Crockpot jambalaya

A fairly quick crockpot soup/stew, from the CFSCC blog...

1. Chop 1 large onion and 1 bell pepper, and saute them with 3 minced cloves of garlic. Put this mixture in your crockpot.
2. Brown 2 chicken breasts, chop into chomp-sized bits, and add to the pot.  You'll also need to cook and chop up some sausage to add--this time, I used half a bag of the loose sausage from our pig.  I think it was about 2 sausages worth. (This sausage is so salty that I didn't add any other salt to the recipe! You may need to if your sausage is more...sedate.)
3. Add 4 c chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes (I drained some of the liquid), and a tablespoon or so of Cajun seasoning (cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika).
4. Cook this on low for 4 hours.
5. Finally, add 1 lb of cooked shrimp (I bought raw ones and sauteed them), 1 c of spinach, and 1 head's worth of cauliflower rice.  Cook it long enough for the spinach to be droopy and everything to be hot--I think I did another hour or so, but you could put it on high instead.

It came out good!  Again I think I skimped on the seasonings and I feel like it needs one more flavor... I'm not sure what.  I'm going to have to compare some other jambalaya recipes.  Also, next time I'll use chicken thighs instead of breasts since I think they'll dry out less in the crockpot.

Beef braised in coconut milk

I made this beef braised in coconut milk and was thoroughly impressed!  It came out tender and flavorful, although I think next time I might actually increase the seasonings some.  It mostly tasted like coconut and beef--delicious, but the other flavors didn't really come through.

1. Preheat the oven to 275, and cut a ~3 lb beef chuck roast into six or so pieces.  Rub them with salt and brown them well in coconut oil in a big (oven safe) Dutch oven.  You'll want to do them in batches, and reserve them on a plate to the side.  I also took a lime out of the fridge now so it would be at room temperature for later juicing.
2. Drop the heat on the Dutch oven to medium and add a chopped onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger, the zest of one lime, and 2 tablespoons of curry paste.  Saute this for a few minutes to partially cook the onion, scraping the beefy bits off the bottom of the pan.  Then, add a can of coconut milk, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce.  Now, you put all your beef (and any juices) back in the pot, cover it up, and put it in the oven.  It took mine 3 hours to get to falling-apart tender.
3. Pull the pieces of beef out and put them on a cutting board to cool slightly.  Meanwhile, put the pot over medium heat and add a chopped bell pepper; simmer for a few minutes to cook it.  Add the juice of that lime, 2 chopped scallions, and 1/4 c of basil cut into thin ribbons.  Chop or shred the beef into bite size pieces and add them back in!

We made cauliflower rice and served it over that--it was perfect.  I''ll definitely be making this again!