I have a crock pot. I've had one for a few years. And I've only recently discovered the wonder that is crockpot-cooking for college students.  What is better than throwing a whole bunch of ingredients into one pot, walking away, and then coming back to GREAT food 6-8 hours later? There's nothing better than that!! And bonus, you usually will only get a couple things dirty in the process of cooking.  So, for the last 3 weeks my Sunday cooking day has consisted of crockpot cooking.

Two weeks ago, I made Crockpot Taco Chicken Bowls! This recipe was soooo good!! I had some frozen chicken leftover from a previous cooking adventure and wanted to use it but didn't know how. So, I went to my handy dandy recipe finder tool, pinterest, and started searching chicken recipes. When I found this one, which advertised quick, cheap, and easy how could I say no?

Image from BudgetBytes - see link to recipe above!

That recipe was definitely a winner. Instead of all the carbs from rice, I instead used the taco chicken as filler in flour tortillas!

Last week, I was feeling a little more Asian-inspired, so I busted out the crockpot once again and made Thai Chicken Thighs.  The recipe wasn't my favorite. It was a little on the bland side, but you're welcome to try it out and maybe up the flavor. Also, I used organic peanut butter, which in my experience doesn't have as much peanut flavor as regular peanut butter.  I think I would also up the spices too.

This week I'm doing one of my all-time favorite things to cook in a crockpot! Heck this is one of my favorite things to cook in general. Like, it's up there with scratch making pizza (my all-time favorite thing to cook).  CHILI!! Today, I'm testing out a lightened up take on chili, Turkey Black Bean Chili!  But with all that spicy delicious flavor, I'm sure it will be good! It's stewing away right now in the crockpot - to be done in a couple hours! I'll let you know how it tastes!!

**UPDATE! Not that I had any doubt of this, but this is good! I think next time I would up the nutritious factor by adding more veggies and maybe up the spices a teeny bit (that's my personal taste) but it's still delicious! Especially after you stir in some cheddar cheese! Mmmmm**

I wish you guys could smell this right now! OMG!!

So - the moral of the story today is that crockpot cooking is the best. It's no fuss, easy to make, easy to clean, and I've yet to have a crock pot recipe that was bad! Yes - there are some mediocre ones, but for the most these recipes are great because everything is allowed to just stew in its juices for eight hours, making the flavor incredible! And - these delicious stews and slow-cooked meats are fantastic for warming your insides up after a long, cold, wintery day!!

Like I said - does it get any better than that???

:-) Enjoy! Now to tackle some serious homework for the rest of the day! Wish me luck!