Food Prep: 5 Slow Cooker Recipes you need in your life.

I love my slow cooker! I spent about R800 on it and I have used it every week to prep myself and Chris's lunch for the week. 

What I love about it is that prep time is minimal so I end up saving a lot of time and effort by just chucking that weeks protein of choice and veg into it and letting it do its thing while I do life. 

Here are 5 slow cooker recipes that I love and all of them are Whole 30 compliant!

Slow Cooker Lemon Thyme Chicken from www.thenaturalnurturer.com

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds)
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 5 springs of fresh thyme OR 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 3-5 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

• Remove giblets from the chicken and rinse under cool water. Place in slow cooker.
• Pour lemon juice over whole chicken and sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and thyme.
• Place garlic cloves and bay leaves in the slow cooker around the chicken.
• Cover slow cooker and cook the chicken on low for 9-10 hours OR high for 4-5 hours.
• Once the chicken is done cooking, the meat should easily come off the bone and you can enjoy it immediately or store in fridge for up to 4 days.

Slow Cooker Paleo Pulled Pork from www.thehomemadehaus.com

Ingredients: 

• 1 (4-5 pound) pork butt roast
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 2 medium onions, sliced

Directions: 

• In a small bowl, mix together the chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and coriander. Rub all of the spice mix over the pork butt roast.
• Add the sliced onions to the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the spice-rubbed pork on top.
• Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
• Use a couple forks to shred the meat. Give everything in the slow cooker a good stir so the spices, juices, meat and onions are thoroughly mixed together.

For breakfast, serve pulled pork with toppings like avocados, a fried egg, a squeeze of lime, salsa or hot sauce. 

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Soup Recipe for www.paleoleap.com

Ingredients

• 1.36 kg. sweet potatoes, roughly chopped;
• 1 onion, chopped;
• 2 stalks celery, sliced;
• 2 medium carrots, chopped;
• 15 ml. garlic, minced;
• 1183 ml chicken or vegetable stock;
• 237 ml coconut milk;
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions: 

• Place all the ingredients except for the coconut milk in a slow cooker.
• Season everything to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Cover and cook on low for 6h or on high for 4 h.
• Puree everything until smooth using a blender or an immersion blender.
• Add the coconut milk, give everything a good stir, and cook for another 30 minutes.
• Adjust the seasoning and serve warm.

Slow Cooker Paleo Chilli from http://blog.emeals.com

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 11/2 lb ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 (14.5-oz) cans di2ced tomatoes
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef, onion and garlic; cook 8 to 10 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble.
• Transfer meat and onion mixture to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Add tomatoes, bell pepper, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW 6 hours.

Slow Cooker Ratatouille Soup from www.mywholefoodlife.com 

Ingredients

• 8 tomatoes, boiled, skinned and chopped (see notes)
• 2 red bell peppers (chopped)
• 2 yellow bell peppers (chopped)
• 2 green bell peppers (chopped)
• 2 small zucchini (chopped)
• 1 yellow squash (chopped)
• 1 eggplant (peeled and cubed)
• 1 yellow onion (chopped)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 T fresh basil chopped
• 2 T fresh parsley
• sea salt to taste

Directions: 

• Throw everything in a slow cooker and cook for at least 6 hours. Cook on high for the first hour and then turn down to low for the remaining hours. Feel free to cook it longer than 6 hours if you like.  

If you try any of these recipes or any recipes at all during this challenge please post it - we know how much people love taking and posting images of their food ;) tag us @capecrossfit and #CCFwholelifechallenge

This is a post based on an email sent out to all the participants in our CCF Eat Healthy challenge that is running for 8 weeks. Participants in the challenge gets the email on Sunday nights, then we post it on a Wednesday night for the rest of the world to see. 


Coach Tash
CCF Nutritional Advisor