Pinto Beans

Pinto beans are a basic soup ingredient to keep in stock. Cheap and healthful, these beans can be bought in bulk in the Mexican food section of your supermarket.

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New Crock Pot -$55

This is a brand new slow cooker offered in a supermarket. Compare with used slowcooker listed below.

St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store
214 Forest Ave
Pacific Grove, CA
93950

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Vintage Slow Cooker -$5

Kitsch one gallon slow cooker.

St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store
214 Forest Ave
Pacific Grove, CA
93950

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The Slowcooker Soups "Method"

This is really a simple way to cook healthy, delicious, and time-saving soups to feed your family. You will fill good about slowcooking. We cook soups almost every day, sometimes following a soup recipe, sometimes making up our own recipes.
But we always follow a simple method to achieve ease, speed, and nutrition. The method depends on keeping certain ingredients on hand at all times. We call these stock ingredients; that is, they are always in stock and make stock too! Soup stock.
We prefer to purchase some the following ingredients from the Mexican section of a supermarket or from an hispanic food store. This is because one of our guiding principles is to buy cheap when cheap is just as good. Hispanic stores and many supermarkets carry very inexpensive spices and other ingredients at a fraction of famous brand name ingredients. Keep the following on hand:

On the Shelf

• Garlic Powder
• Chile Powder
• Ground Cumin
• Bay Leaves
• Menudo (Mexican herb blend)
• Oregano Leaves
  
• "Lite" Salt

In the Refridgerator

• Celery
• Large carrots

In the Cupboard

• Lentils
• Split Peas
• Pinto Beans
• Black Beans
• Navy Beans
• Black-eyed Peas
• Lima Beans

The above list is half of the method. Here is the other half. Just before bed or first thing in the morning, fill your slowcooker with hot water from the tap. Add your ingredients, cover it, and leave it. When you come home the soup will be done. Because all of the ingredients are readily available the only time spent is chopping a couple of vegetables and throwing the ingredients in the crockpot.
Note: you can speed up the time the soup cooks by folding a kitchen towel and placing it on top of the slow cooker lid. This acts as an insulator and will cook the soup faster. Also, after cooking the soup, the towel can help to keep it warm.
If you want to take soup to work with you, prepare it the night before. When you get up, while you are fixing your morning coffee, you can ladle the soup into a thermos.

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Vegetarian Recipes For the Crock Pot

By Lisa Paterson

Being a Vegan is a lifestyle choice that can often make it difficult to find appropriate foods to eat. Also, some of these recipes can be time consuming with regard to cooking them. With the introduction of a slow cooker to your life, maintaining a vegan lifestyle has become easier than you could imagine.

French Onion Soup has always been a favorite for many but vegans have had to pass on this option due to the beef based broth. With some easy substitutions, French Onion Soup is now a viable and delicious recipe to try out in your crock-pot. By replacing the beef broth with vegetable broth, making the soup with the other usual ingredients, vegans will find this dish to be satisfying and filling. If there are no dairy dietary restrictions, don't forget to sprinkle the top of each soup bowl with bread cubes and Swiss cheese.

If you have a yen for something from south of the border, why not try Black Bean Burritos in your slow cooker? By mixing chopped onions, carrots and garlic cloves with corn, black beans, a diced jalapeno, soy sauce, fresh chopped cilantro and a cup or so of vegetable stock, you are creating a delicious and tasty burrito filling that will make you glad to be a vegan!

For something a little different, making Falafel in your slow cooker is easy and healthy. With a base of garbanzo beans, have no fear of accidentally violating your nutritional choices. In a food processor, combine onion, some garlic cloves, dried parsley to taste, an egg, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste, lemon juice and bread crumbs. The last ingredient to add would be the garbanzo beans, processing just enough that it is a paste with chunks of garbanzo. Pour enough olive oil on the bottom of your slow cooker and turn on high. While the oil is warming, shape the mixture into meatball size balls and place in the bottom of the Crock Pot, turning over to coat each falafel ball with olive oil. The usual shape of each ball should be slightly flattened. Cook these in the oil for about four hours or browned. Serve as is or inside a piece of pita bread. A traditional sauce for Falafel is Tzatziki, made of cucumber, plain yogurt and garlic. This would also taste great with hummus, a sauce made of garbanzo beans as well.

In the morning, who really feels like making an elaborate breakfast when you're still bleary? However, there's a simple recipe that uses soy sausage and egg substitute, making it easy to remain within the guidelines of your healthful diet options. Make layers of sausage, diced chilies, bell pepper, onion, crookneck squash, carrots and mozzarella cheese. Once this is done, pour some water and the egg substitute over everything and cook on low until the eggs set and the vegetables are soft, roughly eight hours, a perfect night's sleep. If you have a coffee pot that works from a timer, all you need to do in the morning is wake up and dig in.

Slow Cookers and a Vegan diet don't have to be mutually exclusive. A primary complaint from vegans is not enough options and too much time needed to prepare and cook the meals but with some imagination, this doesn't have to be the case. A varied and delicious menu is possible and the only limitations you might have are those you place on yourself.

Lisa is an avid home cook who loves to share her favorite recipes with the rest of us. Find all her easy crockpot recipes at http://www.A-Crock-Cook.com. And be sure to try one of her vegetable crock pot recipes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Paterson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Vegetarian-Recipes-For-the-Crock-Pot&id=1839313

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