Great crockpot book
I borrowed a book from the library called “Fix it and forget it” which is stuffed full of recipes for slow cookers. I plan to buy this book as it features tons of recipes I plan to try. In fact, for the next two weeks (I just made a two week meal plan and went shopping according to it) will be mostly crockpot meals trying these recipes out. I’m interested mainly in the main courses, which features recipes for venison, rabbit, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, etc. All of which I have in my deep freeze waiting to be eaten. I made a meatloaf and veggie dish today and will be doing a chicken and veggie meal tomorrow.
I love slow cookers because it allows me to fix a meal in the morning, which can be accomplished when my kids are eating breakfast. Then I can forget about it until the evening, and when I’d normally be dancing around the kitchen preparing dinner, I can sit and relax. One of my biggest stresses of the day is “what is going to be for dinner?” To help reduce this stress, I make meal plans (or, I come up with 14 dinner ideas that can be made large enough for leftovers and possibly freezing, and about 7 lunch ideas for the days when I have no leftovers, and whatever sounds good for the day is what we go with. Generally I will decide the evening before, and prepare my meals in whatever way I can beforehand).
My crockpot is convienient for more than one reason. Obviously, there is no chaos in the evening as I fix dinner for a hungry family. But it prepares a delicious and healthy meal without heating my kitchen or using a ton of electricity.
I have tried to find recipes and ideas for cooking in the crockpot, and a lot of what I find online is put together with processed foods, soups and other additives. This book actually has a ton of healthy, wholesome meal recipes. And when it calls for a canned soup or additive, I know I can easily create that on my own at home before hand. Typically I make my soups in bulk and freeze them in single serving sizes, then thaw when the time comes to use them.
So check this book out - from your library or see if our local bookstore has it. I know I want to buy it after looking at the recipes and basing the next two weeks worth of meals from it (and there are still many recipes I want to try, but will be returning the book before then).