Utilizing your slow cooker can help ensure the recipes you're making turn out warm, comforting and delicious. Not to mention, all you need to do is set up your slow cooker and let it be, making it super easy to get dinner on the table (if you plan ahead). Whether it's a hearty beef stew or spicy chicken enchiladas, these dishes are worth the wait. Plus, with complex carbs like whole-wheat pasta and rice and lower counts of saturated fat and sodium, these selections are well-suited for a diabetes-friendly eating pattern. Recipes like our Slow-Cooker Braised Beef with Carrots & Turnips and Slow-Cooker Vegetable Minestrone are cozy, nutritious options for chilly nights.

The spice blend in this healthy beef stew recipe--cinnamon, allspice and cloves--may conjure images of apple pie, but the combo is a great fit in savory applications too. Serve over creamy polenta or buttered whole-wheat egg noodles.

This load-and-go slow-cooker chicken recipe is perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. Serve this Tuscan-inspired dish with crusty bread, a glass of Chianti and a salad.

A winter classic, this crock pot version of minestrone is heavy on the vegetables and light on the pasta, keeping carbs in check while providing plenty of flavor.

This one-pot chicken dinner, inspired by the traditional dish of Spain and Latin America, comes together easily in the crock pot. The instant brown rice is added near the end, to keep it from overcooking.

This comforting and creamy slow-cooker soup is loaded with earthy, umami flavor from the mushrooms and soy sauce.  Puréeing only some of the slow-cooker mushroom soup gives the dish complex texture and eye appeal. Garnish with additional black pepper and chopped fresh thyme, if desired.

Plan ahead so you can use your slow cooker to prepare the pulled pork for these tacos. This recipe is a better-for-you twist on the classic tacos al pastor. Pork loin is a lean cut that's a healthier option than traditional pork shoulder, which has more fat.

This easy slow cooker ground beef and pasta recipe makes a great meal any night of the week.

This hearty jambalaya is bursting with chicken, smoked turkey sausage, and shrimp. It takes just 25 minutes to prep in the morning and then your slow cooker will work its magic and deliver a tasty meal at the end of the day.

These easy Mexican enchiladas are filled with flavorful, shredded slow-cooked shredded chicken. Placed on a bed of fresh lettuce, this delicious recipe is sure to be the hit of any dinner occasion.

This vegetarian lasagna couldn't be easier, thanks to jarred pasta sauce and no-boil lasagna noodles. Prep it in the morning and let your crock pot do the work.

Let a slow cooker complete this vegetarian soup. Serve it in cups as a sandwich side or ladle it into bowls for a light meal.

The slow cooker makes this veggie-packed beef stew super-easy and extra-savory.

This version of chicken and dumplings provides plenty of vegetables with 5 grams of fiber per serving. Dumplings are made with 1 part flour and 1 part cornmeal to make them standout from a traditional flour dumpling. This hearty dinner option is the perfect comfort meal.

This slow-cooker chicken Marsala recipe gets its full flavor from plenty of mushrooms and fragrant shallots. Whole-wheat pasta soaks up the rich sauce. Round it out with a simple green salad for a comforting healthy dinner.

In this delicious main dish, cauliflower is slow-cooked with curry powder and aromatic vegetables, and shrimp and chickpeas are added in towards the end of the cooking time. Served over brown basmati rice and sprinkled with cilantro and peanuts, this dish will get a thumbs up from anyone eating it!

This streamlined goulash skips the step of browning the beef, and instead coats it in a spice crust to give it a rich mahogany hue. This saucy dish is a natural served over whole-wheat egg noodles. Or, for something different, try prepared potato gnocchi or spaetzle.

This creamy, veggie-packed chicken dinner comes together easily in your slow-cooker-and makes enough for another night's casserole (see associated recipe)!

Let your slow cooker work--while you're at work!--and come home to a delicious bowl of hearty stew for dinner. Full of potatoes, hominy, green chiles, and chunks of pork sirloin, this filling stew recipe takes just 25 minutes to prepare in the morning.

Using a slow cooker makes this Italian style dish an easy meal for any night of the week.

This taco recipe is a great choice for midweek dinners, even if it's not Taco Tuesday! Instead of beef, we use moist, boneless chicken thighs and to make things easier for you, the taco filling is cooked in a slow cooker, so you can prepare it in the morning and come home to a delicious meal.

Chicken thighs can take plenty of cooking without getting tough or drying out, which makes them perfect for the slow cooker. Here we braise them in Guinness stout along with hearty vegetables, with just the right amount of bacon for added savoriness.