Slow Cooker Saturday

On a weekend when I've been working hard all week...the last thing I want to do is slave over a hot stove or, honestly, even think about cooking. It's one of the reasons that my weight spiralled out of control when I started working full time (after college). I didn't want to cook or count calories and it was so much easier to call the delivery guy to come rather than put together a meal. But I did love my slow cooker, especially during college where I would throw things in it before school and come home to a delicious meal!

Now that I'm making positive changes in my life...I still am tired after a long week of work. AND I still love my slow cooker. And this one...is the best of both worlds. You don't have to precook anything. You literally dump in the crock pot and GO. And come home hours later to a delicious healthy meal! How can you beat that? It's only 9:50am and already dinner is made, clean up is done, and I'm good to go!

So you want this awesome easy recipe! Well here you go! Fulfilling my goal of making and posting 2 recipes this week :D

Crock Pot Chicken Sausage Sauce

Ingredients

1 lb fully cooked chicken sausage
28oz Tuttorosso Crushed Tomatoes w/ Basil
2 cloves Garlic

Vegetables from your fridge:
I used

0.25 cup chopped onion
0.25 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup sliced mushrooms

Spices to Taste (I don't measure spices like normal people):

3 dashes parsley
1 dash oregano
2 dashes basil
5 turns of cracked black pepper
1 dash thyme
1 dash sage

Directions

1) Remove sausage from the casing and put into the crock pot, breaking it up with your Clean hands (You have to use fully cooked sausage. I reccomend Al Fresco brand)

2) Add in chopped veggies, can of tuttorosso crushed tomatoes.

3) Spice to your taste.

4) Cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4 hours. This it to let the flavors marry, this sauce is fully cooked, you could eat it cold out of the pot right now if you wanted!...but please don't.

Serving Size: Makes 6 (1/2 Cup Servings)

Nutritional Breakdown

Tonight I will be pairing this with some delicious Dreamfields Rotini pasta. It is very carb friendly, DELICIOUS pasta. And so much more wholesome than regular white pasta. 2 oz has 5 whole grams of fiber, 190 calories and 1 g of fat! It's much better than the white stuff for sure!  Total nutritional breakdown for this hearty meal YUM! Enjoy!

Calories: 318
Fat: 5g
Carbs: 54
Protein: 16
Cholesterol: 0
Fiber: 5g

YAY!