We started school last week and in addition to my oldest daughter, who pretty much has soccer practice year-round, three of my other children began soccer practice this week, plus piano lessons have started and my oldest daughter works a couple nights a week plus teaches piano out of our home…Whew! With all of that blessed life going on, you know I need to use my slow cooker. Slow cookers are perfect for large family recipes and this recipe delivered!
I have been following the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating for a little over a year now. Diabetes runs in both sides of my family and I had Gestational Diabetes with my last pregnancy. Not only do I want to decrease my risk of becoming diabetic, I also know for me, fluctuating blood sugars have a tremendous affect on my mood. So, keeping all things in mind, eating the Trim Healthy Mama way has helped stabilize my blood sugar and as a side benefit, I lost weight. Yay me!
In addition to nourishing myself, I have a large family to nourish. Although not hard, learning to cook the Trim Healthy Mama way was an adjustment. And I made some mistakes at the beginning that could have been easily solved. The number one mistake I made was thinking of my food verse their food. And honestly, that mistake made me go back to my old ways of eating…which made me feel gross…which made me moody and unhappy. I wanted that camaraderie of meal planning, cooking and eating together but I was treading into a new mindset of eating and trying new recipes. I wish I would have known about Build a Menu last year.
Build a Menu was created by two busy mommas, so they get it. They get the importance of family-friendly, budget friendly, kid-friendly meals. They also get that we mommas don’t have all day to browse Pinterest gathering recipes. It is so easy to find new recipes each week, create a meal plan–including sides and desserts and a printable grocery list.
For those of you unfamiliar, Build a Menu is a budget meal planning site…that includes Trim Healthy Mama recipes! I cannot tell you how much better my meal planning, grocery shopping and actual meals have been since I started using it. So far, everything I have made from their recipes has been delicious, including the Slow Cooker Red Chicken with Spinach and Brown Rice, which I adapted for my large family recipes; meaning I omitted the diced tomatoes and used dried minced onions instead of chopped. I also subbed fresh spinach instead of frozen because that’s what I had on hand. (I have found a similar recipe at Stacy Makes Cents.)
Large Family Recipes: Slow Cooker Red Chicken with Spinach and Brown Rice
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Debbi says
Thanks for the recipe, Jenny! I’m new to the “soccer mom” arena. Like recipes like these. DD has practice twice a week from 7 to 8:30 pm, so we need to eat a little something before practice, which is early around 5 pm and a little something after with my husband who isn’t home at 5 pm. Something like this would work. What else do you do for dinners?
Christina says
This looks so yummy! I can’t wait to try it with my family. I just discovered your blog through Twitter, and I’ve just started blogging too! I’m always interested in eating healthfully, but I don’t really understand the THM plan and why it works. It’s contrary to other things I’ve read.
Jenny says
The simplest and best explanation I read was this, your body can only burn one fuel source at a time. If you eat carbs with fats…both fuel sources, your body will burn one for energy and store the other for later. Well, you eat another meal with carbs and fats, again, your body uses one and stores the other…on top of the other stored one so they start accumulating, they never get used for fuel. So in THM, you eat a meal either with more fat than carbs {S} for satisfying or a meal with more carbs than fat {E} for energizing. And, you eat every three hours to keep your blood sugar stable; sometimes switching fuel types or staying the same, but always allowing time for your body to use it.
That’s a very, basic and hopefully completely accurate explanation, lol!
Christina says
Thanks for the quick response!
Michelle says
That’s an excellent explanation Jenny. But, I must also add that YOU CAN HAVE DESSERT!! Sweet, good for you, delicious, eat for breakfast if you desire, dessert!! Key for me. Sorry for yelling.