Fast, Healthy and Clean

So we all use the excuse that we are too busy to cook but with very little planning you can have a healthy and nutritious meal ready with the help of your slow cooker. So I’m going to be posting slow cooker recipes for a little while.

I have three little ones that keep me busy all day long and by 3 in the afternoon I want to sleep not start thinking of what’s for dinner. Today I tested out my first slow cooker recipe. Now I have made traditional things in my slow cooker like stew and roasts but I wanted some different recipes. Something that I could put in the meal plan and not get bored with it. I love fajitas but the little ones don’t quite understand how to eat them yet so tonight I made the next best thing. Fajitas Stew. Now I was so excited to try this recipe out that I forgot to take pictures all the way thru the cooking and prepping so I’ll need to remember to take pics next time. But for now here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

2lbs boneless beef top round steak or if you want to save even more time stewing beef cubes

1 onion chopped

4 chopped garlic cloves

1 (28 ounce) can of chopped tomatoes

1(19 ounce) can black beans, drained and well rinsed

1 envelope of fajitas seasoning mix

1 red bell pepper cut into chunks( roughly 1″ pieces)

1green bell pepper cut into chunk ( roughly 1″ pieces)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup of water

If using steak cut into 2″ cubes. Add to Crock pot. Add all remaining ingredients except the flour and water. Cook for 7-8 hours. Mix water and flour together add to crock pot continue cooking for 20 minutes. This will thicken the liquid.

Here are a few tips

1. If you like your food spicy consider adding some jalapeno peppers or extra       fajitas mix.

2. Make sure to cut your veggies chunky so they don’t get too mushy when cooking.

3.As already mentioned if you want to save some extra time buy stewing beef cubes instead of the steak.

Tonight I served this on rice but I would even wrap it in a tortilla next time.

I don’t have the calorie info yet but I’ll add it when I do.

Ok I have not been giving this blog any loving lately and I probably won’t have the time for a few more months. I am organizing a move to a different province and I am dealing with pre school schedules and other things. Again I’m sorry but I will make this blog work I just need the time.

Ok so I got caught up in life and well forgot to blog what I was eating. Well this is a very very short blog to say I will be posting about Kale chips tonight. Again so sorry to all the fellow bloggers and readers.

My son started pre school and since we are not feeding our children kd or lunch meats anymore I have to find some fast and healthy meals that the kids like. I usually make a macaroni dish for supper but I figured why not give it to him for lunch. It’s a quick meal that takes 20 minutes to cook and he loves the macaroni. I originally got the recipe from www.kraft.ca and then made it my own. Oh I almost forgot to tell you, this only takes one cooking pot so a lot less dishes to clean.

Here’s my version on the recipe:

3 cups uncooked whole wheat macaroni

2 cups water

1 700ml jar of pasta sauce

1 small onion(chopped or shredded)

1 pepper chopped, ( green, red, yellow or orange whatever your favorite is)

1 lb extra lean ground beef

Brown ground beef with onion and peppers. Add pasta, water and pasta sauce stir. Cover and cook on medium heat for 18-20 minutes. And there you have it lunch that was quick and easy and that the kids ate.