After family and friends have all continuously been bragging about how nice a slow cooker is, I now finally have one at my disposal too. It’s resting right here at my desk, staring back at me. I think neither of us is sure how we both ended up here together. It’s a nice little 3 Quarts Crockpot; probably one of the smallest sizes available. But then again, usually, I only need to feed one.
It’s just after work, closing in at dinner time, so, let’s put it to some good use. Or, well, it’s a SLOW cooker, so never mind that, or I won’t be eating until midnight…
-1 for the slow cooker…
Having to find a different dinner for today, I decide to look into dinner for tomorrow. With closets filed like your average bachelor, (lots of prepared and microwavable food) and only a little extra for stir frying, I suppose I won’t be able to pull a slow cooker meal together from that. Also, with a brilliant absence of any previous experience with slow cooking myself, I have no recipes to start with either.
(Ah, the microwave tells me dinner is ready for tonight, another -1 for the slow cooker…)
Hunting recipes
Dr Google is my best friend, and proves himself with a quick search for “slow cooker recipes” returning 4,330,000 results (wow, +1 for slow cooking). A lot of results turn out to be for larger sized pots, serving whole families at a time. (hmmm -1 for singles wanting to slow cook), and good luck finding most ingredients in my house (yet another -1) So, a quick question to a friend and slow cooker fanatic tells me that I can reduce the quantity of recipes to fit my cooker (+1), but should make sure to fill 1/2nd to 2/3rd of the pot. Also, he warns me that spices don’t scale evenly (huh? -1)
Anyway, I think I’ll settle on something I’d never make without slow cooker, because it’d be too cumbersome, but I generally quite like it when others make it. Fiesta Chicken, a tortilla wrap. The recipe doesn’t involve many steps (+1!) nor seems to required a lot of preparation time (+1). I even have some of the ingredients from my stir frying stock(+1). The other ingredients I’ve seen in many other recipes, so, should be a good investment. (I really would appreciate a list of the more common slow cooker ingredients…) Today’s dinner is finished, let’s go shopping for tomorrow’s.
Hunting ingredients
An interesting note I found on a website is the recommendation to buy the cheaper cuts of meat, as it would work better in a slow cooker. Nice. (+1). A quick read of the recipe indicates boneless skinless chicken, that I would need to dice, and cook… But as a good bachelor I know I can get pre-diced, precooked skinless boneless chicken from the freezer in my grocery store. If I leave that in the fridge overnight, that safes me even more work in the morning (+1)
I would not bother with precooked boneless chicken! Just get the cheapest chicken you can find! The slowcooker will definitely cook it. :D Other then that, I would recommend harder fresh veggies (potatoes, carrots, etc.), stock of some kind (Get bouillon cubes, that lasts for ever, and is cheap and easy to store, the cheapest types of meat, and some spices that you would use otherwise as well. Pasta or rice is often good either in or with the recipies, and possibly cans of beans or some such thing. I like to make Barbecue meat in the slow cooker, so I would finish it off with some BBQ sauce, but you could try other sauces you like to cook with. Call me if you would like some other ideas. :D
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