Nostalgia, Chocolate

Sunday evening we hauled out our projector and boxes of slides and spent a couple of hours of looking at old pix taken in the 70’s. This included when we first arrived in Canada so there was a preponderance of Niagara Falls photos, haven’t been there in years, and The African Lion Safari in Rockton, Ontario. In recent years Matt did some security work there for a while so we did go there once in the last 10 years when we got in for free. What really teed me off with these photos, how slim I was at that time. I had joined Weight Watchers in England before we came to Canada and lost 56 lbs so I was really looking good for a while there. Not only that, we looked so young. There were also lots of snow pictures, we don’t seem to see snow like that these days.

http://tinyurl.com/2ue4cxy read this article and it tells you all the benefits of eating just a small portion of dark chocolate every day. Not very much, about the size of a Hershey’s Kiss, and not sweetened or, again, not very much. But its so good for so many things. I wonder if anyone has ever suggested to Hershey’s that they make a Kiss with dark chocolate. I could eat 365 of them a year!!!

I have had a slow cooker for quite a number of years now and have always found it very useful. However, my one bugaboo was that I could not remove the inside for washing so had to be extremely careful not to get the electrical connections wet and which made it always a pain to wash. Yesterday, we had to go into a local hardware store and I started looking at some slow cookers; we ended up buying one, somewhat bigger, with a stone interior which can be removed and if wanted, can be used as a serving dish. Mind you this stone dish is extremely heavy. It is also programmable if one wants, not that I think I will, more for people going to work than me. So, now I need more recipes to take advantage of my new small appliance.

Here is, obviously, a slow cooker recipe. My only problem is the use of canned soups and I would be very much inclined to make my own sauces/soups but it does make it an easy recipe. I would certainly use fresh mushrooms.

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

Source: Betty Crocker

Stroganoff, once only weekend special can now be served weeknights thanks to slow cooking.

Prep Time 15 Minutes

Total Time 8:15 Hrs:Mins

8 servings

2 pounds beef stew meat

1 cup chopped onion

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of golden mushroom soup

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of onion soup

1 jar (6 ounces) Green Giant® sliced mushrooms, drained

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed

1 container (8 ounces) sour cream

6 cups hot cooked noodles or rice

 

In 3 1/2- to 4 1/2-quart slow cooker, mix beef, onion, soups, mushrooms and pepper.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 10 hours or until beef is very tender.

Stir cream cheese into beef mixture until melted. Stir sour cream into beef mixture. Serve over noodles.

Time Saver

Save time and tears. Use pre-chopped onions found in the freezer case of your supermarket. Thaw before adding.

Have a great day