I am thrilled to be here today guest posting with Andrea.  I love her site and the resources she provides as I incorporate organic items into our family meal rotation.

As a busy mom of very active boys I am constantly on the hunt for easy recipes to add to my meal plan.

I absolutely love the flavors of chicken and tomatoes used together,  so today I am going to share five of my favorite recipes using these simple ingredients.

Easy Recipes Using Chicken and Tomatoes

1. Vodka Chicken Pasta- this is a stove top dish that comes together quickly. Serve with a dinner salad and you have a scrumptious meal.
2. Puerto Rican Stew- my husband is Puerto Rican and I love incorporating authentic food that his family teaches me to cook into our meal rotation. This is one of my favorites and it includes chicken and tomato sauce. You’ll notice this recipe calls for potatoes. I always use organic potatoes when a recipe calls for them due to the research I’ve read about this vegetable and pesticides. Also, you can sub the steamed white rice for brown rice.
3. Crockpot Crushed Tomato and Chicken Soup- this is so simple and absolutely delicious!
4. Easy Chicken Nachos- I love using up leftover chicken making dinners like these nachos. We like the organic blue corn chips I find at Target and locally grown fresh tomatoes are awesome!
5. Chicken Artichoke Tomato Pizza- this is my favorite pizza on the planet and it a knock-off from a local pizzeria. Quick dinner for a busy school or work night. Also another great recipe for using up that leftover chicken.

It doesn’t get much easier than that.

What is your main struggle when getting dinner on the table during the busy school and work week?

I hope you will hop over and check out my mommy resource site Crystal & Co., where I share tons of ideas and solutions to help busy moms just like you and me. If meal planning is something you struggle with, I have an ebook that is available for preorder- How to Meal Plan: A Step by Step Guide for Busy Moms. It will hit the pages of Amazon mid-November.

The last time I was at Bunco, one of my friends commented, “I really need some good slow cooker recipes.”

That prompted me to think: Don’t we all? My family would not be eating if we weren’t using our slow cooker this month. We have evening activities every night of the week.

The problem is, it can be hard to find a quick and healthy slow cooker recipe that doesn’t feature a whole lot of “packet of this” or “can-a-cream-a-that” but instead features healthy, quality ingredients. So I set out to collect slow cooker recipes that not only taste great, but use the ingredients I want to serve to my family.

The list below is the result of my asking my online friends for their best slow cooker healthy recipes as well as combing the web for great slow cooker recipes that I’m proud to pass on and share. I haven’t cooked every recipe, but I have been making my way through the list. Anything I’ve cooked that I’ve tweaked, I’ve noted it next to the recipe.

25 Quick and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

MAIN DISHES

P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps Copycat Recipe

Spicy Apricot Chicken

Tried and True: How to Cook a Roast in the Slow Cooker

Slow Cooker Mediterranean Beef Ragout

Cabbage Rolls *I left out the rice to make this paleo. I could eat it once a week and even reheated leftovers for breakfast!*

Chicken Chili

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Cashew Chicken

Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot

Chicken Curry

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Pork and Green Chile Stew *I used two pork tenderloins instead of chops. So good!*

Creamy Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup *I didn’t know what a “packet of white sauce” was. So I left it out. Results were still so good this is a family favorite!*

Honey Apple Pork Loin

Slow Cooker Lemongrass and Coconut Chicken Drumsticks *I did not enjoy the smell of this while it cooked. However, it was really tasty!*

Crockin’ Ham

Orange Chicken

Slow Cooker Meatball Sandwiches

SIDE DISHES

Sweet Potato and Feta Mash

Slow Cooker Applesauce

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

DESSERTS AND EXTRAS

Pumpkin Butter

Homemade Crockpot Apple Butter

Brown Rice Pudding

Sugared Cinnamon Almonds

I’m not holding back by naming this the greatest grilled chicken pesto salad. But I think it lives up to the hype. Really simple to prepare but so yummy! I used my spinach pesto as the dressing – adding a handful of fresh basil from the garden.

Start by making the simplest of marinades:

I use a small mason jar, add all the ingredients and shake. Then let it sit while you prep your veggies.

Vegetables:

• 2 eggplant
• 2 yellow squash
• 2 zucchini squash

Slice all the veggies about 1/2 inch thick. I like to cut my squash and zucchini diagonally so they don’t slip down the grill grates.

The trick to the vegetables? Score them so when you brush the marinade on, the garlic gets caught in the grooves!

Bring all your ingredients out to the grill.

If you have a grill large enough, preheat it to two different settings. Medium high for the chicken and just medium for the veggies. This helps keep your veggies from getting over cooked.

Once I get the chicken on the grill, I just season it with salt and pepper. Brush the veggies with the garlic olive oil.
Grill the chicken until the juices run clear – not pink. Grill the veggies until soft. I had to grill the veggies in batches.

Once cooked, chop the chicken and veggies.

Toss with the pesto and serve in a red pepper that has been halved and seeded. You can grill the red pepper until soft, or not. Your choice!