Crock Pot Meals
ashleighsteele24
Posts: 5 Member
My husband and I both work 10+ hours a day so cooking is really a challenge during the week. I've been trying to get some crock pot meals together lately and and coming up MOSTLY empty handed as I'm not a fan of stew or soup. I spend my weekends cooking to meal prep my lunches so a lot of time my weekends end up being crock pot meals also for the simple convenience. My husband finally agreed to everyone eating healthy at dinner so I am looking to find some good, healthy recipes that I can throw in the crock pot and go.
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Replies
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I use my crockpot all the time. Cabbage rolls, chicken thighs covered in a mix of mushroom soup, bit of sour cream and onion soup mix. Makes a nice gravy. Vegetarian Chili but that might fall under stew which you don't like. Pork roast shredded to make all kinds of tacos, sandwiches. Italian sausage chunks with mixed peppers and onions. I brown them first, slice them and throw everything in the crockpot. Lasagna using zucchini sliced lengthwise.4
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Chicken breast, carrots, red potatoes or sweet potatoes and onion plus your seasonings...Simple and low calorie chicken “pot roast”
I also will fill my pot up with a bunch of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc and a bit of chicken broth and seasonings and you have your side dish for the week3 -
Broccoli beef, chicken or steak fajitas0
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Try looking at Recipes that Crock on Youtube. They have some awesome crock pot recipes.
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As someone else suggested - pork shoulder roast to make shredded pork sandwiches, tacos, or just to eat the meat as a roast with some sides.
Also, boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs) with salsa and spices of choice. Again, you can eat as is, shred for sandwiches and tacos or serve over rice.
Try this chicken recipe:
Crockpot Balsamic Chicken
Ingredients:
4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion thinly sliced (Not chopped)
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp each: dried oregano,basil, and rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
ground black pepper and salt to taste
Preparation:
Pour the olive oil on bottom of crock pot
place in chicken breasts, salt and pepper each breast
put sliced onion on top of chicken
then put in all the dried herbs and garlic cloves
pour in vinegar and top with tomatoes
Cook on high 4 hours, serve over angel hair pasta.
(this can also be slow-cooked over 8 hours. I added a bit more balsamic than called for, plus some fresh spinach under the onions and tomatoes, and it was wonderful!)
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Here's one more:
Slow-Cooked Southwest Chicken
SERVINGS: 6
CATEGORY: Low Fat
METHOD: Slow Cooker
TIME: Prep: 15 min. Cook: 6 hours
Ingredients:
2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
1 jar (8 ounces) chunky salsa
1 cup frozen corn
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups hot cooked rice
Directions:
1. In a 2- or 3-qt. slow cooker, combine the beans, broth, tomatoes, chicken, salsa, corn and seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken shreds easily with two forks.
2. Shred chicken and return to the slow cooker; heat through. Serve with rice.
Yield: 6 servings.
Nutrition Facts
One serving: 1 cup chicken mixture with 1/2 cup rice
Calories: 320
Fat: 1 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 21 mg
Sodium: 873 mg
Carbohydrate: 56 g
Fiber: 8 g
Protein: 19 g
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My husband and I have the same problems during the week - working long hours and not much time/energy to cook elaborate meals. The other issue I had when looking for crockpot meals was that most of them cook in 6-8 hours which can leave the food dried out or mushy if you're out of the home 10-12 hours.
One of the easiest things for me was getting a crockpot with a timer (it will switch to warm for 4 hours once it's cooked and yes it will still cook somewhat, but not as much). Other than that I mostly cook the meat in the crockpot - a lot of pork loin and chicken. It's easy to make the meat for tacos or a pork loin with any seasoning. My favorite is putting chicken or a pork loin in pot with some seasoning and I use a salad dressing to keep it moist (usually Italian or sun-dried tomato).
Once you have the meat cooked it's easy to grab some frozen veggies and throw them in the microwave. If you have fresh veggies you can buy a microwavable vegetable steamer and that only takes minutes as well. We also have a salad with every meal as well.
Hope this gives you some ideas!3 -
I’m not trying to upset this thread, but I find my Instant Pot is more efficient at saving me cooking prep time. My husband complained that the slow cooker made everything taste stewed.
My favourite is to take a clump of frozen stew beef or chicken breast or thighs , or a small frozen beef roast and turn it into tender servable meat in under 30 minutes from the freezer by just adding broth and or water and seasonings to the pot with the frozen meat on a trivet. Sometimes I just shred the meat. Other times, I add liquids, beans, veg etc and make chilies and stews. I can serve meals in unde an hour.12 -
My favorite crock pot meal is super easy and cheap only 2-3 ingredients.
Steak or chicken with mushroom gravy.
Pour one can of Amy's Mushroom Bisque Soup in bottom of crock pot. (Can use Campbell's cream of mushroom).
Place cheap cuts of steak (London broil is perfect), or a few pieces of boneless chicken, on top of soup. Can add rings of onion slices.
Pour another can or two of Amy's Mushroom Bisque Soup on top, salt and pepper, let cook for 8 hours on low.
Place a serving of steak or chicken in bowl, scoop a little of the mushroom gravy on top, salt and pepper.
Sometimes, after cooked, I separate meat and gravy and thicken gravy by whisking in a little flour.1 -
I have tons I can give you. Also you might look into the Lazy Day Cooking Club. It is nothing but crock pot or instapot recipes. EatingonaDime.com has several too. Is there anything specific you want or don't want? I don't have time to post any at the moment but I will certainly post some.2
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https://www.yummyhealthyeasy.com/easy-crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken/
Absolute Favorite! Easy Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chilli
I swap out frozen corn for canned, organic and no salt black beans for regular canned beans and Rotel Tomatoes (and some generics) have low salt/no salt tomatoes. I always use Neufatchel Cheese instead of regular cream cheese. Add 1 teaspoon Nutmeg to a double recipe. Seriously - NOT a diet -- Diet Food. Freezes well.0 -
That sounds like a great recipe marykayp2019. I'm definitely going to have to give that one a try!0
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I’m not trying to upset this thread, but I find my Instant Pot is more efficient at saving me cooking prep time. My husband complained that the slow cooker made everything taste stewed.
My favourite is to take a clump of frozen stew beef or chicken breast or thighs , or a small frozen beef roast and turn it into tender servable meat in under 30 minutes from the freezer by just adding broth and or water and seasonings to the pot with the frozen meat on a trivet. Sometimes I just shred the meat. Other times, I add liquids, beans, veg etc and make chilies and stews. I can serve meals in unde an hour.
You can take any "slow cooker recipe" and use it in the instant pot. I've done it many times and it turns out great. The only real difference is it gets done way faster. 4 -
@Lynzdee18 - does your instapot ever burn things? I find that sometimes mine does and I never know when chicken is "truly" done. Any hints?0
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This is the best - I eat it for lunch all week - this batch makes 7 two-cup servings at 300 calories each:
4 pounds of drained canned cut green beans (64 oz)
16 slices of bacon
2 sweet potatoes
1 cup diced onion
3 cups chicken stock
Put the green beans in the crock pot. Cut the bacon into bite-size squares and fry until crisp. Put the bacon into the crock pot. Add the diced onion to the bacon pan and cook the onion until soft. Pour the onion AND the bacon grease into the crock pot. Add the sweet potatoes. Add the chicken stock and stir until well blended. Cook on LOW for 6 hours. Delicious! I add a tablespoon of butter when I heat it up for lunch, but 2T of sour cream is nice too.1
