Simple Slow Cooker Recipe: Meatballs & Tomato Basil Sauce

Spaghetti and meatballs is a tried-and-true classic that is beloved by many. While they taste amazing, though, meatballs are not always the easiest or the quickest food to whip up, so people are put off making them. This Slow Cooker recipe is our solution so that no family goes without tender, homemade meatballs and fragrant sauce again—and you can make and refrigerate the meatballs and the sauce for up to two days before serving! For truly fantastic meatballs, it doesn’t get easier than this!

Slow Cooker Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
Sauce:

• 2 (28 oz.) cans crushed tomatoes, with juices
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 sprig basil
• 2 tablespoons basil leaves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper, minced
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Meatballs:

• 2 pounds ground beef (or meat of your choice)
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. In a medium pan over medium heat, heat your olive oil and sauté your onions until translucent, 5-6 minutes. Add in 2 cloves minced garlic 2 minutes before onions are finished.
2. Remove from heat and place in slow cooker, on high, with tomatoes, tomato paste, basil sprig and leaves, oregano, red pepper, salt and pepper. Let cook for 3 hours to develop flavors.
3. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, cheese, oregano, egg, salt and pepper, and combine well with your hands or a fork. Form mixture into 1-1 1/2 –inch balls and gently place them in the slow cooker with the sauce. Cover and continue to cook on high for 1 hour.
4. Serve on their own or with spaghetti or on toasted subs and garnish with more grated Parmesan.

Quick and Easy Dessert: Oreo Fudge Milkshake

For those days when you come home and want a creamy, delicious treat, we’ve got you covered! This Oreo Fudge milkshake is perfection, and it only takes a few minutes and a few ingredients to make; you might think it’s impossible to improve on something already so good, but the addition of vanilla and chocolate fudge really take this blended drink to a new level—dust off your blenders, everyone, it’s snack time!

Oreo Milkshake

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 2 cups vanilla ice cream (the higher quality the better)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 4-5 Oreo cookies, plus more for garnish
• 1-2 tablespoons fudge sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place your ice cream and milk in a blender. (Use more milk for a thinner shake and less milk for a thicker consistency.)
2. Add in chocolate syrup, vanilla extract and Oreo cookies.
3. Pulse until mostly smooth. Cookies should be mostly broken up, but with a few larger cookie chunks.
4. Pour into a chilled glass and garnish with whole or crumbled Oreos.

No-Hassle Recipe: One Skillet Three Cheese Lasagna

Lasagna is one of our favorites, but we rarely make it because it’s such a project to have three pots bubbling away on the stove at once. Preparing the meat, tomato and béchamel sauces for traditional lasagna is really where a lot of time and energy go, so we decided to try stream-lining the process. Enter: our 1-Skillet Lasagna. Aside from two bowls used mainly just to keep certain ingredients separate, you’re only cooking with one pan and you end up with delicious, cheesy lasagna and homemade tomato sauce—feel free to make extra sauce that you can use and repurpose throughout the week, it's amazing!

Three Cheese Lasagna

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 43 oz. (28 oz. can, 15 oz. can) crushed tomatoes
• 1 (12 oz.) box no-boil lasagna noodles
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) mozzarella, shredded
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• freshly torn basil, garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375º F.
2. Place tomatoes in a large, deep (oven proof) skillet and add garlic and oil. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Reduce to a simmer and cook on medium-low for 10-12 minutes, or until sauce has thickened significantly.
4. In a medium bowl, mix egg and ricotta together. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
5. Carefully pour your sauce (around 5 cups) into a heatproof bowl, leaving about 3/4 cup still in the skillet. Swirl skillet to make sure sauce evenly coats the bottom.
6. Cover sauce with a single layer of noodles. (Feel free to break them up to make it easier to cover the pan without leaving gaps.)
7. Place an even layer of ricotta mixture on top of noodles, then add 1-1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce over the cheese.
8. Continue with remaining noodles, ricotta mixture and sauce, making at least three layers.
9. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over the top and bake for 40 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
10. Remove from oven and garnish with basil, let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Decadent and Low-Fat Dessert Recipe: Fudge Brownies

Brownies are always a yummy treat (sometimes made in the middle of the night), but they’re obviously not considered health food. In order to not feel guilty if we get carried away and eat one—or four—too many, we switched to making this low-fat fudge brownie instead. It tastes amazing, not at all like you’re skimping on the good stuff, and doesn’t weigh you down in terms of calories!

Fudge Brownies

Yields 16 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup plain, low-fat Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F and grease an 8x8-inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, flax seeds, baking soda and salt, and mix together.
3. Microwave butter and chocolate together (in a microwave-safe bowl), stirring every 15 seconds until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the melted chocolate, yogurt, sugar and vanilla.
5. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate/yogurt mixture, pour in water and mix until well incorporated.
6. Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out (almost) clean.
7. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before eating.

One-Pot Recipe: Thai Coconut Chicken Curry

This Coconut Chicken curry is so good, everyone will be shocked when they find out how easy it is to make! That is, if you choose to share your secrets with them. Stir-fries and curries are always a nice option because you get so much bang for your buck and you don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time over a hot stove; plus you get a sauce that is more than just yummy dressing for the chicken, becoming a soup that pairs beautifully with the chicken. Appetizer and entrée in one—bonus! Really, this dish is a winner that you should all try. One pot. Ready in under 20 minutes. Possible? Yes.

Coconut Chicken Curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) light coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 oz. green beans, chopped
• 1 jalapeño chili, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger root, grated
• 1-2 red bell peppers, seeded and shopped
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink.
2. Add lime zest, ginger root and chili. Continue to stir-fry for 1 minute.
3. Pour in coconut milk, chicken broth and water, and stir in brown sugar, curry paste, green beans and bell peppers.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 5-7 minutes, until vegetables have softened slightly.
5. Serve hot. Optional: serve with jasmine rice.

Super Healthy Snack Recipe: Low Calorie Berries & Oats Smoothie

Smoothies are a really great snack option because they’re delicious and portable, serving as a perfectly reasonable breakfast on the go or as an afternoon pick-me-up. However, it’s important to realize that, while smoothies seem like a healthy treat of blended fruit, a lot of them are filled with sugar and sweeteners. Thus, a calorie bomb is born.
The good news is that smoothies are a breeze to make at home and can serve as truly filling, healthy options to get you through the day. We chose oatmeal to add extra protein and fiber, and to thicken up this smoothie—thicker is better, people—when you try it, be prepared for the newfound energy kick and revel in this yummy discovery!

Berries and Oats Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup frozen blueberries, unsweetened
• 1/3 cup frozen raspberries, unsweetened
• 1/3 cup frozen blackberries, unsweetened
• 1/4 cup instant oatmeal
• 1 cup almond milk (or vanilla almond)
• 2 teaspoons honey or agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

Directions

1. In a blender, combine milk and instant oats. Pulse until smooth.
2. Add blueberries, blackberries and raspberries and blend for 20 seconds. If mixture is too thick, add a little more milk.
3. Add honey and orange zest.
4. Optional: Add spinach, kale, bananas or plain, Greek yogurt to add extra nutrients and creaminess, and blend until smooth.

Slow Cooker Recipe: Creamy Macaroni & Three Cheeses

Macaroni and cheese is the epitome of comfort food—it just makes people feel good! We love it, but what we don’t love is having to boil the milk, mix in various cheeses and scrape the bottom of the saucepan to keep the cheese from burning…. This slow cooker recipe eliminates all of that and we added more cheese (always a good thing), so you still get a molten cheese dish without all the hassle. This mac and cheese is great for easy family dinners or parties, since you can serve it immediately or keep it on warm in case (read: when) people come back for seconds; you’ll be blown away by how much people love it!

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 10 oz. cooked elbow macaroni (or shells, spiral pasta, etc.)
• 1/2 stick butter, cubed
• 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated, plus extra for garnish
• 1 cup romano cheese, grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• cooking spray

Directions

1. Spray a 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.
2. Place cooked macaroni in slow cooker and add butter. Stir until butter is melted.
3. Add evaporated and whole milk, parmesan, romano, cheddar cheese, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Stir well.
4. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours. Stir well and sprinkle with parmesan and another dash of nutmeg, and serve hot.
   
   Tip: If you don’t have a slow cooker, put pasta, milk and cheeses in a large baking dish and bake for 50 minutes at 350º F.