Ah, it’s unofficially summer. My favorite season. I love the warmer weather and taking advantage of everything Michigan has to offer in the summer (which is pretty much everything–I always say there’s no place better than Michigan in summertime). We love checking out all of the beaches, heading to the pool and just spending time playing outside. But since we are so busy, it makes getting ready for dinner that much harder. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve just decided to either grill hamburgers or order pizza. And while those are both fine on occasion, I like to make healthy meals when I can. Today I’m going to show you our very common “homemade chipotle bowls”.
I love that these can be easily customized to fit preferences and allergies. And with the help of a crock pot, the meat cooks while we are out and about so I’m able to get things together quickly when it’s time to eat. It might not look pretty, but it’s amazing!
First, you all need to know how easy it is to cook chicken in the crock pot! You can cook a whole chicken or any pieces of chicken in about 5 hours on low in the crock pot. This makes it simple to throw it in after cleaning up from lunch and knowing it will be ready at dinnertime. You really just throw the chicken in and turn the crock pot on low. No liquid needed (it makes its own as it cooks). Add some salt and pepper if you like (or you can easily season later). For this recipe I used boneless, skinless thighs and shredded them (with the same slotted spoon I removed them from the crock pot with–it’s that tender).
Then about 20-30 minutes before dinner, I cook some rice and get a few other toppings ready while the rice cooks. We like tomatoes or salsa, shredded cheese, black beans, shredded greens, guacamole or avocado, sour cream or plain yogurt. Really, anything goes here! I give each of my kids a bowl and they pile in what they like. So easy, makes great leftovers–we eat this very frequently in the summer.
