Well, my morning post has turned into my evening post — life with 3 kids has its unexpected twists.  But onto it — I have a confession to make – j’adore my slow cooker.  I mean, not a little bit, but love, love.  In my house we say ‘lurve’ (odd, but true).  Here is one of my two identical cookers:

A couple of days ago I made something I thought for sure my kids would shun and the Big Man & I would love.  Much to my amazement — everyone loved it.  Something about this soup/stew (let’s go with stoup) hit the spot for all 5 of us (shocking, I know).  The original recipe can be found at my all time favorite recipe sites A Year of Slowcooking by Stephanie O’Dea (here’s the recipe link – http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/moroccan-lentil-soup-crockpot-recipe.html)

I was missing celery and added sausage for my carnivorous family. If you’d like the real recipe, please head to the original site.  I’m just gonna wing it this time….

Ingredients: 1 can garbanzo beans, 1 can pinto beans, 1 cup lentils, 2 carrots (diced), sage pork sausage, 4 cups some sort of broth (I used chicken), garam masala, garlic, 2 cans diced tomatoes, cayenne, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger.

Dump in lentils & drained/rinsed beans

Cook and drain sausage — put everything in the slow cooker.

Oddly, I had no ‘pre-done’ nutmug — fresh was great! Unrelated, I think I need to start getting manicures…

Set your pot on low and let it go for about 9 hours.  When it’s done, use a stick blender (or pour some into a regular one) and blend up until you like the look of it.  When it was done, I set the cooker to warm so I could get my bread ready.  My family thinks the Torta Rolls from Costco are the bomb — I agree.  I sliced them in half, slathered ‘em with butter & garlic, then broiled them until brown.  This was dinner:

A dollop of sour cream and some hot sauce on mine and Big Man’s were called for ;o).  The kids loved it — I think it had something to do with the blend of aromatic spices.

Enjoy! xoxo Kim