I had an ambitious Sunday planned for myself. A double batch of Chicken Enchilada Soup for the freezer, cooked chicken for lunches for the week, and a goal to get it all done before church started.
We have "late" church this year. Since we are Latter Day Saints (AKA Mormons), we alternate church meeting times with other wards each year so no one gets stuck with a bad slot forever. Last year we had 9:00 a.m. church, so this year we have 1:00 p.m. church.
Since I won't have afternoon naps to meal prep and get things done, I need to make the most of my mornings.
I popped the chicken seal on the pressure cooker to vent the steam and turned off the heat on the skillet of the worlds best green chili enchilada sauce.
I walked over to our wire rack to grab my 7 quart slow cooker when i dropped it on the floor, shattering the inside container...
It wasn't even on a high shelf...
After a few minutes spent sweeping and mourning the loss of my slow cooker, we hit amazon to brain storm how we were going to fix dinner, still make our soup (since I had all the ingredients prepped), and do it from an economical stand point since we hadn't planned to buy a slow cooker this month. We checked amazon and were reminded that my slow cooker about $32 on Amazon... but that wouldn't get to us today, even if we purchased it again.
We have a smaller electronic pressure cooker that we were gifted from my mom, and since acquiring that, I have been using my slow cooker less and less since the pressure cooker is faster and doesn't heat up our house as much as the slow cooker does. I used to just use it to cook my dried beans, but last year we expanded and have used it for several different dishes.
So, I knew I could get half the soup into the pressure cooker and use the "slow cooker" setting. I just wasn't sure how much soup would fit in the pot since it's not 7 quarts like my slow cooker.
Instead of doubling the recipe like I normally do, I made a single batch, which meant I had extra enchilada sauce and chicken... so after verifying hubs liked the sauce all on its own, I just mixed the two together. We had impromptu green chili chicken tacos for Sunday dinner and I got about 9 containers of chicken enchilada soup for the freezer.
and it was a VERY tasty accident.
As for replacing the slow cooker, I think we are going to wait and see if we can just live without it. I've been able to use the pressure cooker for a lot more and one less appliance in the kitchen would be nice, so we are going to give it a whirl.
What we do know, is chicken green chili tacos are sooooo happening again.
Go to the thrift store! People donate their slow cookers all the time...the hardest part about buying an electronic at the thrift store is worrying about if the electronics will work, but in this case, you don't care about the electronic part - you only want the ceramic part. I am SO kicking myself for not doing this the last time I dropped ours. But next time! (you can also ask the front desk if you can bring in your base to make sure it fits - or test it at the front door before you buy)
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is pure genius... absolutely pure genius... Only problem is I broke the slow cooker on Sunday and we don't have the base anymore (we tossed it out).
DeleteGuess the gig is up. Some of my posts I write up over the weekend and then schedule them to post at a certain time in an attempt to make sure I post more regularly on the blog (and not disappear for a few months).
But JP, next time i own one and break it (if we opt for replacement) i'm keeping this idea in mind!