Healthy Whole Foods Crock Pot Recipes

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/food-recipes

There are vegetarian as well as yummy vegetable recipes.. Very healthy...

Weight Watchers magazine has lots of good recipes that are healthy and lighter than most crock pot meals.

i am making one right now! its soooo good. you take 1 lg eggplant and dice it and sautee with garlic, salt and pepper, and one small onion. add this to your crockpot. then add 4 small diced zuchini, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow, and one orange pepper. (the orignial recipe also calls for 1 can chick peas but its your call) mix 1 can crushed tomatoes with 1 tb olive oil, 2 bay leaves and 1/2 ts thyme, and 1 ts crushed red pepper. pour over veggies and cook on low for 6-7hrs or high for 41/2 to 5hrs. its delicious i have made it three times since i got my crock pot for christmas. hint: if you want to save money you can use frozen pepper onion mix instead of all the bell pepper and cut the sauteed onion in half.

www.food.com

Type in "crock pot" in the search and you will have more recipes then you can count at your fingertips. I love this site! So easy to use, and you can save recipes, print a shopping list and make different "cook books" for yourself all for free! I like free too!

Stay with me M., I know this looks/sounds hard and time consuming but I swear it's not. This is the original recipe for the stove but at the end I will tell you how to turn it into a crock pot meal!!!!!

Italian Ministrone

1 lb bulk pork sausage ( I use sweet Italian, but you could just leave it out all together if your not a meat person)
1 large onion chopped
2 lrg carrots chopped
2 celery ribs choppped
1 medium leek (white part only) chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 med zuchinni cut into 1/2 in peices
1/4 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2 in peices.
6 cups beef broth (I use 3 (14.5 oz each) cans, it just won't be so soupy)
2 (14.5 each) cans diced tomatoes with basil, oregeno and garlic
3 cups shredded cabbage (I use bagged, non-dressed, cole slaw mix)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregeno
1/4 tsp pepper
1 (15 oz) can garbonzo beans (I use drk red kidney beans on occasion)
1/2 C uncooked small pasta shells (I have used orzo or dinitalli pasta and last time used slow cook barley that turned out good too)
3 Tbs minced fresh parsley ( I never use this so I don't miss it, but don't know if it makes a difference)
Grated Parmesean cheese

1) In a big huge pot, brown the sauage and onion until no longer pink; drain.
2) Stir in carrots, celery, leek and garlic; cook for 3 min.
3) Add zuchchini and green beans; cook for two minutes longer.
4) Stir in broth, tomatoes, cabbage, basil, oregeno and pepper; bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
5) Return to boil, add beans, pasta and parsley; cook for 6-9 minutes or until pasta is done
6) Serve with parm cheese.

Now, for crockpot soup:

Make sure you make much larger chunks of veggies (I double the veggie amount too (except for the cabbage)), so that they don't disentegrate after such a long cook time.

The only pre cooking that has to happen is the meat/onions if you want meat. I also like to sautee the onion/garlic.

Shove everything except the pasta (if you use barley you can throw this in to start) into your crock pot and cook on low ( I use warm!) about 6 hours- let the carrots and celery get tender.

Add the pasta 10-15 minutes before serving.

I also serve with a cheddar sourdough bread.

Like I said, I know it sounds long and complicated but if you prep the night before, it's 10 minute brown the meat time and in the crock pot.

My favorite it spaghetti sauce in the crockpot. I use an organic canned sauce with all natural Laura's ground beef (browned in the frying pan rinsed and drained) onions, garlic, parm cheese, peppers, mushrooms, ripe olives a little organic sugar, salt and pepper and a little olive oil. I let it cook all day when we are ready to eat I boil some whole wheat pasta, organic salad and garlic bread (you can get a preservative free all natural at the store or make your own).

You should get the cookbook FixIt And Forget It-Light

I roast chicken in crock pot, make lasagna, and Shepard pie too is that the sort of thing you want? PM me if you want the recipes.

I love beef stew in the crock pot. The one I make has carrots, potatoes, celery, tomatoes, some beef broth, beef, and a little tapioca. I have a lemon chicken recipe in one of my books that I am going o try this weekend that oes not hav any of the condensed soups in it I'll let you know if that one comes out any good.

I make veggie soup in the crock pot......all organic veggies and whatever sort of broth you want. Sometimes I add organic pork or beef or a combo of both (stew meats).

You can try a basic chili recipe with beans, canned diced tomatoes, chopped green and/or red peppers, chopped onions and ground beef or turkey (and if you want it to be vegetarian, just leave out the meat). Get one of those chili seasoning kits from the spice section at the supermarket and you are good to go. Just brown the meat first before throwing it in the crock pot with everything else. I cook mine on low for 6 to 8 hours.

I am not a cook, by any means.... however what I have done with my crock pot is I buy some ready made soups from the box... sometimes you can get really good sales on them (they are all pureed). The kind I buy are really healthy... no meat, no dairy, no gluten -but full of flavor (Me and the kids are vegetarian and my husband vegan). Then I just add whatever I want... red potatoes, carrots, black beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic...etc. If I get a broccoli based soup, I may add some broccoli to it, etc. Depends sometimes what broth flavor I get to determine with veggies I put in it. I also may cook some noodles or rice, and serve it with that :-)

I just made this lentil soup last week. It was awesome. If you want a thicker stew, I would just leave out a cup or two of water. I imagine that red lentils would work as well as french lentils (which I bought at a natural foods store in the bulk aisle--red lentils you can find in a regular grocery, at least in MN) but would need less cooking time.
http://crockpot.betterrecipes.com/hearty-sweet-potato-and...

I haven't made the following recipe with chicken but I use it as my base recipe whenever I make vegetarian tagine. http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-crock-pot-moroccan-chicke...

I have this site bookmarked but I'm not sure I've ever made anything off of it.... http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/collections/healt...

Happy cooking!

Instead of using a creamy mushroom soup, use veggie broth. If you want it thick, melt a pat of butter on low heat and get rice or wheat flouer and whisk it until it is all balled up (small brown balls). Then add about a serving spoon of the broth into your flour mixture and whisk. Continue until you have a gold gew. Add more until it is liquid again and thin. Poor it back in your crock and let it cook. It will thicken on its own in time.

We have enjoyed 7? bean soup and serving over rice. At the supermarket, there are bags of 7? bean soup, which contains seasoning. The directions on the bag recommends adding ham, but its your choice. You can add as much onions, tomatoes as you wish. Soaking the beans overnight helps them to finish cooking by the end of the day.

Enjoy!

FoodTV.com has some good recipes. Just type in crock pot in the search bar.
Also, anything that you cook on the stove or oven that takes a lot of time can be done in the crock pot.
Everyfood.com (a martha stewart website) also has lots of crock pot recipes. They have a chicken and beans and pulled pork that are WONDERFUL. No cans involved :)

I make most soups on the stove (they take less than 30 mins to cook from fresh ingredients) and not the crock pot. I make split pea soup, pot roast, that chicken and beans recipe, and pulled pork in my crock pot. Just how I operate.