Tuesday Timesavers: Crockpots

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As a working mom, who is also working on a masters, finding time to work in cooking at the end of the day is pretty difficult. By the time both Scott and I get home, we're wiped out from working all day. Angelica's also usually pretty tired from a full day of running around like a tazmanian devil at daycare, plus she's not very handy in the kitchen yet. This has resulted in many nights of takeout, which has been detrimental to our waistlines and our wallets.

What's the solution then? A couple of weeks ago I pulled my trusty crockpot out from the black hole where it was stored, dusted it off, and started making meals with it. One afternoon of cooking usually equals 3-4 meals for each of us. I'm kind of liking the whole "cook once, eat all week" idea. Plus, it's fairly easy to make healthy food this way!

Here are two of the recipes that I have made so far:

Bloody Mary Chicken
1 bottle of Spicy Bloody Mary Mix (appx. 33 oz)
3 boneless chicken breasts, thawed and cut in half

Put the Bloody Mary mix and six halves in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or high for 3-4 hours).

Chili Pasta Bake
1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey (if you want to go healthier, use ground turkey breast)
1 1/2 cups of elbow macaroni
2 cans of diced tomatoes in water
1/2 can tomato paste
1 cup of chopped onion
1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of pepper
1/4 tsp dried crushed oregano
2 tsp of chili powder

Brown the ground turkey. Add the other ingredients to the crock pot first, then add the browned ground turkey. Cook for 3-4 hours on low, 5-7 hours on high.

Here are some other resources for crock pot recipes:

A Year of Crockpotting
Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes (Better Homes & Gardens)
Cooking Light Cook's Essential Recipe Collection: Slow Cooker: 57 essential recipes