CrockPot Tuesdays: February 8th

    This week I wanted to do something a little different. No soups or stews. This week isn't done when you cover and turn it on. There is more that needs to come together at dinnertime. 
    I'm not quite sure why, but the beautiful weather we have today gave me the urge to have Mexican food for dinner. I asked myself, "how can that translate to the slow cooker?". And then it came to me, use it to make a filling for a soft taco!


So let's get started! 


Get some olive oil heated up in a pan while you chop up one onion.

 As the onion gets chopped, add it to the pan.

 Add in 3 teaspoons of minced garlic.

While we wait for the onion to start browning at the edges, let's get the rest of the ingredients: a packet of taco sauce (found in my pantry from a little while back), one can of chickpeas that has been drained and rinsed, a small can of tomato paste, and one can of chili ready diced tomatoes.

Once the onions have started to brown, add in one pound of lean ground turkey. When the meat is almost finished, add in some chopped fresh cilantro.

Just after the meat has been browned, pour the contents of the pan into the CrockPot.

On top of the ground turkey mixture, add in the can of chickpeas, the undrained can of diced tomatoes, the can of tomato paste, and the taco sauce.

Stir it all up, cover, and turn on to high. It's going to cook for about 4 hours. The plan is to make some cheese sauce before dinner and heat up the refried beans. Then, on the table, we will set out the tortillas, shredded mozzarella cheese, green olives, the ground turkey mixture, Greek yogurt, and then the cheese sauce and refried beans. Is it dinnertime yet?? :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How did it turn out?? I've been keeping y'all in suspense, really sorry about that. :)
    It seems like 4 to 5 hours on high works well. With an hour left, I added in about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and about a tablespoon of lime juice. It smelled so soul-warming!

     It turned out great! It was a wonderfully hearty yet figure-friendly filling for some soft tacos. We had refried beans, green olives, and shredded mozzarella wrapped up with it in some whole wheat tortillas. We topped them off with a good dollop of Greek yogurt and cheese sauce. Yumm!!