Ideal Verge - Your Daily Dose of Knowledge and Inspiration.

There's no need to spend tons of money or eat lots of grease when you get a craving for Take Out. Here are over 30 ways to get your Fix in the comfort of your own home!











Listed in Alphabetical Order.



Asian
Shredded Beef

Broccoli
Beef

Cheese
Enchilada Stack

Chicken
Korma

Chimichangas

Chow
Mein

Coconut
Curry Soup

Dolmas

Falafel

Fried
Rice

General
Tso’s Chicken

Gyro

Hi Slow Cookerers!



I've got a treat for you today ---  I've compiled all of the questions I get pretty often into one email cheat sheet. Feel free to forward this along to a friend, or bookmark for reference.



While cooking in the slow cooker is pretty easy, sometimes things don't go exactly quite as planned. Since I've used the crockpot eight million and fifty-six times I have a few

The economy is all whacked out right now and it's scary. I'm not watching the news.

I get an email almost every day asking if I am saving money by using my CrockPot daily.

No. What I am doing is not normal. Most people do not try to do what I'm doing in the crockpot. We are pretty much breaking even on the grocery bills, thanks to BlogHerads. I am grocery shopping more than I ever have before,

This has been one of "those weeks" -- and I feel like I just can't seem to do anything correctly, and everything seems to be just slightly off balance.

it stinks.

I try to maintain a positive outlook on life, the universe, and everything, but today was one of those days that I wanted to crawl back in bed as soon as my feet hit the floor. The good news was that dinner pretty much made itself

We're home, safe and sound. Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth. We couldn't have had a better time, and coming home to all of your lovely comments and emails has turned me into a weepy blubbery mess.

Thank you. You are all wonderful people. And! Evidently quite opinionated about DVD players... While vacationing, I got to thinking that if I gained 8 pounds (down 4 thanks to the

Here's a line-up of tried-and-true slow cooker dishes that are suitable for your Holiday--any Holiday-- dinner table.








Unless otherwise stated, ALL recipes are completely gluten free, due to a family allergy. If you are not gluten free, simply ignore my notes. --steph

Main Course:





Bacon-Wrapped Cornish Game Hens

Barbequed Hot and Spicy Shrimp

Cajun Turkey Breast
Christmas

I made a whole chicken yesterday in the slow cooker, and it turned out really well. We had some tomatoes that needed to get used up before they turned into pasta sauce, and I threw them on top of the bird while it slow-cooked. I loved the end result: a moist, flavorful chicken with gooey packed-with-flavor tomatoes. For an added bonus, you can save the crock drippings to make steamed rice.

The

originally posted on July 29, 2008. Updated July 2015.


Day 211.

The kids and I went to the "good" library over the weekend and I checked out a bunch of cookbooks. One of the books was put out by Cook's Illustrated, and was called The Complete Book of Poultry.

There are probably a good five hundred recipes in this book, but narrowing down what I was going to attempt first was rather easy---I

originally posted in 2008. Photo and text updated via deposit photos @bhofack2 in 2015


Day 204.

I made this chow mein with chicken, but you easily could keep it vegetarian, or use your favorite kind of meat---even pork!

Debbi (who doesn't have a blog, but totally needs one) sent me this recipe in May, and I made it just yesterday.

This is a good one; I'm excited to share it with you.

originally posted May 21, 2008. Reposted in 2015.



Day 142.




Last weekend I went through the pantry and put like items together. Since I had helpers, it took a really long time, and it sort of looks the same way it did when I started, but I now have a pretty good idea of our inventory.




We have a surplus of garbanzo beans.




So I made falafels.




In the crockpot.


I've never made

originally posted on May 5, 2008.

Day 126.



Happy Cinco de Mayo! If you are looking for some ideas for Mexican food tonight, you've come to the right place.



Some of my favorites are:


Enchilada Casserole

Tamale Pie

Taco Soup

Chimichangas

Tortilla Soup

Turkey With Mango Salsa

Tacos

Not-Too-Spicy Bean Dip

Chicken Nachos



We had a party on Friday, and served crockpot fare

originally published April 30, 2015. Updated with new photo via deposit photos @bhofack 4/15


Day 121.



We had a busy Saturday this past week and I didn't have a meal planned. Usually that means take-out or macaroni and cheese, but instead I dug into the depths of the freezer and found a forgotten bag of frozen stew meat.


I wasn't sure exactly what to do with it, so just kept pulling

Originally published on April 10, 2008.
Photo updated in April 2015 by Deposit Photos HHLtDave5



Day 101.






These are quite possibly the very best ribs I have ever had. They were so good they made my eyes roll backwards, which is nearly impossible right now because I have a hive on it.


Yes.




I have a hive on my EYEBALL. My left one. It's been rather windy here lately, so the

It's almost St. Patrick's Day!

Bring on the Shamrocks!

Adam and I have been married for 100 million years 16 years this upcoming July. Before marrying into an Irish family, I ate corned beef a handful of times, and honestly wasn't all that impressed.

That's because I was wrong. Corned beef is DELICIOUS. And (unless you like it that way), it doesn't need to be soggy and greasy.

You can