Crockpottin' on a rainy day

Today is a gray and rainy day. It is in fact raining so hard, we won't be able to go out today :( I'm going to outsource grocery shopping to my husband :) To make this day a bit worse, our lil man is very feverish. He is also quite sleepy, so I've been able to do a bunch of stuff. I managed to do some bootcamp pilates (thank you dvd fairy) and I made some delicious veggie chili with my trusty companion the crock pot.

For some reason crock pots are not very popular in Finland. I used them a lot while living in the U.S and when we moved to Finland I ordered one through Amazon.co.uk (they have free shipping to Finland on orders over £25). I later discovered they are available in Finland (http://www.haudutuspata.fi/), but the price is quite shocking! Crock pots are super useful and easy to use, especially if you don't have a whole lot of time to cook. You just pour the stuff in the pot and leave it. Couldn't be easier :)

Finding crock pot recipes in Finnish hasn't been that easy. I've basically found one blog: Antaa Hautua and the haudutuspata.fi page. If anyone has any other other suggestions, please let me know :)

So, I've looked for recipes from American blogs and I've found some pretty good ones too. Here's my favorite, it's the I love my crockpot - vegetarian chili from The Lazy Vegetarian blog. I've changed it to Finnish measurements and changed it a bit otherwise to fit the selection of the average Finnish grocery store:

1 large onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper (color of choice), chopped. I've used a whole red bell pepper.
2 garlic cloves, minced (or from a jar). I've used 3+ cloves, but then again we love garlic :)

Pour a little bit olive oil in the bottom of the crock pot.
Place cut veggies, from above, and the following in your crock-pot:

One can each black beans and brown beans. Two cans of kidney beans.
Two to three cans crushed tomatoes (I use the one with chili flavor).
One small can tomato paste
Chili powder, as desired
2 dl water (you can add more later if it seems too thick)
fresh ground pepper to taste

Stir. Cook for 6 - 8 hours.

Enjoy :)

Yummy chili in the making :)

Green shake?

While I was honeymooning in Greece I read an article about a "power breakfast" in a Finnish women's mag, namely MeNaiset. I noticed a recipe for a power drink, which I decided to try out. My husband was very skeptical about this, but decided to guinea-pig it anyways :)

Here's the translated recipe, with some of my own additions:

Green shake for two

2 apples
1 lime or half-a-lemon (I used 0.5 dl of lemon juice)
1 bundle of lettuce (I used chicory/frisée)
3 dl carbonated mineral water (the recipe suggested lemon flavored, I used apple flavored)
honey (to taste, I added a tablespoon)
1/2 avocado (I added this, since this was our lunch)

Cut the washed apples into slices and place in the blender. Add lemon/lime juice, rinsed lettuce, avocado and 1dl of the mineral water. Mix until even. Add the rest of the mineral water (might want to add a dl extra if it seems too thick) and honey. Mix and enjoy!

I ended up placing the mix into the fridge to cool for a bit, but all in all it turned out fairly well! Even my skeptical husband liked it! :) I thought it was pretty darn yummy for a green shake.