MyPlate-Inspired Slow-Cooker Recipes

Cooking Light is working with the Partnership for a Healthier America and USDA’s MyPlate to give anyone looking for healthier options access to thousands of recipes that will help them create healthy, tasty plates. For more information about creating a healthy plate, visit www.choosemyplate.gov. Find recipes at http://pinterest.com/MyPlateRecipes/. 

Protein and vegetables are both key components to this healthy-eating initiative. Our delicious slow-cooker recipes enable you to easily incorporate one or both of these ingredients into a hearty dish that is full of flavor and rich in nutrients. 

First up is our Company Pot Roast. Though this delicious meal takes some planning ahead, you'll be glad when you can spend the time before dinner chatting with family and friends instead of busily running around the kitchen. Use leftover meat and gravy to make great roast beef sandwiches the next day.

Feijoada (pronounced fay-ZWAH-da) is a delicious stew of pork and black beans that's traditionally served over rice with fresh orange slices. In Brazil, this dish is often served on special occasions, but preparing it in a slow cooker makes it possible to serve this rich dish on the busiest weeknights.

Chuck roast, a tough cut of meat, grows tender in the slow cooker. If you don't want to use wine in the recipe, you can substitute 1/4 cup of additional beef broth.

Reducing the wine before placing it in the slow cooker gives the dish a more rounded flavor.

This rustic dish takes its cue from the typical fare served in Provence, a region in the southeastern part of France that is known for dishes highlighting fresh local ingredients such as garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, olives, and sweet bell peppers. Be sure to use bone-in chicken breasts for this recipe, or substitute bone in chicken thighs.

Serve this slow cooker roast with mashed potatoes and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs, if desired.

In this recipe for Char Siu, the Chinese version of barbecue, the pork is cooked in the slow-cooker for an extra tender, juicy, and stress-free meal. Serve with sticky or long-grain white rice and a steamed or stir-fried medley of bell peppers, carrots, snow peas, sliced baby corn, and water chestnuts.

Use a slow cooker to simmer this hearty Moroccan-style lamb stew. Serve over hot couscous with a side of steamed green beans.

Turkey thighs are easy to find, but you also can use a cut-up chicken, if you prefer. This dish is great served with couscous.

Finishing this dish with lime zest and juice brightens its rich flavors.

The slow cooker makes easy work of this pulled pork recipe. Serve on hamburger buns, if desired, for a hearty and satisfying sandwich.

This hearty slow cooker pork chili with pinto beans gets its smoky flavor from the combination of chili powder, cumin, oregano, tomatillos, and Mexican-style hot tomato sauce. The beer balances out the spice and helps to blend all of these hot-and-smoky ingredients.

Kids and adults alike love this little sweet-savory sloppy joes recipe. Keep the meat mixture warm in a slow cooker set on low. Carrots and vegetable chips make great sides.

This saucy dish is worthy of a dinner party; just serve with a side of brown rice or rice noodles. Cola is the secret ingredient, yielding a luscious sauce with great body.

When you have a house full of holiday guests who'd enjoy a wholesome, hearty breakfast at their own pace, the slow cooker can come to your rescue. Get it going first thing, and let folks serve themselves when they're ready to eat.

Hearty canned chickpeas hold up beautifully in the slow cooker, where they're combined with fragrant spices and just a little stock. Since the chicken cooks on top of the chickpea mixture and is not submerged in liquid, it can cook longer without suffering texturally.

It's not hard to make your own salsa verde, with fresher flavor and much less sodium than jarred versions: Simply blacken tomatillos, chiles, and onions; then blend.

We were surprised and delighted by how well lasagna cooks up in the slow cooker. Be sure to use traditional noodles, and place them in the cooker uncooked. We tried the recipe with specially formulated no-bake noodles, and they didn't work as well.

Here's an example where the slow cooker excels: The beef slowly braises until it prac­tically falls to shreds. We like the mixture on sandwiches, but it's also delicious over a baked potato and topped with sour cream.

Creamy, starchy, and filling, this hearty, rustic soup is the epitome of comfort. And convenient: Beans go in dry--no need to soak.

With just 30 minutes of preparation in the morning, this warm stew cooks in 8 hours while you are at work or running errands throughout the day and is ready to eat when you get home.

This brisket is a slow-cooked combination of vegetables, spices, and divine flat-cut brisket roast that is sure to please the whole family on a chilly night.