need crock pot ideas

I need some healthy crock pot ideas to get us through the summer - (We both work until about 7 and then still have to get home, and feed the kiddo (and ourselves) and still get him in bed by a decent time)  any ideas?

Chicken in the Pot

Take 1 whole, small chicken and put it into the crockpot.  On top of the chicken, put in 1 whole, peeled, medium potato for each person, 1 carrot each, 1 stalk of celery chopped, 1/2 an onion, chopped, some fresh parsley, 1/2 tsp salt, some pepper, a bay leaf, a little thyme and sage, and cover over the top with water.  Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  Serve the broth as soup.  Remove the skin and cut up the chicken.  Serve the vegetables on the side.  Add something green to the meal and there you have it.

Sticky Chicken  (this is famous!)

The night before it is to be cooked, season a chicken inside and out with a generous amount of any spice mixture, such as Emerils. Stuff a handful of parsley,  8 or 10 garlic cloves, a cut up lemon and a quartered onion inside. Put it into a plastic bag and refrigerate over night.  The next morning, take it out of the bag and put it into the crockpot, just as it is - don't add any liquid or anything!  Cook on low 8 to 10 hours.  The chicken will be falling off the bone tender and the pot will be full of spicy juices, ready to be defatted and make into a sauce.  You can remove the skin before seasoning for a less fatty dish.  Leftovers make great tacos.

Here are two recipes I make a lot in the crock pot.

Chili and Beef Stew

Has anyone done fajitas in the crock pot?  I'm thinking of trying that this week

here's my own fav

spanish chicken

one bag of yellow safron rice
2 jars salsa
a few chix breasts (boneless/skinless) cut in strips

cook on low all day

can top w/ lf chz, lf sour cream and if you must garnish each plate w/ a few frito's :)

it also goes very nicely in tortilla wraps!

Thanks for the ideas everyone! 

Parre, your beef stew calls for 16 tsp seasonings.  That sounds like an awful lot of anything.  What seasonings are they? I suspect this is the key to making the flavor come out right.

Sorry, haven't checked this for a bit. The 16 tsp is one package of McCormick seasoning. Slow Cooker- Beef Stew. I have no idea what they put in it, probably salt and pepper and garlic powder etc.

*bump*

I just got a CrockPot at a thrift store today ($6)!  I'm so excited!  Does anyone else have any recipes that use a slow cooker?

Me too, me too, purespark! well, not a new crock pot, but Iwill be going back to teaching soon and I am in dire need of some more easy, delicious, low cal recipes for my slow cooker!!!


I do have a Fix It and Forget it Lightly, low cal crock pot cookbook. Anything anyone's looking for specifically? I'd hate to go crazy typing all my post it noted but as of yet untried  recipe ideas........

I marked a jambalaya for trying this week/soon..... Shrinp, peppers, onions, tomatoes, some other veggies like cabbage and celery maybe? It sounded spicy and satisfying.......

I totally considered doing a jambalaya today, but instead I started chile verde: 



1 Onion; coarsely chopped  

1 Bell pepper, green; coarsely chopped  

4 Garlic clove; minced   

1 tbsp  Olive oil  

4 oz can  diced green chiles  

1 jalapeno; diced (opt)  

7 tomatillos  

2 lb pork, lean; trimmed & cubed  

2 tsp Oregano  

2 tsp Sage  

1 tsp Cumin  

1 tsp Red pepper flakes  

I sauteed the onion, bell pepper, and garlic in the olive oil, then dumped it into the crockpot.  I also put the can of green chiles, one chopped jalapeno pepper, and the spices in, along with some of the liquid from the can of tomatillos I happened to have in the cupboard.  Then, I browned the cubed pork in the same pan I'd sauteed the onion and pepper in, and added it to the pot. 

I'm gonna let it cook a while and see how it turns out - I'll be sure to post an update here once I've tried it!  Oh, and according to the recipe analyzer, if this serves 6, each serving is 306 cals.  Not too bad.

Sounds yummy!   And I am a professed pepper hater. ( :

If it all cooks together, it all tastes the same anyway, sorta like stir fry!

Let us know ( ;

Okay, guys.  The chile verde turned out fantastic.  I am so pleased with it.  :D  Great first-time Crockpot experience! 

I saved it as "Crockpot Chile Verde" on this site.  If you do look it up, you may notice that some of the units may look weird because I had to manipulate them to make the recipe analysis work properly.  Don't be scared because of the peppers; it's not too spicy, and it's super tangy and yummy!

Edited to mention that I don't like green bell peppers either, but as far as I can tell, all they add to this recipe are color.  :)

LOL---I hate peppers, but like I said, I can choose to ignore them if it all cooks together. ( :

The Jambalaya turned out well enough that the bf made sure to say thatthis was his favorite soup I had made so far this summer...... Bless his heart. I think it was the shrimp that won his heart. I save mine too under jambalaya, 60 cals a cup! I added a bit of hot sauce to mine at the end --yummy!

60 cals a cup???!  That's great!  I'm totally making that next, thanks for saving the recipe!  (My boyfriend loves shrimp too!)

If you like veggie soup, I have several similar recipes for only 40 cals a cup!!!

I love sitting down and having a huge salad, an open faced sandwich, and a huge, 2 cup bowl of soup for lunch of supper. About 250 cals.

I like it even more when the bf goes to get fast food, and I sit next to him munching out, and think I can have all this for less than HALF of those disgusting french fries!   (muwhahahahahahahah)

( :

I am always looking for more crock pot ideas---esp. low cal ones.

PS, purespark, I had to friend you. Lucy is freaking adorable. I love the bunny........ =P

Lucy loves the bunny too!  Thanks, I friended you back.  :D 

Oh, and I think I'll be experimenting with the crockpot for weeks.  I want to make a bunch of stuff and freeze individual portions for next month when I go back to school (microbiology).  I anticipate being VERY busy and I don't want to start eating poorly because I'm too tired to cook.  So yeah, hook a sista up with the recipes you come up with, and I'll keep posting mine here as well!

YAY!

I love my low cal crockpot cookbook. Just a matter of modifying, so I like all the stuff in each one.

I have found the soup freezes and reheats FANTASTICALLY! I even went and bought 1, 1 and a half and 2 cup tupperwares, so I can have awesome lunches when I am back at work (soup + sandwich or salad, etc) and I love the idea of ready to go, easy suppers for the first few weeks when I want to be asleep at 5:30 PM like the old lady I am.

I am really sucky at making anything other than soup in the corckpot though,.....I've tried roast and veggies. Tasted good, but the rigamorole of all the fat cooling and congealing, the scraping and puking, was not for me..... My m in law does chicken in the pot, but MAN, it is SO choking dry when we get to eat, it's not something I would want to replicate. I want yummy, NO WORRYING while I am gone all day from 6AM until 5PM dishes that are low cal and freezeable/reheatable.......

Anyone?? ( :

I put a jar of salsa in the crockpot with lean pork, beef or chicken.  Let it cook til the meat is falling apart (all day on low).  Use it for taco or burrito filling.  My teen boys love it.   Their favorite salsa for this is Aldi's bean and corn salsa...so cheap!!

You might want to check out www.savingdinner.com  they have a weekly menu, with shopping list for dinners.  One is entirely crock pot recipes.  They have a free sample with 5 recipes if you want to check it out...you can subscribe for like $10 and get new recipes every week for 3 months.  There are other catagories too, like vegetarian, heart healthy, low carb ect.  We have used the service before and my family really enjoyed the dinners.  I like that each week I get the grocery list included side dishes and it is all really healthy and yummy.