Gluten Free Skinny Slow Cooker Turkey Burgers with Carrot & Leek Slaw

How to provide healthy meals for your planning while still having time to spend with them is the age-old mommy conundrum, isn't it? In an effort to curtail this and satisfy my Type A personality by doing both (shock! horror!), I've decided to rekindle my love affair with my slow cooker.

Before I had kids, I was one of those carefree cooks, whipping together adventurous plates of food after work, letting the dishes pile in the sink, knowing I'd have hours to spare to tidy them. Before, my slow cooker was one of those seasonal items, that I'd pull from the cupboard around the same time I rescued my scarves and winter coat. Now? Pfft. I would love to have an hour to spare to do anything! And my slow cooker has a permanent home on my counter top.

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Ingredients:
For the burgers
1 pack turkey mince
2 frozen garlic cubes (or cloves)
Cooking spray
1 cup shredded low-fat cheese
3 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
1 bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
salt and pepper
For the slaw
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled
1 leek, white & light green part
3 tbsp lemon mayonnaise
2 tsp mustard powder
salt and pepper
a couple pinches of caster sugar

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All right, let's cook!
For the burgers, brown the mince along with some seasonings and the garlic. I added in about a teaspoon or so of garlic granules as well as the frozen garlic cubes. Spray the crock pot with the cooking spray and add the mince to the pot.
Cover the mince with half of the shredded cheese. Tumble in the peppers and onions and milk. Cook on low for six hours. Halfway through cooking, add in more cheese and a knob of butter (optional). If you allow it to cook without stirring, you'll start to get a lovely crunchy crust around the edges.

For the slaw, slice your carrots and leek into thin batons. Cover the leek batons with cold water and allow them to soak for about 10 minutes to help them firm up. Combine the carrots, drained and dried leeks with the mayonnaise, mustard powder, sugar and seasonings. Continue tasting and adjusting the amounts of mayonnaise, mustard, sugar and seasoning until it tastes how you want it to. Cover in cling film and let rest in a fridge for at least an hour. I made mine halfway through the burgers cooking and it was lovely and marinated by dinnertime.

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Serve on your favorite burger bun (floured wholemeal burger buns used in photo). Spoon the mince on the bottom bun and top with slaw. Served with rosemary oven wedges in photos.