Couldn’t be easier. Those are the magic words when it comes to dinner lately.
6 months preggos and feeling great, but the sleepiness holds. As does the 9 1/2 hour work day at the new gig. All of this -and more!- makes for a difficult dinner process.
But I must keep up with eating in general – even without time for it! This guy needs to grow!
But this guy wants to play, so I must make time for him, too! I even had time to give him a bath. He looks adorable and shaggy afterward.
But, lo! The power of the crockpot. 
Fanciful magic in a tiny pot. No oven. No extra heat in the kitchen on these increasingly warmer spring days. No waiting for a preheat to ding. No making sure you’re home so the house doesn’t burn down. No slaving over a hot stove.
None of that. Why? Because you have a $25 crockpot, duh. And you use it.
This particular meal I decided to use for my Sunday batch of cooking that suffices for my weekly lunch-at-my-desk food. Some comfort of a warm meal while typing away for the masses.
Prepping veggies is the most time-consuming part, so I did that the night before. Some po-tay-toes.
Some pretty big onions. (Note the use of “some.” I don’t measure. I just look into the larder and cupboards and cull.)
Some carrots.
Presto.
Change-o. Chopped.
The fun stuff was up next. All-natural peanut butter. Can do almond butter if full-on Paleo. I had run out at this point, so I pilfered from the husband’s supply of Peter Pan.
I added some red pepper flakes and some chili pepper flakes. The “some” can be to your liking.
And the rest. Sriracha hot sauce. Thai fish sauce. Sesame seed oil. Tomato sauce. Coconut milk. Ginger! The best umami in the my fridge at that moment!
With the luscious boneless (skinless optional) chicken thighs on the bottom, I added the chopped veggies from last night and the umami cocktail from the morning.
Simmering divinity after 5 hours. It’s not even the work week yet, but I want to eat it all! Well, of course it needing sampling before being packed away into 5 little glass containers.
Sample size. I still got 5 little containers out of the rest, so this wasn’t a bad sample choice.
If you need something to soak up the flavor and don’t mind adding in more carbs, you could put it over rice. Or if you want more vegetables to soak up the flavor, you could vegetti a squash and put it over that, too!
For non-gluten-free-ers, you could soak it up with some flax seed pitas or naan bread. But I just ate it as is, though, and was thoroughly full.
- 4 large chicken thighs (I used boneless, skinless frozen thighs that were almost all-the-way thawed upon adding them to the crock.)
- 6 small carrots
- 2 potatoes
- 1 onion
- 3 tbs nut butter
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
- 1 cube (1/2 tsp) ginger (not ground)
- 2 tsp sriracha
- 1 tbs fish sauce
- 3 tbs sauce or tomato paste
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tbs sesame seed oil
- salt and pepper
- Thaw or prep chicken. Add to bottom of crockpot.
- Cut up veggies. Add on top of chicken.
- Combine rest of ingredients in bowl. Make a saucy paste. Add on top of veggies.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Enjoy!
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