Slow Cooker Cauliflower Pesto Mac N’ Cheese

March 11, 2016March 10, 2016 / ktbuchs87

I’m having a bit of a thing with cauliflower right now. I buy at least three big heads of it per week and have been experimenting putting it into different dishes. I pretty much look at any recipe and wonder, “Could I do this with cauliflower instead?” Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s kind of how life goes right?

Look, life lessons while making yummy food. Can’t get any better than that. Slow Cooker Cauliflower Pesto Mac N' Cheese | Life Healthfully Lived

Last week I had delicious taquitos (which you should definitely make immediately… after today’s recipe) that had a cauliflower filling and this week I’m doing a little bit of a twist on macaroni and cheese. Spoiler alert: there is no macaroni. Or cheese. There is, however, cauliflower, a delicious cheese-esque sauce, and a slow cooker.

Now, before you Mac N’ Cheese purists come at me with pitchforks and torches this recipe isn’t meant to taste exactly like Mc N’ Cheese it just uses a similar process. And if we’re on the subject of tasting like Mac N’ Cheese, apparently Kraft rolled out it’s new less artificial Mac N’ Cheese and told NO ONE and there were literally no complaints about it. So if we want to get technical, no one really knows what Mac N’ Cheese tastes like so who’s to say my version isn’t right?

Ok, that took a weird little turn but back to this recipe. I love the pesto-cheesy sauce on this and I like that I made it in my slow-cooker so there was minimal effort. You could easily prepare the sauce stuff before hand and then throw everything together in the slow cooker when it’s time to make dinner. It all tastes rich, creamy, and decadent yet you’re still getting a lot of nutrients and a big dose of vegetables. Talk about a win!

Cauliflower Pesto Mac N’ Cheese

1 large head of cauliflower, about 5 to 6 cups, cut into florets
1 batch of No Mozzarella Mozzarella
1 batch of Spinach Pesto
3/4 cup of full-fat coconut milk or any other non-dairy milk you like
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp smoked paprika

Cut up your cauliflower and set aside. Make the No Mozzarella Mozzarella and the Spinach Pesto. You can do this the night before if you want or right before.
Lightly oil your slow cooker with a little olive oil and place cauliflower florets into your slow cooker. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the mozzarella and pesto. It will be really thick but don’t worry.
Add the coconut milk slowly and keep whisking until you have a smooth and pourable sauce. You might not use all the milk and you might need a little more just adjust until you have the right consistency.
Pour the pesto sauce over the cauliflower, making sure to coat everything. Sprinkle the top with smoked paprika, cover, and cook on high for 3 hours or a little longer if you want super soft cauliflower.

Serve up and enjoy the goodness! Slow Cooker Cauliflower Pesto Mac N' Cheese | Life Healthfully Lived

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Apple Soup

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Have you heard the term, “soup weather”? Not to be confused with soup-y weather, soup weather is what happens when the temperatures start to cool down, maybe it gets a little rainy and windy, perhaps it’s gray and gloomy outside. Soup weather is the kind of weather that makes you just want to sit inside, wrap yourself in a blanket, and eat some soup.

It’s awesome.

Soup weather is just another reason that I love fall. Soup is one of my favorite things to make because it is so easy, but there are so many different flavors, combinations, and even techniques that can make soup feel gourmet or rustic. I could make soup every night, and because there is such variety, I wouldn’t get bored.

While I have my favorite stand by’s (like this chickpea dumpling or slow cooker minestrone), I like to try a few new recipes each year. One soup that I have never had is French Onion soup. When I was younger, I didn’t like onions so anything with onion right in the title was out. By the time that I started to really love onions, French Onion soup really wasn’t on my radar. Then I discovered caramelized onions and I decided it was time to try my own spin on French Onion soup.

Traditionally French Onion soup has a thick layer of cheese on top that you break through and eat along with the onion soup. This soup is not going to have any cheese, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious. I decided to keep it fairly simple but added in roasted apples for a little sweet taste of fall. Overall, I was thrilled with the flavor. A little sweet and a little savory.

You can save a little time with this recipe by caramelizing the onions in your slow cooker the day before. If you do that, this soup comes together really fast and that means you can spend more time snuggling in your blanket and enjoying soup weather!

Caramelized Onion and Roasted Apple Soup

4 large onions, thinly sliced (make them in your crockpot beforehand to speed things up)
1 large granny smith apple, cubed (you can also use any other tart apple)
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 cup celery, sliced
salt and pepper

If you haven’t caramelized your onions beforehand, heat a little olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add in the thinly sliced onions and cook low and slow until they turn a deep brown. Make sure you keep the heat LOW, you don’t want to burn or brown the onions. This should take about 20 to 30 minutes.
While you’re caramelizing the onions, you can roast your apples. Preheat the oven to 375. Place the cubed apples in a small bowl and add the teaspoon coconut oil. Toss to coat. Sprinkle the celery salt, fennel seeds, and allspice over the apples and toss again. Spread the apples in an even layer on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside.
In the same pot that you caramelized the onions, add the sliced celery to the onions and bring the heat up to medium-high. Saute the celery for about 7 minutes until soft. Add the roasted apples and stir to combine everything.
Add the vegetable broth or water to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Cover and lower to a simmer. Cook the soup, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper right before serving.

Simple ingredients turned into something that tastes fancy and awesome. That’s my kind of meal!

DIY Wednesday: Squash Apple Butter

September 30, 2015September 30, 2015 / ktbuchs87

I certainly did not invent apple butter, although that would be pretty awesome if I did. I’m also certainly not the first to put a recipe for apple butter on their blog. But I’m putting a little spin on the typical apple butter today for your DIY post of the week.

I actually had never really tried apple butter until I met Adam. His grandma sent us home from a visit once with some apple butter and it was delicious. It was smoother and creamier than applesauce and that was what I loved about it. It’s funny that Adam was technically the one to introduce me to apple butter since the man doesn’t like cooked apples! I know, he’s weird.

Anyway, most apple butter is made with a TON of sugar. Besides adding sweetness, it helps preserve the apple butter. That’s fine for some, but since I don’t do refined or much added sugar, I wanted to try an apple butter that didn’t use sugar. To me, cooked apples are already fairly sweet. Plus if you add in spices like cinnamon it ups the sweet factor. I also wanted to do something to make my apple butter even smoother. Pureed squash is really smooth and creamy plus it tends to lean toward the sweet side. And squash is just awesome in general so I thought why not add it into my apple butter.

Luckily it worked out and I ended up with a fall hybrid butter that is perfect on toast, in oatmeal, on pancakes, or on a peanut butter sandwich. It is so easy to make your own apple butter and it will cost a lot less than buying it from the apple orchard or specialty shops. So if you have a plethora of apples hanging around and want to try something a little different than your typical apple butter, give this squash apple butter a try!

Squash Apple Butter

5 to 6 large apples of different varieties, I used a mix of sweet and tart like granny smith and gala.
2 cups diced butternut squash, you could also try pumpkin or delicata
2 tsp lemon juice
2 to 3 cinnamon sticks, optional
2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, optional
1 tsp ground cloves, optional
1 tsp ground cinnamon, optional

Place sliced apples, cubed squash, and cinnamon sticks if you are using them into a slow cooker. You want to make sure you fill the cooker almost to the top leaving just a little space.
Cook on high for 4 hours. If your apples and squash start sticking, you can use a little water. Don’t use too much because you don’t want a watery butter.
After 4 hours, the apples and squash should be fairly soft. Remove the cinnamon sticks and smash everything else with a potato masher or fork and transfer the whole thing to a blender. You could also use an immersion blender. Puree the apples and squash until super smooth. This is important to make sure you have a smooth and creamy butter.
Return the puree to the slow cooker and cook on high for another hour. At the end stir in the lemon juice and any spices you want.
Allow the whole mixture to cool before you transfer to jars or other airtight containers. Store in the fridge.

I have really liked swirling this into my oatmeal in the morning. The whole thing just reminds me of fall and that makes me happy!

In other news, my little sister is getting married this weekend ( 😀 😀 😀 😀 ) and I am just a tad busy helping her with that! While I have plenty of new recipes to share with you, my Friday post will be a round-up of my favorite fall recipes around the blog world. I hope you have a great Wednesday and see you soon!

DIY Wednesday: Caramelized Onions

July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Fun fact time: I have never had caramelized onions. I know what they are, I know people love them, and I’ve listened to many a chef on Food Network talk lovingly about making them just right. Despite all that, I have never eaten them or attempted to make them. I don’t have anything against onions, I use them all the time. I always have some in my kitchen and will throw them into any meal.

The biggest thing stopping me from making my own caramelized onions? Time.

If you have ever made caramelized onions, you know that it takes quite a bit of time. You have to cook them for a long time, at least an hour, over a very low heat. That’s how you get the onions to release their sugar and caramelize. I don’t know about you, but on most days I don’t have over an hour to slowly cook onions no matter how delicious the outcome. Plus, now that it’s summer the idea of standing over a hot stove for an extended period of time doesn’t sound too appealing. Have no fear though, I have the solution to our problem.

The slow cooker.

I always forget about the slow cooker during the summer because I always equate it with soups and chili’s and their ain’t nobody who wants to eat soup when it’s 90 degrees out. But the slow cooker does so much more than cold weather favorites and today it’s going to do all the work for you when it comes to caramelized onions. While this method actually takes much longer than the traditional way, you don’t have to do anything but turn the slow cooker on. Nothing could be simpler than that!

Caramelized Onions

3-4 large yellow onions, I used 3 very big onions each a little over a pound
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Peel the onions and cut each onion in half, longways (cut from the top down to the root) then cut the onions into half moons. Place all of the onions into your slow cooker. You want to leave just a little room at the top.
I actually switched to my bigger slow cooker because I had so many onions!
Drizzle 2 tbsp of the oil over the onions and toss to coat. If you need more add in the last tbsp of oil. Sprinkle the salt over the top and stir to combine.
Cover the slow cooker and cook the onions on LOW for at least 10 hours. If you can stir the onions occasionally, but this isn’t a necessary step.
At the end of 10 hours, turn off the slow cooker and let the onions cool. Drain off any liquid and store in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also freeze the onions in ice cube trays to be used later.
Just freeze and then pop them out whenever you need them!

See wasn’t that simple? Now go put caramelized onions on everything and enjoy the caramelized goodness!

Butternut Mushroom Risotto

February 20, 2015 / ktbuchs87

The first time that I made risotto did not go well. I found a recipe online and did everything that it said. What I was left with was watery and still slightly crunchy. This was not the “creamy” risotto I had heard so much about. I pushed the recipe to the bottom of my stack and went on my merry risotto-less way.

Flash forward a few years and I decided to try it again. This time went much better and I ended up with a tasty and comforting dish. The only problem was that it took quite some time to get the risotto ready. Now I don’t mind recipes that take a lot of time, usually on the weekends I specifically choose meals that will take a few hours because I like cooking. What I don’t like are recipes that take a long time and are kind of boring. If you’ve ever made risotto you know that it takes a lot of stirring. A LOT of stirring. While I liked the taste and texture of risotto I did not like the process of making it.

Join me in the present and I have found a way to make risotto that isn’t totally boring. The slow cooker. How I didn’t think of this idea before I have no idea because I am in love with my slow cooker! This recipe has all the deliciousness of risotto with about half of the stirring. That is a wonderful thing!

Butternut Mushroom Risotto

1 tbsp roasted garlic or 3 to 4 cloves minced
2 leeks, dark green parts trimmed off and white parts sliced thin (save the stalks to make homemade broth!)
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz package of mushrooms, sliced (you can use any variety like button or cremini)
3/4 cup white wine or vegetable broth
2 cups short grain brown rice
1 tsp salt
5 cups vegetable broths
2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp parsley
1 cup pureed butternut squash

1. In a large pan heat a little olive oil and saute the leeks, onions, garlic, and mushrooms. You want the mushrooms to reduce in size and the leeks and onions to have a little brown around the edges. Place all the vegetables into your slow cooker.

2. Using the same pan, add in the 3/4 cup of white wine or broth and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom.

3. Add the 2 cups of brown rice to the pan and cook over medium high heat until all the liquid is absorbed. Constantly stir the rice. This should take about 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Add the rice, 5 cups of broth, marjoram, parsley, and salt to the slow cooker with the vegetables and stir to combine. Cook on high for 2 to 3 hours.

5. The risotto is done once all the liquid has been absorbed. At the end of the cook time stir in the pureed butternut squash. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

I made this last weekend and it was awesome. It’s a really comforting meal and with the ridiculously cold weather coming this weekend this is the perfect dish to warm up with. It also takes minimal effort and yields a creamy rich risotto. This is also a good recipe to make a big batch of so you have leftovers for lunch for the work week.

Have a great weekend and make sure that you stay warm!