3 Easy, Clean Crockpot Meals

Hi All! Hope everyone is having a good week. 

First: There's a big group doing a 24-day challenge right now and there's still time to get in on the action! Email me and I can get you going.

Second: Why am I that crazy person that thrives off of chaos and pretty much can't function without a thousand things on my plate? Until I can get into therapist, you all will just have to hear about it #sorry.  

Third: If you follow me on Instagram and caught my chicken breast quote, you already know my sanity is a little questionable and I've been in the weeds as of late due to a sudden lapse in what was left of my sanity and the hubs and I have decided to sell our house. Yes, the house we have remodeled 99% of and said we'd never sell. So, we're in massive "finish this thing mode" and have several projects going which include:

• Turning a closet in the mud room into a locker 
• Redoing the laundry room
• Removing basement ceiling panels and spray painting it black
• Finishing the pantry
• Oh, and completely demoing and redoing the master bedroom and creating a master bath #nbd

We have a 4-6 week deadline (contractors, if you're reading this, chop, chop) so, please don't expect my posts during this time to be coherent. Which, by the way, you can probably expect a slight shift and a lot of home design, before/afters, etc. posts. Just FYI. 

Oh, AND the lovely Marissa from Barefoot Colorado has convinced me to enroll in Blog School. Why do I do this to myself? Because I'm crazy. Clinically crazy.  

That being said, Mateya of The Best is Yet to Come is sharing some of her clean crockpot recipes with you today!

Hi there! My name is Mateya and I'm a wife and new-ish mom to a sweet little boy named Hayden. My husband is currently serving his third deployment with the Air National Guard so life has been pretty crazy lately!

Health and fitness are very important to me.  So although it's a little trickier now that I'm running a one man show, I try to do my best to prepare meals that are as clean as possible.  

I use my crock pot a LOT because I don't have a lot of extra time to prepare meals. I love being able to prepare ahead of time, set it, and forget it! One of the biggest time savers is using the Crockpot liners.  This seriously makes zero cleanup! 

Here are a couple of my go-to recipes for quick clean eating meals. 

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:

Variety of bell peppers (I use 3)

1 large onion

3 Chicken breasts 

Lime juice

Chili powder

salt

pepper

Directions:

Chop up peppers and onions and put in the bottom of Crockpot.  Lay chicken breasts on top and sprinkle generously with chili powder, salt and pepper.  Sprinkle generously with lime juice.  Cook on low about 6 hours.  You can serve on whole wheat tortillas, or over quinoa or brown rice.

Clean Eating Slow Cooker Southwestern 2 Bean Chicken (via Gracious Pantry)

Ingredients:

• 4 raw, boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 oz. each)
• 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans (rinsed and drained) or 1 1/3 cup home cooked beans
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans (rinsed and drained) or 1 1/3 cup home cooked beans
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice, low sodium is best
• 1 pound frozen and thawed organic corn (organic to avoid GMO corn)
• 1 (12 ounce) jar of your favorite salsa, no sugar added

Directions:

1. Place the chicken breasts on the bottom of your slow cooker. Pour the tomatoes and salsa over that and then layer on the beans and corn.
2. Cook on low for 5-7 hours, or until the chicken easily falls apart when the pot is stirred.

Again I use this for wraps, mix with quinoa or serve over brown rice. Hayden LOVES this meal. I make it almost every week.

Crockpot Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal ( via the yummy life)

Ingredients

• 2 apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2-1/2 to 3 cups chopped)
• 1-1/2 cups almond milk 
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 cup uncooked steel-cut oats
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (or substitute maple syrup or other desired sweetener, I actually don't use any sweetener and it's still sweet enough!)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I always add extra!)
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Coat inside of 3-1/2 quart (or larger) slow cooker with cooking spray. Again, I use the liners but I also spray that too! Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Stir, cover, and cook on low for approx. 7 hours (slow cooker times can vary).

To reheat single servings: Put 1-cup cooked oatmeal in microwave proof bowl. Add 1/3 cup almond milk. Microwave on high for 1 minute; stir. Continue cooking for another minute, or until hot.

Recipe can be doubled in 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Increase cooking time 1 hour. I always double the recipe so I have breakfast made for the week! 

Make sure to check out Marissa and Mateya's blogs for all kinds of clean recipes and tips for livin' the healthy life!

Stay tuned for house project progress and no doubt, some confessions of new levels of crazy. :) 

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