peanut butter treats

One of the weirdest things about becoming accidentally skinny is that I have to add fat to my diet.  As in, I have to try hard to make sure I eat enough fat.  As in, a LOT of fat.

There are a lot of differing opinions out there about which fats are healthy.  We all do what works for us, and I currently use a lot of coconut oil, olive oil, ghee (basically clarified butter), and bacon fat (for flavor!).  I also try not to skim fat out of meat dishes... but sometimes I'm still to grossed out after being raised in 90's America, during the height of the fat-free fad.

But there are some things that everyone appreciates some delicious fats in - even fat-free dieters.
 
DESSERTS!

Things like chocolates... and peanut butter cups...

I may not be allowed to eat chocolate, but I've (carefully) hopped back on the peanut butter train!

I've adapted the coconut oil "frosting" idea into bite size frozen treats, yum!  Great as a high fat snack, or as a satisfying dessert - just a tiny taste can be quite satisfying!

Frozen bite-sized peanut butter treats
quantities are estimates...

• 1/2 cup room temperature coconut oil (not liquid!)
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1. mix all ingredients well
2. place in silicone molds or place blobs on a small plate or tray lined with foil or parchment
3. put in freezer for 30 minutes
4. pop out of molds or off of tray and put in a ziploc or tupperware.  Store in freezer.

I like to chew them one at a time - they remind me of the insides of a peanut butter cup.  But sometimes I let them melt in my mouth instead :)

Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream

I love whipped cream.

Back at Thanksgiving, I bought some heavy whipping cream, intending to make whipped cream to go with my pumpkin pie - but since someone else brought a can of whipped cream, it never got used.

It's just been sitting in my fridge, calling to me.

Yesterday, I finally gave in - and about time too!  Technically (according to the date on the package) the whipping cream expired last week... but it smelled fine to me, so into the mixer it went!  5 minutes and a little sugar later, and ta-DA!  Finger-licking delicious.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) all I had to eat it with were my fingers.  So I made microwave "real" hot chocolate for all of us, so we had somewhere to put our whipped cream :)  Mmm, mmm!

Whipped Cream

• roughly 1 cup of heavy cream
• roughly 1/4 cup of sugar (i used raw) *i mistakenly wrote 3/4 cup in the original post
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (i didn't measure)

Hot Chocolate

• handful of chocolate chips (i literally put my hand in the bag, grabbed at the chocolate chips, and put that many in a mug)
• tiny bit of butter - less than a "pat"
• 8 to 12 oz of milk, depending on the strength you like and the size of your mug

Instructions

1. Pour cream into bowl of mixer, the colder the better.  Whip for 3-5 minutes, slowly increasing to the max intensity. When it starts to puff up and form "soft peaks", add sugar and vanilla, continuing to whip to combine.  Be careful not to over whip, or you'll make butter!
2. Meanwhile, put chocolate chips and butter into a mug, microwave 30 seconds.  Stir, microwave another 30 seconds.  Add a tiny bit of milk, stir, and microwave another 30 seconds.  Stir - if not yet melting and mixing, microwave for 30 seconds more.  If still not mixing or you're getting a weird tootsie-rollish thing, add more butter - the fat will help the chocolate mix with the water in the milk.  When combined well, go ahead and add the rest of the milk, stirring while adding.  Microwave for another 60 seconds or until hot chocolate is the temperature you like. 
3. Add whipped cream and drink up!

I'm not really sure how much whipped cream this made, since I ate so much of it off the spoon.  I'd guess probably 2.5 to 3 cups?  We consumed it all on 4 hot chocolates with AMPLE whipped cream.  (No, the baby didn't get one - I had 2!)

A week of small firsts

I made two new (and SUPER easy!) things to taste this week. 

1. Kale Salad (I hear so much about this lately!)
2. Cranberry Sauce (It's almost Thanksgiving!)

I love cranberry sauce in a can (it's pretty much cranberry-juice jello), but I don't have many fond memories of real cranberry sauce.  And the few times I've tried to use Kale haven't exactly been successful either... but for some reason I put both of these things in my grocery basket this week.  A little bit of internet research later, and voila - 2 unbelievably easy creations that taste great!

Cranberry Orange Sauce
This sauce came out sweet and tangy, with a strong orange flavor.

Ingredients:

• Pint of fresh cranberries
• cup or 2 of orange juice
• cup or so of water

Rinse cranberries, and check for stems.  Place cranberries in a saucepan, and add enough orange juice to cover the berries.  Cover, and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  The cranberries will start "popping", and turn into a mushy fruit.  Continue cooking, adding water to get the consistency to your liking.  Stir occasionally, to avoid burning bottom.  Mash with a potato masher or puree with a blender or immersion blender, and voila!   I served as a sauce for turkey meatballs and mashed turnips, and then mixed into the baby's yogurt at breakfast - it was a hit both ways.  This could definitely work as a dessert component... maybe over ice cream or some apple pie... Mmm... pie...

PS- I tried eating a raw cranberry for fun - they taste exactly like great cranberry juice, with the texture of an apple.  Really strange, and sooooo sour!


Kale & Chicken Pasta Salad
You can play with the ratios of the ingredients, these are just suggestions

Ingredients:

• Bunch of Kale, rinsed and torn into smallish pieces - kale is very difficult to measure... I'd wager I used about 10 big leaves of curly kale - filled half of a large mixing bowl while still fluffed up.
• Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Ample Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• Roughly chopped chicken - I used about 2 cups of leftover chicken breast
• cooked pasta - I used a bag and a half of gluten free shells (I was trying to feed a crowd)
• diced granny smith apple
• Carrots or Celery - I parboiled some carrots so the baby could eat the salad too
• 1/2 to 1 cup of mayonaise
• Salt and Pepper
• (grapes would have been good to add - but I didn't have any)

Clean the kale, and place in giant mixing bowl with the salt, lemon, zest, and some olive oil.  Use your hands to "massage" the kale, working the salt, lemon and oil into the leaves. I did this for probably about 60 seconds, until the kale was slightly relaxed and shiny green (and then I let it sit while I finished preparing the other ingredients).  Mix in all of the remaining ingredients, add more oil, salt & pepper to taste, and eat! You're done!

Fall Tomatoes

I didn't plant any tomatoes this year, since the past few years I've tried but had little success.  Amazingly, I had two volunteer tomato plants come up in random parts of my garden, and they made more tomatoes than any of my past attempts!  The tomatoes took their time to ripen, and are now finally ready to eat... now that it's October.

So now that I have a bunch of tomatoes, I tried making gazpacho!  I've had a craving for it lately, and the store bought stuff just doesn't do it for me.  So here's the (delicious) version I made up last night :)

Liz's Awesome Gazpacho

• 1 English cucumber
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/4 onion
• 4 or 5 medium tomatoes
• 1 medium clove garlic
• Juice of 1 lime
• ~1/4 cup parsley
• ~2 cups mint leaves
• ~ 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• 1 cup of warm (softened) cooked white rice

Roughly chop everything and add to a food processor or blender.  I used a giant food processor, you could work in batches in a smaller blender or food processor and combine pured veggies in a big mixing bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste, I probably used around 1 tsp of salt, but if you want flavor with less salt I bet you could substitute some lime zest.

Serve cold, and enjoy!

What to do with all that leftover chicken

I mentioned this in another post, but as I'm sitting here eating some leftovers, I've decided it's worthy of it's own post.  The sausage flavor is delicious!

Sausage and Chicken Soup!

Ingredients (approximate amounts, I don't measure):

• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil (i use extra virgin)
• 4 links of italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 medium fennel bulb, chopped (1.5 - 2 cups?)
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 3-4 cups of cooked rice (it can probably be done with uncooked and extra water - but we had leftovers)
• several cups of spinach, rinsed and chopped or baby (it melts and disappears)
• salt and pepper
• 1-2 cups leftover cooked chicken, chopped (i used about 1 cup dark meat)
• 4-6 cups of chicken stock (i used homemade)
• 2-4 cups of water

Directions:

1. Heat the oil and saute the garlic and sausage, making sure to mush up the garlic into pieces as it cooks
2. Add the fennel, carrots, salt and pepper, and stir occasionally until beginning to soften
3. Add the chicken and the broth and enough water to cover, plus a couple of inches (depending on pot size) to account for the rice to be added later, and bring to a boil
4. Reduce to a simmer, add the rice and spinach and cook until the spinach has thoroughly melted and the carrots are cooked to your liking.  It will look like an insufficient amount of rice at first, but the longer it sits, the more water it will absorb until it balloons up and you have porridge instead of soup (don't worry, it will still taste good!)
5. Enjoy!

New Mom Survival - Crockpot Chicken Thighs!

Yesterday I explained how to very easily roast a whole chicken.  But what if you want something a little... saucier, with less raw-chicken-touching?  Easy!  Frozen chicken thighs are one of my best friends since having a baby.

It all started with this recipe, but as usual I didn't follow it very closely.  I didn't have any apricot preserves, so instead added about 1/4 cup of water and a handful of chopped dried apricots - turned out fabulous!!  Since then I've made a few variations (no soy sauce now that baby is soy-free), and have tried making up a few recipes of my own with varied success.  A few weeks ago I attempted thighs in homemade barbeque sauce, it worked out pretty well!  Tomato paste, garlic, molasses, and honey, mix up, add thighs, and cook for 8 hours!  I might add some vinegar next time, but i was pretty happy with it :)  Another time i added some curry powder and later mixed it with spinach, rice and coconut milk for a southeast-asian inspired soupy stew.  The great thing about chicken thighs is that they stay moist, and they're very adaptable.  And crockpot meals are forgiving, so if you don't measure very closely it's ok!

As a compliment to most of my chicken thigh meals, I plug in the rice cooker and make use of the steamer attachment for some carrot coins or green beans.  If you don't have a rice cooker, go ahead and add some carrots right into the crockpot with your chicken thighs, or stir in some baby spinach leaves last minute for an easy vegetable!

Back to blogging!

It's been a long hiatus, but I had an excellent excuse! Someone else required ALL of my attention for the fast few months, someone very demanding. And adorable. And complicated!

My excuse for not blogging

In addition to my own dietary struggles (colitis related - low fiber, gluten free, avoiding peanuts), I now have baby's dietary requirements... Which for the time being include presumed (hopefully temporary) allergies to dairy, soy, and eggs. What a challenge!! There was a 2 week period where I ate nothing but Home-roasted chicken and rice. And bananas - I had bananas and rice for breakfast. I lost a lot of weight... Look at the bright side, right? I've expanded my dietary horizons since then, cooking dinner many nights and even getting back into the world of grown ups - vacuuming occasionally, thinking about gardening, crocheting, reading, et cetera. Exciting things!

But to pay tribute to the food I survived on through the roughest time, here are some incredibly easy tips for making the most of chicken in your crockpot! So easy a mother of a newborn can do it!

Equipment:

• Big crockpot
• Small whole chicken (to fit in crockpot, sometimes called fryer chickens)
• Salt and pepper
• Couple of carrots
• Couple stalks of celery
• Optional: herbs, lemon, ginger, onion, garlic, etc.

Instructions for roasted chicken:

1. Thaw chicken if frozen.
2. Wash carrots and celery. Place in bottom of crockpot.
3. Rinse chicken inside and out and remove any innards. Optional: remove skin.
4. Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. If using any optional ingredients, stuff into body cavity or rub on now. I like to put a couple chunks of ginger and a lemon (poked with a fork) inside, and sprinkle lemon zest outside.
5. Place chicken on top of carrots and celery (to lift chicken up off bottom slightly).
6. Cover with crockpot lid and cook for 8-10 hours on low. No liquid needed!
7. Meat should be easy to remove with a fork and knife, no need for creepy picking of the chicken carcass.

Instructions for chicken stock:

1. Leave chicken carcass, vegetables, and drippings in crockpot. Remove anything too gross for your tastes, like a blob of fatty skin. And it's probably a good idea to remove any lemons, since lemon rind can be bitter.
2. Add any additional flavorings you like, such as fresh herbs or an onion (quartered).
3. Fill crockpot with cool water, cover, and cook 8-10 hours on low or overnight.
4. Ladle stock through a strainer and voila!

I like to roughly chop some chicken, carrots, celery and/or fennel and make some chicken soup with the broth! Throw in a bay leaf and some rice and you've got an easy homemade healthy meal! (tip - add a little sweet Italian sausage for a change of flavor!)

More than just chicken and rice

So I've been cooking a little bit again... but due to my situation the food has been so boring it's not worth writing about.  Until now!  I stumbled across something that turned out surprisingly good, good enough that I want to remember it and make it again!

I accidentally made rice taste like stuffing*.  Not bad, right?

Secret Ingredient Chicken and Rice Casserole

• 2 large-ish chicken breasts, cut into (roughly) bite-sized pieces
• 5 or so carrots - washed, peeled, and chopped
• 1 medium zucchini - quartered lengthwise and chopped
• 1.5 cups of white rice (you could probably use brown, but I had white)
• 1.5 cups leftover mushroom broth
• 1 cup water
• Olive Oil (1-2 tsp?)
• Salt (1/2 to 1 tsp? Husband likes salty rice)
• Random spices - I used about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each of oregano, cardamom, and really old curry powder
• and the secret ingredient...  1 can of coconut milk!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Place rice, oil, and salt in a large glass baking dish (i used 13x9 i think? the really big one).  Mix up until all the rice is coated with oil and salt.  Add more oil or salt as desired.
3. Add in other chopped up ingredients, and mix up.  Attempt to distribute evenly.
4. Mix coconut milk, broth, and water in a bowl and carefully pour over everything in the glass dish.  Everything should be just submerged - if you need more liquid add a little more water or broth.  (I was trying to save dishes and didn't quite mix them all first, i don't think it mattered much... but if i wasn't so lazy/making-things-up-as-i-went, i would have pre-mixed)
5. Sprinkle desired spices over the top, and place in oven.
6. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until chicken and vegetables are thoroughly cooked.

The chicken was done for me after an hour, but the carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I turned off the oven and left the casserole in there while i ran to the store, and when i came back the rice had soaked up all of the liquid and the carrots were just right.  The chicken had started to dry out, but only just, and still tasted great.  I have no idea why it tasted like stuffing... maybe the mushroom broth did it?  I should point out that there was  no coconut flavor, just lots of richness somehow. (I've heard coconut flavor can depend on the brand, i used Thai Kitchen Organic). Hopefully the good results of this experiment weren't a fluke, I'll definitely be trying it again!  This would also work well with other vegetables mixed in... I'm not very adventurous these days so I'll stick to carrots and zucchini for now.

*disclaimer - I had a cold and I'm pregnant, so my taste buds might be a little wacky.  Regardless of whether or not it really tasted like stuffing, I thought it was good and husband really liked it too!

I cookied!

I cooked this weekend, for the first time in quite a while!  I made Potato Leek Soup, and some pretty healthy (though not low fat) cookies!


Simple Potato Leek Soup with Ham

• 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
• 3 Leeks, white & light parts only, rinsed and chopped
• 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and diced (i used red, cut up tiny for faster cooking)
• about a cup of diced up ham (i used about 1/5th of a ham steak, cut up tiny)
• little bit of ground or fresh thyme (i used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• little bit of ground or fresh oregano (i used about 1/4 tsp dried)
• 2 big bay leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 cups of water

1.  In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add leaks and stir occasionally to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add Ham, stirring until fragrant
3. Add dried thyme and oregano(and salt and pepper if desired), stir well
4. Add water, potatoes, and bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.
5. Remove bay leaves, then mash or blend as desired (I used a masher to break up the potatoes until the soup had a slightly creamy broth, but i didnt use an immersion blender because i didn't want to destroy the ham).
6. Serve with Salt and Pepper to taste.  Yum!

Healthy-ish Everything Cookies!

• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (i only had about 1/3rd cup, i made up the difference with applesauce)
• 1/2 cup flour (i used Pamela's gluten free baking mix)
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the kind i had was more like ground, unsweetened)
• loose 1 cup of brown sugar (i think maybe this was too much, the coconut added to the sweetness)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raisins (i used golden)

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together oil (and applesauce), sugar, vanilla, and egg until well combined
3. Stir in flour and almond meal
4. Stir in coconut and oats
5. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins
6. Using 2 spoons or wet fingers, add globs of sticky dough to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet (or 2) in desired cookie sizes, pressing until relatively flat (these don't spread while they bake).  These get pretty chewy once they cool down.  Make thinner for crispier cookies.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they lose their sheen and are slightly brown on the edges.
8. Enjoy!  

These would probably also work fairly well as bars, though maybe a little less sugar would be wise if planning to eat for breakfast.

Ice cream!

I got an ice cream maker attachment to my mixer for Christmas!  Yaaaay!  Thanks Sissy!  (And husband thanks you too!)  It's kind of intimidating to make ice cream for the first time, so many rules about refrigeration and you have to cook stuff and then cool again and oh man so much prep time I had no idea... BUT IT'S WORTH IT!  MMMmmmm!!  For my very first try, I made simple vanilla, following the recipe that came with the bowl (ridiculous number of egg yolks, cream, half and half, vanilla, pinch of salt).  When you first make it, it's soft serve, and later on when you put the leftovers in the freezer, they get hard as a rock.  I'll have to work on that.   

Best vanilla ice cream I'd ever had (except for Carvel!)

I added some strawberries, and it was kind of melty, mmm

Then, I made another variety of vanilla, which i think was even better!  But Husband didn't like it.  I loved it though!!  I didn't have any vanilla, so I used 4 tsp of real maple syrup.  And i didn't have any regular sugar, so i used brown.  WHAT A DREAM!!  Buttery flavor, not maple-y, next time i'm going to mix in some crushed nuts!  (And I learned on this batch that it's ok if you accidentally cook your eggs too much, push it through a fine strainer and it all works out A-ok!)

And then it gets even better.  This past weekend I tried the "lazy" method of ice cream making.  No cooking, no waiting as long as you already had the bowl in the freezer!  Here's what you need:

• 1 can of evaporated milk (i used 2%)
• 1 can of condensed milk (we always have plenty of this since it's husband's favorite "food")
• 1 cup of milk (i used 2%)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• handful or 2 of mini chocolate chips

mix them all together (except for the chocolate chips), put in the fridge if you're worried about mixture not being cold enough (or refrigerate cans first maybe?)  I refrigerated for like 5 minutes, not really sure why I bothered.  use your ice cream maker as directed, mix in mini chocolate chips at the last minute.  Mine was extra soft serve, i guess the mixture wasn't cold enough to begin with, but oooooh sweet satisfaction!  so tasty, and so little effort!  Froze up alright, lots of ice crystals though, i think all of my problems are base on the fact that there was too much water and too little fat.  I read that adding some corn starch or using whole milk can fix that... i'll try it next time!

Each time I've made ice cream so far, I've put it in 2 containers and hidden one in the freezer so that Husband can't eat it all on the 1st day!  So far the record is 4 days with this rationing method.

Christmas Treats!

Ok, so I wrote this a month ago, and never posted it.... better late than never!  More coming soon!

Things have been a bit crazy during this holiday season, and my kitchen has been busy!  Things have been busy enough that I've done a very poor job of documenting my culinary adventures.  Maybe next year.

First, I made gluten free cookies!  I experimented a bit, and made some delicious lemon pecan shortbread cookies.  I was able to convert them from traditional to gluten free pretty easily, since I had read that rice flour is one of the secrets to a super crumbly shortbread to begin with.  So here we go:

Gluten Free Lemon Pecan Shortbread
(adapted from better homes and gardens)

•  1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used bob's redmill gluten free mix)
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/4 tsp xantham gum
• 1 cup butter
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tbsp finely chopped pecans
• bunch of half or whole pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Combine everything in a medium bowl, until you get a crumbly ball of dough.  It will take a while, I don't have a pastry cutter so I ended up using my hands, which melted some of the butter, whatever, it worked.
3. If you  melted all the butter with your hands, refrigerate for a little while (30 min?).  Or not, in which case you'll probably end up with thinner but still delicious cookies!
4.  Roll out dough until about 1/4 inch thick, use a pizza slicer and cut up dough in a grid-like fashion.  Transfer dough to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or lightly greased), and press a piece of pecan into the top of each.  You can place them pretty close together, they won't spread much since they're so thin and no pouffy ingredients.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then cool.  Voila!  Makes about 20 1.5" squares?  (fills a cookie sheet)

THESE ARE FANTASTIC!!!!! Some of the best cookies I've ever made!  I didn't take any pictures, but trust me they're delicious.  They're not very sweet, they'd be perfect for tea time, but i took them to a christmas cookie exchange party and they taste really weird after eating lots of sugary foods, I guess my tongue got overwhelmed by all that other sugar.  So if you bring these to a cookie tasting party, make sure everyone tries these first!

I also made these lemon-raspberry pinwheel's in a gluten free version, which some people really liked, but I was kind of indifferent to them.

And then I made these delicious nuts!!

Mason jars from Agway, and ribbon and fabric from Walmart... easy gifts!
The large one is for my boss since he's a nut-aholic, he ate the entire jar in one day.  That's a pint!

Liz's cinnamon sugar nuts 
(I dont know where the original recipe came from, I looked at a whole bunch and combined)

• roughly 6 cups of raw mixed nuts (I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans.  I also did once with just almonds, but the walnuts and pecans really added to it!  The walnuts are my personal favorite in this recipe :)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup to a cup of sugar (depends on how sugary you want your nuts... I'd start with 1/2 and you can add more later)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (again, you can add more if you're cinnamon crazy)
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to... oh no!  I can't remember!  I'll look it up and post later...not very hot, something like 250, we're going for low and slow.
2. In the biggest bowl you have, whisk egg white, vanilla, and water until lightly foamy
3. Add nuts, and stir until all the nuts are wet.  (If they're really wet, you could add more nuts if you wanted to)
4. in a small bowl or measuring cup, combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt, then pour over nuts.  Mix well until all the nuts are coated, it's easiest to use your hand.  
5. Spread out on 2 large cookie sheets, I coated mine with parchment for easy clean up, I suppose lightly greased or possibly even aluminum foil would work too.  
6. Bake for roughly an hour, stirring nuts around every 15 minutes or so.  More often would be ok, if they start to burn it progresses pretty quickly!  Luckily, they still taste decent slightly burnt :)  Let cool before you eat, because they're delicious and addictive and I don't want you to burn your tongue! 

Mmmm.... now I'm hungry!

Easy and delicious cuban food!

I love cooking, but I never have enough time.  Which is why I love my crock-pot so much.  Husband loves my crock-pot too, because I use it to make him ropa vieja*!  I know I've probably mentioned this before, because it's so easy and I make it fairly often, but I don't think husband will ever get sick of it, so I'm ok with that.  I made it Monday and he's having it for dinner tonight, 4th night in a row, haha.  Here's how easy it is!  The list looks long, but it's just faking you out.  Plus, it will last a while.    You could also freeze it, but we always eat it all.

Ingredients

• Flank Steak
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of tomato paste
• Red Bell pepper, sliced
• Clove or two of garlic, minced
• Large onion, sliced
• Bay Leaf
• Cumin (tablespoon?)
• Oregano (teaspoon?)
• Salt and Pepper
• Wine, Cooking wine, or white vinegar - 1/4 cup(ish)

Directions

• Place garlic, onions, and peppers in bottom of crock-pot.
• Place flank steak on top of the veggies.  Sometimes I sear in the juices first, sometimes I don't.  I haven't noticed too much of a difference.  If you don't sear and it has any visible fatty portions, you should probably remove them.
• Add tomato paste, oregano, cumin, and bay leaf.
• Pour in the tomatoes, sauce and vinegar or wine.
• Cook for 4 hours on high, or 8 on low.   Longer is not a problem.  
• Pull out steak and place on a large plate.  Cut in half or thirds, against the grain (to make strips shorter when shredded).
• Using two forks, pull in opposite directions with the grain, and the steak should shred very easily.
• Mix shredded steak back in with tomatoey goop in crock pot.
• Salt and Pepper to taste (authentic would be lots of salt, but not so healthy), and serve over rice!  (or mashed plantains, or potatoes, or in a burrito, though cuban husband would be mortified by the potato and burrito suggestions) We usually have with rice, cuban black beans**, and sliced avocado.  Sour cream also goes nicely... as do scallions)

To make it more veggie heavy, you can add a bunch of shredded or diced carrots, and the flavor won't change much.  I've also heard apples work, though I haven't tried it.  You could also up the amount of peppers and onions, or use only half a flank steak (but don't tell my husband!).


*Husband would freak out if I served it as shown in this Wikipedia image.  Yellow rice and black beans can't be served together!  Silly Cuban food rules.  Or maybe I got the rules mixed up?  Husband?  Care to clarify?
 
** You can buy Cuban black bean soup in a can, but I make husband make the beans!  Recipe to come if I ever try my own hand at them...