Easy Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

Easy Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

As fall prepares to creep in upon us, the slow cooker seems to make its way back into my everyday cooking routine. I love that I can set it and forget it, and come home to the delicious smells of dinner. One of my favorite things to do with my slow cooker is prep shredded chicken to use all week! Chicken is a multipurpose protein that is perfect to include on a weekly basis. If you are like me, you might tend to get a little tired of plain chicken recipes. Fear not, I have 10 easy meal ideas for how to use your shredded chicken.

A simple option for shredded chicken is to buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. They shred easily and are full of flavor. Simply throw away the skin first because it is typically too chewy for most of the recipes below. You could also make your own chicken at home. Making it from home is a great option because you can customize your flavors and pick less fatty cuts of meat. Personally, I use boneless skinless chicken breasts and they are just as moist and enjoyable as any other cut of chicken. 

Ingredients:

4 (4 oz) chicken breasts

2 cups chicken broth

Optional: spices (I like salt and pepper, garlic powder, Cajun seasoning, and rosemary, but you can use whatever you like).

Directions:

Place chicken in slow cooker with chicken broth and desired spices, cover. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Use a food thermometer to ensure internal temperature of chicken is at least 165 F. Once chicken is cooked, remove from slow cooker and shred with two forks. Another option is to place cooked chicken into your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on low for about 30 seconds. Viola, shredded chicken! You can use your chicken immediately or place in a covered container to use throughout the week.

Recipe adapted from: Dashing Danish

Try the following ways to use your shredded chicken this week:

1. Shredded chicken Cobb salads

2. Buffalo chicken zucchini boats. Try this recipe from Destination Delish 

3. Avocado chicken salad stuffed tomatoes. Try this recipe from Simply Recipes

4. Baked chicken taquitos. Try my recipe!

5. Spicy shredded chicken taco salad. 

6. BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potato

7. Hawaiian chicken wraps. Check out this recipe from Skinny Mom. 

8. Buffalo chicken salad crostini. Check out my recipe!

9. Greek chicken stuffed pitas. Try out this recipe from What's Gaby Cooking, it looks so good!

Photo credit: What's Gaby Cooking

10. Chicken enchiladas. Check out this recipe from Skinny Taste

Photo credit: Skinny Taste

Thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Crafty Cook

No Sugar Challenge-- Sneak in Sweets!

My husband and I tried a no-sugar challenge for the month of January... ok we didn't actually start until January 3rd, but we had events to attend and the temptation would be too great. But we really did stick to it a whole month! (okay, we cheated... but only on one day!)

The idea was for us to eat less than 10 grams of added sugar per day. I will admit some days it was pretty hard. Often times I woke up thinking about cookies and went to bed dreaming about chocolate ice cream, but we survived. The holidays (which defined by me starts in October and ends after New Years) can really undo a healthy lifestyle, frankly we didn't even give sugar a second thought during the holidays. We were busy, and sometimes (to unwind from a stressful day of Stats homework torture and long work hours) a Reeses or two... okay three-- just seemed justifiable.

Yes, if you know me this might seem heinous. I am a dietetic intern and graduate student in clinical nutrition. I know I'm not supposed to have these sweet treats everyday... but guess what? I'm human too. And I fall off the wagon just like everyone else.

For one month we limited our added sugar intake to less than 10 grams per day. That’s only 40 calories (2.5 teaspoons) from added sugar in a day.

The most recent 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that 10% of your daily calories can come from added sugar, and that is the limit not a goal. So this means if you are consuming 1,200-1,800 calories a day, 120 and 180 calories respectively can come from added sugar! So a small coffee frappe or a can of soda will pretty much ruin your entire day, sugar/calorie wise anyway. 

What exactly are added sugars? Think of caloric sweeteners (like table sugar) and syrups. These are added sugars. The biggest contributor of added sugar in the American diet is from beverages, they account for 47% of all added sugars consumed. But soda, fruit drinks, sweetened tea/coffee (plus many more) aren't your only culprits in the added sugar saga, it seems like it's in everything: flavored yogurt, bread, pasta sauce, condiments, canned fruits, etc has added sugar. Specific names of sugar will be listed in the ingredients list. Did you know there are at least 61 names for sugar? Check out this source and educate yourself on all the names sugar uses to be incognito (SugarScience.org).

Naturally occurring sugars are not added sugars, these are from your whole fruits and also plain milk. So eat and drink up from these sources (more about this in a minute). 

The "no-sugar" challenge rules:

10 grams or less from added sugar per day. That's 40 calories or less a day coming from added sugar. 

I know what you’re thinking... Fruits and some vegetables have sugar, right? Yes—Fruits contain fructose which is sometimes referred to as “fruit sugar.” My husband and I deemed this okay, because fruit is nutrient dense. Meaning, for the calories, you get a better bang for your buck. (fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) So, we ate a lot of fruit during this challenge.

We calculated added sugar by checking the food label under SUGAR. If there were any grams of sugar I then checked the ingredient list and checked for *sugar* as an ingredient. Remember, sugar is sneaky and can hide itself under many different pseudonyms.  By doing this I was able to tell if something actually had added sugar or not, because natural and added sugar both get lumped together under the same spot on the food label. Example? A plain, nonfat Greek yogurt might say it has 12 grams of sugar per 150 gram serving. Go to the ingredients and look for "sugar," if it's not there... guess what? You've found a product with naturally occurring sugar, in this case lactose. 

How was it? Well for us it was completely do-able. We don’t consume a ton of sugary products that are typically hard to give up (like soda, sweet tea, snack cakes, the works) but it was those sneaky items that were kind of hard to give up. Plus we definitely hadn’t shied away from the after dinner dessert item before the challenge (my husband has a sweet tooth—but adamantly denies it!). Since we had to cut out certain products, fresh vegetables and fruits were a go-to. The problem? We may have increased our fiber intake too quickly! OUCH. We had some bad stomach aches for about a week. Don’t let this stop you! Just keep in mind, if you’re not eating a lot of fiber, it’s never a good idea to amp up the fiber before you give your body a chance to adjust--trust me. Be sure to drink plenty of water, this helps alleviate some of those pesky stomach cramps associated with fiber…

So what did we eat?? Well here’s some examples of foods that fit well into our no sugar added challenge!

Breakfast:

• Eggs (any way!)
• Toast with avocado (find a bread that is low sugar! This is a challenge!! But we found a few brands that were around 2 grams per slice).
• Toast with peanut butter (any nut butter works, but you MUST check the ingredient list. Almost all nut butters {even the natural ones} have added sugar... you just want peanuts, and a little salt is fine if that's included). 
• Oatmeal (another tricky one, those little pouches of instant flavored oatmeal almost always have tons of added sugar… find one that’s about 1 gram per serving and flavor it yourself with berries and nuts)
• Breakfast sandwiches (I made these myself. Make it which a whole grain sandwich thin. I found one brand that had 1 gram per sandwich thin. See this recipe for ideas on how to make and freeze these sandwiches). 
• Baked Oatmeal: NO added sugar, and it actually tastes good! I recommend topping with blueberries and a little bit of whipped cream, which is about 1 gram sugar per serving) 
• No sugar added granola (this recipe from Budget Byte$ is great!) on top of plain or stevia sweetened yogurt. (IF you are sensitive to high amounts of inulin, a type of soluble fiber common in low calorie yogurts... watch out, it could give you terrible stomach cramps). 

Lunch:

• Sandwiches (again find a low sugar bread. No more than 4 grams per sandwich). 
• Fresh veggies and hummus. 
• Any fresh fruit and some fruit cups (if no added sugar is on the label). 
• Bananas/apples with nut butter are filling 
• Fresh berries mixed together with about 1-2 tbsp canned whipped cream. 

Dinner:

• Meats (meats are sugar free, so eat whatever you want. I like lean meats like chicken breast and pork tenderloin. We baked and smoked salmon a couple of times. Keep it simple.)
• Veggies (We LOVED sweet potatoes. By the last week these little babies seriously tasted like CANDY!)
• Avocados! These are awesome, they are so tasty with so many different foods. You can eat all the guacamole you want to. 

Desserts and/or "sweet" treats: 

• Berries, bananas, apples, grapes, no sugar added applesauce, no sugar added fruit cups
• Smoothies (made with fresh or frozen fruit, milk {any unsweetened milk will do the trick--I really like to use unflavored Keifer in my smoothies for the probiotic benefits}, spinach {for extra nutrition}, ice-- blended all together 
• This no sugar cookie dough dip by Chocolate Covered Katie was really a surprise for me. The ingredients are, well weird. But as weird as they are, it tastes good! Not exactly like cookie dough, but a pretty good substitute given you don't have to sacrifice nutrition. 
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream. The sugar saver here is the frozen bananas, they add substance and give it the same mouth feel as soft serve ice cream. I made this and was really into it! So yum!
• "Dole Whip." My hubby made this. Kind of a cross between a smoothie and sorbet. 
• Kiwi Whip. Same as a the dole whip but add in the kiwi and you get a whole different flavor profile. Not to mention the crunch from the little kiwi seeds. 

No Sugar Added Baked Oatmeal

Warm and filling baked oatmeal is the perfect way to start the day. Flavorful without all the added sugar of most packaged oatmeal products. 

Printable recipe here. 

This oatmeal recipe made a great "go-to" breakfast item for my husband and I during our "no added sugar challenge (post pending)." 

I'm not going to put it out there that is this is the best recipe ever and that it's the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, and that "oh my goodness we ate every bite within the first day"... 

Cause I hate it when bloggers do that. You know? Not everything tastes wonderful and makes you want to eat every bite. Especially a recipe with no sugar. ;) 

If you are health conscious and like oatmeal, then yeah, you will actually like this recipe. It's not super sweet, but it has enough flavor to be pretty tasty. 

I highly recommend serving this with fresh of frozen berries (blueberries were wonderful) and some canned whipped topping. 

I made it one Saturday morning and my husband and I ate it for breakfast for the next week. I love not thinking about breakfast in the morning. Now that's worth bragging about. 

Wet ingredients: plain or unsweetened vanilla yogurt, applesauce, egg, unsweetened almond milk, and mashed banana. 

Dry ingredients: old fashioned oats, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice (optional). 

Use really ripe bananas, they mash the easiest!

Mix-ins! These can be basically whatever you like in oatmeal. I used shredded coconut (use non-sweetened for the no added sugar recipe), chopped pecans, and chopped walnuts. 

All mixed up and ready to bake! It takes awhile, so make sure you aren't too hungry to wait for it!

After about 20 minutes. It's drying out, but not done yet! Keep going!

Now we're talking! Nice and brown on the top and cooked through inside. 

No sugar added baked oatmeal

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups regular rolled oats or steel cut oats
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash of pumpkin pie spice, optional
• 1 + tsp cinnamon (I like A LOT of cinnamon)
• 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or regular milk)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or mix both
• 1 cup shredded coconut (preferably unsweetened to keep the sugar content low)
• 2 tbsp peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Stir together rolled oats/steel cut oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine almond milk, egg, applesauce and yogurt/sour cream. Add milk mixture to oat mixture and stir until combined.
4. Stir in banana, pecans, coconut, and peanut butter.
5. Pour into a 3-quart casserole dish coated with non-stick spray and bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, stir mixture and bake uncovered for an additional 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
6. Spoon into bowls and enjoy. I highly suggest topping this with fresh or frozen blueberries and a tbsp. of whipped cream!! Other toppings could be maple syrup (will definitely add sugar though), peanut butter, more nuts, really whatever you can imagine.

*Recipe adapted from pbfingers.com 

Click here for printable recipe!