Crock pot ideas/Recipie

[Meaux]

I cooked a 3 or 4 pound chicken in my Crock Pot this week (all this Crock Pot talk has made me very excited to use it!), it came out amazingly. I couldn't take it out of the pot when it was done, because it just fell apart. So tasty. I'm hoping the soup from the leftovers will be just as nice. Anyone else try this?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I made a very nice wild mushroom and barley thick soup with lamb in my slow cooker a couple of days ago. Had some carrots and onions in it too. I browned the onions and lamb chunks first in olive oil, and that was pretty easy. I read that that is one of the keys to bringing out the best flavors- the browning sort of caramelizes the natural sugars and fats, giving them a better flavor, and of course they look nicer too.
The whole house smells so GOOD with the slow cooker going all afternoon.
It was very hearty and aromatic. DH is VERY happy about my getting a crockpot, because he LOVES soup.

Right now I have a 3 lb. pork roast in the slow cooker with sauce for the past 5 hours, making bbq pulled pork tonight! DH is from Iowa, and of course he is nuts about pulled pork.

(Can you tell I'm having fun?)

[madscot13]

never used a crock pot before! never left a post outside of apparel before!

We have a crockpot in our house, and it always seems in the way. Maybe it is time to put it to use. I am a novice cooker but I do okay. i feed my self seven times a week (big thing for a college student). I think it is time to crock pot.

what are some guidelines? Like times for various ingredients. Is it really okay to leave home while it is crockpotting? This seems like fun!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Madscot,
You can find a lot of info and recipes free on the web for slow cookers.
I got this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Slow-Cookers-D...e=UTF8&s=books
"Slow Cookers for Dummies" and it has all the info you'll ever need to know, written in an easy to understand way. Look to the right of the page for used copies which are cheaper (i got a used one myself). It has some good recipes too, using FRESH ingredients.
And yes, it IS safe to leave cooking while you are out. (as long as you follow the instructions, and the pot is at least half full but not more than 2/3 full) That's really why I bought mine, becasue I love to make soup for my husband but I always felt uneasy about leaving a pot simmering on the stove when I went out.

[bikerchic]

I've got a turkey carcass in the freezer just begging to be thrown into a crock pot and turned into soup, yum!

Perfect for this cold northwest weather too.

[trashalicious]

my favorite crockpot recipe:

brown rice squash "risotto"

it's super easy to make and very tasty. don't be put off by the fact that it's from "fatfreevegan.com" - i brought this to thanksgiving at my very traditional, omnivorous family get-together and everyone loved it. they didn't even guess that it's vegan, or so good for you!

and for the record, i got my crockpot at value village for $5 and it's been great. nothing fancy, but neither am i....

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Trashalicious,

That's a nice website! I recognized the Chipotle-kissed recipe as also being in the book I just book:
http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Vegetari...e=UTF8&s=books
I really like this book, it gives a lot of good tips for cooking with FRESH food in the slow cooker. I wonder if there are other recipes shared between your link and my book...
I do eat meat, but I like the "freshness" of the vegetarian cooking style and I figure I can always throw a few bits of chicken or fish etc into any dish if I want to.
When I was looking for a slow cooker recipe book a couple of weeks ago, I browsed through WAY too many books of recipes calling for canned cream of mystery soup or dried onion soup, canned chicken(!), canned mushrooms, etc. Pretty mushy sounding concoctions to me. Reminded me of the scary recipes from 30 years ago, when I last had a crockpot!

I will be exploring some of the other recipes on the link you gave. Thanks!

This morning I put together a pretty good hearty veggie stew in the slow cooker and we ate it this evening. DH has been sick with bad cough and cold and I am slightly sick now, trying to fight it off. So I figured all the vegetables would be good for that.

My older daughter (28) wanted to know all about my new slow cooker over the phone and she sounded very enthusiastic, wanting to know how she should get one... She actually IS a vegetarian, and on a very low budget too. She loves beans and soups and such. So for Xmas I am getting her a smaller crock pot (3 1/2 qt) and the same book I got. It would be ideal for her and her partner's lifestyle. I told her perhaps Santa would read her mind and know just what she wanted.