Crockpot Refried Beans

Hey there friends! I hope you're all having a great week. It's nearly over. I'm not sure about where you are, but the weather here has been all over the place. It's cooler today, but the last few days have been pretty warm. It's supposed to stay cool for a while now, but as we all know, that's always subject to change where the weather is concerned. We leave for our cruise in 9 days and I cannot wait! One of the reasons that I love to cruise so much is that when I'm on the ship, I have no contact with the outside world. I'm unreachable! Not that I don't love being in the know, but sometimes it's nice to unplug. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I wanted to share this recipe with you that I made a while back for crockpot refriend beans. I hate to buy canned things all the time. They have so much sodium in them and it's so much cheaper to make my own of a lot of things. These refried beans are a perfect example. I know, I know, they're not true "refried" beans since they never get fried, but I promise, you'll never know the difference. They're really easy to make and since it's a crockpot recipe, what's not to love? Here's the recipe:

CROCKPOT REFRIED BEANS
adapted from Rachel Cooks
Servings: 24
Points+: 3

2 pounds dried pinto beans (approximately 5 cups), rinsed and sorted
1 medium to large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons of salt (more to taste)
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
9+ cups of water

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and stir to combine. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until beans are soft and mash easily. Add more water if necessary during cooking. I added two cups about 2/3 of the way through cooking because it was looking dry. It doesn't hurt to have extra water, but you don't want them to dry up.

Reserving the liquid, strain the beans out into a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher. Add the reserved liquid until you reach the consistency you desire. Serve, or cool completely and freeze in portions appropriate for your family.

The next time you have Mexican Monday, Taco Tuesday or even Fajita Friday, you should definitely try these beans. They're a great way to round out your meal that everyone will love.

So long for today...

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Well, today is National Sticky Bun day. I made a batch of them to take into work today, but I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of them to do a blog post to share with you all. I hope you will forgive me. What this does mean is that I will have to make another batch of them to share with you all very soon. If not, I will make something equally delicious that I know you will all love. How does that sound? Deal?

What I am sharing with you is another easy peasy recipe using the Crockpot. I have been trying to find some new crockpot recipes to make for after the baby is born. Ideally, I would love to find some freezer meals that I can portion out ahead of time and then just throw in the crockpot in the morning and have a delicious meal ready for dinner in the evening. This is a recipe that was really good and really easy. I absolutely love fajitas and having a way to make them in the crockpot is even better. These aren't the most beautiful things when they're cooked, but then once you shred up the chicken and stir them around a bit, no one will ever know! This one will definitely be added to my list to make after baby arrives. Here's the recipe:

CROCKPOT CHICKEN FAJITAS
adapted from Stacy Makes Cents
Servings: 6
Points+: 5



1 yellow onion, sliced
3 sweet peppers, sliced
1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast
1/4 to ½ cup chicken broth, depending on preference (leave this out if you prefer a drier fajita filling)
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cumin
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
Squirt of lime juice
Tortillas
Fajita fixings

Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours (or on High for 4 hours) or until meat is shreddable. When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on tortillas with your choice of fixings.



EXERCISE:
In an effort to spend more time with my family, I have been trying to get some of my exercise in during my lunch breaks. It's times like this that it's really nice to live close to the office! During lunch yesterday, I got in my 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds video. At was nice to know that I already had worked out and didn't have to try to fit it in during the evening routine. It also gave me a little extra time to work on the sticky buns :-)

So long for today...

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Pasta

Happy Thursday everyone! We're more than halfway over with the week! We have no definite plans for the weekend, but I'm still looking forward to it. I have to apologize for not doing a WIAW post in 2 weeks. I started off taking pictures of my food yesterday, then didn't take any of lunch OR dinner, so I figured I had better scrap that idea. So instead, I am giving you a new recipe. Even better, right?

They say this is a crockpot meal, but I don't really like that name so much. Yes, you do put it in the crockpot, but there is an awful lot of prep that you have to do before hand in order to get it ready for the crockpot. Then you pretty much just heat it through and get all of the cheese melted together. I guess it saves you from having to bake it, but I think it might be good with a nice browned top right out of the oven. In any event, it was really good. TC and I both really liked it. Addison didn't care for it too much, but I think she was just being picky that day. Here's the recipe:

CROCKPOT CHEESY CHICKEN PASTA
adapted from Half My Size
Servings: 12
Points+: 6

16 oz. dry pasta, cooked
1 lb. Velveeta Light cheese
12 oz. chicken breast, cooked and shredded
10 3/4 oz. can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
10 3/4 oz. can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
10 oz. can diced tomatoes and green chilies (Rotel)
1/2 cup water
salt & pepper, to taste

Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and stir to mix well.

Cook on LOW for 2-3 hours. Stir again just before serving.

EXERCISE:
I didn't get any formal exercise in yesterday. I did get my 8,000 steps in yesterday, but after the Dr's appt earlier in the day, I was ready to relax for the evening. Although I did end up making cupcakes for work today. So relaxing was out of the question. Oh well, there's always tonight, right?

So long for today...

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Happy Friday everyone! Well, we made it through another week! This one has been pretty challenging for me, but I made it through! Now it's a long weekend with a holiday on Monday and I'm going to try my best to relax. Ha!!

So today's recipe is another slow cooker recipe. It comes together so fast and is pretty good. When we had it, TC said that he thought it was his new favorite meal. If you wanted to change up the flavors in this you could. I didn't use the cayenne pepper that it called for, but that's because we don't like a lot of heat in our food, but if you do, you could even increase it!

Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER JAMBALAYA
adapted from Plain Chicken
Servings: 6
Points+: 9

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
1 pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
3 Tbsp dried minced onion flakes
1 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 tsp minced garlic
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 c. cooked white rice or instant rice

In a slow cooker, mix the chicken, sausage, tomatoes with juice, onion, garlic, and broth. Season with oregano, parsley, Cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, and thyme.

Cover, and cook 7 to 8 hours on Low, or 3 to 4 hours on High. Mix in cooked rice cook for about 15 minutes to warm through.

EXERCISE:
I'm still getinng in my exercise pretty regularly. I think this is part of what is helping me to keep my weight gain under control at this point. Plus, after spending my first trimester being so sedentary, it feels so good to be active. Last night I did a Denise Austin video. I did her Personal Training Sysytem moderate cardio and upper body work out. I earned just under 2 APs, but I might just have to round that up! Ha!

So long for today...

Slow Cooker Balsamic Roast Beef

Hey there! Hope your week is going well. It's another long one for me. 5 whole days of work. But it's supposed to warm up for the next few days. Hopefully, I will get a chance to get out and get some walking done outside. Also helps to get some Vitamin D from the Sun!!

I tried another Emily Bites recipe over the weekend. Actually, I tried a couple of them, but let me tell you about this roast. It was absolutely delicious. It made the house smell incredible all day. My mouth was definitely watering by the time dinner time came. Then when I tasted it, oh my gosh! So good! It was so easy to throw together and defintely didn't disappoint when it came time to try it. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER BALSAMIC ROAST BEEF
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 8
Points+: 6

3 lb round raw, boneless round beef roast, lean and trimmed of visible fat
1 cup beef broth
¼ cup Balsamic vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1 T honey
½ t crushed red pepper flakes (I didn't use)
4 cloves garlic, minced

Place the meat in the slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the meat.

Cover and cook on low for 6 – 8 hours.

After cooked, break it apart using a fork (the meat should fall apart easily). Ladle about ¼ - ½ cup of juice over the roast beef when you serve it.

EXERCISE:
Last night, I did the Floor Work portion of my Long & Lean Prenatal video. This was only the second time that I've done this. I thought I remembered it being pretty easy, but apparently I remembered wrong! Ha! It felt good to challenge my muscles and I plan to keep this one in the rotation more often!

So long for today...

Slow Cooker Red Beans & Rice

It's official! I have spring fever. It was 80 degrees here today! February 29th and it was 80 degrees. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love living in South Carolina. What's ironic is some of the women on my WW message boards are talking about all the snow they have. They can keep that! I know its supposed to cool down again this weekend, but I'm definitely going to enjoy the nice weather while I can. I'm so glad I have this Friday off work, too! Definitely a day for a run, if you ask me.

I know Mardi Gras was last week, so I'm a little late in making this meal. But it's better to be late than never, right? I guess I think of this more of a Southern meal than a Cajun meal. That's probably because I didn't add the cajun seasoning that they call for, but I don't even own cajun seasoning. Does Creole seasoning count? Is that the same thing? Can you tell that I'm not a big fan of spicy foods? Ha! Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER RED BEANS & RICE
adapted from Plain Chicken
Servings: 8
Points+ 6

1 pound dried small red beans
1 pound turkey smoked sausage
5 cups water
1 cup tomato sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low 8-10 hours. Serve over hot white rice.

TC really liked this. That's probably because its a meal he's used to eating. Southerners love this. It's also called red beans & sausage or red rice and sausage. You can make a pretty healthy version of any of the variations, too. What made me feel even better was that Addison said she liked it, too! Bonus!

So long for today...

Slow Cooked Meatballs

Well, today was my official WW weigh-in day. After the food fiasco that I had on Saturday, I wouldn't have been surprised with staying the same weight or even a gain. Apparently, my hard work from yesterday must have paid off because I had a loss of .4 lbs today! Yea! I was very happy with that.

It was such a beautiful day today, so Addison and I asked our neighbor to go for a walk this evening after work. It was nice to catch up with my friend while also getting some APs. After Addison goes to bed tonight, it's off to let Jillian work me out.

Dinner was very good tonight. TC even commented on how tender these meatballs were. This is definitely a recipe that I'll be making again. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKED MEATBALLS
adapted from Can You Stay for Dinner
Servings: 4
Points+: 7

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 c. panko bread crumbs
1/2 large onion, minced
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 T. dried oregano
1/2 t. dried parsley
1/2 t. dried basil
1/4 c. reduced fat parmesan cheese
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 c. milk

1/2 large onion, chopped
2 c. spaghetti sauce

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl using your hands. Do not overmix. Roll the mixture into balls roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter.

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl using your hands. Do not overmix. Roll the mixture into balls roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter.

Scatter the onion over the base of your slow cooker, followed by the meatballs. Pour the sauce evenly over the top, making sure to coat everything.

Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

I already have the red beans and sausage in the crock pot in the refrigerator ready to be cooked in the morning. Can't wait to see how this recipe turns out.

So long for today...

Ranch House Crockpot Chicken

I love having things to do on the weekend. And I really do appreciate my family and friends. But sometimes, you can have too much to do on the weekends. This was one of those weekends. As much as I hate to say it, I was looking forward to going back to work this morning so that I would be able to relax...Really? Yep, that's right. Our weekend was so hectic and busy, that work was going to be relaxing. And you know what? It really was.

Over the weekend, I prepped a couple of dinners for this week so that I wouldn't have so much to do during the week. So I was really glad that I had planned for a crockpot dinner for tonight. I would say that this was just ok. I have another crockpot chicken stroganoff recipe that I like better. I might be able to tweak this one a bit to make it better, but I'm not sure if I will since I have another one that is very similar that I know we like. But you might like this one better. Here's the recipe:

RANCH HOUSE CROCKPOT CHICKEN
adapted from Life as a Lofthouse
Servings: 3
Points+: 5

1 can 98% FF cream of chicken soup
1/2 packet dry ranch dressing mix
1/3 c. milk
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

In crockpot, combine soup, dressing mix and milk. Stir until well combined, add chicken breasts and toss to coat. Cook on low heat 6 - 8 hours or high heat 4 - 6 hours. Serve over rice.

Now I will say that TC and Addison both ate this up. Neither one complained about it in anyway, so it must not be too bad. You could probably stir in a couple of things to make this a little better, too. Who knows, maybe I will work on this one.

During lunch today, I came home and made a couple of batches of Flourless Oatmeal Raisin cookies. TC, who doesn't usually like raisins, liked them. They were really chewy and were only 2 pts. per cookie. Can't wait to share that one with you!

So long for today...

Crockpot Chili

I moved to South Carolina from Pennsylvania 6 1/2 years ago. One of the reasons that I did was to escape the cold. Today, it didn't seem like I had succeeded in my escape. It didn't get out of the 40s here today! To a transplanted Yankee, that's cold! I was talking to my mother today about how it was a lot colder than what we have been used to. I told her I try to remind myself that at least it's warmer here than it is in Pennsylvania! On a cold day, whether its a cold Pennsylvania day or a cold South Carolina day, nothing is better for dinner than Chili!

Today was the perfect day for chili. I have a trick that I use for my chili. I sneak in some extra veggies and also bulk of the chili by adding finely chopped carrots. They blend in so well and take on the other flavors in the chili and no one knows they're there! Over the years, we've changed up how we eat our chili. Growing up, we always ate our chili over mashed potatoes. After I moved out on my own, I decided to try my chili over pasta. After I met my husband, he told me that he liked it over rice...but then again, Southerners like just about anything with rice! We also like to add different toppings, such as cheese (of course!), chopped onions or Doritoes! If you've never had cheesy chili with Doritoes, you don't know what you're missing. Of course, that combination isn't very WW friendly. My usual option for my chili is over pasta. That's how we had it tonight.

Here's my recipe:

CROCKPOT CHILI
Servings - 8 - 10
Points+: 5

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. carrots, finely chopped
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can dark red kidney beans, undrained
1 can light red kidney beans, undrained
1 can chili beans, undrained
1 t. cumin
3 t. chili powder
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper

In large skillet, brown ground beef. Add pepper, onion, garlic and carrots and cook until veggies are tender. Add meat mixture puls remaining ingredients to crockpot. Cook on low 6 - 8 hours or high 4 - 6 hours.

I love that this is a crockpot recipe. I love to use my crockpot, especially on a cold day! There's just something about the great smells developing and spreading through the house...What's also great about this recipe is that it makes so much! We usually have enough for dinner, a leftover dinner and some to add to the freezer. Addison loves my chili, too. That's always a bonus.