One of my goals for 2013 {Crock Pot Cooking}

I don't cook. Plain and simple.  The few "dishes" that I can {or like to} cook are mac & cheese and hot dogs, grilled cheese and soup, frozen pizza, and egg sandwiches.  Yup... that's about it. 

Honestly, cooking stresses me out.  All I want to do is eat the food and the prep is just so crazy.  You have to have everything timed out so perfectly or else something burns and another thing isn't cooked enough. It sucks and I hate it. With that said, I'm trying to make more meals to take off the burden from my husband cooking all of the time. I know he gets sick of it and it's only fair that I pick up some of that. 

So what's the easiest way to do this? Crock pot meals! I made two this week and they were both so tasty.  It made me feel good about it and I'm looking forward to finding more recipes to try out.  The ones that turn out really well, I'll share with you!

Here are the two I did this week:

Skinny Taco Soup

What you need:
1 lb ground turkey
½ lb lean hamburger
3 tbsp taco seasoning -I used all of the taco seasoning

1 can rotel (do not drain)
1 can chili beans
¼ tsp (each) ground cumin, pepper, garlic power
1 tbs onion flakes I used onion salt instead
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional) did not use
1 sm bag frozen corn (optional)- I used this and it added great texture and flavor!
3 cups low sodium beef broth
Additional salt to taste.

Brown meat w/spices & taco seasoning. Pour into Crock pot w/other ingredients and stir. Cook for about 4 hours on low. Serve w/baked tortilla chips. We also put shredded cheese on top.  One thing I would want for next time is sour cream.

This was SO good! I had two bowls, my husband had three, and eating it for lunch the next day was the best.  I'll definitely do this one again!

Crock Pot Tuscan Chicken & Beans

Recipe type: Dinner

Prep time:  5 mins I usually hate when they put prep time on recipes because it always seems to take me 2 or 3 times that amount of time... but this one, was seriously 5 minutes! So easy!

Cook time:  8 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 – boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen) we did 3 since there are only 2 of us
• 1 – can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
• 1 – can white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 – fresh red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 – tsp dried basil
• Next time I would probably add a bag of frozen corn for a little something else.

Instructions

1. Place frozen chicken in crockpot. Sprinkle with basil. my chicken was not frozen so it was cooked for 4 hours on low instead of 8 hrs.  It came out a little bit dry- but not too terrible.
2. Layer red bell peppers, beans, and tomatoes over.
3. Cook on low 6-8 hours.
4. Great served with pasta or even over rice

Garnish with some fresh parsley or basil