Slow cooker meal, again

Tonight is another slow-cooker night. I wasn't sure that I'd be home today to cook, and so set up dinner this morning.  It turns out that I've been here most of the day and could have easily cooked, but it does smell *so* good in here!

Sloppy Joes with a Kick


1 - 1.5 lbs lean ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup ketchup (I actually use a little less because there is so much sugar in ketchup)
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp Splenda
1 Tbsp mustard
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
8 whole wheat hamburger buns, split (and toasted, if desired)
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar (if desired)

1. In a large skillet, cook ground turkey, onion, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat if necessary. (I use just a little bit of olive oil here, since we use ground turkey breast and it is very lean, and doesn't give off much fat.)

2. Meanwhile, in 3.5-4 quart slow cooker, combine other ingredients except buns and cheese.  Stir in meat mixture.

3. Cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours or on high heat for 3-4 hours.  Spoon about 1/2 cup meat mixture onto each bun bottom. If desire, sprinkle with cheese and serve with sweet pepper strips. Replace bun tops.

If you want, you can add some hot sauce or jalapeno to this.

Also, if you are going to let this cook much more than 6-8 hours, be prepared to add a little extra water - it does tend to dry out.

Tonight we'll finish this with a salad from a bag and/or cole slaw and call it a meal.  The kids love this, so I don't make it spicy, but Robert likes to add hot sauce when it is served.

 And, of course, you can also do this with ground beef, but we use turkey to save on fat and calories.

Slow cooker Asian pork

I *love* using the slow cooker - I got it as a gift years ago and go through spurts of using it a lot. We are in the middle of one of those spurts now. I love putting everything in the slow cooker one weekend day (so that we know that we can eat well when we get home from whatever errands we are running, or I know that I don't have to ignore the kids for very long to get a yummy dinner on the table).  This week, we have a myriad of appointments since the semester is finally over. So we are using the slow-cooker twice. The first was Monday - Asian pork sandwiches.

From Better Homes and Gardens Quick and Easy Meals for Diabetes:

Asian pork sandwiches


1 2.5-3 pound pork shoulder roast
1 cup apple juice
2 Tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1/5 tsp five-spice powder
1 whole wheat hamburger roll per person
broccoli slaw (with coleslaw dressing, if desired)

1.  Trim fat from meat. If necessary, cut roast to fit into a 3.5-4 quart slow cooker. Place meat in cooker. In a small bowl, combine apple juice, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and five-spice powder. Pour over roast.

2. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 10-12 hours or on high heat 5.5-6 hours.

3. Remove meat from cooker, reserving juices. Remove meat from bone; discard bone. Using forks, shred meat.  Place 1/2 cup meat on each bun bottom. Top with 1/4 cup shredded broccoli (dressed if desired); add bun tops.

We paired this with a green salad, and had a great meal.  Since the meat is pretty lean, we allowed ourselves some extra meat without the bun if we were still hungry.