Unfortunately, having not cooked with it nearly enough, I didn’t know that I needed to either use fresh spices and herbs, or use extra of the dried/crushed ones. I seriously needed to doctor the beans to have them taste decent. The cornbread, on the other hand, despite being from a package that only required me to add an egg and milk, was outstanding. Added a salad again, and had me a nice, balanced, fresh meal. This morning, I got out the bison roast I’d gotten at Central Market, sliced some garlic and put in it, then plopped it into the crock pot with some low-fat-sodium beef broth, some fresh thyme, rosemary, oregano, bay leaves, Italian parsley, garlic, some potatoes, and some purple onion, and cooked it all day long. The only problem I had was that I put the carrots in too soon, because they were MUSHY and gross by the time I was ready to eat! The roast, on the other hand, was absolutely FABULOUS! Tender, tasty, ahh! And of course, with a salad, I had another healthy, tasty meal. Now I’m off to bed, back to work tomorrow, after 3 weeks off to recouperate from my hysterectomy. Wish me luck! Hopefully I’ll be up on time, to work on time (which to my boss means 7, though I’m usually there by 6 or 6:30), and make it through the whole day!