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ECD confession: I’ve reached the point in my life where I ask for, and truly covet, home appliances at major gift-receiving events. This past December, my main kitchen crush was on a slow cooker. Man, has it been a great present!
So far, I’ve only made a couple things with it, but each one turned out super tasty and delicious, and made a minimum of 4 servings each. I already made chili, beef bourguignon, a pork roast with root veggies, Italian sausage and peppers, and an excellent chicken and rice dish, but I’m super pumped about making them all again and trying new recipes. You should see my Pinterest boards. My plan is to start incorporating it into my Sunday meal prep sesh and use it to make my lunches for the week.
Basically, the slow cooker is THE way to save money in the kitchen:
- you can make big batches of things (my 6 qt. makes around 8 servings of chili)
- you can cook super cheap cuts of meat & they turn out tasty
- you can save on energy costs since the slow cooker uses less energy than a stove/oven
- you can make tons of potluck foods in it for parties or events
- you can have a ready-to-eat dinner at home by letting your food cook all day
- you can make fake Chipotle barbacoa or carnitas in it (my personal fav)
(This is the one I have)
It’s my new fav appliance (sorry fancy blender that I still use daily). If you’re interested in joining the crockpot fandom (I highly recommend it), you can get one for pretty cheap at most stores (~$30). I’d go at least 4 qt. and probably 6 qt. size-wise. 6 qt. will hold a decent sized cut of meat but is still small enough to allow me to batch-cook an appropriate number of servings (like 8 instead of 16). Mine even came with a twisty lid thing so I can easily secure the lid and transport food in it. Get out there and get slow-cooking!
At-home date night is super easy with a slow cooker. Look how fancy this is!