The Back Story
I am not a chef. I have no formal training in anything culinary related, although I have been to quite a few Pampered Chef parties (for the record, the handheld chopper rocks). What I do have is a deep and abiding love for my slow cookers. I got my first slow cooker on my twenty-first birthday, along with a food dehydrator and a pasta machine. I was engaged to be married, and thought I should learn to be a bit more domestic. I had only used the food dehydrator and pasta machine a few times before shoving them into the back of a kitchen cabinet. I found the prep work and ensuing mess daunting, and I wasn’t enamored of the shriveled fruit and squishy pasta.
But my slow cooker? My slow cooker gave my domestic side a much-needed boost of esteem. This was a machine I could use. I was fascinated with the way this simple device was able to transform a forgotten and frostbitten roast from the back of the freezer into quite a tasty meal. I was amazed at how effortlessly I could throw together soups and stews, and how tender and moist chicken breasts could become when almost completely ignored.
I continued to use my slow cooker through the early years of my marriage, and fell in love with it all over again when I became a mother. I quickly learned that the only way to ensure a proper family dinner at 6:00 PM was to get the slow cooker loaded up early in the morning while I was still caffeinated and coherent. It just wasn’t safe to chop vegetables during the afternoon “witching hours” with cranky kids hanging from my ankles, and once my children hit school age, we spent our afternoons and early evenings at scout meetings or on the sports field. Slow cooking became a way of life.
In January of 2008, I took my love of the slow cooker to the Internet. I began working for BlogHerads.com, and knew that in order to better understand my job, I should begin a blog. I was hesitant to share too many personal details with the Internet, and liked the idea of a food blog. But I didn’t really know how to cook—I just liked to use my slow cookers! When I joked with my husband that I should make a New Year’s resolution to use my slow cooker daily and write about it online, Adam told me to “go for it.” On January 1, 2008, A Year of Slow Cooking was born.
When I began my yearlong adventure, I didn’t think I would come up with new recipes or uses for the slow cooker, and I didn’t think anyone reading along at home would attempt to make any of the food I presented. This changed on Valentine’s Day, 2008, when I made a perfect crème brûlée at home, in my tiny kitchen, in the slow cooker. I was thrilled that this delicate dessert came out so well, and decided to e-mail the Rachael Ray television show to share my discovery. A producer called a few weeks later, and I flew to New York to appear in person on the show.
After this appearance, my handful of daily readers grew to a few thousand, and I was asked to assemble the recipes from my yearlong adventure into a book. My first cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking is a compilation of 338 of the very best recipes from my year of slow cooking. I am quite proud of that book, and am overjoyed that I had the opportunity to share my slow cooker experiences with so many people.
While the recipes presented in my first book are delicious, fun, and at times revolutionary, they don’t reflect another one of my passions: saving money. Although I can make a fantastic lobster bisque in the slow cooker, this isn’t really a practical meal for most busy families. This new book has 200 brand-new recipes that will bridge the gap between being innovative and practical. Although all these dishes fit into a specific budget, I am happy to state that the included recipes do not skimp on flavor—I have chosen hearty, delicious selections, covering all meals from breakfast to dessert. I hope you enjoy it.
Are You Cheap? Frugal? Responsible? Does It Really Matter?
I don’t like wasting money. I’m a sucker for a bargain, and have a hard time buying anything without first double-checking the price tag. I’ve been teased in the past and called “cheap”—and while I used to feel embarrassed, this is now a label I wear proudly. When I first joined the workforce, I kept a loaf of bread in my desk drawer and a jar of peanut butter with my name on it in the communal refrigerator. Instead of joining my coworkers for a daily restaurant or deli lunch, I munched on my bread and peanut butter. I’m not sure exactly how much money I saved by doing this, but I’d guess it to be in the neighborhood of a few thousand dollars.
I have a hard time spending top dollar for items when I know that if I just apply myself, I can usually find the same thing (or something quite similar) at a lesser price at a different store or an online retailer. That said, I’m also practical, and know that I can’t really spend a lot of my time hopping around grocery stores hunting for the best deal. Instead, I try my hardest to plan my meals around seasonal fruit and vegetables, and to stock up on meat and other high-priced items when they are on sale at my favorite neighborhood grocery store. I’ve found that by sticking to the same store and keeping to my list, I fare better than driving to a new store to cash in on an advertised price. Unfamiliar stores encourage aisle wandering, and I’m much more prone to impulse shop at a new-to-me store.
Regardless of your financial situation, I’m sure we all know what it’s like to worry about bills and expenses, and to lie awake at night concerned about the future. It’s no fun.
I’ve read an awful lot about trimming expenses from the family budget, and it seems the quickest and easiest way to find a bit of extra wiggle room at the end of the month is to pay attention to your purchases at the grocery store.
Using the slow cooker is a fantastic way to trim the fat from your grocery bills. I appreciate that I can use dried beans and inexpensive cuts of meat. I like that, more often than not, a slow cooker dish provides leftovers I can pack for lunch, or stretch into another family meal by serving it over rice or pasta, or using the bits and pieces as a base for soup. With help from the slow cooker, you can stock the freezer with homemade broth, pasta sauce, and slow cooker “TV Dinners” (page 6). You can freeze your own cooked beans to use in your favorite recipes, and make homemade yogurt and baby food. You can cook a whole chicken for its meat, and then use the carcass for broth. Since I began using my slow cookers daily, I’ve learned that the average amount of energy used for slow cooking is similar to that of a desk lamp: 75 watts on low, and 150 watts on high. This is much less energy use than an oven, stove, or barbecue requires.
About This Book
There are over 200 brand-new recipes in this book that have not been shared in the first Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook. The recipes included have been chosen because they are inexpensive to make. I have separated the book into three sections: $7 and under, $10 and under, and $15 and under dishes. Within each section, there are chapters for beverages, appetizers, soups and stews, side dishes, main courses, and desserts. The main-course selections are bountiful, because I believe this is the most beneficial. I have also included a section I’ve entitled Staples. This section has recipes from my first book that I felt were important to this one, such as making homemade broth, yogurt, and baby food in the slow cooker.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which happens to be a terribly expensive place to live. The prices in this book are from my own hometown, from my own (regional chain) neighborhood grocery store. I did not use coupons to purchase the food, although I did choose to buy items when they were on sale, and chose store brand items if the per-ounce cost was less expensive than that of the name brand. I rounded up instead of down when determining into which section to place a recipe. I also chose to use store-bought broth when determining prices, instead of making my own (recipes included in the Staples chapter), for price continuity.
Because of this, you may find that by shopping with the store circulars in your area, or by using coupons, or by purchasing meat in bulk at a warehouse store, you can find food at a lower price, and that my prices seem inflated. I’m okay with that! I’d much rather err on the side of overestimating the costs.
In the past many slow cooker meals were made cheaply because they revolved around using canned cream-of-something soup. While I do think there is a place in the world for condensed soup, this book does not have a single recipe that calls for this ingredient. My family doesn’t use this product due to allergy and health concerns, and since so many recipes already exist with this key ingredient, I wanted to step away and prove to myself (and others!) that inexpensive slow cooker dishes can be made without it. I am such a sucker for a challenge.
This isn’t to say that all the recipes included are completely void of processed and convenience food items. Although I happen to live in California and eat a fair amount of tofu and quinoa, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Velveeta®. And bacon.
This book is a group effort. Scores of readers from all over the world sent me their favorite recipes to try in the slow cooker. Some were traditional slow-cooked meals, and some needed to be tweaked to work in the slow cooker. All the recipes have been tested in my own home kitchen, with my own Crock-Pot® slow cookers, and tasted by my (sometimes picky) family: my husband, Adam, and my two big girls, who were five and eight years old at the time. We had a new baby in the home while I was cooking and preparing these recipes, and while she wasn’t able to be an official taste tester, many of the dishes were prepared while wearing her in a front pack—I’m definitely a multitasker!
In order to save on publication fees and keep the purchase price of this book down, I’ve opted not to include photographs. If you would like to see a finished photo as well as preparation photos, please visit the Web site crockpot365.blogspot.com. Every dish has been well documented.
Please note that children under the age of four should not be given hot dogs, nuts, seeds, popcorn, large chunks of meat, whole grapes, carrots, or any other food that may cause choking.
Everything in This Book Is Gluten-Free
The recipes in this book have been prepared completely gluten-free, due to a family intolerance. If you are not gluten-free, feel free to ignore my notes, or file them away in case you ever need to cook for someone with gluten sensitivity. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye. Oats are off-limits, too, unless they come from a specified gluten-free source. Please read all manufacturer labels carefully; ingredients sometimes change with little or no warning. If you would like to learn more about going gluten-free, please visit the celiac.com and celiac.org Web sites.
Because of this need to cook gluten-free, some of the items I have purchased cost more than their traditionally made and manufactured counterparts. Unless otherwise noted, the prices in this book reflect the gluten-free purchase price, proving that you need not break the bank in order to adhere to a gluten-free diet.
I use the following gluten-free foods and condiments in our home kitchen, which are readily found in neighborhood grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or at Amazon.com:
Aidell’s Sausage and Meatballs (read the labels carefully, as not all varieties are gluten-free)
Betty Crocker Gluten-Free cookie and cake mixes
Bob’s Red Mill Certified Gluten-Free Whole Grain Rolled and Steel Cut Oats
Coleman Natural Gluten-Free Chicken Meatballs
Food for Life® brown rice bread
General Mills Rice and Corn Chex cereal
Glutino Pretzels
La Choy soy sauce, sweet-and-sour, and teriyaki sauce
Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, Made in the USA (only the U.S.-manufactured is gluten-free)
Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix (I use this as my all-purpose flour)
Pamela’s Amazing Wheat-Free Bread Mix
Redbridge beer (Anheuser-Busch)
San-J Tamari, Wheat-Free
Tinkyada Brown Rice pasta (all sizes, including lasagna noodles)
Trader Joe’s Brown Rice pasta
Meal Planning and Other Money-Saving Shortcuts
I’m a meal planner. I wish I wasn’t sometimes, because having a meal plan attached to the fridge kind of makes me feel like an obsessive control freak. Except. Having this meal plan ensures that I’m not thinking up meal and snack ideas five to six times a day, every day. It also keeps the kids from rummaging through the cupboards multiple times an hour and keeps me from mindlessly snacking my way through a bag of chocolate chips.
The most dreaded question at the end of the day will always be “What’s for dinner?” If you’ve got a slow cooker plugged in on the kitchen countertop, you have already alleviated this problem. Congratulations! Go one step further and write down all your dinner meals for a week, planning a day off once or twice a week to eat leftovers. Once you’ve got the hang of meal planning for dinner, work with your family to plan out breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how this simple idea can save an awful lot of time, money, stress, and even calories.
Keeping a well-stocked freezer will also help save your family’s valuable time and money. If you make a large batch of food, plan on serving half of it and freezing the leftovers. I found it very comforting to come home from the hospital with my third little one knowing I had about three weeks of meals ready and waiting in the freezer.
Another one of my favorite ways to stock the freezer is by making what I call “slow cooker TV dinners.” To do this, pick out a slow cooker recipe, and instead of loading the meat, vegetables, sauces, and spices into your slow cooker, put it all into a zippered freezer bag. Write any extra directions on the outside of the bag with a permanent marker and plop it into the freezer. The night before, take the bag out of the freezer and thaw it overnight in the refrigerator. Slow cook in the morning as directed in the recipe.
Spices enhance the flavor of meals, and in a lot of instances, the little jars of spices purchased at your local grocery store can be the most expensive purchases on your receipt. I’ve tried to limit the spices in this book to easily found and reasonably priced varieties, but I’d still suggest buying spices in bulk at warehouse stores, or through online and mail-order catalogs for additional savings. Shopping at neighborhood produce stands and ethnic markets will also garner noticeable savings. If you are new to cooking and have very few spices on hand, I suggest purchasing a stocked spice rack from a department store or bed and bath store. These spice racks usually contain twenty to thirty different varieties of spices, and are quite inexpensive (look for heavily discounted prices during the winter holiday season) for such a large quantity. After using this spice rack for a while, you’ll get a feel for your favorite cooking spices and can tailor your grocery store purchases accordingly.
Another way to save money in the kitchen is to make your own broth. I’ve provided recipes for homemade stock and broth in the Staples section of this book, but you can also save an awful lot by forgoing store-bought broth and using bouillon and water. In the past bouillon cubes received a bad reputation for added sodium, preservatives, and MSG. The newer varieties no longer have these additives, and the savings can be rather astonishing. A quart of free-range, gluten-free chicken broth can cost as much as $3.50. A jar of Superior Touch Brand’s Better Than Bouillon runs $6 for 16 ounces, and makes 16 quarts of broth. That’s an enormous price difference!
Time is a premium commodity in most busy households, and you will quickly discover that you not only save money by utilizing your slow cooker, you save valuable time as well. One way in which I save time in the kitchen is to brown a lot of ground meat (usually turkey or beef) at a time. If I’m already pulling the skillet out to brown a pound of meat for a particular recipe, I’ll brown a few more pounds to store in the freezer for future use. I also choose to chop my onions all at once in the food processor. I despise chopping onions, and instead dice a whole 5-pound bag of onions at one time, and freeze in 1-cup serving sizes in ziplock freezer bags. When an onion is needed in a recipe, I pull out my frozen bag and let it float in a bowl of hot water until thawed—this saves so much time (and tears!) on a busy morning.
I also prefer to buy bags of baby carrots to toss into the slow cooker instead of peeling and chopping large carrots. I’ve found that the price difference isn’t enough to persuade me to pull out the cutting board and peeler.
I try to keep the following pantry and freezer staples on hand in our home kitchen:
A-1® steak sauce
all-purpose flour (I use Pamela’s Baking Mix as my gluten-free all-purpose flour)
beans (dried and canned)
broth
brown and white rice (long grain and instant)
butter
canned fruit (peaches, pears, mandarin oranges)
canned tomatoes
cheese (shredded and block, lots of varieties depending on sales)
chicken thighs and breast pieces
cornstarch
cottage cheese
cream (heavy, half-and-half)
cream cheese
eggs
fresh fruit: apples, bananas, oranges, berries
fresh vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers
frozen vegetables
ground beef and turkey
ketchup
milk
mustard
oatmeal (rolled, steel-cut, ours is certified gluten-free)
orange juice
pasta, all shapes and sizes (brown rice pasta for us!)
soy sauce (gluten-free)
sugar (white and brown)
vinegar (apple cider, red wine, balsamic, white wine)
wine (white and red, the mini airplane bottles for cooking)
Worcestershire sauce (gluten-free)
yogurt
Another way to save money on meals is to travel with your slow cooker. When on vacation, I regularly seek out hotel or vacation rentals that include a small kitchenette. Instead of using the pots and pans the rental provides, I bring along my own slow cooker and load it up in the morning before we head out sightseeing. My children are well behaved, but after a long day out, they rarely want to put on “restaurant manners.” It’s nice to know that we can come back to the room and enjoy a fully cooked meal without waiting in line or spending gobs of additional money.
Choosing a Slow Cooker
Your basic slow cooker has a cooking element (which is the part with the cord) and removable stoneware into which you load the food. Some of the older slow cooker models don’t have this removable section, but all of the new ones on the market do.
Please refer to your owner’s manual for the proper use and care of your slow cooker. When slow cooking, the cooking time is a range—if you know that your particular slow cooker seems to cook fast, stick to the low end of the cooking time. When preparing delicate dishes and when baking, keep an eye on your cooker and don’t venture too far away.
I would highly recommend purchasing a programmable slow cooker. This type of slow cooker has either buttons or a knob that lets the home cook decide on the cooking temperature (high or low), and can be set to cook in thirty-minute intervals ranging from one to twenty hours. When the set cooking time has elapsed, the machine automatically switches to a warm setting, keeping your food hot and ready to serve when you arrive home at the end of a busy day. When using this type of slow cooker, opt to set it for the lower end of the suggested cooking time. If you’re out of the house for 10 hours and the suggested cooking range is for between 6 and 8 hours, set it for 6 and let the cooker stay on warm until you arrive home. If your meat and potatoes aren’t quite bite tender, you can always flip it to high while you change clothes and set the table. You can pick up a good programmable slow cooker for under $100.
I recommend keeping your pot two-thirds to three-quarters full for optimum performance. Although there are many different sizes of slow cookers on the market, you do not need to go out and buy them all. If you are going to purchase one, and one only, opt for a 6-quart. You can still make all the appetizers, dips, and fondues in this one machine by simply inserting an oven-safe dish (Corningware®, Pyrex®) into your removable stoneware to create a smaller cooking vessel.
Real Life
I love how the slow cooker allows me to have wiggle room when preparing meals. Before I began my Year of Slow Cooking challenge, I was uncertain which spices go together and why. I have certainly expanded my culinary expertise during the past few years, but I would never consider myself to be a great traditional cook. I like having fun. I treat the slow cooker as an Easy-Bake™ oven for grown-ups.
I love the fact that I can put something on and wander away without fearing the food will burn to a crisp or boil over (things that happen often when I cook using traditional methods). I also like the fact that I can taste and tweak spices while cooking with plenty of time to “fix” anything that might happen. I’ve been known to accidentally add a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon. The low and steady heat of the slow cooker gives me the opportunity to scoop out my mistake without burning my fingers, or the time needed to add more broth or ingredients to balance out my flub.
Cooking should be fun. When preparing dinner becomes a chore and it’s no longer enjoyable, money is wasted ordering pizza or takeout. One of the reasons the slow cooker has become such an invaluable tool in our house is because I can make do with pantry staples or meat I buy on clearance. Some of our favorite meals have occurred when I just started opening cabinets and dumping stuff in the pot. I urge you to do the same. Play. You might just surprise yourself with what you come up with!
