One Pan Wonders

My mother in law brought me a ton of various squashes she had picked up at the farmer's market north of here. I started with the huge piece of gray hubbard squash. Skinning and dicing the hard squash was the hardest part. I recently bought the book 1001 Best Slow Cooker Recipes and I'm slowly working through many of the delicious ideas. Crock pots are wonderful for fall weather comfort food. Great book! I have 4 or this series now (with plans to eventually get the rest).

Here's the recipe as it reads originally. I, of course, cannot follow a written recipe to save my life, so I note the changes I made to the recipe below.

Bean and Squash Stew

2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (13 ounce) can baby lima beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups peeled squash (butternut or acorn)

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 1/2 cups chopped bell peppers

2 teaspoons minced roasted garlic

3/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

Combine all of the ingredients, except the salt and pepper in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I used 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes, two cans of white kidney beans, omitted the lima beans and bell pepper, 3 1/2 cups of diced squash, 2 small onions (diced), chopped raw garlic instead of roasted and a blend of basil-oregano-thyme. I also added just a little water because the mixture looked a bit dry.



I set the crock pot to run on high for about 6 hours. The house smelled wonderful! Everything cooked down to a delightful stewy texture. I mashed the cubed squash with a wooden spoon after it had cooked through. Of course we had to eat some first! YUM!

I let the stew cool before loading it onto the lined dehydrator trays, spreading it as thin as possible. It is pretty thick with all the squash and beans. I got it down to about 1/8 thick. I set the dehydrator to 140* and let it go.

It took about 6 hours for the stew to dry all the way, but now I have several servings of dried stew for future trips. This will be great served with couscous or pre-dried quinoa. I would do about 1/2 cup dried stew to 1/4-1/3 cup grains when packaging this up. Adjust to taste.