4 Muscle-building Crock-pot Recipes You Should Try - Muscle & Fitness (2024)

Muscle-building Crock Pot Recipes

Cooking—the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day, especially after anintense workout.You hope that dinner magically appears once you walk in the door. With disappointment, you trudge to the kitchen and attempt to whip up a healthy, protein-packeddinner. It’s another night of scarfing down a bland chicken breast and leafy greens.Hold up, you can turn those dinner dreams into a reality with the help of a crock pot. The whole point of using them is to prep a meal while you’re away—it’s like having a personal chef fixing your dinner while you break a sweat at the gym. Try these recipes and you’ll feast like a king.

Jambalaya

You don’t have to travel all the way to The Big Easy for this authentic food. Instead, make the food come to you.This New Orleans staple is packed with protein and flavor. The traditional Cajun seasonings will have your noserunning, and farro—a high-protein and high-fiber grain—brings a nutty flavor to this dish. When it comes to complex carbs, farro is loaded with cyanogenic glucosides, which trigger the immune system and regulate blood sugar levels. The magnesium content in the grain will back your muscles, nerves, and bone function. And the niacin content in farro will assist your body in breaking down all your macros.If you’re one to work out before eating dinner, this is a great post-workout option to refuel those starved muscles.Check out the full jambalaya recipe here.

Quinoa & Ground Beef-stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers are not only easy to make, they can be loaded with protein. For this recipe, load each pepper up with quinoa, lean ground beef, and black beans. Each protein is jam-packed with amino acids; your muscles will start growing in no time. The chili powder won’t only spice up the flavor, but your health as well. The spice can boost immunity, reduce pain, and fight free radicals. Another added benefit is that it contains the compound capsaicin, which has been shown to rev up the metabolism and help the body burn fat.

Pizza Casserole

It’s Friday and you want pizza, but you know it will destroy your diet. Instead of ringing up the local pizza parlor, make your own version. By the time you walk through your door at the end of the day, it will be ready to eat. Using an already-made pizza dough for this recipe will be difficult because the crust will burn, and it will also demolish your macros. Change up the pizza dough to Barilla Plus Pasta—it’s packed with more protein than your basic pizza crust.Check out the full pizza casserole recipe here.

Honey Sesame Chicken

Are you afraid of killing your macros with sauce? Well, don’t be. You can make room to enjoy food—that’s how a diet truly works. Turn that tasteless chicken breast into something that’s sweet and savory. Honey sesame chicken can be your dinner one night.Cornstarch is generally used to thicken a sauce, but it isn’t the healthiest. Almost all cornstarches are made with genetically modified organisms, and the extraction process can be tough due to the abundance of chemicals and high heat. A healthier and safer substitute for cornstarch is arrowroot powder. Arrowroot powder comes from a plant, and the extraction process doesn’t involve any chemicals. The powder is also easier to digest.Check out the full honey sesame chicken recipe here.

Cooking—the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day, especially after anintense workout.You hope that dinner magically appears once you walk in the door. With disappointment, you trudge to the kitchen and attempt to whip up a healthy, protein-packeddinner. It’s another night of scarfing down a bland chicken breast and leafy greens.

Hold up, you can turn those dinner dreams into a reality with the help of a crock pot. The whole point of using them is to prep a meal while you’re away—it’s like having a personal chef fixing your dinner while you break a sweat at the gym. Try these recipes and you’ll feast like a king.

You don’t have to travel all the way to The Big Easy for this authentic food. Instead, make the food come to you.

This New Orleans staple is packed with protein and flavor. The traditional Cajun seasonings will have your noserunning, and farro—a high-protein and high-fiber grain—brings a nutty flavor to this dish. When it comes to complex carbs, farro is loaded with cyanogenic glucosides, which trigger the immune system and regulate blood sugar levels. The magnesium content in the grain will back your muscles, nerves, and bone function. And the niacin content in farro will assist your body in breaking down all your macros.

If you’re one to work out before eating dinner, this is a great post-workout option to refuel those starved muscles.

Check out the full jambalaya recipe here.

Stuffed peppers are not only easy to make, they can be loaded with protein. For this recipe, load each pepper up with quinoa, lean ground beef, and black beans. Each protein is jam-packed with amino acids; your muscles will start growing in no time. The chili powder won’t only spice up the flavor, but your health as well. The spice can boost immunity, reduce pain, and fight free radicals. Another added benefit is that it contains the compound capsaicin, which has been shown to rev up the metabolism and help the body burn fat.

It’s Friday and you want pizza, but you know it will destroy your diet. Instead of ringing up the local pizza parlor, make your own version. By the time you walk through your door at the end of the day, it will be ready to eat. Using an already-made pizza dough for this recipe will be difficult because the crust will burn, and it will also demolish your macros. Change up the pizza dough to Barilla Plus Pasta—it’s packed with more protein than your basic pizza crust.

Check out the full pizza casserole recipe here.

Are you afraid of killing your macros with sauce? Well, don’t be. You can make room to enjoy food—that’s how a diet truly works. Turn that tasteless chicken breast into something that’s sweet and savory. Honey sesame chicken can be your dinner one night.

Cornstarch is generally used to thicken a sauce, but it isn’t the healthiest. Almost all cornstarches are made with genetically modified organisms, and the extraction process can be tough due to the abundance of chemicals and high heat. A healthier and safer substitute for cornstarch is arrowroot powder. Arrowroot powder comes from a plant, and the extraction process doesn’t involve any chemicals. The powder is also easier to digest.

Check out the full honey sesame chicken recipe here.