crocking

This weekend, we found out that Sierra is allergic to peanuts. I gave her some peanut butter on bread and thought it was OK because she's had Nutella, which has hazelnut. So she ate it, loved it, and we went out. About 30 min into our drive, she started crying and I thought she just wanted out of her car seat. I looked back and saw her face covered with rashes with overall redness and puffiness; scary-looking. I went into panic mode and made Pat turn around right away to go home. We saw a Target along the way so Pat dashed out to get some Benedryl. It took a few hours to settle down completely. Poor little Sisi, her beautiful face really turned pitiful looking and I just felt horrible.... Now I know....

Just awhile ago, Pat asked me if I was "crocking" tonight, and I said yes. In fact, I will be crocking most nights this weeks. I've been obsessed with the crock pot for a few months now. It's a great way to cook because it takes very little effort to make a meal that is completely cooked when we get home. I prepare all the ingredients and put it in the crock pot the night before and refrigerate - this takes about 10 minutes. In the morning, Pat plugs it in along with the rice cooker before he leaves for work. When we come home in the evening, we are ready for dinner as we step into the house. This is so good for me because as soon as Sisi sees me in the afternoon, she hangs on to me like a koala and won't let me go. That means that I usually only have one free hand to cook. It's possible but just a pain.

Tomorrow's crock pot dinner will be Korean Short Ribs with rice, green beans and Kimchi. So when I get home, I will just pop the green beans in the microwave to cook and that's it. It's really awesome. I boast about my crock pot to other moms at work, but for some reason, they only seem mildly impressed....

There has been some misses with the crock but my family has liked stuff like beef stroganoff, chicken/ pork adobo, creamy chicken with vegetables, beef stew, chili, and soy ginger chicken. Since my criteria for any cooking these days is "quick and easy", they only take minutes to prepare. I think I am going to start posting recipes here but some great websites that I discovered are:
Crock Pot Recipes & A year of crockpotting


Both my kids love fish but it's one of those dinners that's better prepared with 2 hands. So even though it's not hard to do, it's just a pain carrying Sisi and dealing with fish. But just looking through the web, I did find that fish can be done in a crock. So I think that's going to be my next thing.