This giveaway is now closed!

Last month Raise Healthy Eaters turned one. I wanted to do something special for you, my readers, to thank you for your support. But it took a little time to make happen. Or at least that’s my excuse for the belated gift giving.

In the survey I conducted last fall many of you said “time” was your biggest barrier to preparing balanced meals. I make no secret that I LOVE the slow cooker for this very reason. It’s the ultimate meal-making time saver.

According to Consumer Search, All Clad is one of the top-rated slow cookers. It’s made of stainless steel and it’s programmable meaning you can instruct it when to stop cooking and switch to warm. It retails for $199.99.

So I wrote the folks at All Clad and asked them to donate one. Add they said “yes!”

But I thought that with summer coming many of you might stop using the slow cooker. This would be a mistake because there’s so much more to the crock pot than stews and soups.

I got in touch with Stephanie O’ Dea from A Year of Slow Cooking. Her bestselling book, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking, is a great example of all that is possible with the slow cooker. She agreed to send the winner a copy of her book.

So the winner of this anniversary giveaway will get a top of the line slow cooker and an awesome cookbook written by a busy mom. If I could enter this giveaway I would. But that would be unethical (right??).

Okay. Here’s what you have to do to enter:

1) Leave a comment saying why you like the slow cooker or why you want one.

2) For another entry, sign up for Raise Healthy Eaters’ email updates or RSS Feed. If you already subscribe, tell at least one friend about Raise Healthy Eaters. Leave another comment saying what you did.

3) To increase your chances further, become a facebook fan. If you are already a fan, suggest some of your friends become fans. Leave another comment saying what you did.

4) And for a bonus entry, tweet, blog or share this post on facebook. Again, let me know you did it by leaving another comment.

This giveaway will end next Friday the 23rd at midnight. The winner will be picked at random.org. Good luck!

I almost didn’t post this recipe because I wasn’t very happy with it at first. But when we had it for leftovers all week my mind changed. And it seemed to taste better each time we tried it. One night in a pinch for dinner it was minestrone soup with grilled cheese sandwiches…yum.

I cut the veggies the night before and put them in separate bowls in the fridge. One bowl contained the onions, carrots, celery and garlic and other bowl was full of cabbage and zucchini.

The biggest pain was sautéing the veggies in the morning. It was a work day so I didn’t have a lot of extra time. I ALWAYS forget to take the recipe prep time and double or triple it for me. I’m a novice (and messy) cook and it always takes me much longer than the recipe authors say it will. After I make something a few times I get quicker at it.

I combined all the ingredients and put them in the 6 quart slow cooker pot. My slow cooker has three interchangeable sizes of 2, 4 and 6 quarts. I like that you can leave this one on low up to 9 hours. Perfect for a work day.

One last thing, I used pasta I already had instead of the acini de pepe the recipe calls for.

Makes: 8-10 Servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 4-9 hours
Ideal slow cooker size: 6-quart

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
6-oz can tomato paste
14.5 oz can chicken, beef, or vegetable broth
24-oz can pinto beans, undrained
10-oz pkg. frozen green beans
2-3 cups chopped cabbage
1 medium zucchini, sliced
8 cups water
2 Tbsp parsley
2 Tbsp. Italian spice
1 tsp. salt, or more
½ tsp. pepper
¾ cup dry acini de pepe (small round pasta)
Grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

1. Saute onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil until tender.
2. Combine all ingredients except pasta and cheese in slow cooker.
3. Cover. Cook 4-5 hours on high or 8-9 hours on low, adding pasta 1 hour before cooking is complete.
4. Top individual servings with cheese.

“Reprinted from Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook. Copyright by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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