A dear friend was kind enough to give me a task to research that would help her out.  Her topic: What are crockpot dinners that are high in carbs and protein for a long distance runner?  She works crazy long hours and would like to come home to a dinner that helps her reach her goals and won'e have burned the (fill in expletive of choice) out of her Crock-pot.  

So, here are a few things I had to think about as far as this goes: food stuff that tastes good, carbs do not equal bread products always, and trying to wrap my mind (a pure machine driven work-outer) around the needs of a runner.  

Best foods for Runners (there's a lot out there, but I found these most helpful):
Runners' World has a great list and reasons for each food product on there.  If you are a runner I suggest that you read it.  However, many of these foods are not crockpot friendly, so I gleaned the few that are: sweet potatoes, chicken, and black beans.  The rest are lovely to go with a crockpot meal, i.e. salad, or as a post cooking addition, shaved almonds are awesome, but I won't be cooking salad anytime soon (with a few exceptions).

Competitor Running has a wonderful slideshow, again with excellent explanations for each one.  It made me wish that Salmon was more crock-pot friendly!  It gave the addition to the list of kale, old-fashioned oats, skim milk, and tomatoes.  Yeah, so I'm not going to put these all together, but ingredients here are key!

RockMyRun on Pinterest has a whole board of food for runners and it would be easy to spend my day going through all of the posts.  Lentils, Chickpeas, spinach, and shrimp seem to be a common theme.

The Recipes: Putting it all together
PeanutButterRunner has an awesome recipe for what my family refers to as "chicken slop" this stuff is crazy easy to make and tastes AWESOME!  She add some more spices to it, but we do 1/2 a can of corn, 1/2 a can of black beans, raw chicken breasts, the rest of the corn and beans and then top with one of the big jars of salsa.  It can cook forever and just gets better the longer it simmers.  If you have a long time and don't want to deal with canned beans then rinse the dry beans, add a cup or more of water to them all a the bottom of the crockpot and then put the rest of the ingredients at the top.  If you're gone all day then they will be soft and ready to eat when you come home.

Chili is an ever favorite.  I usually don't make mine with meat, because by the time it sits in the crockpot all day it all tastes the same anyway and it makes the whole thing way cheaper.  Luckily I am not alone in my love of the bean "chili" people out there.  Men's Health has an awesome recipe for "Chili Non Carne" which is very similar to what I make during the winter months.  Again it uses all those lovely beans, onions, chili peppers and can be cooked forever.  Bean win!


In honor of my new residence in South, South GA and it's close proximity to awesome New Orleans/ Cajun food, then here's a Crock-pot shout out that is sure to please the runners with a love for spice.  Cajun Chicken and Andouille Soup from Women's Health.  To pack even more runner's punch or really for anyone worrying about their health, through some chopped up Kale into the mix.  You can get it already cut down to some degree and then you run your knife through it a few more times.  It suggests that the meal be served with rice, but it sounds pretty boss on it's own.  Again, soups with a water base can go forever as long as you put enough water/ stock in there.  


Now to mix up some of those ingredients:
Chicken with Sweet Potatoes from Food.com sounds super easy and can cook on low for 9 hours. 


Budget Friendly Chicken and Sweet Potatoes from Diabetes.org would be a  lovelySunday meal with a cook time of 5 to 7 hours

AllRecipes has an interesting one the combines Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Chicken, and Chickpeas.  I would cook it on low to make it a whole day affair.  


Sweet loves should enjoy "Slow Cooked Brown Sugar Chicken" from Eat at Home.  This sounds like a winner for those people who would rather eat chocolate than potato chips.  Cook it on low for an 8 hour cook time and word to the wise, this doesn't have much liquid to it, so it very well could be a sticky mess.  


Moroccan Chicken and Lentils from SparksPeople.com sounds like a warming meal for these upcoming winter months and has turmeric which is a super food in itself. I would add more broth if you are leaving if for longer then the recommend time, but, again, meat cooked over a low heat for a long time tastes great no matter when you pull it out if you have enough liquid.  


A 30 minute, Vegan soup that sounds Amazing: Kale and Lentil Soup from Girl Makes Food which has ingredients I keep in my house regularly (so the assumption is you may too) 


Super Food Al A Kale, Lentil, Garlic, Tomato Crockpotness- Sounds like a winner and from a blogger that at only from a Crockpot for a whole year (crockpot365).  Talk about a family who knows their stuff.  If they liked it, then we most likely will too.  

Well, that's at least a start.  I'll keep digging in here and add some more with a later post.  Have fun running!

This is what happens when embracing what it means to be a Gulf of Mexico resident and a push-over at the Farmer's Market.  I went with the intention of getting a garlic bulb and some Kale and ended up with an entire bag of garlic that the sweet man selling it had shelled himself.  What was I supposed to do?  Needless to say, there haven't been to many close talkers this week.  
So here's the dinner shown left:
1lb fresh shrimp (I get them to de-headed and do the rest myself)
4 cloves garlic
1 package fresh peas
1 package fresh or frozen lima beans/ butter beans
3 tbsp good olive oil
1/2lb red potatoes
                                                        Shaved Parmesan 
                                                        A bottle of dry bubbly 
1. Set the oven to 350 and get to fixing up the shrimp.  I devein and peel them before I put them in the marinade, but to each their own.
2. Wisk together a pinch of salt and pepper into 1 tbsp of olive oil and the coat the shrimp in that.  After tossing the shrimp pour some bubbly to just cover them and add on of those finally diced cloves of garlic to the party.  Place them in a ceramic or glass container and into the fridge for 20 minutes or so.  
3.  Cut up your potatoes, I do mine into 1/8ths to get them cooking faster, and toss them with diced garlic, 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper (always freshly ground).  I like my flavored salts for these, but regular table salt works just fine.  Put them in the oven and turn them every 5-8 minutes just so they aren't getting too brown on any one side.  These took 20 minutes to get fork tender.  
4. In a saute pan get that last 1/2 tbsp of olive oil up over medium heat and start cooking the last of the garlic.  Garlic likes to burn, so make sure you have an eye on it while you rinse the butter-beans/ lima beans and peas.  These should be defrosted if using frozen just so you don't end up with a watery mess.  Once the peas and lima beans are dry add them to the saute pan over medium heat.  Let those sit while you get the other saute pan ready.
5. In which you multi-task a lot, in the second saute pan get the heat up over medium high heat.  I did not use butter the shrimp, as I use non-stick pans, but if not butter is a lovely fat to add to shrimp.  Once that's up and going add the shrimp as quickly as you can so that there isn't too much time between the first and last shrimp.  Those sucker cook FAST and over cooked shrimp resemble rubber.  The nice thing is they tell you when they are done by turning pink.  Once one side turns pink then flip them to the other side so that it's even. (Make sure you are stirring your peas and pull out your potatoes during this time so they aren't horribly hot!)
6.   To plate I did pea mixture with shrimp sitting up on top and then potatoes on the side with a little bit of shaved Parmesan.