Making Healthier Choices with your Slow Cooker

By now some (hopefully most) of you have lugged that slow cooker out of your basements and have conquered your fear of this appliance!

To help your family meal plan and stay on a healthy track for 2017 I'm adding a few more hints and tricks to help you become Slow Cooker Aficianados. By adding a slow cooker to your weekday meal routine, not only will it save you time and stress but will allow you to make healthier choices.

As mentioned previously, Googling for recipes is a great, fun and inventive way to spice up the old meal routine but be wary: most of these recipes are more of a "open box or packet, throw in veggies and heat" type of meal where the sodium and sugar can be off the charts! Changing just a few ingredients can make all the difference in the world without sacrificing taste- and this is exactly how I stumbled upon this recipe.

Planning my meals for the week I noticed I had some peppers about to turn and some pork in the freezer, but also no time with my schedule to make a meal. What to do...what to do... TO THE GOOGLE and by typing in "peppers, pork, slow cooker" I stumbled upon: Slow Cooker Thai Pork with Peppers! The recipe in its originality is as below from allrecipes.com:

1 cup chicken stock            
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tbsp. honey
6 garlic cloves, minces
2 tbsp. minced, fresh ginger root
1 tsp.crushed red pepper flakes
2 red peppers, thinly sliced into bite size pieces
1 pound boneless pork chops

Place the chicken broth, soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, garlic, ginger, crushed red pepper flakes, red bell peppers, and pork chops into a slow cooker, stir together, and set the cooker on Low. Cook for 5 to 6 hours until the pork is tender, and remove the pork from the sauce. Shred the pork, return to the sauce, let cook until hot, and serve.

Now that doesn't look too bad does it? Take a look at the nutritional breakdown:

Nutrition Facts

Servings 4.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 516
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 29 g	45 %
Saturated Fat 9 g	43 %
Monounsaturated Fat 8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 96 mg	32 %
Sodium 1408 mg	59 %
Potassium 824 mg	24 %
Total Carbohydrate 23 g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 3 g	11 %
Sugars 18 g
Protein 39 g	79 %
Vitamin A	37 %
Vitamin C	127 %
Calcium	0 %
Iron	9 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

The sodium is off the charts! If we take a couple of moments and substitute some of the main "bad guy ingredients" it's a whole different world. Pictured below are two easy substitutions, most people feel they are doing better by choosing "low sodium" and or "Light" alternatives, and in some cases of "low sodium" that may be right but beware: making something "Light" means they have to substitute the fat and taste somehow and in most cases it's with sugar!

VS.

Instead of the regular shelves at the grocery store where we're tempted to grab the original variety of an ingredient, or sometimes worse the "light" version, by heading just a few aisles over to your Nutrition or Green area it makes for the greatly healthier option. In my recipe I substitute peanut butter for almond or cashew butter still giving it that Thai kick and a new ingredient our naturopath Dr. Jessica introduced us to during our detox: coconut aminos. Trust me it's tasted exactly the same and is great to have in the kitchen for recipes, stir frys etc... both can be found in the natural section of your grocery store or any health food store.

Another easy substitution is the chicken broth: So.Much.Sodium! By choosing the low sodium or no sodium added option you're ahead of the game but why stop there? Why not make your own chicken stock or better yet, have our friends from Stock Exchange Bone Broth do it for you! See our Blog from February 15th, 2017 for more information on this power packed and healthy alternative.

The New and Improved:

Above is the look of the finalized ingredients, minus the meat. I like to switch it up for taste and colour by having a red and a green pepper. Remember though: peppers are on the EWGs "Dirty Dozen" (https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty_dozen_list.php) list for pesticide use so ensure to wash them thoroughly and use sparingly in everyday cooking.

And here is the nutritional break down- see the difference especially in calories, fat and sodium?!?!

Nutrition Facts

Servings 4.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 373
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 18 g	28 %
Saturated Fat 3 g	15 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 75 mg	25 %
Sodium 599 mg	25 %
Potassium 137 mg	4 %
Total Carbohydrate 25 g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 4 g	15 %
Sugars 21 g
Protein 27 g	53 %
Vitamin A	32 %
Vitamin C	107 %
Calcium	8 %
Iron	11 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Trust me when I say this is a GREAT recipe to try. I'm by no means a spicy person (my tongue is a wimp actually) but this has just enough kick to make it enjoyable. I follow the recipe as instructed and it smells and tastes incredible. To finish off I serve over bulger wheat or brown rice noodles, or in a pinch a bit of brown rice. Garnish with green onions and shaved nuts (whether cashew or almond, depending on the butter you used) and it's divine.

And there you have it: not only how to use your slow cooker but how a couple of quick and easy substitutions will make it even healthier for those creative days you Google your recipes.

Happy cooking!