Slow Cooker Advice

[pianolearner]

I'm thinking of buying a slow cooker as I currently live on ready meals and I want to improve my diet. Although I enjoy cooking, I am also lazy (busy)...(lazy)...anyway.. I have read a few recipes and many require some pre-preparation before slow cooking. This is OK, but I'd like to know if there are any recipes where you can just throw everything straight into the slow cooker, set and forget.

Should I buy one?

All advice/opinions welcome.

Thanks

[richard black]

Yes, of course, a classic stew is just a mixture of meat and vegetables which you put in a slow cooker (traditionally an oven on a low setting, or a cooking pot hung well above the fire) and leave there for a couple of hours. Anything that's to hand!

[timothy42b]

I bought one for the same reason you mention.

I got bored with it very very fast.  Everything you cook in one tastes the same.

Still, for some things (chili, pot roast) they are superb. 

[pianolearner]

Yes, of course, a classic stew is just a mixture of meat and vegetables which you put in a slow cooker (traditionally an oven on a low setting, or a cooking pot hung well above the fire) and leave there for a couple of hours. Anything that's to hand!

Richard,

Can you provide any links to an online recipe? Are you saying you can put raw beef into the cooker?

[pianolearner]

I bought one for the same reason you mention.

I got bored with it very very fast.  Everything you cook in one tastes the same.

Still, for some things (chili, pot roast) they are superb. 

Do you still use it? Would you recommend buying one?

[timothy42b]

Do you still use it? Would you recommend buying one?

It's the wrong voltage for where I live, but in the past yes, I probably used it once a month.

They are great for potlucks where you need to make a large quantity and keep it warm while the whole office/church eats.

They are pretty good with chicken - just drop one in, add a few potatoes and onions, and let it cook.  It's always edible but like I say I got bored with that taste quickly. 

Pot roasts come out good too. 

[elspeth]

Slow cookers are fantastic, I wouldn't live without mine! Don't just limit yourself to stews either. You can cook all sorts with them... soup, roast meat, spag bol (you'll never make it in a pan again), and you must try making cakes in it. Sponge cake done in a slow pot comes out so light and fluffy you could put a string on one and call it a balloon.

It's great for economy, you can buy cheap cuts of meat that never cook well in a normal oven but become wonderful when they've been cooked all day. It's great for lack of hassle when you get in from work - ten minutes in the morning to prepare it and there'll be a meal waiting for you when you get in. And it's almost impossible to overcook so you can be delayed... makes it brilliant for cooking for dinner parties too, so much less hassle when your guests arrive.

[ahinton]

I don't recommend slow cookers. I'm not a good cook at all and since what I do manage to achieve in the kitchen is shamefully done with far too little organised alacrity (i.e. too much adagio molto of approach) I really don't think that slow cooks of any kind are an especially good idea.

Best,

Alistair

[dnephi]

I like to eat pretty quickly.  I typically like canned soups, PBJs, Tuna in a can, cottage cheese, milk, juice energy drinks, subs, etc. 

Do you think that I would benefit from using a crockpot (IE, slow cooker)?

[elspeth]

Slow cookers are only good if you've got an organised mind - you have to choose what you're going to cook ahead of time and still want to eat it a few hours later. It's not a good choice if you're an impulse eater.

One of the things I like about a slow pot is it makes me think about what I'm eating. Too much over-processed food is a bad thing - all those chemicals, and all that extra sugar and salt and preservatives and all the other nonsense that goes into pre-processed food that I'd really rather not be eating. You can't get away from all of them, but I like to know what I'm eating and why, and what it's likely to be doing to me.

[Essyne]

ugh - I hate slow cookers. . . well, the typical pot roast foods, etc. The preparation, etc. is just not interesting at all. There's no variety in the kitchen. . . it's just chopping and throwing together.

Now when we make my mother's Italian-rib-something-or-others with her homemade, rich, deliiiicciiooouuusss "barbecue" sauce (don't ask - lord knows I don't know what the hell I'm doing  ), that's an entirely different story. But everything else = just not my favorite. Like what timothy said, you get kind of bored w/ them. Spending hours in the company of good ol' pots and pans is my cup of tea .

You can think about what you're eating without a slow-cooker, elspeth. We're all organic here on the farm and make everything else that's normally processed from scratch. Takes some time, but it's well worth the effort. If you ever need some good recipes, give me a ring. And I can give you tips to save some time/be able to multitask like you can with a slow cooker.

Hmm - Daniel - crockpots seem like the way to go for you . 24 oz of Monster and 1 pound of cottage cheese, throw in a few chunks of PB and J. . . and a few hours later, Voila! Dinner of kings.

[pianolearner]

I bought a slow cooker today. Tomorrow I will try my 1st recipe - Hungarian Goulash!