Is crock pot cooking a good idea? Healthy food can be a confusing topic. Various resources can take one particular food and talk about how great it is then, you will read a completely opposing article about the same food. We all know that raw foods have the most nutrients, but we also know that when looking for easy meals to feed that hungry family, choices always need to be made and pasta dishes are at the top of the list for many people.

Experts of all sorts are eager to offer good advice, and contradicting advise can be very confusing. However, eating and food preparation does not have to be difficult.

Healthy eating and cooking can be broken down into two basic components: foods that we already know are nutritional that we should prepare versus foods that we should know we should cook less but are very tempting.

Using this principle, when you read a recipe and look at the ingredients you can learn to recognize healthy recipes and modify those that are less healthy.

This crock pot recipes uses good basic ingredients that are good to eat in reasonable sized portions. The two things to make it healthier would be to choose an organic lean ground beef and when using spinach always go with fresh. Second option for spinach would be frozen and bottom of the list of choices would be canned.

From a nutritional standpoint fresh organic is always the top choice. Even when you are choosing a pasta, don't always go for the cheapest, choose one with an organic flour if you can or at least read the ingredients on the pasta package.

Crock pot cooking is a fantastic choice if you have a busy day planned and you want to get that meal going while you are out running your errands, working or hopefully doing something fun like taking a bike ride or off to a yoga class.

Give this crock pot ravioli casserole a try. Its very tasty and the family will love it.

Ingredients:

1� lbs. lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

salt/pepper

10 oz. fresh spinach, or frozen

16 oz. bowtie pasta, cooked

� cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1� cup mozzarella, shredded