Ingredients:

2 cartons organic low sodium chicken broth (if you want it completely vegetarian substitute it with vegetable broth!)
6 small purple potatoes
2 leeks cut in rings
half a tub portobello mushrooms cut in pieces
2 cloves garlic
Mrs Dash garlic and herbs
red pepper flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika powder
olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Put a tbsp of olive oil in the skillet and cook all ingredients for about 5-10 minutes until they're getting softer and a little browned. Then add the broth, put the lid on and let simmer for half an hour. When done, hit it with the immersion blender to make it more creamy so you won't have to make a roux or use flour. This will make the soup more like a chowder consistency.

Serve in a bowl and put a spoon of Parmesan cheese on top if you like. The soup looks a little funky but tastes better than it looks! ;)

Ingredients:

2 cartons organic low sodium chicken broth (if you want to keep this dish completely vegetarian just substitute it with vegetable broth)
2.5 lbs pre cut butternut squash
1 carrot roughly cut up
half red onion roughly chopped
1 Granny Smith apple roughly chopped
1 leek cut in rings
1/2 tsp turmeric
red pepper flakes to taste
1 tbsp Mrs Dash garlic and herbs
*coconut milk is optional for presentation

I added all these ingredients into the Instant Pot, set it to cook on high pressure for an hour. When it was done I blended it all with the immersion blender and soup is done! Quick, simple and tasty!
And most importantly: very low in calories! Only 100 calories for one cup! And 295 mg sodium, 4 g of sugar, 20 g carbs, 2 g fat and 2 g protein.

The original recipe didn't call for brown rice, carrots or baby potatoes which is the twist in my recipe.
I cooked all of it in the electric skillet.

Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breast filets
2 cartons organic low sodium chicken broth
3 organic carrots
red onion
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp Mrs Dash garlic and herbs
generous handful of mixed baby potatoes (omit if you don't like this)
Cup of cooked brown rice (omit if you don't like this)
Approx. 10 green olives
2 lemons
Avocado oil

First I put about 2 tbsp of avocado oil in the skillet and added the chicken. Seasoned the chicken with the 2 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp Mrs Dash garlic and herbs.
Chop up the garlic and onion, add to the pan. Let it cook for a few minutes and then I sliced the lemons in wedges, squeezed out the lemon in the pan and added the wedges as well.
Add the first carton of chicken broth. I added the carrots, potatoes and olives. Let it cook for approx. 30 minutes, turn the chicken and add the last carton of broth. Let it cook down until it has just a little liquid left. Turn off the skillet, add the rice (I precooked mine) and eat.
I split mine over 2 storage bowls so we have dinner the next 2 evenings premade.

Of course if you don't like the potatoes or rice in it and want to make it more Moroccan you can add either sweet potatoes or couscous, or if you want to keep it low carb don't add any of the optional items.

This ome is pretty self explanatory! You can also use rotisserie chicken if you don’t have time to fix your own which would bring the time to prepare this down to 5 minutes! Quick, healthy lunch or dinner!

This was cooked in a Dutch oven on the stove while on home time but can be easily cooked in a deep electric skillet, Aroma, Ninja, Instant Pot, slow cooker, whatever you use. You may just have to adjust the cooking time a little but the ingredients remain the same.

Ingredients: (all ingredients are organic)
2 cartons low sodium organic chicken broth
2 chicken breast filets
Bunch Carrots
5 celery stalks
2 baby bokchoy
onion
3 cloves garlic
fresh parsley (half bundle)
ginger root (chopped in big chunks so you can fish it out after cooking)
bay leaves
Mrs Dash; onion and herbs and lemon pepper
Avocado oil.

First I lightly browned the chicken breasts in 2 tbsp of avocado oil and added the ion and garlic halfway through.
Then I added all the other ingredients chopped and mixed, added broth and let it cook for 2 hours.
Take out the chicken and shred the meat with 2 forks and put back in the soup.
Fish out the ginger root and bay leaves before serving the soup. Enjoy!

This was cooked in the slow cooker. But of course it can be made in the Instant Pot or other appliances also. In the IP I would cook this under high pressure for an hour.

Ingredients:
bag with 15 kinds of beans (or others if you prefer)
Cajun seasoning
3 stalks celery
bag of pre sliced carrots
onion
3 red potatoes
3 cloves garlic
pack diced ham
1 1/2 cartons of vegetable broth

It’s so easy! Chop and dice up all your veggies, dump everything into the slow cooker and let it cook for about 6-8 hours on low. Enjoy!

You can probably tell I love soup by the amount of soup recipes 😂
This one was made in the Instant Pot. I’m not quite following the original recipe as I prefer vegetable stock over chicken stock plus I used baby kale instead of regular kale.

Ingredients:
1 lbs breakfast sausage, I used mild,
half a red onion,
4 strip of thick cut applewood smoked bacon, cut in strips,
5 cloves garlic minced,
2 large Russett potatoes diced,
red pepper flakes to taste,
salt,
carton and a half of organic vegetable stock,
bag baby kale,
cup of heavy cream,
2 tbsp flour.

First I turned on the Instant Pot to sauté and browned the bacon and breakfast sausage meat. I added the garlic, onion, salt, pepper flakes and potatoes and stirred it all together and let cook for about 5 minutes.

Then I poured in a little stock just to scrape loose the bits that were getting stuck to the bottom of the IP, once that was done I put in the remaining stock, put the lid on the IP and set it to high pressure for 20 minutes.

When done, I ladled a little bit of the broth into a bowl and added the flour. Stirred it until mixed in and add it back to the pot. Added the kale, heavy cream and stir through until it’s all mixed. Let sit for about 10 minutes and get ready to eat!

Made split pea soup in the Instant Pot (IP).

Ingredients:
Rack of pork ribs
Big turnip
Large parsnip
Cup of diced up carrots
One red onion (usually I chop up a leek instead but I forgot to get one)
16 oz bag of split peas. I like the Goya brand.
2-3 beef bouillon cubes low sodium
Carton and a half organic beef broth
Bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
Cumin

Put the peas in a bowl with hot water so they can soak for half hour or so.

First I put a little cumin, salt and pepper on the ribs after washing them and put them in the IP. I added a bay leaf and a carton of beef broth.
Set it to high pressure for 35 minutes and NPR (Natural Pressure Release) at the end.
Let the meat cool on a plate for about half hour. Leave the broth in the IP.
After half hour, scoop fat layer off the top of the broth as there will be a lot.

Once the meat cooled off I pulled the meat off the bones and discarded the excess fat and bones and put the meat back in the IP in the broth.

Add in the chopped up veggies, peas and add organic beef broth up to the 10 cups mark inside the 6 qt unit. Don't fill it too high! Also add the bouillon cubes. Set to high pressure for 12-13 minutes and then NPR at the end. Enjoy!

Appliances Used: Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker) and electric skillet.

First I cooked the pasta in the Instant Pot for half the cooking time indicated on the pasta box as the IP cooks the pasta way quicker than a regular pan/pot. You can even cut the time in half minus 1-2 minutes extra to keep the pasta al dente. I drained the pasta and temporarily put it inside a big plastic food storage tub I keep on the truck.
Then I turned on the electric skillet, cut the skin and excess fat off of the chicken thighs. Put on salt and original Mrs Dash spices, added butter to the skillet and started frying up the chicken. Once one side was done and the chicken turned around in the skillet I added 3 strips of diced bacon.
While this was cooking away I added the garlic, onion, red bell pepper and let that soften up.
When the dish was almost done I added a small chart on of heavy cream and a cup of diced up green olives and let that simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickened up.
Once done I poured it all over the pasta and dinner was served. You can add grated cheese if you like. ☺️

When I still had my trucker cooking group on Facebook, one of the many heard complaints from drivers was they could only eat fast food because the didn't have time to cook. And as always I would tell them it can be done, even teams who run close to 6500/7000 miles a week. Where there's a will, there's a way. Yes I went there! 😉
It's all about planning and organizing your meals. I think about what I want to make for us each week and think about how long each dish takes to cook, how long it takes to prep. Now we have plenty of time to cook so it doesn't stress me out as much as it used to a few years ago but it can be done.
The above containers with soup for instance took 45 minutes to make, from preparation time to finish. I used an Instant Pot, electric pressure cooker, but you could do the same in a slow cooker and just cut up all your veggies and set it on slow for 8 hours before you start driving and it'll be done when you're ready to take your mandatory break so you can divide it into bowls and let it cook off, or eat one, whatever you plan.
If you were to cook this from scratch in the Instant Pot like I did, you could do this during your 30 minute break, take 15 minutes extra and have 2-4 meals which saves you time down the road.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breast filets
carton of organic vegetable broth
half bag precut carrots
4-5 chalks celery cut
5 cloves garlic minced
2 bay leaves
a pinch of thyme
14.5 oz can of organic fire roasted tomatoes
2 pepperoncini peppers diced

Put everything in the pot, set on high pressure for 20 minutes and shred the meat with 2 forks when done. I filled my IP for 3/4 full and did a quick pressure release. If you fill the IP to the max this isn't recommended. Please be careful to not burn yourself! Enjoy!