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Table Of Contents
- Recipe: Ginger Beef in the Slow Cooker
- Technology and Meal Planning
- Where to Find High Quality Meat
I hate it in the morning, but man, I love it in the evening!
Slow cooker recipes are becoming more and more a part of our weekly routine here at the Kimball house. I’m making it a priority to find and try many slow cooker meals, and I have not been disappointed. It is absolutely a joy to be able to interact more with my kids, go over homework, play with the toddler, ETC. between the hours of 4-5:30 rather than futzing with dinner.
I still have to cut raw vegetables for salad and sometimes make a side veg or remember to start some rice, but on the days when Morning Katie gives Dinnertime Katie the gift of a slow cooker meal, Evening Katie is eternally grateful.
On that note, I’m actually supposed to be getting the crockpot started right now with the BBQ chicken recipe from Crock On! which was also reprinted with permission in The Healthy Lunch Box. We haven’t had it in a while, and it’s a big hit with everyone – but that doesn’t mean I really want to take 10 minutes to throw it together in the morning.
(Don’t worry, Evening Katie, I’ll get it going as soon as I post this lovely recipe.) 
This month’s focus in on using fresh ginger, so imagine my glee when I was searching through one of my slow cooker eBooks a few weeks back and found a recipe calling for fresh ginger! From Your Freezer to Your Family(no longer available) by Stephanie of Mama and Baby Love includes ways to make slow cooker meals that get frozen and then go directly into the slow cooker (boy, Morning Katie would love that!). I have never actually taken the time to do the freezer part, but the recipes are great for regular slow cooking too.
Stephanie gave me permission to reprint this ginger beef recipe, and although I tweaked it a little, it’s still definitely hers. In her old book, she used to list the ingredients for a double recipe assuming people were making two bags of meals for their freezer. In the new version, she offers a number of methods for cooking, including freezer-to-slow-cooker, stovetop, Dutch-oven-in-the-oven, and slow cook without freezing. It’s much more versatile and has quite a few new recipes as well.
Recipe: Ginger Beef in the Slow Cooker
Are you ready to set the slow cooker and forget it?
Slow Cooker Ginger Beef
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star4 from 1 review
- Author: Katie Kimball
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Total Time: 8 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Ingredients
UnitsScale
- 2 lbs. beef roast (either leave bone-in or cut into 1-inch cubes)
- 3 carrots, cut into 1-inch-thick slices
- 1 c. scallions (green onions), sliced
- 1 c. chopped red bell pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2–4 Tbs. grated fresh ginger (use a microplane)
- 1 – 1 1/2 c. beef stock, or if using bone-in roast, use water
- 2 Tbs. tamari sauce (same thing as gluten-free soy sauce)
- 1/2–1 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 2 Tbs. tapioca or arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp. salt (I recommend Real Salt)
- 1/2 tsp. pepper (or to taste)
- chopped kale or swiss chard, to preference
- 1 c. sugar snap peas
Instructions
- Simply place all ingredients except sugar snap peas into aslow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours.
- When ready to serve, put the sugar snap peas in a pot with just a bit of water on the bottom (or use a steamer basket) and briefly steam on high heat for 3 minutes or until peas become a beautiful bright green. (Alternately, you can add the snap peas into the slow cooker for the last thirty minutes of cooking, but I prefer al dente, lightly steamed pea pods). Just rinse the pot and let it air dry; no more dishes!
- Serve over white rice or soaked brown rice.
Notes
* Here’show to freeze fresh ginger so you can have it on hand and not let it all turn to mush!
* A chuck roast or round roast are both fine for this dish, or pre-cut stew meat is a great time-saver.
* A reader says it works great with a pork roast too!
* If you use a large roast without cutting it up, you’ll want to use two forks to pull apart the well-cooked meat before serving, making sort of a shredded beef topping for rice. This will work best with fattier cuts (i.e. chuck roast) and you might find that you need to break out the knife anyway for nicer roasts (i.e. sirloin). If that’s the case, you can cut it up before or after.
* Shoot low on the crushed red pepper if you have kids or sensitive palates.
* Adding extra steamed veggies is great too – broccoli is perfect to bulk up the meal. You can serve with other sides as well if 2 pounds of meat feels a little rich for one meal, and guaranteed, you’ll have leftovers.
* Leftovers can be frozen and reheated with a little extra broth. Cooked rice is great frozen on its own.
* If you don’t feel like you have enough leftovers to go around for an entire meal, add some broth and a few more veggies, include the rice and make it a delicious soup with bread on the side and a big salad.
Where to Find High Quality Meat
Having trouble finding good quality meat locally? Would you like to fill your freezer with local and pastured options?
If you’re in the US Midwest, Chicago to Milwaukee to Detroit to New York, and select cities across the country, check out TruLocalUsa.
If you’re west of the Mississippi, check out Wild Pastures.
If you live in any of the 48 contiguous states, I recommend US Wellness Meats and Butcher Box!
I’m grateful that there’s an online source of incredibly high quality meat that I can always count on. A subscription from Butcher Box includes grass fed, organic, pastured, and free range = all the labels important to your family’s health! And I’ve got a special deal for you!
They almost always have great deals for new customers. Claim your free gifts, and see what bonus they have going on right now. Don’t miss out!
(free shipping too!)
Technology and Meal Planning
I recently started using the software from our sponsor Plan to Eat regularly in my attempt to reduce paper clutter and utilize technology to keep me organized. Overall, the effort, which included putting my calendar exclusively on Google calendar, trying to-do lists in Evernote and meal planning with PTE, is going…okay. There are some bumps in the road and I think I don’t know how to use Evernote very well, but the meal planning part is good, as long as I remember to do it.
With this recipe, I didn’t have the appropriate cut of beef, and I must say it was pretty cool that it was all in my phone on the auto-generated shopping list. I didn’t have to do a thing for the info to be ready for me when I was shopping, along with reminders to buy tamari sauce and snap peas, neither of which are constant staples. THAT is where PTE can really save you time, although for me, I’ve realized that I generally shop to stock my pantry and mostly choose recipes that enable me to cook from the pantry, so almost all the auto-generated shopping list items are unnecessary for me.
Here’s the ginger beef recipe on PTE, if you’re a member. If you’re not, they have a 30-day trial, and if you join the KS group, you can pretty quickly populate your meal plan for a few weeks with new recipes and some favorites from this blog.
Do you have a favorite freezer-to-crockpot meal?
Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.
Category: Freezer Cooking, Real Food Recipes
Tags: beef, bell peppers, carrots, easy meals, freezer cooking, ginger, greens, main course, Real Food Recipes, rice, slow cooker, The Ginger Challenge
