On the Table: Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken Stew

It's been a while since I posted a recipe.  In part this is because M. and I had been in a bit of a food rut for the last month or so of the semester, eating lots of pasta and roasted veggies and big salads and having pizza or Mexican take out every Thursday evening.  However, over the past couple of weeks we've made an effort to make some things that aren't in our usual rotation.  This Moroccan- inspired chicken dish is one of them.  It could easily be made vegetarian by eliminating the chicken and using vegetable stock instead of chicken broth.





Ingredients
2-3 boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into chunks
1 clove of garlic
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
2 carrots
2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 potatoes, cubed
12 oz garbanzo beans
12 oz of chicken broth or vegetable stock
1 can of stewed tomatoes
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp lemon juice (or wedges of lemon)
Couscous

Directions
Quick boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes in adequate water.  Meanwhile, in a large pan, saute vegetables, and garlic in 2 Tbsp of olive oil on medium heat, add chicken, and half of the spices and cook until the chicken is browned.  When done, place the contents of the pan in the crockpot.  Drain the potatoes, and add them as well as the garbanzos, tomatoes, chicken broth, lemon juice, and the remainder of the spices to the slow cooker.  Stir.  Cook on High for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.  Close to meal time, prepare the couscous according to package directions.  Serve stew on a bed of couscous and with lemon wedges if desired.

Have you tried any new recipes lately that you would recommend?  What's been on your dinner table lately?

On the Table: Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese

Usually when I get home from campus on Thursday evenings I am pretty wiped out from a week of teaching, meetings, paperwork, and trying to get in some mid-week miles and mid-week research and writing.  Because of this, either my husband makes dinner on Thursday or I make something that doesn't require a whole lot of work or time in the kitchen.  Yesterday I decided to make slow cooker mac & cheese.  It requires about 20 minutes of prep work and then the occasional trip into the kitchen to check on things and stir, but it is a very easy meal.

First I boiled some elbow macaroni according to the package instructions.  I used about 1/2 of a 32 oz package since my crock-pot is on the small side.  While the pasta was boiling, I cut up some fresh broccoli and put it in the crock-pot.  When the noodles were cooked to al dente, I drained them and added them to the slow cooker with the broccoli.

Then I stirred in the following ingredients:
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup of sour cream (I used lite to mitigate some of the unhealthiness of this recipe)
1 1/4 cup of milk (I use 1%)
1 tsp of ground mustard
1 tsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of tabasco sauce
1 can of Campbell's cheddar soup (10 3/4 oz)
~3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
~1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

I put the lid on the crockpot and cooked the mac & cheese for about two and a half hours on low, stirring occassionally.

It wasn't the most attractive dish out there, but it was absolutely delicious.  Sometimes nothing beats comfort food at the end of a long week!

What's your go-to comfort food?