Crocktober: 6 Easy Slow Cooker Recipes for Busy Weeks

There is a very specific kind of optimism involved in believing that at 6 p.m., after a full day of work, and tending to the household, that you're going to come home and cook yourself a meaningful dinner.

Maybe you will.

But 6 p.m. you has also been making decisions all day. She's tired. She's hungry. And whatever sounded easy enough when you planned your week suddenly feels like entirely too much work.

This is how we end up standing in front of the refrigerator hoping dinner will somehow reveal itself.

So instead of asking 6 p.m. you to try harder, what if 7 a.m. you made her life a little easier?

That's basically the entire premise of a slow cooker.

And it's also the idea behind Crocktober.

Six easy, protein-packed slow cooker dinners you can throw together earlier in the day and have waiting for you when you're ready to eat.

Because one of the things we talk about a lot at The Boxing District is making the next choice easier.

That applies to working out.

It applies to building habits.

And it definitely applies to dinner.

You don't need more willpower at 6 p.m.

Sometimes you just need dinner to already be there.

You don't need a perfect meal plan

There's a version of “healthy eating” on the internet that looks something like this:

Spend half of Sunday meal prepping.

Carefully portion everything into matching containers.

Eat the same chicken, rice and broccoli for the next five days.

Repeat forever.

If you love doing that, great.

But you don't have to.

Taking care of yourself can be much simpler than that.

Sometimes it's making breakfast instead of skipping it.

Sometimes it's keeping a few easy foods in the house.

Sometimes it's ordering something that actually sounds good and gives your body what it needs.

And sometimes it's putting a bunch of ingredients in a slow cooker before work so dinner is already waiting for you when you get home.

Something counts.

The goal isn't to make every meal perfect.

The goal is to make taking care of yourself a little easier.

Six dinners. Very little thinking required.

For Crocktober, we put together six hearty, protein-packed slow cooker recipes:

Pulled BBQ Chicken Thighs
Tender pulled chicken tossed in smoky BBQ sauce.

Beef & Sweet Potato Stew
Fork-tender beef, sweet potatoes and carrots in a rich, cozy broth.

Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin
Savory garlic and rosemary with just enough honey for a touch of sweetness.

Turkey & Black Bean Chili
A hearty, high-protein chili loaded with turkey, black beans and warm spices.

Beef Taco Soup
Creamy taco-seasoned beef, black beans, corn and tomatoes in one seriously easy dinner.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Classic fall-apart chuck roast with carrots, potatoes and a savory herb broth.

Each recipe includes the ingredients, estimated nutrition information, slow cooker instructions, easy ingredient swaps, and freezer-prep instructions.

Future-you would like a word

Here's where Crocktober gets even better.

Every recipe can also be prepped ahead as a freezer meal.

That means you can spend a little time when you do have the bandwidth and make life easier on a day when you don't.

Prep the ingredients.

Label the bag.

Put it in the freezer.

Then when you need it, thaw it completely in the refrigerator, add whatever fresh ingredients the recipe calls for, and put it in the slow cooker.

Dinner handled.

This isn't really about becoming a person who has an impressively organized freezer.

It's about removing friction.

Every decision you can make ahead of time is one decision you don't have to make when you're tired.

And that's useful far beyond dinner.

Make the next choice easier

We tend to think taking care of ourselves requires some giant burst of motivation.

It usually doesn't.

It requires making one choice that makes the next choice a little easier.

Putting your workout clothes out tonight makes tomorrow morning easier.

Scheduling your workouts before the week starts makes showing up easier.

Keeping food you actually like in the house makes eating when you're hungry easier.

And putting dinner in the slow cooker at 7 a.m. makes 6 p.m. easier.

None of those things are particularly dramatic.

That's the point.

You don't need to overhaul your life every Monday.

You need enough small things working in your favor that taking care of yourself stops feeling quite so hard.

So here's one of them.

Crocktober is completely free. There's no opt-in and nothing to download.

Just six recipes waiting for you.

→ GET ALL 6 FREE CROCKTOBER RECIPES

Pick one for this week.

Or prep a couple for your freezer.

Future-you will probably be pretty happy you did.

Something counts. Make the next choice easier.

The Boxing District
Strength lives here.