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How to Bake Cake in a Crock Pot (with spinach, of course)

July 17, 2022 by Laura 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Too hot to turn on the oven? Here’s how to bake cake in a crock pot!

I’d like to say there was a day that “we needed cake” but did we actually need cake? Meh. Define “need.”

But on this day that we “needed cake” it was 101 degrees outside. So baking was a silly idea. “I wonder if my spinach in a cake situation would work in a crock pot,” thought I. With this in mind, I looked on the internet a bit and sure enough, it seemed quite doable.

Look at all the spinach that I blended into our cake. So did we need cake? Yes, because of the spinach.

This is what you need to know about adding spinach to cake:

  • You can’t taste it.
  • You can’t see it.
  • It makes the cake extra moist, which is actually better than eating a cake without spinach. True story.

I buttered my crock pot. It looked like this. And now you can see my crock pot stains. This thing is well-used.

I blended the cake ingredients along with the spinach, and poured in the batter which looked like this. See, you can’t tell there’s spinach in there:

Next, we worked a little crock-pot-cake magic. This calls for a paper towel, a wooden spoon to prop the lid, and then a lid placed cock-eyed over the paper towel and spoon. This lets the crock pot vent a bit while it bakes. We all need to vent sometimes.

At one point when I checked on my cake’s progress, my paper towels fell and got chocolatey. I share this picture with you to make you feel better about your messy towels if and when this happens to you:

After about an hour and a half, our house smelled amazing and our cake looked like this. The kitchen was still nice and cool while the oven sat alone and unused.

The babies were up from their naps at this point and it was time for dinner and an outing for the evening. So I left the cake sitting all night in the crock pot (lid on after it cooled). The next morning, I carefully loosened the edges and worked it out of the pot, turning it out like this:

Then I frosted the cake, which made the kids sing “Happy Birthday to Nobody” because why would Mom be making a fancy cake like this since it wasn’t anyone’s birthday?

Would you look at this amazingness? What spinach? I don’t see any spinach.

Listen, you have got to try this! Use a cake mix, use your favorite wholesome cake recipe, just add spinach to cake and then bake it in a crock pot to avoid the oven. We are huge fans! This cake is so moist and good!

How to Bake Cake in a Crock PotYum

How to Bake Cake in a Crock Pot (with spinach, of course)
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Serves: 16-24
Ingredients
  • 1 chocolate cake mix
  • 1¼ cups water
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 3-4 cups fresh spinach
Instructions
  1. Blend everything up in a high power blender.
  2. Pour the batter into a buttered crock pot.
  3. Lay paper towels to cover the top of the crock.
  4. Place a wooden spoon between the paper towels and the crock pot lid to allow for venting.
  5. Cook on Hi for one to one and a half hours or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  6. Once completely cooled, gently work the cake out of the crock with a spatula.
  7. Frost and serve!
3.5.3251

How to frost your cake

I recommend this Chocolate Fudge Frosting (though I no longer make powdered sugar from sucanat like I used to, eeee).

My favorite-favorite is actually Cream Cheese Frosting.

And if you want to cut way back on the sugar, here’s a Stevia Sweetened Cream Cheese Frosting that is really good. Add a pinch of sugar to take away the bitterness without adding much sugar.

Last idea: Simply whip some cream like this and plop it on top. Super good!

But wait, there’s more. What if we topped it with Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream??!

Or this Peanut Butter Cream Frosting?!

Let me know which turns out to be your favorite!

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Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Tortilla Pizzas

July 12, 2018 by Laura 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

These Grilled Tortilla Pizzas are so simple and fast, you’ll hardly know what to do with yourself!

I suggest letting each person build their own Tortilla Pizzas to their liking. Put them on the grill until the cheese is melted, which takes just a couple minutes.

Just like that, your meal is ready! Grab the greens and other salad fixin’s out of the fridge (or out of the garden – even better!). Slice some fresh peaches or strawberries. Truly, your Simple Summer Supper doesn’t get any easier than this!

Grilled Tortilla Pizzas

Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Tortilla Pizzas
 
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Author: Laura
Ingredients
  • Whole grain tortillas
  • Pizza sauce
  • Shredded cheese
  • Your favorite pizza toppings (meats, peppers, olives, onions, pineapple, mushrooms, etc)
Instructions
  1. Top a tortilla with all your favorite pizza toppings.
  2. Grill on low heat for about 2 minutes or until cheese has melted.
  3. Serve with fresh fruits and veggies.
3.5.3229

You can use flour or corn tortillas (corn if you need to eat gluten free). You can add sauce or no sauce. Perhaps my only caution is that you don’t over-cheese your Grilled Pizza Tortillas; otherwise your cheese might overflow onto the grill grates and create a mess!

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

  • Simple BLT Wraps
  • Simple Bacon Broccoli Salad
  • Simple Sloppy Joes
  • Simple Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  • Simple Taco Salad

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Simple Summer Suppers: Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

July 8, 2018 by Laura 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Have leftover Sloppy Joe Meat? Use it to quickly make Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

How’s that for a twist on Sloppy Joes and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches? Sure it’s a tiny bit messy. That’s the point. The flavor is super fun and delicious with the butter, the cheese, and the meat.

These can be thrown together quickly and served with simple sides like fresh fruit and raw veggies. You can have your entire meal on the table in ten minutes!

I’m quite sure most of you know how to make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich. I’m also quite sure that it’s obvious that to make a Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwich you simply add sloppy joe meat to your grilled cheese. Thus, writing specific directions below to describe exactly how to make a Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwich was an interesting adventure. How did I do? Please be impressed.

Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

5.0 from 1 reviews
Simple Summer Suppers: Sloppy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
 
Save Print
Author: Laura
Ingredients
  • Leftover Sloppy Joe Meat (recipe link above)
  • Whole grain bread
  • Softened butter
  • Cheese slices (we like Colby jack or Pepper jack)
Instructions
  1. Rewarm sloppy joe meat in a saucepan until bubbly.
  2. Butter two slices of bread and place on a warm/hot griddle.
  3. Lay a piece of cheese on each unbuttered side of bread, allowing cheese to melt.
  4. Spread warm meat over one piece of cheese bread.
  5. Place the other slice of cheese bread onto the sloppy joe/cheese bread to make a sandwich.
  6. Cook until both sides of bread are golden and cooked to your liking.
3.5.3229

Add as much or as little Sloppy Joe Meat to your sandwich as you like. We think these are delicious!

Have you seen our other Simple Summer Suppers? Here’s a running list:

  • Simple BLT Wraps
  • Simple Bacon Broccoli Salad
  • Simple Sloppy Joes

Don’t miss any of our new ideas we’ve got coming! Subscribe for free so all the latest can come directly to your inbox!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Tired of Sandwiches? 10+ Easy Summer Lunch Ideas

June 6, 2016 by Laura 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I shared these Summer Lunch Ideas on Facebook Live a few hours ago, and today I’m sharing the written version with recipe links!

I’ve mentioned before that our family rarely eats sandwiches. The cost for the bread, cheese, and meat can really add up since we’re such big eaters! We typically save sandwiches for travel, packing them to take with us when we hit the road. It’s funny. Sandwiches have kind of become a “treat” for us since we don’t have them very often. We like to load them up as if we’re at Subway. (I’ve learned to love sliced cucumbers on mine!)

For my own benefit and yours, I’ve put a list together of more than 10 great lunch ideas that work well during the summertime. None of these require an oven, and very few even require a stove-top. Most have options for you so you can work with whatever you have in your freezer or with leftovers you need to use up.

Family Friendly Real Food Summer Lunches

Here’s to having a list so that we don’t have to think so hard when the kids ask, “What’s for lunch?”

10 + Summer Lunch Ideas

1. Meal-type Salads

This is the best way to get my family to eat lots of greens. Our favorite salads are:

  • BLT Chopped Salad
  • Taco Salad
  • Chef Salad that we make with leftover grilled chicken or chopped up ham

2. Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot

These are amazing because I can bake many potatoes at once and we can top them with whatever I have on hand at the time. Some ideas are:

  • Taco fixin’s
  • Nacho Cheese/Meat Sauce
  • Ham, Cheese, and Sour Cream
  • Leftover grilled chicken, cheese, and sour cream
  • Leftover grilled steak, sliced and sauteed with peppers and onions

3. Chicken Salad or Tuna Salad

We eat this on a bed of lettuce, with crackers, on a tortilla, or sure – on bread like a sandwich. ;) We like making fruit smoothies with this meal because the combination is so refreshing!

4. Sloppy Joes

I usually make several pounds of Sloppy Joe meat at one time, then freeze it in meal size portions. We usually skip the buns and eat this with tortilla chips – sometimes with salsa and cheese sprinkled on top.

5. BLT Wraps

These are completely amazing. Bacon and cream cheese with lettuce and tomato in a tortilla? Every bite is excellent.

6. Chicken Tacos

This is such an easy meal because you just dump chicken and salsa into a crock pot. Everyone can build their tortilla however they like and I feel like I haven’t even cooked (because I pretty much haven’t!).

7. Grilled Hot Dogs or Brats

It’s a little bit hard to find great quality dogs and brats without having to fork out the big bucks, but occasionally we’ll grab a good nitrite free, beef variety to grill. We all love these, and since we eat them with a bunch of raw veggies and fruit I don’t feel too bad about them not being the most nutritious food option. :)

8. Pasta Salad Bar

This meal is great because again, everyone can fix their bowl however they like it!

9. Hearty Dips

We typically think of serving Homemade Guacamole or Black Bean Salsa as a side dish – but since both of these are pretty filling and nourishing, they make a good “main dish” at lunch sometimes. Smoothies or fresh fruit, along with raw veggies (also good for dipping) makes it a complete meal with little effort.

10. Pizza on the Grill

If I already have homemade pizza crust in the freezer, or if I’ve purchased them from Bountiful Baskets – it is super easy for everyone to build their own pizza with their favorite toppings, then we heat it for a couple minutes on the grill. Admittedly, we prefer our pizza baked in an oven. But on a hot day we make the sacrifice. :) We’ve also made Pizza Boats on the grill, which is even easier.

Your turn to share! What are your favorite (non-sandwich) summer lunches?

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Make Cookies or Brownies in Your Waffle Iron!

May 3, 2016 by Laura 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Friends, I have an oven again! Not only that, it is my dream oven!! I can’t find an exact match to show you, but it’s like this, only we got it for $less$ because we found it on Craig’s list. It is so perfect. The family who originally owned it had loved it, but moved into a house with electric and couldn’t use it any more. We got a great deal on a perfectly wonderful double gas oven!!!

My husband is amazing, working for hours to switch our electric hook-up to gas, getting it all set up for me. I love it and drag people into my kitchen to show them my new toy – even if they probably don’t care. Thankfully, everyone has pretended to care. People are so nice. My apologies to our mailman. Little did he know that when he brought a package up to our porch that I would grab him by the collar and… Relax. I’m kidding.

(It was really the UPS man.)

While it felt longer, it was really only two weeks of oven-less time for me. I missed having an oven, for sure. But we survived with all our other appliances and our grill. When you have to adapt in the kitchen, you start getting creative. Thanks to one reader, Lisa, who put this grand idea in my head – we learned that we can make cookies and brownies in our waffle iron!

Waffle Cookies - Low Sugar

If that isn’t the coolest kitchen hack since…ummm…the last cool kitchen hack I learned (freezing muffin batter, perhaps?).

A word of warning: It’s a little messy.

When you make actual waffles in a waffle iron, the only potential mess is adding too much batter and having it run over the edges. (So I’ve heard. I’ve never, ever actually done that myself. I’m always very, very clean when I cook.)

But with cookie and brownie batter, I found that the butter separates out a little bit, filling the waffle iron crevices with buttery goodness. It’s not a big deal. I just ran hot water over it to clean it out after it cooled. Just be aware that this process can be a little bit messy. Worth it. But messy.

Waffle Brownie Strawberry Parfaits

See that? For company one night we made Waffle Brownies and set them out with strawberries and whipped cream. What a fun treat!

How to make waffles and cookies in a waffle iron

  1. Mix up cookie or brownie batter as normal (my suggested recipes are below).
  2. Use a medium or large sized cookie scoop to add batter to a pre-heated waffle iron.
  3. Close iron and “bake” brownies or cookies for about 2 minutes each.
  4. I was able to make three at on time if I spaced them out correctly.How to Make Cookies and Brownies in Your Waffle Iron

This process takes more time than simply throwing a pan of brownies into an oven to bake. But when you don’t have an oven, or when you want a little something unique – these cookie and brownie waffles are SO MUCH FUN.

Recipes I Used:

  • Low Sugar Chocolate Brownies
  • Easy {Low} Sugar Cookies
  • Any of these Low Sugar Cookie recipes will work great!

Pin this idea to use this summer when you want a fun treat but don’t want to heat up the house by turning on the oven!

Have you ever tried this trick before? 

 

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No-Oven Treats for Summer

August 5, 2011 by Laura 25 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

We’re finally experiencing a little break in the heat here in Nebraska – as in – it’s only in the upper 80’s instead of 101° with a heat index of 115°. I know many of you from the south are experiencing drought and intense heat that makes my 115° seem like winter.

Regardless of how it’s cooled off to “only the 80’s”, I still don’t like heating up the house to do much baking if I can help it. Here are a few yummy treats we’ve enjoyed this summer that don’t require the use of an oven:

Peanut Butter Honey Fudge

Homemade Pudding Pops

Healthier Rice Crispy Treats

Mock Frozen Yogurt

Homemade Ice Cream

homemadeicecream3sm.JPG

Add to the list! What healthy, no-oven treats have you enjoyed this summer?!

 

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