If you’re reading this then you know I made it across the country 🙂

In February Beau and I started our trek from South Carolina to get to our new home – Los Angeles.

Living out of a suitcase for nearly 2+ months has been fun and exhausting and adventurous and a beautiful reminder of how little I need to get on in every day life. We need so very little.

But something I truly started to ache for was a kitchen. My love language is cooking and sharing a meal.

o after a lot of research I decided to invest in a crockpot. This is especially helpful as we quickly learned that eating out for every meal in California is only sustainable for about 1.5 days 🙂

Cooking in this one pot wonder had me feeling like I was learning to cook again. I love my dutch oven and that is what I usually use for cooking. So I had to figure out how to cook in a foreign object. While throwing everything in a pot and setting it might seem like a no brainer – there is nothing more depressing than having something cook all day and then taking a bite into – mush. Or bland flavor. Or dryness.

So, after all my research I give you my findings and recipes.

First, my slow cooker:

I wanted something that would allow me to:

1. brown my meat
2. steam vegetables
3. also cook full meals like a crockpot is known for 🙂

We live in 2016, of course I can require this!

For those of you who eat a lot of rice and are also in need of a pressure cooker, I have heard amazing things about the Instant Pot.

Anyway, so far – I love it! I do brown my meat for every meal (which caramelizes the meat and gives it a deeper flavor – some people refute this but I stand by it!). It has been nice to do this step in my crockpot.

I also have browned my onions and mushrooms in the crockpot because caramelized mushrooms and onions are tasty and add a rich flavor. Also, a few weeks ago I wrote about how to brown the most delicious mushrooms. So many of you have loved this little tip! I did try this method in my crockpot and it worked like a dream.

Now for the goods!

Healthy Crockpot Recipes

I’ve made lots of different recipes over the past two weeks and I wanted to let you know which ones I absolutely love. (please excuse the photos – I was working with a hungry stomach and bad lighting!)

I always said that my last meal would be filet mignon. But Beau pointed out to me that he thinks it would be either fish or pork tacos. And guess what my first crockpot meal was:

Pork tacos from my girl Shannan Martin! I topped with salsa, avocado and nonfat greek yogurt! And YUM! The only thing that would have made it better is if I were eating them with her!

Next up was one I am very comfortable with, my 2 Ingredient Roast:

If you are going for really easy and insanely delicious – I have your card.

Next up, this soup! It is actually one that can be made in a soup pot but I only had a crockpot. So I added it all in and let it heat. You all, this really takes 10 minutes and it is so satisfying!

10 Minute Chicken Verde Soup from Health Bent:

I topped with nonfat greek yogurt, avocados, hot sauce and a lime (which I had leftover from my pork tacos!) Also, if you have leftover pork then USE THAT in the soup instead of roasted chicken.

Have we not just made a week of cooking the easiest? *mic drop*

We tried another pork roast later on down the road. I was pretty skeptical about this one. It is paleo which is always a plus in my book. But I still had my reservations.  Update: reservations are gone! This thing is tasty and easy!

Mushroom Gravy Slow Cooked Rump Roast from PaleoOMG:

Also, may I recommend her perfectly cooked sweet potatoes in a crockpot? Bye oven! BYE!

Another recipe I tried that I will be making 800 more times? Balsamic Pork from Add a Pinch. You all, Beau and I ate this for dinner and then leftovers for lunch and then for a snack. I just can’t. So yummy!

What are your favorite crockpot recipes? I’d love to give them a try.