I'm one of those folks who bought a crock pot, thinking it was the answer to my dinnertime chaos, put it in my pantry and promptly forgot about it. Until my grocery budget and work schedule got stretched to the limit. Now, my crock pot is front and center on my kitchen counter top and instrumental several times a week in feeding my family a good, home-cooked meal.
If you have forgotten exactly when you bought your crock pot, or it has a pattern or color that's reminiscent of the 70's, 80's, or 90's, it's best to buy a new one. You'll be doing yourself a favor spending the $30 to $50, what with all the new energy efficient models available. There are also some really great, new features like temperature settings, warming cycles, and secure leak-proof lids. Although, the best feature of all is that a crock pot saves you both time and money. That's great to know, but how do they do that?
Money Saving: When you are cooking a beef stew, simmering soup or spaghetti sauce, or making a nice pot roast, you are using your appliance for long hours. If you use an oven, you are committing roughly 2500 watts to this meal. If you cook your pot roast in the oven for about 3 hours, calculated roughly, you'll be using about 10 kWh for that meal. If you cook that same pot roast in a crock pot for about 6 hours, you'll be committing about 200 watts, or calculated roughly again, about 1.2 kWh for the same meal. Heating up a whole oven for a pot roast doesn't make sense when you can put it in it's very own, personal sized oven - your crock pot. Using any of the informative energy consumption calculators on the internet, compare your own data and see if cooking with your crock pot makes sense to you.
Crock pots are the perfect home for inexpensive cuts of meat. You're going to cook using low heat and a long, slow cooking method. This method best suits meat that is more sinewy with more connective tissue because it breaks down all the tough stuff. You'll be cooking in liquid, too, which tenderizes the budget cuts, which you'll find becomes fork-tender. As a matter of fact, the more tender meat cuts don't work that well in crock pot recipes as they just break down too much. Try budget cuts like brisket, rump roasts, round steak, pork shoulders, and the like, for some surprisingly delicious and tender meals.
How does a crock pot save you money in the evening rush? You aren't calling your husband to pick up dinner at a fast food place. You've prepared your dinner in the morning and popped it in the crock pot. Now you don't have that "what are we going to do for dinner" nightmare. When the kids are coming home from school and the busy evening begins, it is not the time for figuring out something for dinner. Avoiding fast food and convenience store stops are a real money saver.
When you are air conditioning your house, the last thing you want to do is heat up your kitchen by having the oven on for a long time. During the summer, we do eat mostly cold meals, like salads, but summers can be pretty long here and my family starts to get a yearning for a nice, hot meal. Without adding a bunch of hot air to my house, I can throw a pot roast in my crock pot, and we're all happy... and the air conditioner can do it's normal work without stressing it out anymore than necessary.
Time Saving: Consider your time spent over a stove top, watching a pot boil, stirring the contents, as your valuable time wasted. One-pot meals are real time savers, but only if you don't have to watch it cook. And, yes, a pot roast in the oven is certainly a time saver, but it is not a money saver. We want both, now don't we?
The whole family can help put a crock pot meal together, which frees up some of my time. I don't worry about my kids getting burned on a hot stove, so they can wash vegetables and throw them right in the crock pot for me. You don't start a crock pot cooking until everything is inside, so it's safe for the kids to be in the kitchen helping. And because there are so many recipes for simple crock pot meals, recipes which require only a few main ingredients, anyone, even my non-cooking husband, can grab a recipe and throw together a meal to help out.
Nightly stops at the store to quick grab something to cook for dinner is a serious waste of time. Now I take one trip to the grocery store, and buy everything I need for at least three crock pot meals. I can plan several all-in-one-step meals, buy and even prep a lot of the ingredients ahead of time, and pop a meal in the crock pot in the morning. Now, we can go straight home from the soccer game... home to a hot meal!
Money and Time Saving: I'm a big believer in cooking larger portions so that we're cooking once and eating twice. My crock pot is a 6 quart size oval, which is big enough to have leftovers for lunches, so we don't have to spend money buying lunches at work or school. We also will cook double and put half in the freezer. This way, I'm cooking only two or three times a week, and we're eating from the freezer the other days. For us, that's a real time and money saver.
I challenge you to take another look at crock pot cooking. Clear off a spot on your counter, get yourself one of the new and improved models, grab a few recipes, and start cooking... and saving! - 15359
If you have forgotten exactly when you bought your crock pot, or it has a pattern or color that's reminiscent of the 70's, 80's, or 90's, it's best to buy a new one. You'll be doing yourself a favor spending the $30 to $50, what with all the new energy efficient models available. There are also some really great, new features like temperature settings, warming cycles, and secure leak-proof lids. Although, the best feature of all is that a crock pot saves you both time and money. That's great to know, but how do they do that?
Money Saving: When you are cooking a beef stew, simmering soup or spaghetti sauce, or making a nice pot roast, you are using your appliance for long hours. If you use an oven, you are committing roughly 2500 watts to this meal. If you cook your pot roast in the oven for about 3 hours, calculated roughly, you'll be using about 10 kWh for that meal. If you cook that same pot roast in a crock pot for about 6 hours, you'll be committing about 200 watts, or calculated roughly again, about 1.2 kWh for the same meal. Heating up a whole oven for a pot roast doesn't make sense when you can put it in it's very own, personal sized oven - your crock pot. Using any of the informative energy consumption calculators on the internet, compare your own data and see if cooking with your crock pot makes sense to you.
Crock pots are the perfect home for inexpensive cuts of meat. You're going to cook using low heat and a long, slow cooking method. This method best suits meat that is more sinewy with more connective tissue because it breaks down all the tough stuff. You'll be cooking in liquid, too, which tenderizes the budget cuts, which you'll find becomes fork-tender. As a matter of fact, the more tender meat cuts don't work that well in crock pot recipes as they just break down too much. Try budget cuts like brisket, rump roasts, round steak, pork shoulders, and the like, for some surprisingly delicious and tender meals.
How does a crock pot save you money in the evening rush? You aren't calling your husband to pick up dinner at a fast food place. You've prepared your dinner in the morning and popped it in the crock pot. Now you don't have that "what are we going to do for dinner" nightmare. When the kids are coming home from school and the busy evening begins, it is not the time for figuring out something for dinner. Avoiding fast food and convenience store stops are a real money saver.
When you are air conditioning your house, the last thing you want to do is heat up your kitchen by having the oven on for a long time. During the summer, we do eat mostly cold meals, like salads, but summers can be pretty long here and my family starts to get a yearning for a nice, hot meal. Without adding a bunch of hot air to my house, I can throw a pot roast in my crock pot, and we're all happy... and the air conditioner can do it's normal work without stressing it out anymore than necessary.
Time Saving: Consider your time spent over a stove top, watching a pot boil, stirring the contents, as your valuable time wasted. One-pot meals are real time savers, but only if you don't have to watch it cook. And, yes, a pot roast in the oven is certainly a time saver, but it is not a money saver. We want both, now don't we?
The whole family can help put a crock pot meal together, which frees up some of my time. I don't worry about my kids getting burned on a hot stove, so they can wash vegetables and throw them right in the crock pot for me. You don't start a crock pot cooking until everything is inside, so it's safe for the kids to be in the kitchen helping. And because there are so many recipes for simple crock pot meals, recipes which require only a few main ingredients, anyone, even my non-cooking husband, can grab a recipe and throw together a meal to help out.
Nightly stops at the store to quick grab something to cook for dinner is a serious waste of time. Now I take one trip to the grocery store, and buy everything I need for at least three crock pot meals. I can plan several all-in-one-step meals, buy and even prep a lot of the ingredients ahead of time, and pop a meal in the crock pot in the morning. Now, we can go straight home from the soccer game... home to a hot meal!
Money and Time Saving: I'm a big believer in cooking larger portions so that we're cooking once and eating twice. My crock pot is a 6 quart size oval, which is big enough to have leftovers for lunches, so we don't have to spend money buying lunches at work or school. We also will cook double and put half in the freezer. This way, I'm cooking only two or three times a week, and we're eating from the freezer the other days. For us, that's a real time and money saver.
I challenge you to take another look at crock pot cooking. Clear off a spot on your counter, get yourself one of the new and improved models, grab a few recipes, and start cooking... and saving! - 15359
About the Author:
Every home cook should have some good slow cooker recipes. They make for a quick dinner after a long and busy day spent running around town. One of our family favorites is this crockpot hamburger stroganoff recipe. Give it a try. I'm sure your family will like it as much mine does.
