For the Love of My Crockpot
Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by Deb in Just.....Me
One of the best creations in kitchen appliances has to be The Crock pot. On days that are busy or nights that I have school, if it weren’t for my crock pot, I think we’d wind up eating sandwiches or frozen dinners. This week, we’ve had Garlic Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Modified Swiss Steak, Turkey Chili with 3-Beans, and Chicken Soup. When I first started cooking on my own, I thought it was for beans, soup, and roasts. Through experimentation, I learned that I can cook just about anything in there. It’s a good way to economize, too, in that you can cook less expensive cuts of meat because the crock pot is great at tenderizing.
For those of you who don’t use your crock pot often, maybe it’s because you don’t know how to use it, are looking for recipes or ideas. Let me offer up a few tips that will make you love your crock pot as much as I do.
Spray the crock with cooking spray. In the last year, I have exclusively used olive oil spray. Stock your pantry with staples such as canned tomatoes, cream soups, and broth. Raw vegetables cook slower than meat, so you need to put things like carrots and potatoes on the bottom with meat on top. Any kind of meat can be cooked in the crock pot, roasts, steaks, chicken breasts, meatloaf, etc.
Here is where the economy comes in shop the meat that has been marked down and stock up on canned goods, like the tomatoes and broths when they are on sale. When it comes to tomatoes, I am loving the tomatoes with garlic and olive oil (amazing with beef!) I haven’t been buying a lot of creamed soups lately, but there are low-fat, low sodium varieties of cream of chicken, cream of mushroom and cream of celery.
Throw any veggies and then the meat in the crock pot. If you are “roasting” meat, add some broth in the bottom of the crock. Add spices and put your crock pot on low and cook around 8 hours. If you are cooking lunch for the weekend, 4 hours on high works as well. If anyone wants specific recipes, just holler at me. I love to share, but don’t wish to bore you to tears 