It’s summer in northwest Montana. Harmony and Understanding converge at exactly this point come July and August. Read more about Montana campgrounds and things to do in Montana.
Yesterday, we left for Glacier Park (a mere 35 minute drive) and came home to a healthy, hot meal that had cooked outdoors in the crock pot during our Park adventures. I had thrown the recipe together in literally ten minutes, but it tasted way better than that.
I love my crock pot bubbling away on a table outside the RV. Thank the Lord for shore power! The RV stays cool inside because the cooking action is outside. Last week I cooked an awesome turkey breast in the crock pot outdoors. Many moons ago I submitted a blog about how to cook a great turkey breast in a crock pot. You might check that out. Note: I have since discovered the turkey breast needs to actually fit in the crock pot, so you may want to assess that more carefully than I did at point of purchase!
I had criteria for the crockpot recipe:
1) Ingredients only needed to be heated (not cooked) as I just wanted flavors to meld for a few hours and get credit for a nice, hot dinner.
2) Everything had to be in our motor home, or forget it. No store run allowed. Glacier Park was calling.
Here’s what I came up with:
Patti’s Seriously Healthy Crockpot Summer Stew
Ingredients (you can exchange anything in this, except you need the canned tomatoes for base):
• 2-3 patties of any frozen Veggie Burgers ( I like Morningstar Black Bean burgers best!)
www.morningstarfarms.com/products
(you could used cooked chicken, turkey, beef, too…)
• One large onion
• 1-2 cans beans (black, kidney, chili, garbanzo…) I used black beans.
• 3-4 cans tomatoes (stewed, diced, chopped…) Mine had green peppers/onions mixed in. Doesn’t matter.
• Small package frozen corn
• Small can of mild green chilies (because I had it)
• Two packages dry Chili seasoning Mix or any dry Onion soup mix, or just salt and pepper and throw in whatever seasonings you like. If you want to be really healthy, use low sodium salt and similar products. I used Hot Chili Seasoning mix.
Directions:
1. Microwave veggie burgers a couple of minutes until hot, put in crock pot, and bash them up.
2. Chop up onion. Add to crock pot.
3. Add seasoning mix and stir it all up.
4. Add beans.
5. Add green chilies or anything else you can think of .
6. Add corn.
7. Add cans of tomatoes until you like the consistency.
8. Stir all thoroughly.
9. Set crock pot on high or low (doesn’t matter much) for four-eight hours. Doesn’t matter much. You’re just heating and melding flavors. Remember, everything in the crockpot has been cooked or doesn’t require cooking.
Serve with salad, and good artisan bread. Or serve with Doritos and White Wonder Bread. It’s your call.
We liked this meal a lot. It was easy, healthy, and avoided canned soups (which make me shudder the older I get) and didn’t involve a trip to the store. Hubby made some rice, and ladled the stew on top of it. Or, you could add a half cup of rice to the last hour of crock pot time.
You can do anything you want with this recipe. Actually, it might be fun for the kids to come up with ideas for what to throw in it, as long as their ideas only require heating. Let me know what you come up with!
Happy tales, and easy summer cooking,
Patti
