Please check out a wonderful new slow cooker cookbook dedicated to fighting hunger in America. Also a giveaway for the book and a new Hamilton Beach slow cooker!
It’s no secret that I’ve become slightly obsessed with slow cooking but it wasn’t long ago that I barely gave it a second thought. I knew slow cooker recipes were popular but I couldn’t really understand why. I’d had a crockpot for years and every time I cooked with it, I was disappointed. Stringy, flavourless meat and overcooked veggies were what seemed to come out of my crockpot, even when I followed the recipe to the letter. But I have been won over and this little giveaway that I am hosting today is the very reason. Back in May, I attended a conference and saw a Hamilton Beach slow cooker demonstration, and my curiosity was piqued by a recipe for slow cooker chocolate cake. It honestly never occurred to me that you could make anything resembling cake in a slow cooker. I chatted with the reps about testing one of their models, but being the lazy girl that I am, it’s very likely that I might not have followed up on it. But then, serendipitously, a fellow blogger reached out with a great project for a great cause and I found myself falling for slow cooking.
Where Slow Food and Whole Food Meet
Did you know that September is Hunger Action Month? It’s a nationwide campaign to mobilize the public to take action on hunger. There are a lot of people going hungry in the US and any little bit we can do to help is huge. I am thrilled to be part of this slow cooker cookbook with recipes from over 30 amazing bloggers. And all proceeds from the print copy of the book will go to The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Spearheaded by Christine of Cook The Story and Jennifer of Mother Thyme, the book is devoted to healthy and affordable slow cooker dinner recipes and includes my recipe for Pork Tenderloin Florentine. Note that this is not a low carb cookbook, although my recipe certainly is and there are a few others in there that fit the low carb bill as well.
Check out our beautiful book! Where Slow Food and Whole Food Meet: Healthy Slow Cooker Dinners from our Kitchens to Yours
In addition, Feeding America food banks from across the country are giving the ebook version as a free gift to their donors. If you make a donation you will be given the ebook as a free gift. Donate right now and get your free ebook by clicking here. Here’s the link http://www.feedhopenow.org/cookbook
Our Sponsors
We would not have been able to put together such a beautiful book without the help of some amazing and generous sponsors.
Together, San Miguel Produce, Grimmway Farms and Old Oak Farms by RPE Produce are making some big contributions to help end hunger. They are each contributing food to their local food banks AND they are giving $5 for every print copy of the book that we sell, up to a total of $600. That’s in addition to the proceeds from the book that are already going to the food bank.
These brands, along with Hamilton Beach, are also helping us celebrate the cookbook launch by sponsoring some fun giveaways!
1. Each participating blogger is giving away TWO print copies of the book (sponsored by San Miguel Produce, Grimmway Farms and Old Oak Farms)
2. Hamilton Beach also provided the slow cookers that many of the participating bloggers are giving away. The Set & Forget Programmable Slow Cooker is the same one I have and the inspiration behind many of my new low carb slow cooker recipes. You will love it!
3. In addition to copies of the books and slow cookers, the co-editors of the book, Christine and Jennifer, are also giving away one prize of free carrots for a year from Grimmway Farms, one prize of free greens for a year from San Miguel and a potato prize pack from Old Oak Farms by RPE Produce including 40 pounds of potatoes and 1 Bamboo Bowl, 1 cutting board, 1 pepper mill, 1 measuring spoon set, 1 recipe booklet, 1 about potatoes booklet.
The Giveaway
One lucky reader will win a Hamilton Beach Set & Forget® Programmable Slow Cooker and a copy of the book. A second winner will receive a copy of the book.
Open to US residents only. Giveaway runs until 12am, September 30th, 2014.
Twitter Parties!
To help get the word out about hunger and how our book is helping, we’re having a bunch of twitter parties. Print copies of the cookbook will be given away at all of them and some will have extra prizes as well. There will even be yet another slow cooker given away at one of these parties!
Our main twitter party is September 18 at 9pm Eastern. Follow #slowNwholeCookbook
We will also be joining Courntey Crozier, a former contestant from The Biggest Loser, for her weekly #justcrunchem twitter parties on September 11th, September 18th and September 25th from 8-9pm Eastern.
To see all the amazing bloggers who participated in this cookbook (I’ve given you the name of the recipe they contributed too!) and to see where you can go to enter again and again to win all of these amazing prizes, visit Christine and Jennifer’s blogs.
Participating Bloggers
Broccoli and Cheese Potato Soup from Big Bear’s Wife
Chicken, Potato and Barley Stew from Magnolia Days
Autumn Apple Chicken Sandwiches from Chocolate & Carrots
Pumpkin, Chicken and Spinach Tortellini Soup from An Edible Mosaic
Thai Coconut Curry Beef and Broccoli from Food Faith Fitness
Chicken Burrito Bowls from Two Healthy Kitchens
Barbacoa Tacos from My Baking Heart
Balsamic Orange Roast Beef from a farmgirl’s dabbles
Cuban Seafood Stew from The Kitchen Prep
Chinese Beef and Broccoli from Very Culinary
Pork Meatballs in Marinara Sauce from Savvy Eats
Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from Around My Family Table
Tex-Mex Scalloped Potato and Carrot Dinner from Cook the Story
Cuban Black Bean Soup from Food n’ Focus
Macaroni and Cheese With Sugar Snap Peas from Brooklyn Farm Girl
Sweet and Spicy Carnitas from Cravings of a Lunatic
Pork Tenderloin Florentine from All Day I Dream About Food
Thai Pork with Vermicelli Salad from Jane’s Adventures in Dinner
Mango Chicken from Stetted
Creamy Buffalo Chicken from Mother Thyme
Spiced Lentil Stew from Je suis alimentageuse
Harvest Chili from WonkyWonderful
Whole Tuscan Chicken from The Little Kitchen
Vegetarian Pumpkin White Chili from Kitchen Treaty
Sweet Italian Sausage and Peppers from Sweet Remedy
Chicken Cacciatore from Poet in the Pantry
Lentil, Sausage and Kale Stew from Jeanette’s Healthy Living
Italian Beef Sandwiches from Yummy Healthy Easy
Butternut Squash Vegetarian Chili from Nutmeg Nanny
I contribute to Church food drives.
I donate to the local food pantries!
We donate to the local food bank. Our sunday school classes at church and the local boy scouts collect food.
I donate to the food bank!
Donate to food drives/food banks!
We donate to food drives and share our food with others.
I have needed to use second harvest food bank. they are wonderful people.
I donate to my church and a local shelter.
What a beautiful giveaway….
My employer has food drives regularly, I always try to bring something to donate.
My church has a food pantry donation bin that I donate to. We spent a Saturday working at a food bank, sorting and cleaning canned goods. Got a tour of the facility and learned a lot. Very eye opening!
I donate to the local food pantries. I also love bring food and make goodies and bring them to work to give to our cleaning lady who struggles.
I help fight hunger by donating to our local shelters in the community.
My husband works for a bakery..and although I don’t eat grains…the workers are allowed to take product home…so he drops it off at the local food pantry.
I donate food to local drives. My Library has a food drive that will forgive your library debt for each pantry item you bring in. I use that a lot since I can never get my books back on time.
Worked with my son locally to help package 10,000 meals headed for Burkina Faso, Africa.
Donate to a food pantry.
I was involved w/ a group that worked on getting more gardens in city neighborhoods.
I donate to a food pantry
My donation is teaching the kids to cook healthy foods/meals in my home and have them take meals home to their family s. Kids love to cook and it is a great way to teach math, science and healthy living all in one.
I donate to our local food bank and have volunteered at a local rescue mission.
I donate food and time to my local food bank. I also donate to the local school’s backpack program that sends students home with food for the weekend – about 25% of the student population takes home food every weekend.
We donate to a local organization that helps abused and homeless women and children.
Truly a woman after my own heart. End Hunger in Calvert County (Maryland) is our favorite charity! We donate and volunteer and love what they are doing for our community. You rock!
Would like to get involved with a group to get food to the homeless in my town.
I donate to local food drives on a regular basis!
Every Wednesday, about eight of us cook a hot meal and provide homemade desserts for 150 people in our church hall. Fulfilling work!
What a wonderful win!!
Donate to the local food bank.
I help distribute food at a mobile food pantry, and donate goods to the local pantry.
Once a month I volunteer at the soup kitchen, making and serving brunch.
My church does a free community meal every wednesday night! Volunteering at that, and a local soup kitchen occasionally.
I am co-leader of my daughter’s Girl Scout troop so not only do we volunteer at our local food bank but we always ask family, friends and neigbhors if they want to donate and we bring the collected items with us to food bank. They are always very happy to see us.
Our church provides meal packets for the homeless shelter to give out. If a homeless person asks me for money I offer to purchase them a meal.
Through work, we hold drives to gather food items to donate and employees get to wear jeans for contributing!
i give often to our local food bank
My parents’ church runs a food bank. My husband wrote a computer program that helps them keep up with all of their clients and statistics. We help them keep track so that things can run smoothly and efficiently.
We donate and volunteer regularly to local food banks.
i donate to my town’s food pantry
I donate my time and energy to volunteer at a food kitchen.
When I shop at Costco I donate a can of each item I bought in bulk to the food bank. I don’t miss it and it helps someone in the community.
We donate to a local food bank.
I donate to the local food bank.
I raise a good-sized garden every summer. I give away fresh veggies!
donating money and food to our church who support local families who cannot provide food for their families
I donate to Volunteers of America’s food drive every year
I’m so grateful to you for helping us with this cookbook. Your recipe looks delicious!
we donate to the local food bank and other drives.
We donate to the local food shelf. And my son, who works a at restaurant/bakery brings back anything left at the end of the day (they bake fresh daily) for distribution there, also.
I donate to the local food bank
Our Library has a wonderful program where you can pay your late fines with a donation to the food bank….I donate often with or without fines 🙂
Love it!
I donate to The Neighborhood House in St. Paul. They help the community is so many ways. Food Shelf, Learning Center, Community Center…they do it all. I also volunteer with them.
http://www.neighb.org/
Thank you for this opportunity! I contribute to my church, and donate to the local food / soup kitchen
I donate to my church and also the boy scouts have a drive to collect food. Also when they have a sale buy one get one free i donate the free one. We also have one where we work.
I personally donate to the local food shelf, but additionally, our office runs a food drive every year.
My daughter and I volunteer at the local food bank.
We donate often to local food banks and always help out during food drive events.
I donate to my local food pantry.
My church hosts a community dinner every Wednesday. Any leftovers (from that or any meal served at the church) are given to Second Harvest. We also participate in several free-meal programs sponsored by ours and other nearby churches, and a couple of support/housing/job programs for the homeless in our area. We are receiving an award on Friday for one of the latter.
We donate to school, church, and community food drives.
I help fight hunger in my area by donating food to local food banks and volunteering one weekend a month at different soup kitchens.
We donate food to our local food bank with A Simple Gesture.
I try to buy a few extra staples at the grocery store each week. It is easy to simply put them in the bin by the door before leaving.
The school I work at does food drives. We also have a program where kids that need it receive a backpack filled with food every Friday so they have food to eat over the weekend.
I donate to the local food bank.
IREPLYING donate to our local food pantry
We’ve helped out with our church’s homeless ministry (serving 200 people each Sunday for breakfast!) and food collections at church.
Our favorite grocery store makes it very easy to support local food banks, and we let them help us donate food items when we’re shopping.
Our church has a food pantry every week.
Our family does food drives and also participates in food related community service
I love crockpot meals!!!
I love crockpot meals!!!
We donate to local food drives.
I made a big pot of gumbo and share it with all my neighbors or have a block party pot luck!
I donated my time to a local “meals on wheels” type of service for people to sick to go shopping or cook for themselves. Great organization! Thanks for the give away! I would love to win this new slow cooker.
PS- That was before I went out on disability.
food bank as often as possible
I have donated to soup kitchens and to a thrift shop that supports women supportive services
I help at our local shelter – donating foods and fixing meals
We have donated to food drives and located our local food bank (we just moved here) for future donations.
Looks like a great book for a great cause… remember to always give to your local community food bank 🙂
Our church has a food pantry and we help give food to it
I glean excess harvest from local farms with an organization that gives the produce to food banks and soup kitchens.
We donate to our local food pantry.
Especially around the holidays, we donate food to our church’s food drive.
We donate to local food banks.
I collect uneaten, unserved food from catered events and deliver it to area homeless shelters.
We donate can goods to our local food bank.
I round up for the hungry at our local grocery stores and I donate food to our church for our food drives.
I donate to our local food bank and to Manna Meal – a food kitchen for homeless and down on their luck folks (held in the Episcopal Church but supported ecumenically across town).
I donate cans when they backup.
Would absolutely love to win. Have a slow cooker at home, but rather small and old.
I donate food whenever my work has a drive going. Would like to get more involved with my community.
We donate to the local food pantry and there is a day where the mail carrier will pick up non-perishables in the mailbox.
My church family has a pantry program where we help feed those in need.
Your dish looks fantastic! Thank you so much for doing this, and for including us in the project. It is our pleasure to support such a worthy cause.
Keep it green,
–Your friendly Southern California farmers at San Miguel Produce / Cut ‘N Clean Greens / Jade Asian Greens
My employer has food drives that I participate in and I also give monthly to Meals on Wheels through my employer.
This is amazing and gorgeous! I love everything about it!
I can’t actually participate in the giveaway (darn international location!) but I wanted to tell everyone about the food bank at my university specifically to benefit refugees, who are treated terribly in our country. Or more specifically, to remind everyone that while food donations are SO appreciated and needed, that there are also other necessities that are desperately needed and overlooked, such as feminine sanitary products, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and warm socks! I know that’s not particularly helpful to Hunger Action Month but just so it’s rattling around in everyone’s mind 😉
Oh, also herbs and spices! They’re not ‘necessary’, but being able to recreate some of the flavours of home is a huge comfort to those in need– and even if the food bank isn’t catering specifically to refugees, everyone deserves to have food that is interesting and flavoursome!
Thank you Carolyn not just for your ongoing awesomeness with this website but also for promoting and supporting important causes like this– and thank you to all who commented on this post for your support for your communities as well! You’re all making a huge difference to people’s lives 🙂
Hi Evan! You’re right that there are other good donations and refugees are typically treated poorly in many countries (US and my own Canada included!). My kids’ school does toiletry drives along with food drives and I always like going to the drug store and picking out useful items.
We have a wonderful church food pantry, and contribute to it as much as we can…
I donate and am currently arranging a volunteer day at LA Kitchen to cook for the homeless.
i contribute to food drives at work and the grocery store.
Wonderful cause. it warms my heart.
I donate to food pantry at church.
I contribute to a local food subsidy program.
We donate to a local food bank as often as we can.
Donate to local food banks
Donate to food bank
I donate to the food bank
I love the drives such as the one the Boy Scouts have where they leave a bag at your door to be filled and then come back to pick it up on the weekend. I’ve also given to the church food pantry and food drives at work.
I give to my church’s for pantry
I donate to the school food drives they have every year..
My family and I r actually working at the food pantry on the national day of service on the 20th plus donating items
We help feed our community by donating to school can drives, local food pantries and actually have a family we directly help.
We donate to the local food pantry and when we here of other in need
My family runs two annual food drives in honor of our deceased brother.
I help out at my church and provide meals to families in need.
My church puts on a homeless meal once a month and I always donate food. I’ve been proposed to over my mashed potato recipe. lol
We participate in packaging food twice a month for Kids Against Hunger.
We donate to a food pantry and to a weekend food program for local children
When there is a Buy One Get One Free Item, I donate the second item to the foodbank
Hey, that’s a great idea, I never thought of that!
We donate to our local food bank, to our local Boy Scout troupe, and a yearly donation to Feeding South Dakota (through Feeding America).
This may seem unconventional, but I am a clinical counselor who works with children in the school systems, and I contribute to fighting hunger in our community by empowering these children. When they are able to find their voice and speak up about the problems they are facing at home and at school, their needs, both physically with proper nutrition, and emotionally with proper love and support, are met more appropriately. Part of my job is also connecting low income families to the resources, such as food banks, they need!
Love your recipes,! Thx
I use coupons to be able to have food to share with friends and family, and donate extras to the food bank. We also have a large backyard garden that we share with many of our neighbors and a group of senior ladies who live in a mobile home park.
Our church does a food collection every month that I donate to.
We donate to local food drives.
my work is doing a food drive
Donations to church food bank. Volunteer
We donate to the food bank and animal sanctuary.
I work in a social service agency that has an emergency food pantry.
Crockpot meals are awesome!
we have a local food bank to donate to also have many co workers in need and try to help as much as i can so no one goes hungry
I like to maximize so I just simply skim through all of the non perishable food that I have and fill up a bag for donation to local food bank, I can easily gauge the food bought that we changed our minds about or forgot about etc. and also help support the local food banks. Usually, I add to the donation bag with BOGOs too.
I love crockpot cooking and could use a programmable one. Thx for all your wonderful recipes & hard work.
I have a very limited répertoire of crock pot/slow cooker meals. Being a working mom, I’d love to expand my knowledge, especially if they can be low carb/keto adapted!
Oooops, missed the instructions until after I posted! See my next post to address the prompt.
Our local high school has a huge food drive that we have always paricipated in.
Can’t like Grimmway Farms on Facebook, but I sent them a friend request. Please let me know if that qualifies. Thanks.
I donate to my local food bank, and my school does a food drive a couple times a year.
I donate to the local food bank thru a program at work.Also to the local Post Office and Boy Scouts when they do their drives.
Our family helps others by donating to our local food bank and helping a local church keep their food pantry full.
We have a local organization in our small town, Manna Pantry, where we donate food, and we also donate to our food drives withinin our school district.
I donate to the foot pantries as well.
We volunteer at a local ministry that serves lunch and dinner 6 days per week.
My family donates to the local food pantries each month, and we help with the local “backpack program” which stuffs backpacks with food for kids who need it after school, over the weekends, and over school breaks.
I would like to win please. And make slow-cooker lo-carb cakes. Definitely the cakes.
When ever we can, me and my boyfriend donate to the food bank.
I am a senior in central Florida, and I want to thank you for helping those like my neighbors and I who are feeling the awful pinch in our Social Security along with very high food prices. We have little income, but once a month or more I make a complete meal for my neighbor who is a very elderly widower who cannot cook for himself, and at other times I make nutritious treats for several other single widowed neighbors. I also sometimes make some double sized meals and seal the extra in freezer bags so when someone comes home from the hospital (it happens frequently here in our retirement community) they can have a ready made meal to put in the microwave.
I would like to say that donations are nice, and very appreciated, but many seniors can’t get out to go to food banks.
Most elderly seniors also don’t do Facebook, so that leaves us out of the contest.
No it doesn’t. The only mandatory entry is leaving a comment.
I love crockpot meals. What a wonderful giveaway!
We donate to our food bank and my girls have volunteered there often.
Love my crockpot and love the food bank!
I donate at my Church! I LOVE your website. Awesome recipes and great blogging! Keep up the fantastic work!
We donate to our local food pantry, volunteer at the local food pantry, and donate to the local food bank when the school does their food drives each year. I also feed a LOT of people at my house ever week – at least 15, sometimes as many as 40. We are instituting a Friday night dinner starting next week to get 15-20 people around the table together every week.
we donate to care and share here locally!
In our area the fire dept collects for the food bank, so we take supplies there.
such an exciting give away!! Thank you!!!
I recently donated to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. I tend to overbuy at the grocery, but the silver lining is that I always have dry goods available to donate to local food drives.
Well, I donate sporadically to local food pantries, but an working quietly on connecting the youth organic farming programs on Austin and Lubbock, to engender community among these youth who are turning their lives around by learning sustainable farming practices. Hanging in there as I make acquaintances and start this initiative. Also support local farmer’s markets, locally grown, and sustainable permaculture practices and groups.
We help the hungry in our area, just down the road. My sons’ attend an elementary school with a mixed socio-economic group. There’s a food pantry that has volunteers to “fill special backpacks” on Fridays for specific children. It feels good to give some canned goods for the cause.
We donate with the Boy Scouts in our area, and give donations to our church to help the needy.
As a Pampered Chef consultant, we can round our customer’s orders up to the next whole dollar and the extra change goes to a food bank in our community through Feeding America.
We donate to our local food pantry and through our church.
I participate in local food drives!
I donate my time to my church, which focuses on feeding and housing the homeless.
I donate to the school and community food drives.
I donate items to the food bin at my local grocery.
I donate.
I regularly donate food to the local women’s shelter.
We donate to the local food bank.