Skip to main content

Three Easy Spring Crockpot Meals

Welcome back!! This is my first blog post back after taking a break starting in September 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic I have found the inspiration and time needed to get back into blogging. As of now I do not know how often I will post and what the future holds for me. With the new found free time on my hands I have been more inspired to try new recipes. Doing so has allowed me to discover new recipes that will definitely be on repeat for the upcoming months. Since these recipes brought joy to me during these times, I thought why not share them in hopes that they can do the same for others.
I will be sharing two crockpot recipes and one oven recipe that can also be done in a crockpot or pressure cooker.

Honey Lime Shredded Chicken (Crockpot)

One of my favorite YouTubers to watch is Denise from Sweet Peas & Saffron. I watched her 7 Ingredient Meal Prep video and knew that I had to try her Honey Lime Chicken recipe. As I have talked about in previous food blog posts, I have a number of food sensitivities and do best when I am milk free, gluten free, and reduce high fodmap foods and starches. To make this recipe more fodmap friendly I omitted the garlic. Even with omitting the garlic the chicken was still loaded with flavor. To keep the meal lower carb I chose to serve the honey lime chicken on lettuce cups with a side of steamed broccoli. Since I only cook for myself this fed me for four filling dinners. It kept great in a glass container in the fridge. For more instructions on this recipe head over to Sweet Peas & Saffron.

Spring Chicken Tortilla Soup (Crockpot)

The first recipe I ever made in my crockpot was chicken tortilla soup. Every time I make it I change the recipe a little bit. For this recipe I made it lighter by adding more chicken broth and less tomato sauce. This recipe is dairy free, milk free, gluten free and can be made low fodmap and low-carb.

Recipe:
    2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
    15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
    15 oz. can tomato sauce
    3 cups low sodium chicken broth
    2 cups frozen corn or 15 oz. can of corn
    15 oz. can black beans
    15 oz. can cannelloni beans
    1 bunch of spring onions
Instructions:

    Add chicken, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, and Fody Taco Seasoning in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours
    During the last 15 minutes add drained and rinsed black beans and cannelloni beans, canned or frozen corn and chopped spring onions
    After 15 minutes shred the chicken
To make this recipe low fodmap omit the black beans and cannelloni beans and only add the green steams of the spring onions. I have found that this recipe makes five servings. To freeze the soup let it cool to room temperature and add it to freezable containers leaving room for the soup to expand. I recommend putting the soup in the fridge the night before you want to serve it to let it defrost. I simply reheat mine in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 2:30-3:00 minutes. You can top the soup with more green onions, avocado, tortilla strips or plain non-dairy yogurt.



Carrot Top Pesto on Spaghetti Squash

I first heard of Carrot Top Pesto while watching Sweet Potato Soul's video on Life Changing Food Scrap Recipes. Like the first recipe to keep my meals as low fodmap as I can and also because I do not like garlic. So, I omit the garlic from the recipe. If you want to keep the recipe low fodmap, but want to garlic flavor I recommend substituting the regular extra virgin olive oil for Fody Garlic Infused Olive Oil. I serve this pesto over spaghetti squash. This pesto and a medium spaghetti squash makes three servings for me. This can be a crockpot meals like the last two because you can cook your spaghetti squash in the crockpot or a pressure cooker. I personally prefer to roast mine in the oven. I recommend Sweet Peas & Saffron's recipe for Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash. I only make this recipe when I buy carrots because the recipe allows me to not waste the tops of the carrots. If you don't have carrot tops you can  always use basil or other fresh herbs. 
Another option for pasta to use for this pesto is Banza chickpea pasta. This is not low fodmap, but it is gluten free. Since this dish does not include animal protein you can either add other protein sources or use Banzao pasta as the protein. 

I hope that these recipes inspired you to be creative in the kitchen during this time of change and uncertainty. 

Additional Links

To subscribe to my blog click the three dashes in the right hand corner and type in your email to never miss a blog post!

Don't forget to stay up to date on my blog by following my social media accounts!






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule After my first semester of college I have developed a cleaning routine that I have been able to keep up with. You can read my previous blog post about What I Learned In My First Semester of College . Over the past few months I have experimented and I am confident in the routine that I have created.  Personalize When it comes to personalizing the schedule you could add or take out the different chores. For example I also wash my retainers weekly and monthly my roommate and I decorate the marker board on the outside of our door. We also only clean our mirrors when needed since we have found that they do not seem to become too dirty regularly. Something that I would make sure you sanitize every week would be the surfaces that you are constantly touching. That means light switches, door handles, and your desk. By doing this I managed to avoid getting sick when my roommate and other floor mates go sick. Another task that you could add to y

Bullet Journal Fitness and Workout Spread Ideas

If you want to purchase some of these spreads you can buy the digital bundle from my Etsy shop: Simply Paperless .  I had created six different bullet journal fitness and workout trackers/spreads. These spreads were made in my digital bullet journal using the GoodNotes App.   I highly recommend to use a stylus when using GoodNotes as a digital bullet journal. For this project I used the Adonit Dash 3 Stylus , which I highly recommend. I also recommend the Bargain Depot Stylus 2 Pack  from Amazon. Daily Workout Plan This first spread can be used to plan out what exercises you plan to workout each day of the week. I would recommend this spread for those who are just starting to workout. I did not created the workout that is used as the example for the content of this spread. The workout is from Pintrest Workout Plan .  Workout Tracker This next tracker is in the format of a monthly calendar. In order to track the different workouts accomplished throughout

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Book Review

Reasons For Reading This Book: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was Jackie's choice for the month of October. Jackie is the host of The Readheads Podcast Book Club. This is a monthly podcast book club that I have been apart of since it was established in 2020. I love getting to hear the thoughts of the hosts each month.  Content of the Book: Elizabeth Zott is a chemist but is much more than meets the eye. She is not only beautiful but also extremely smart, confident, strong, and not afraid to beat to her own drum. Elizabeth is one of the only female chemists working at Hastings Research Institute. She is viewed as different by everyone there. It's there that she meet Nobel-Prize nominated chemist Calvin Evans. Calvin who falls in love with Elizabeth is described as a loner, grudge holder, and extremely brilliant. Fast forward a few years and Elizabeth is now a single-mother working as the host of the most watched cooking show, Supper at Six . With Elizabeth's ways of