Day 1 

What I'm Doing

I'm starting something new, something I think other people might need.  Crockpot recipes for people who are chronically ill, having a crisis, having a baby, homeschooling, fill in the blank crisis and need to get dinner on the table.

I'll be using recipes that are for meals aka not appetizers, desserts, bread, cake, ...etc.  I will have recipes for those but not in the daily 365 list.  These recipes will be real meals to fill a family up AND try to save you money by reusing what you have!  What there won't be: Chilis, stews, soups, weird ingredients kids won't eat, expensive ingredients...you get the idea.  Why no chili, soups and stews???  because my family isn't interested in eating that SO it would be a waste of money to try to make them.  Don't get me wrong, we do eat soup just not for dinner.  If you're interested in chili there is about a million recipes for that and same for soups and stews.  

I'll also try to keep the can of "cream of XXX" soup to a minimum.  I know how to make that from scratch which saves money so I'll post that substitute recipe if you need that.

So Let's start....

Day 1

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb Left Over Beef or fresh uncooked
• 1/4 Cornstarch
• 2 T Olive Oil
• 1 t Minced Garlic
• 3/4 C Soy Sauce
• 3/4 C Water
• 3/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1 C Grated carrots (or sliced) you can buy them grated at the store
• 5 Stalks Green Onions, Sliced

Instructions

1. Spray a 4Qt slowcooker (crockpot) with oil
2. Cut up meat if using fresh otherwise add left over meat pieces and cornstarch in a ziplock and shake to coat.
3. Add Olive Oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, water, brown sugar and carrots to slow cooker.  Do NOT add green onions!  Add ingredients to slow cooker (crockpot) and stir ingredients to coat.  Add coated beef and stir again until beef is coated with sauce.
4. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low 4-5 hours until cooked through if meat was raw or until fully heated if using left over beef.  
5.  Add 3 stalks of chopped green onions and stir to incorporate green onions.  Cook additional 15 minutes to soften green onions.  

Serve Over Rice. Garnish with remaining chopped green onions and sesame seeds

This is a good time to talk about rice cookers.  They are very cheap and make great rice PLUS you can steam veggies in it.  We have two and use them all the time.

TIP:  if you need to stretch this for a bigger family add more vegetables.  Honestly you could you any vegetable to make and stretch this but I would probably stick with broccoli, bell peppers, onions and more carrots to keep it cheap and healthy.

Verdict:

**** stars

Honestly this is very close to the Mongolian Beef we get at our local Chinese restaurant so it's a hit here.