When it comes to weeknights, we are always looking for new quick, easy, and family friendly meals. This Chicken Burrito Bowl checks all of the boxes, and is especially great for those families that have a picky eater or have different dietary restrictions. It’s easily customizable to fit your needs and preferences, while still being nutritious!
What makes this meal so delicious (and nutritious) is the combination of lean protein and canned tomatoes. The chicken add a heafy dose of protein, while the canned tomatoes provide a plethora of antioxidants (such as lycopene) that play an integral role in the reduction of certain types of diseases and cancers. In fact, numerous studies have linked lycopene consumption with prostate cancer protection. While lycopene is present in other fruits such as watermelon and pink grapefruit, tomatoes, which are the second most consumed vegetable (second to potatoes) in the U.S., account for more than 85% of the lycopene in the American diet. Interestingly, cooked tomato products—as in processed tomatoes, including tomato sauce and canned tomatoes—may hold particular significance. The lycopene from cooked and processed tomatoes is more bioavailable than that of fresh tomatoes. Heating or processing breaks down the tomato cell matrix and promotes isomerization of lycopene from all-trans isomers to the more bioavailable form of cis-isomers. Research shows that single daily servings of processed tomato products produce significant increases of lycopene concentrations in blood and buccal mucosal cells in healthy adults.
So, what are you waiting for? Try out this Chicken Burrito Bowl for a recipe that’s easy, delicious, and sure to be a family favorite!
Chicken Burrito Bowl
When it comes to weeknights, we are always looking for new quick, easy, and family friendly meals. This Chicken Burrito Bowl checks all of the boxes, and is especially great for those families that have a picky eater or have different dietary restrictions. It's easily customizable to fit your needs and preferences, while still being nutritious!
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time8 hours
Total Time8 hours5 minutes
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 cup frozen corn
shredded cheese, for serving
chopped cilantro, for serving
sour cream, for serving
sliced avocado, for serving
salsa, for serving
jalapeno slices, for serving
Instructions
Add the chicken, diced tomatoes with the juice, chicken broth, chili powder, salt, and cumin into a slow cooker. Make sure the chicken is fully covered by the broth. Add more broth if necessary. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.
Uncover and add in the black beans, rice, and corn. Cover and continue cooking for another 3-4 hours. In the last hour of cooking, mix the rice two times to ensure it is cooking evenly. If the crock pot gets too dry and the rice is not fully cooked, add more broth. If the rice is cooked but there is still a lot of broth, cook on high to allow it to evaporate.
Use two forks to shred the chicken. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, or salsa. Enjoy!
For other dinner dishes, check out some of our favorites:
Slow cooker meals are ideal for those busy weeknights! With a little prep work, you can have dinner ready with minimal effort. It’s easy to have everything ready to toss in the crockpot, turn it on, and come home after work to an already made dinner, which is why this Slow Cooker Chili is sure to be your new recipe BFF.
While this dish is a good source of protein, it also has a high lycopene content from the canned tomato sauce. Since canned tomatoes are a critical part of any chili dish, it’s important to not skip this ingredient. It makes the chili juicy, adds more flavor, and contributes a boost of nutrient-rich value, as they contain vitamins C, vitamin E, fiber, and potassium. They also contain lycopene, which is a plant compound (carotenoid) that gives tomatoes their vibrant red color and when it’s cooked into meals, the nutritional value is increased. In this recipe, a healthy fat (olive oil) is mixed into the pot, which increases the nutritional value of the dish because studies have shown that consuming tomato products with a healthy fat enables you to achieve maximum health benefits. When you increase the amount of tomatoes in your diet, you are also reducing your risk of certain diseases and cancers due to the positive correlation between lycopene and health benefits. In addition to its numerous health benefits, canned tomato products are easily accessible and affordable for the general public. They have a long shelf life, which enables you to stock up your pantry and reduce your grocery store runs—especially when time is of the essence.
So, the next time you are looking for an easy dinner idea, start up the slow cooker and make some chili. Not only will it make your life easier, your house will smell amazing when you open the front door!
Slow Cooker Chili
Slow cooker meals are ideal for those busy weeknights! With a little prep work, you can have dinner ready with minimal effort. It’s easy to have everything ready to toss in the crockpot, turn it on, and come home after work to an already made dinner, which is why this Slow Cooker Chili is sure to be your new recipe BFF.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time6 hours
Total Time6 hours15 minutes
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs. ground beef
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
3 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
½ cup beef broth
½ Tbsp. chili powder
2 ½ tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. granulated sugar
½ tsp. ground coriander
salt and pepper, to taste
1 (15 oz.) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
Jalapeno slices, for serving
Sour cream, for serving
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic into the pan and saute until the onions turn translucent. Transfer the mixture into a crockpot.
Heat the same skillet over medium high heat and add in the beef. Cook and crumble the beef until fully cooked. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan then transfer it into the crock pot.
Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, chili powder, cumin, paprika, cocoa powder, dugar, coriander, and salt and pepper to taste into the crock pot. Mix until combined then cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
Mix the dark and light red kidney beans into the chili and cook for 2 minutes. Serve chile with shredded cheddar cheese and enjoy!
For other chili recipes, check out some of our favorites:
Sloppy Joes may give you flashbacks to an elementary school lunchroom, but they are a fun meal that everyone will enjoy. This is also a recipe that keeps well in the refrigerator, so go ahead and enjoy those leftovers!
This dish is not only delicious, but it’s also teeming with nutrition, as it’s high in antioxidants thanks to the canned tomatoes. Lycopene is a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red color, and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. It also has the ability to neutralize free radicals within the body to prevent oxidative stress, which helps prevent damage to our cells and our DNA. While lycopene is present in other fruits such as watermelon and pink grapefruit, tomatoes (which are the second most consumed vegetable second to potatoes in the U.S.), account for more than 85% of the lycopene in the American diet. Interestingly, cooked tomato products may hold particular significance, as the lycopene from cooked and processed tomatoes is more bioavailable than that of fresh tomatoes. Heating or processing breaks down the tomato cell matrix and promotes isomerization of lycopene from all-trans isomers to the more bioavailable form of cis-isomers. Research shows that single daily servings of processed tomato products produce significant increases of lycopene concentrations in blood and buccal mucosal cells in healthy adults.
So, go ahead and try out these Sloppy Joes; we promise you won’t be disappointed!
Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Joes may give you flashbacks to an elementary school lunchroom, but they are a fun meal that everyone will enjoy. This is also a recipe that keeps well in the refrigerator, so go ahead and enjoy those leftovers!
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Ingredients
1 red bell pepper, deseeded cored, and roughly chopped
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
8 oz. tomato sauce
3 Tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
¾ cup yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. ground beef
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
¾ tsp. Italian seasoning
4 burger buns
Instructions
Add the bell pepper, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup, and brown sugar into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add in the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onion turns translucent.
Then add the ground beef into the pan. Cook and crumble the beef until it has browned and fully cooked. Mix in the salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
Pour the blended sauce into the pan and mix it together with the beef. When the mixture starts to bubble, reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Serve the meat mixture with buns and enjoy!
For other delicious tomato-based recipes, check out some of our favorites:
Happy Earth month! This month, we are going to be highlighting sustainable eating tips and food items to help improve your carbon footprint and lessen your impact on the planet. While there are many ways you can practice sustainable living, a lot of it starts with what you put on your fork. You can do this by adding more canned tomatoes into your diet, as these are a more sustainable option than fresh. Also, when shopping, choose MADE IN THE USA, to decrease your global footprint, and to get the sustainable quality you can count on.
So, if you’re looking for some ways to spice it up in the kitchen and cook more eco-friendly meals, be sure to follow along on social media for lots of culinary inspiration!
If you’re craving pasta, then go ahead and whip up this delicious recipe for Nona’s Beef Ragu! This entire meal can be made in a slow cooker, which makes it perfect for any night of the week. Plus, it’s kid-friendly, which makes dinner time even easier!
Vintage BBC Footage of the Spaghetti Harvest
Originally aired on the BBC in 1957 this fascinating look behind where our spaghetti comes from shocked millions of viewers at the time of it’s release. For some reason, it always feels fitting to reflect on this time of year.
PROCESSED TOMATOES, A SUSTAINABLE CHOICE, by Sharon Palmer, MSFS, RDN
Every time you open a can or jar of tomatoes, you release the essence of that warm, summer day in which those perfectly ripe tomatoes were harvested. These tomatoes are picked at their top flavor and nutrition peak on the field before they are quickly whisked away to the processing plant to be canned, sealing in all of that good flavor and nutrition within just a few hours of harvest.
Beyond good taste and nutrition, you also make a more sustainable choice by choosing those preserved tomatoes. Why is it a more sustainable choice than fresh? The fresh tomato crop is typically picked about two weeks before maturity to withstand transportation, during which it requires more energy to refrigerate and transport. In addition, many fresh tomatoes are grown in Mexico, requiring longer transportation distances, or in heated, energy-intensive greenhouses before reaching your supermarket shelf.
This classic Italian dish will leave your kitchen smelling amazing and your belly satisfied. One Pan Chicken Cacciatore is easy to make and will please the entire family, but one of the best parts about this recipe is how simple it is to assemble. Everything goes in one pan which means fewer dishes for you and more time to spend with family!
This all in one meal is loaded with important nutrients thanks to the canned tomates, as they contain vitamins A and C as well as fiber and lycopene. Vitamin A supports eye health and is important for white blood cell production; vtamin C is helps control infections and boosts immunity; and fiber has been shown to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. While all of these are important, canned tomatoes get their superpowers from lycopene, which is an antioxidant with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. The lycopene content found in canned tomatoes allows this ingredient to be one of the most useful, healthy additions to just about any meal. Since canned tomatoes have even MORE nutritional value than fresh tomatoes, they provide a powerful impact on human health.
So, if you are looking for an easy weeknight dinner, this One Pan Chicken Cacciatore is definitely one to put on your regular rotation! Simple to make, easy clean up, and flavorful, it checks all of the boxes of a favorite recipe.
One Pan Chicken Cacciatore
This classic Italian dish will leave your kitchen smelling amazing and your belly satisfied. One Pan Chicken Cacciatore is easy to make and will please the entire family, but one of the best parts about this recipe is how simple it is to assemble. Everything goes in one pan which means fewer dishes for you and more time to spend with family!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Ingredients
6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
salt and pepper, to taste
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
⅓ cup chicken broth
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with basil
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried thyme
⅓ cup pitted kalamata olives
chopped parsley, for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
Heat a cast iron pan over medium high heat and add in the olive oil.
Increase the heat to medium and add in the chicken thighs. Fry until the outside of the chicken is cooked. Add the chicken to the pan, skin side down, and sear until golden brown. Flip the chicken over and sear on the other side. Remove the chicken from the pan.
Lower the heat to medium then add in the onion. Saute until translucent then add in the garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the bell pepper, carrots, and mushrooms to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Nestle the chicken into the pan then add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme. Mix until the ingredients are well combined.
Allow the sauce to start bubbling and cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Transfer to the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and the chicken is tender.
Stir in the olives and garnish with parsley. Enjoy!
For other dinner dishes, check out some of our favorites:
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