Crock pot meals

If you do a search in the community forums for the word "crockkpot or crock pot" you will get a million and one results..

i.e. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/372359/bring-your-crockpot-slow-cooker-recipes/p1

Also, I love this place for finding ideas:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/?s=slow+cooker&submit=

I finally discovered the key to not ruining a whole chicken in the crock pot. If you just plop the chicken in, it will get soggy as the broth accumulates at the bottom. But if you layer the bottom with carrots and celery, the chicken rests on top of them et voila, no soggy chicken.

Last time I did this, I also threw some leftover red wine in the bottom, rubbed the chicken with garlic and lemon and then shoved the lemon and garlic in the chicken. Prep time is quick, less than 15 minutes.

My recipe is really simple, healthy and versatile... you can also use venison instead of chicken if you have it or pork if you wanted to use that as well

It just consists of the "meat", halved/quartered radishes, green onions, canned diced tomatoes w/green chilies, stock (chicken/beef/veggie, depending upon the kind of meat used) and some garlic, chili powder, cumin and black pepper, all to taste. You can pre cook/sauté the meat and add to it or if you are not concerned with really low carb, then you can coat the meat in flour and brown all sides then add to the crock pot so that it will thicken up a little...cook on high or low depending on when you need it finished... basically you want it to cook long enough that it turns the radishes more of like an opaque color, the same color a new potato would turn and just make sure your meat is cooked depending on if you pre cooked it or just seared it all sides. Versatility would come in if you wanted to add some additional vegetables as well... It's just the way I fix it gives my Mexican food craving a total fix!

I have fixed this same recipe with venison, chicken and pork and all of them are wonderful
And yes, I use radishes instead of new potatoes. Once a radish is boiled, it takes on the flavor of a new potato or whatever you're boiling it in and is much lower in carbs (which I need for my glucose levels). No one that I've ever served it to could tell the difference. Here is a photo for reference:

I cook chili in the crockpot and I have a large one so I always make at double batch. I can then portion out leftovers for lunches later in the week and between the three of us, they are always gone quickly.

Here's something that might help a bit for other things, too. I buy ground beef at Costco. When I get home I have always portioned it out into different sizes (1 pound, 3/4 pound, etc.), squish it flat in the freezer bag, label it and then throw them all in the freezer. A few months ago I got the bright idea to start cooking most of it and then freezing it. I mostly use it as crumbles, anyway, why not cut that time out of the cooking process on a weekday evening? So now I put one or two pounds aside, as is, for meatloaf or hamburgers, and cook the rest and portion out the cooked beef once it cools a bit. I have to remember that one pound raw is about 3/4 pound cooked and I label it so I know how much is in each bag.