Easiest slow cooker chicken tikka masala

You're going to love this healthy recipe for making amazing chicken tikka masala effortlessly in your slow cooker.

Regular readers know I'm more than a little obsessed with slow cooker meals -- heck, with making anything in my slow cooker. And not simply the usual soup or chili but also the unexpected: oatmeal, cake, bread pudding -- nothing is off limits.

It's largely because I am all about recipes that are not only healthy and delicious but also easy or even downright effortless.

Which is why it drives me absolutely bananas when I see slow cooker recipes that require pre-crock stovetop preparation. What is up with that? The whole point of the slow cooker, for me, is to make meal prep easier, not add extra steps.

I just don't get it. Why put the effort back into something effortless?

Naan fattoush with yogurt dressing

Healthy and easy meatless fattoush salad made with whole-wheat naan, protein-rich white beans and a tangy Greek yogurt dressing. 

My immediate need for fast and easy meals does not seem to be going away, given our slow local move.

Why so slow? Well, in addition to the fact that The Ninj is "the movers" this time, what started as a couple of paint touch-ups on a couple of walls has turned into a repainting of almost all the interior walls and ceilings. Done solely by me and Mr. Ninj.

(Have you ever painted a ceiling? No? Take my advice: Don't. Not if you like living without a stiff neck.)

So, needless to say, I don't have as much time for dinner prep as I'd like. Which means I've been turning quite a bit to salads -- because one cannot eat from the slow cooker every day, right?

However, at this time of year, before farm- and garden-fresh produce is plentiful, tasty salads can be a challenge.  I love bread salads because they're hearty and not totally dependent solely on vegetables for their awesomeness; they're like croutons turned up to 11. And I'm practically addicted to naan, so I decided to use it in a riff on fattoush, a meatless Mediterranean salad traditionally made with pita.

Bourbon brie flatbread with fig jam and prosciutto

Keep your holiday entertaining simple with this sweet-and-savory appetizer: smoky bourbon brie flatbread with fig jam and crispy prosciutto. 

Regular readers know that The Ninj is all about quick-and-easy real-food recipes, especially for weeknight dinners. But that holds true for all my recipes -- even for holiday entertaining.

I don't know about you, but whether I'm hosting or simply attending a holiday party, I like to focus on the company, the conversation and the cocktails (not necessarily in that order, heh heh), rather than fret over the appetizer prep. That's why I often turn to flatbreads for parties; it's easy to use a variety of spreads and toppings to turn a simple flatbread into a great appetizer pizza.

Clearly the good folks at Alouette Cheese think the same way I do, since they have teamed up with Stonefire Flatbreads to share some "flavorology" this holiday season. Simply put, it's their term for the art of creating unique, simple and delicious flavor combinations using flatbreads and soft cheese spreads. What could be easier (or yummier)?

Stonefire and Alouette invited me to come up with my own favorite flatbread flavorology combination: with cheese flavors like wasabi cheddar, smoky jalapeño and roasted red pepper, it was hard to choose. But of course I was pulled like a moth to a flame to the Smoky Bourbon Creme de Brie -- you know, because nothing says "holiday" to The Ninj like bourbon. Except bourbon and cheese.