Thankfully, I love my crock pot and can just throw a few ingredients inside and call it dinner!!!
Yesterday (after a 4:00 am wake-up to clean the venue), I really needed a simple dinner that didn’t require much effort. And, the best part??? This is actually a healthy meal!!!
Ingredients:
chicken (I used about 6 chicken breasts – frozen)
1 can diced tomatoes (you could easily use the spicy kind!!)
1 packet taco seasoning (or make your own if that’s your thing!)
Put the chicken in the crock pot.
frozen chicken in crock pot
Mix tomatoes and taco seasoning together.
simple ingredients
Pour tomato mixture over chicken and cook on low about 8 hours.
ready to go
Before serving, shred the chicken.
shredded and ready to eat
You can add whatever taco fixings you like. Last night we kept it simple (that’s what happens when mom’s in a funk) and just had some rice, shredded lettuce and cheese.
I decided it was time for another burpee variation for the 43 today. I’m still working on the awesome list of 30 burpees that Taylor @ Lifting Revolution shared awhile back. Today I did a burpee with a lateral jump over a step – FUN TIMES!!!
6:00 am boot camp was fun – we did the Move It, Move It workout (all legs!!) from Friday because I knew that none of the people who came Friday would be here this morning. It was HUMID – we were drenched by the end of the workout.
I decided to run on my treadmill instead of outside because I knew that I would be sucking air thanks to the mugginess. I ran at 1.5% incline – 5 miles 31:34 + 1 mile super easy for a cool down.
Irving Naxon – anyone know who he is? He developed the “all-purpose” cooker which was bought by The Rival Company in 1970 and reintroduced in 1971 as the Crock Pot.
a few of the crock pots I use
I think the Crock Pot is truly my favorite kitchen appliance!!! I use one of my crock pots at least once a week and often as many as 3 times a week. There have been many meals that I have 2 crock pots full of stuff!!!
Any day that I have evening plans I try to get dinner into the crock pot in the morning. Such a great feeling to know that dinner (at least part of it) is already done!!!
I’m pretty sure that I’ve already shared my love of cookbooks before.
In my collection, I have a whole shelf devoted to crock pot/slow cooker cook books. My favorites are from the Fix-It-and-Forget-It series.
One of the great things about using a crock pot is there is really no need for a recipe. The thing that I do the most is put a cut of meat (ribs, round steak, roast, brisket, chicken breasts, pork roast, turkey breasts, even a whole chicken) with a rub and/or a sauce of some sort and let it cook all day. Super easy and by the end of the day we have a very tender piece of meat!
In the fall and winter I make all kinds of soups and chili in the crock pot. In the summer, I love to use the crock pot to keep the kitchen from heating up!!
I even take one of my crock pots with me on some of our longer trips (when we stay places with a kitchen) so that we don’t have to eat out every meal and I don’t have to spend any time really cooking.
Do you use a crock pot very often? What is your favorite recipe in the crock pot?
Today for my 43, I used Hunter’s punching bag!!One of the best parts about using the punching bag is getting to wear my super cool pink boxing gloves:
Pink Gloves Rock!!
I decided to make this into a “semi” workout. (small scale for sure!) I did 43 right jabs and then 43 left jabs – and repeated that 10 times without stopping. (430 total right jabs + 430 total left jabs)
this picture is totally posed!
Then, I moved right into right-left alternating punches for another 43 x 10 reps (this part was actually 860 total punches). A total of 1290 right punches and 1290 left punches all of which I will probably feel tomorrow since my arms were shaking by the end!
This 43 (or series of 43s) was the best thing I’ve done in awhile. It only took 14 minutes but I worked up a bit of a sweat (WooHoo!!) and got my heart rate up. Plus – it felt good to punch something!!!
Since I can’t do much with my legs, I just planted them and then tried to really twist using my core because it needs a LOT of work after the past couple of weeks!
I can’t believe that I haven’t used the punching bag before now! Oh, well – I might be slow coming up with a good idea but at least I finally came up with something that makes me feel like I’m sort-of working out!! Now, I just need to build my stamina back up!!!
I even got dinner started (love my crock pots!) this morning so that Chris doesn’t feel like he has to do everything around here!!!
I’m just full of ideas this morning!! Wonder what else I can come up with? So many possibilities – as long as the rest of my ideas for the day involve this move
Today my 43 really worked my obliques! I used my stability ball again. I put my back on the ball and my feet on the wall at a right angle. With my hands behind my head, I crunched to the left and reached my right hand outside my left knee and then crunched the opposite way to make 1 rep. So, in order to complete my 43, I actually did 86 oblique crunches!!
(The boys helped me out over the weekend with several demos. I wanted to be ready for the busy week ahead so we made the videos and then each morning I can do the actual 43.)
After the 43 I did some Pilates but I actually mixed it up and did some new stuff. First I did the mat segment from Burn & Firm Pilates – 10 minutes. This DVD uses hand weights with the pilates work which is kind of nice. Then I did the mat segment from Fat Burning Pilates – 15 minutes. Finally I did the total body segment from Pick Your Spot Pilates – 10 minutes.
All of these were still non-weight bearing! It was a nice change of pace on the pilates front because all of these work-outs have ab, butt and thigh work all mixed together instead of in separate sections.
Can you guess what I’m going to be doing this week? I’m not technically the librarian but I will be working in the school library. I’m not going to be at Hunter’s school – I will be at one of the other elementary schools in our district. I’m filling in for the library aide – this week and then most of January. I’m super excited!!! I love everything about books and I think this will be a really fun job!
Between spending my days in the school library and my evenings tutoring algebra (finals week for high school) – this week is going to be BUSY!!!
I better get going – still need to get dinner in the crock pot before we all leave for the day!
