slow cooker barbacoa taco bowls

slow cooker barbacoa taco bowls

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One word.

Slow cooker.

This can only mean one delightful thing. Supper is ready for your dinner table after a long day work day.

It’s got to be one of the best feelings and smells. To walk into that door knowing that the work has been done and dinner is served. What’s even better is when it is these slow cooker barbacoa taco bowls.

• Grilled plantains – check
• Grilled Avocado – check
• Cilantro Lime Rice – check
• Chopped greens – check
• Cilantro – check
• Savory Slow Cooked Barbacoa with a hint of spice – check, check, check

I don’t know why you wouldn’t. There really are no excuses not to put this on your menu or heck even throw it in your slow cooker today.  Plus the leftovers, well they are pretty good if I do say so myself.

And you know what I think about cooking once and eating twice…

Why don’t more people do this?!?

It’s the very thing that saves our budget, our health and a lot of my time. Yet I know so many people turn their noses up at leftovers and some can’t even stomach the thought. But it’s not just a time and budget thing, leftovers really can save your health.

Maybe we should have called this post; In Defense of Leftovers.

So here it goes, I’m stepping on my soap box for a second.

{If you’ve heard my rant about leftovers please feel free to skip to the bottom and try your hardest not to judge me. I know it’s a difficult thing to do.}

While leftovers can seem like a bland and boring addition to your diet. Something you’d rather avoid maybe the simple fact is you just don’t know how to utilize leftovers to their fullest potential. Or on another note, you’re not cooking the right foods to be used as leftovers. I would say those are the two most common scenarios why leftovers aren’t your favorite.

But even more than this, utilizing leftovers could in fact help your health. I say this because so often I hear people say I just don’t know what to eat that is healthy. I get tired of eating the same foods over and over. And yet we see it all of the time. We get stuck in a rut and find ourselves eating the same breakfast and the same lunch day in and day out because we don’t know what to cook.

But, even if you’re eating the same health foods this could be doing more harm than good. There is something to variation and eating different foods to obtain the most nutrition. In fact doing so can actually decrease natural hunger because your body doesn’t have to continuously cry out in hunger simply because it is missing the essential nutrients your body needs.

This is what we call nutrient starved which can induce hunger in your body leading to {drumroll} cravings.

So how do we beat this? By eating a variety of foods helping us to obtain ample nutrients.

Even more than this, is meal structure. We talked previously about this in the post, what to eat for breakfast, but basically we should flip what we normally do. For instance the majority of people eat their largest meal in the evening, generally because we have the most time to cook the largest meal. But to help our natural flow of hormones, we should actually eat our largest meal for breakfast and smallest as our last meal of the day.

I know, it’s totally opposite than what we’re used to and seems so unrealistic, but the trick, still cook your largest meal in the evening and eat the least amount. This leaves enough food to be used as leftovers for one or two more meals.

The beauty of cook once eat twice is all coming together!

So to sum up my defense to leftovers, there really is a significant health benefit to loving this philosophy and actually desiring the “L” word.

->GASP<-

But you may be questioning how to actually love leftovers. I can tell you, it starts with cooking the right foods to be used as leftovers. Obviously things that get soggy when reheated aren’t the best choices, think french fries. The good news is these otherwise “nutrient lacking” foods don’t tend to warm up well which helps us out.

But flavorful foods like slow cooker recipes, soups, shredded meats all loaded with spices and flavors are great at reheating and even using in new and unique ways.

Which brings us to the last point. Maybe you just need a few tips on how to use leftovers. I’ll take this slow cooker barbacoa for instance. My favorite ways are to use it as leftovers are, just like in this picture, taco bowls, you can’t go wrong. But even more than that is using the slow cooker barbacoa in an omelet, on a salad or even stuffed in a sweet potato.

The sweet potato thing is one of my favorites. If you’re in need of a few ideas, check these out:

• Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Short Ribs and Cabbage
• Turkey Caesar Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Regardless of if you have enough to use as leftovers {Which make more than you think you’ll need. I promise you will use it.} you’re going to want to make this for dinner.

The perfect blend of spices, a hint of sweetness and tender meat is all you need in your life right now.

Slow Cooker Barbacoa Taco Bowls

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PREP TIME

15 MINS

COOK TIME

8 HOURS

TOTAL TIME

8 HOURS 15 MINS

Author: Alexa Schirm

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS

• 3 lbs chuck roast, fat trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes, in juice
• 2 chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 can chopped green chilis
• 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
• ¼ cup fresh lime juice
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ cup beef broth
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Remove most of the fat from the roast and then cut it into large chunks.
2. Place meat in slow cooker and add remaining ingredients.
3. Cook on high heat for 6 hours or low for 8-10.
4. While meat is still in crock pot, shred with two forks and turn the heat to warm.
5. Serve meat in a bowl with rice (cauliflower rice), beans, avocado, salsa and fried plantains.

source:https://simplerootswellness.com/slow-cooker-barbacoa-taco-bowls/