Turkey in a Crockpot? Why Not!

I am trying to challenge myself in the kitchen this time around while being Primal. I am trying to challenge myself by eating different things with the same ingredients. I often refer to shows like Chopped and Iron Chef while I am cooking or after I have cooked. I love being in the kitchen and have always loved cooking. I think it started when I was a little kid at home by myself and my mom allowed me to experiment in the kitchen, luckily, no disasters (except breaking the oven that one time.) I think I was 10 when I baked my first loaf of bread and then I ate it all. So from then on I would ask my mom to buy me new things to cook with and I would try new things and always eat them. I am surprised I didn't go into culinary arts, but that's another story. Anyways, back to my point. I am trying to diversify my meals while using the same ingredients. According to the Primal laws you eat what is local and in season, which is great! Except for the fact that I am in the Northeast where it is winter (even though today is 45 and rainy) and according to my Locavore app the following are in season: Leeks, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Turnip Greens, Kale, Mushrooms, Sprouts, and Collard Greens. While that is good and all, my little garden is brown, my gnome is face down and the ground is well, frozenish. SO I become and hunter/gatherer of the super market and make the best of what is there, which is a lot, although I tend towards the easy and familiar, and my grocery lists have tended to look like this: mushrooms, peppers, onions, kale, spinach, bag o salad greens, cukes, tomatoes (I know, winter tomatoes suck and I buy them even after reading Tomatoland), broccoli, cauliflower, and then whatever meat I am buying, usually some free range organic chicken or whatever we have for grass fed beef in the freezer (it's dwindling now.) So I keep reading about turkey and how I need to eat it because of the protein and blah blah blah, but I did not want to roast it, geez that can be an all day event. I knew there was another way. Microwave? HELL NO! Cut it up into pieces? Nah, pan fry? Nah, Grill? Maybe, but no. Then an idea came to me. I have been cooking so much in my crock pot. WHY NOT! So I looked up to see if it was even possible. Low and behold I found some recipes for bone in Turkey Breast AND they were on sale at Big Y! SO I bought myself and Big old Turkey Breast (it looked like a good old Thanksgiving Gobbler minus the legs) and I let it thaw in the fridge (bought it on Sunday, it was already partially thawed) and cooked it on Wednesday. I got up and set thing in my crock pot, put some butter over it, crushed up some dried sage from the garden, salt and pepper and a tiny but of water and set it at high while I got ready for the day. Before I left I was going to put it down to low (next time I will) but I left it at high, returned about 6 hours later and it was done! I put it down to warm setting the rest of the day. Wouldn't you know it was moist, the right temp, and we had meals for the next few days!

not boring chicken recipe of the day...

Eating a lot of chicken (at least twice a week) you get bored of grilling it or mixing it with veggies, so I figured I would look up a recipe having to do with bacon, which is slowly edging out sausage as my favorite meat. I had some bacon left from yesterday so I googled some recipes to see what I could find. I found one but I didn't have all ingredients so I took what I had and iron cheffed it. In sticking with my Paleo ways it was pretty easy! Also only a ingredients so its pretty cheap. Chicken, Bacon and tomato paste, the veggies could be whatever you have but I had tri-colored peppers from earlier in the week, onion, mushrooms, and broccoli.

So here is how I made it.

Preheat the oven for 400 and grease baking sheet with butter or coconut oil


2 boneless skinless chicken breast pounded thin and cut into 3 strips each
1/2 can of tomato paste
6 strips of bacon (mine was uncured...no nitrites/nitrates)
6 grape tomatoes
pepper/oregano to taste

lay each chicken strip out on cutting board
spread a little tomato paste on each strip and place one grape tomato on each strip
put a little pepper and a little oregano on each strip
roll each chicken strip up
wrap each chicken piece with a strip of bacon
place each chicken piece on the baking sheet and place in oven
bake for 15 min
place under the broiler for a few min to let the bacon crisp

Here are the veggies:
Red, Orange, Yellow peppers roughly chopped
1 onion chopped
1 Cup or so sliced mushroom
1 small head of broccoli cut into florets
1 tbsp butter
chili powder

heat butter in the pan and add onion and chili powder, cook for a few min
add in the broccoli and peppers cook a little longer
add a TBSP of water and cover for a few min
add mushrooms and cook until tender adding a little more chili powder if you would like.

When the chicken was done I nestled the chicken with the veggies and covered just to let some flavors meld. YUM!

Enjoy