This post is part of a series sponsored by Nature’s Kitchen from Vick’s Nature Fusion.
I’m skirting the edges of my annual end-of-February slump, in which I start getting excited for spring while at the same time trying to remember that March in Michigan can be a looong month. The unusually mild weather this year has actually made it worse! It’s hard to enjoy a sunny 55 degree day in late January when you’re waiting for the other shoe (and all that snow that’s backed up somewhere) to drop.
This is the time of year I start turning to shortcuts to help me get through the last dreary month or so before spring has officially sprung. After all, with all the obsessive Weather.com monitoring, looking out the window and sighing, and fantasizing about summer dresses I’ll be doing, where will I find the energy to cook elaborate meals or clean up lots of pots and pans? The answer, of course, is the one-pot meal: soups, stews, and roasts that can be thrown together and cooked without a lot of oversight.
Here’s a great example: an easy one-pot corn and potato chowder recipe from chef Curtis Stone. Curtis demonstrates the recipe in this short video, and you can also download it as a pdf.
I can’t wait to make this to use up the CSA corn that’s still sitting in my freezer from last summer!
Also on the menu for this month: beef stew, chili, and creamy potato soup. What are your favorite one-pot meals?
This past weekend I couldn’t even muster the energy and motivation to use my slow-cooker. However, I do love it for beef stew, and earlier this winter I made split pea soup with the ham bone and ham and beans with the leftover ham itself. I need to start planning for this weekend!
I don’t have any one-pot meals, but would love to add some to my repertoire. Any chance you could post your beef stew recipe?
Actually, one of my favorite meals is asparagus pasta (and on the plus side it’s vegan friendly so I bring it to just about every potluck I go to!) which only takes about 25 min to prepare (plus a messy blender). http://noperiodbaby.blogspot.com/2007/07/asparagus-pasta.html I almost always double the recipe so we have leftovers. And most kids I have served it to love it too!
Hey Nico! I actually kind of wing it with beef stew – I have used Paula Deen’s recipe as a jumping-off point: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/old-time-beef-stew-recipe/index.html as well as this one: http://americanfood.about.com/od/classicchowdersandstews/r/beefstew.htm but then whatever I have on hand, I use – sometimes it’s red wine, sometimes beef broth, sometimes I just experiment. I think the key is browning the meat well, making sure your gravy is thick enough and simmering the stew long enough on low heat to get the beef nice and tender. I think beef stew is one of those things you can’t really mess up, which is why I love it!
we do a slow cooker beef stew that is just stew meat, a jar a salsa, and whatever else we have lying around – potatoes, frozen corn, or some root vegetables. super easy!