Slow Cooker Meals

As a college student, I have a very busy lifestyle and most of the time my weeks end up being very full. For me, on a busy day, time is of the essence. I get done with class in the afternoon and begin to think about supper. I usually don't want to waste too much time because I know that I need to start studying for exams, working on projects, or reading chapters for class. I want a meal that will fuel me so that I am full and focused to do my work but do not want to have to spend too much time preparing it. I have found that making a slow cooker meal is an excellent way to tackle this dilemma. I toss the food into the crock-pot in the morning and it is ready for me to eat when I am hungry. During the day, I look forward to supper time, knowing that my meal is prepared and ready for me to eat at home. Pinterest has many great slow cooker recipe ideas. One that I recently tried was honey garlic chicken and veggies. It was delicious and so easy to make! Below I posted the recipe for it, and it can be found on:  http://damndelicious.net/2015/06/05/slow-cooker-honey-garlic-chicken-and-veggies/

Honey Garlic Chicken and Veggies

INGREDIENTS

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 16 ounces baby red potatoes, halved 
  
  
• 16 ounces baby carrots
• 16 ounces green beans, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
FOR THE SAUCE
• 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a large bowl, combine soy sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and pepper.
• Place chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots and soy sauce mixture into a 6-qt slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours, basting every hour. Add green beans during the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

20 meals in 2 hours:

I saw another post on Pinterest that I would love to try someday. It has a complete grocery list, list of recipes, and a how to video, to prepare 20 slow cooker meals in 2 hours that could then be frozen for later. This would be so convenient to have meals pre-made in the freeze so that you could just pop them into the slow cooker in the morning and they would be ready to go for supper. 

Here is the link to the website that this is on if you are interested in checking it out. 

http://www.5dollardinners.com/gluten-free-slow-cooker-freezer-packs-plan/

Menu Planning 

For the Foodservice Systems Production class that I am in we are learning about menu planning. We learned that there are many aspects that must go into planning a menu. One of our assignments was to use what we have learned and create a menu of our own. I decided to make a week long lunch menu for a school. I tried to make sure that every day had a healthy, well-balanced meal to fuel the students for a day full of learning. Here is what I came up with.