I think I love you, so what I’m so afraid of? I’m afraid that I’m not sure of what ingredients to use?!
Cooking and I have an on again off again relationship.
I love how fresh, clean, whole food meals make me feel.
I hate spending my entire Sunday in the kitchen when I could be out on the trails. Or looking at a recipe and realizing that it requires 22 ingredients that I don’t have and may never use again.
Which is why I realized once again, how essential my slow cooker and a few other items are in ensuring that I can be the LAZY HEALTHY eater that I want to be!
The Lazy Cooks Essential Tools
We don’t need EVERY kitchen tool out there to cook healthy, even if it’s fun to dream about the foods that we might make with them. Instead, let’s keep it simple, streamline the kitchen, to save time and just get started with cooking more at home.
Blender
Never in a million years did I think I’d spend so much on a blender, but it has been worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.
A high quality blender will make every smoothie better. I resisted this for years, but the switch was astounding. I can now toss in kale steam and all, along with other things and get a great smoothie. No need for juicers and food processors, a quality blender can do amazing things. {basic green smoothie recipes to get you started}
George Foreman Grill
Not only is this a fast way to cook burgers and brats, but you can use it for hash browns, panini’s, bacon, and even quesadillas. Don’t buy all those other little appliances that you’ll only use once in a great while. We weren’t able to have a grill in our FL apartments, so this was a lifesaver and the new one with removable plates is quite the step up from what I used in college.
Electric Kettle
This is the one appliance we use daily, yes daily. Like we’ve worn off the text on the button we use it so much!
I boil up water for tea, David does it for oatmeal, it’s perfect for single serve coffee when my parents visit and generally makes my life easier.
Slow Cooker
Toss it in, let it cook while you live your life and then just 1 dish to clean. I have gone back and forth over switching to an Instant Pot and in fact did a side by side comparison. But ultimately, I kind of love the smell of the crockpot in the background as snuggle in for a winter day of football watching!
Truly I have found the above appliances can do just about everything, which saves us space and money! Rounding out a basic kitchen are a good set of knives, glass bake ware, a meat thermometer, cutting boards and measuring spoons/cups.
Now, let’s eat! 
Veggie Turkey Chili Recipe
You know I don’t know how to make a dish without packing in the veggies, right?! I could have just made a standard turkey chili recipe, but the opportunity was right there to sneak some veggies in on David and my parents during their visit, so I had to!
Veggie Turkey Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 1 package ground turkey or 1 cup quinoa for vegan
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 4 stalks celery chopped
- 2 medium sweet potatoes cubed
- 1 small onion chopped
- garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 3 tbsp chili powder we ended up adding more for more spice
- 1 tsp paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Saute ground turkey until fully cooked
- Dice peppers and onions or buy pre-diced if short on time
- Cube sweet potatoes
- Toss all into slow cooker
- Set to low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours
- Serve topped with avocado or cheese or with tortilla chips
In general, American’s all fall low on getting enough veggies. When you can create a one dish meal that’s soooo flavorful and hearty, it’s a lot easier to get people to start thinking more about plant based meals. I love this healthy turkey chili because you can also switch it up based on what you have on hand.
Yummmmmmmmy!!! I feel like the slow cooker has suddenly made a resurgence this year, but I remember my mom using it all the time.
Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe?
What’s your biggest reason for not cooking?
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