Winner Winner, Easy Dinner

With the house going on the market any day now, it's been a challenge to keep things 'open house worthy' all the time.  One of the biggest challenges is making dinner.  While I wouldn't invite someone into my home during/around dinnertime, using the stovetop sure can make a mess.  And I'm totally not in the mood to scrub my stovetop every single night in order to make it look tip top for buyers.

Enter the Crockpot.

While I usually use my crockpot at least once a week, I've been turning to it more regularly than ever.  It's a one-pot meal.  No worries about much food prep/cooking.  You throw everything in, turn it on, and let it go.

I've still been doing it during the day, but just as easily I could fill it up and turn it on overnight while we're all asleep.  Then I just need to reheat whatever I've cooked.  And since crockpot meals are already sort of cooked to death, there's no problem in reheating them...

So, here's my latest Crockpot meal:

Sweet Potato Quinoa Chicken chili

Ingredients

• 1 or 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup quinoa (I used multicolored)
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp (approximately) freshly ground pepper
• 5 cups chicken broth

Instructions

1. Spray the slow cooker with nonstick spray. This seems unnecessary, but I really recommend it, since this is a tomato based recipe.
2. Put chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker, top with diced onions, and chopped sweet potatoes
3. Rinse and drain quinoa, then add to slow cooker
4. Drain and rinse the black beans and add those in. Add in the undrained petite diced tomatoes, minced garlic, chili seasoning mix, and chicken broth.
5. Place on high for 3-5 hours (It took 4 hours on high for my crockpot.)
6. Using two forks, shred the chicken and stir all the ingredients together.
7. Add salt and pepper and if desired fresh parsley.
8. Serve immediately.

This recipe is so great for everyone.  It's easy to make vegetarian by using veggie broth and omitting the chicken.  I served this to a vegetarian friend who doesn't mind things cooked with chicken by serving her portion before I shredded the chicken.

It's great for babies, and Ocho really enjoyed it.  Quinoa is good for babies at about 8 months old, but it's also a very non-allergenic food, so there aren't to many worries. Black beans and sweet potatoes are great for babies too.  Lots of people worry about the spices, but there's a difference between highly spiced food and spicy food. This is highly spiced, but not spicy (unless you up the cayenne!).

EG loved it too, and requested seconds and thirds!

Here's to an easy peasy meal that takes no more than a chopped sweet potato and a chopped onion!