slow cooker

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

We have been trying semi-successfully to make sure we have at least one meatless dinner a week.  I say “semi” because we keep aiming for Monday, and something happens, we get busy, and we end up grabbing something fast (and not veggie).  This worked out well, though – our first go at stuffed peppers in the crock pot, and we used Morning Star crumbles in place of ground beef or turkey.  We loved this!  I have always worried that stuffed peppers in the crock pot would be kind of mushy, but no problems.  We also used quinoa in place of rice and really liked that as well.  A do over for sure.

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Slow Cooker Balsamic Pork

This wasn’t a bad crock pot recipe, and is worth trying again.  It originally came from Skinnytaste, and needed some extra seasoning.  But through no fault of the recipe, I managed to grab the wrong kind of roast by accident.  So it was a lot saucier/more watery than originally intended.  If I hadn’t been so lazy, I probably would have bothered to thicken the sauce, but it was fine as is.  Definitely has potential with more seasoning – I think some veggies in with the roast would be great as well.  We served this with steamed asparagus.

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Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken

In an attempt to get control of eating out so often when we are pressed for time, we decided to give the whole freezer meal thing a try.  It’s a little challenging when low carb is involved, but there are definitely a few recipes that looked like they were worth a try.  We pulled this one out and had it for dinner tonight and thought it was very good.  A little cheese or low fat sour cream would dress it up a bit, and some tomatoes or other color, but as a shredded chicken bowl on its own, we still enjoyed.  Definitely would make again, and you can’t argue with having meals ready to go in the freezer.

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Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Taco Bowls

While this recipe was underwhelming, it really has potential if seasoned correctly.  In retrospect, I really should have thought out how much seasoning I was using for a slow cooker recipe.  It was pretty good once it was mixed with all the taco toppings, but it would have been excellent if it had more seasoning.  I doubled the spices in the recipe below, which originally came from Gimme Some Oven.  Or, you could use a homemade taco seasoning mix – that’s what I will do next time.  I think a large flank steak might do well, too.  I used a chuck roast and wouldn’t again.

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Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja

Wow, we loved this!  I got this recipe from the really fun “My Big Fat Cuban Family” website.  I’ve had her recipes bookmarked to try forever and finally got around to this one – we’ll be doing more of Marta’s recipes soon.  This was easy and honestly, we actually liked it better sans rice (good for me and low-carbin’ it).  My only mistake was over-salting and it was still great.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This is one of the first things I ever learned to make, and for some reason, I haven’t done it in years.  So easy in the crock pot, and the leftovers are great.  This is a recipe I got from Cooking Light, modified it a little bit, and served over whole wheat spaghetti.  Definite make again – below is with my changes.

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Slow Cooker Hungarian Chicken

Now that I’m juggling two horses  after work on top of normal life and crazed studying, I’m suddenly becoming BFFs with our slow cooker.  It’s so far allowing us to keep making healthy dinners even if neither one of us is home until after 7pm (and tired, who wants to cook after that?).  This was a Cooking Light recipe that we liked, though it needed extra on all the seasoning – especially the salt and garlic.  The only real change I made to the original (besides a heavier seasoning hand) was to use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of bone-in…that’s just what we had.  We’re mostly doing the low carb thing, so we did not server over pasta and it was just fine with a vegetable side.  The below is with my changes to up the seasoning.

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Picadillo

I really enjoy Cuban food, but this was not something I have tried before.  When I saw it on Skinnytaste, I thought perhaps it was worth a try, as it was pretty healthy when made with very lean ground beef (in this case I used 96%, but 93% would fine).  I checked out some other recipes and will modify a few things next time because we like a lot of flavor, but this was quite good!  Definitely a keeper recipe, and the great thing is that it can be made in the slow cooker!  Directions for both below.  We served this over brown rice with steamed broccoli on the side.

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Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken

This was a very simple dinner in the slow cooker that tasted like it was far more work than it actually was.  We really liked it; I didn’t make any changes to the original except to use split breasts only.  Next time I might throw in some thighs or drumsticks, but just the breasts were excellent – very tender and flavorful.  I think bone in is necessary to the flavor, and we just removed the skin before eating.  I served this with asparagus for a very, very filling dinner.  I originally got this recipe from a website called Recipegirl, and will definitely to back to see what else she’s got!

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