It’s important for us to eat dinner together as a family as many times a week as we can. We turn the television off, maybe choose some music off of one of our iPods and all sit down to enjoy dinner together.
Now, as a busy family with two working parents and a child with after-school activities, that’s very often easier said than done. Enter the slow cooker, which I think is one of the best tools for a busy family. It takes minimal time in the morning to prep all the ingredients and put them in the slow cooker, and when you come home at night, dinner is ready — or almost ready — to eat.
Here’s one of my favorite recipes, one that can translate into several meals.
Slow cooker chicken and beans
4 chicken thighs
1 jar medium or hot salsa
1 can pinto or kidney beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn (use the no salt added kind)
1 green or red bell pepper, diced
1 packet taco seasoning
Put the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker, then sprinkle the taco seasoning on the top. Layer the beans, the corn (undrained), the bell pepper and then the salsa on top. Put the lid on your slow cooker and turn it on low, for 6-8 hours.
When you get home at the end of a busy day, your dinner is almost ready. Take two forks and shred the chicken, then mix the whole thing together.
The first night I make this, we eat it on flour tortillas as tacos, with the addition of sliced olives, cheddar cheese and avocado. But because it makes much more than our family can eat, I portion up the leftovers into three containers. Two go in the freezer, and one is used later in the week for taco salads.
To make a good homemade taco salad, just get yourself some of the burrito-sized flour tortillas. You can buy taco shell molds at any store with a cooking section, and just spray the mold down with cooking spray, press the tortilla in it, and bake in the oven at 375 degrees until crispy. Fill with your favorite salad toppings, starting with, of course, the leftover chicken and beans that you’ve heated up in the microwave.
You can use the leftover chicken and beans in a variety of other ways. By adding some low-sodium chicken broth to the mixture, you can make a quick and filling soup. If you’ve got a little more time, you can heat some corn tortillas in the microwave, roll the chicken and bean mixture up in them, put them in a baking dish, cover with cheese and your favorite enchilada sauce, and you’ve got chicken and bean enchiladas.
For a super quick dinner, heat the chicken and beans up and serve over rice. And for something a little different, make your own nachos by loading up tortilla chips with the chicken and beans, then cheddar cheese. Pop that in the microwave until the cheese melts, then add sour cream, salsa, sliced olives and jalapeños.
From that one day of using the slow cooker, while you are busy doing other things, it’s possible to make at least five different meals. That gives you more time to spend around the dinner table, catching up with your family.
