Cook it slowly

Suddenly the crockpot is every home cook’s essential kitchen appliance. It’s been around for ages, but just one glance at Pinterest or almost any food blog and you’ll fine dozens of recipes for “slowcooker” recipes.

 

Beantown Baker posted a Crockpot French Onion Soup recipe that looks like a restaurant quality  meal. It’s not an expensive go-to appliance, and you can usually find one for less than $20; though it might not be a programmable one, which enhances the ease of slowcooking.

The “Crockpot” is just a brand, like Kleenex is to tissue, and their slogan is “the original slowcooker.” They have kits on their website to make the process even easier — if that’s possible. The idea is simple: throw in a bunch of ingredients, turn the slowcooker on and walk away. Come back at least four hours later and you’ll have a delicious meal. Sometimes you have to stir, but most of the time you can just leave and it’ll be fine. You could start dinner before leaving for work and have it ready by the time you come home.

Just imagine: coming home after a long day and not have to worry about standing over the stove because dinner is ready.

Crockpot’s website has a variety of recipes from several different cuisines and for different pot sizes.

You don’t need to have an account with Pinterest to see the crazy amount of slowcooker recipes . There’s everything from chex mix to lasagna, almost making it seem unnecessary to cook without a crockpot.

But is it just a fad? If so it appears Crock-Pot Ladies need a new topic to blog about, though for now they seem safe.

There’s no excuse not to use a crock-pot if you just want the easy route. There’s dozens of resources online (including free e-books with recipes).

You could even try to use it once a day for a year and follow along with 365 Days of Slow Cooking. Sounds like a bit much, but you never know, you might end up loving the “newish” trend.

Karen Petersen, a stay-at-home mom, is the creator of 365 Days of Slow Cooking. It started out as a challenge she gave herself and it led to a cookbook with her favorite recipes. She didn’t repeat a single recipe and did everything from breakfast to dessert.

The slow cooker is a wonderful appliance that can give you the freedom to cook dinner at any time but dinner time (which is often the most busy and crazy time of the day).  It frees your mind so you don’t have to think “what am I going to make for dinner” all day long.  Because my blog is all about slow cooking, it’s all about recipes that are (hopefully) 1.  Easy  2.  Tasty  3.  Budget-friendly.  Also, I am not a chef.  I’m the anti-chef.  I have a life other than cooking dinner…so I try to make my recipes something that you can put together in a few minutes (with as few dishes to clean up as possible).

Karen Petersen writes about simple recipes and kitchen tips to help any “anti-cook.”

Give it a try, you might be surprised how delicious the slow cooked food taste, and just how it easy it is. Now you can pick up that book you’ve been wanting to read or play with your kids for an extra hour.