Slow Cooker--The Busy Cook's Best Friend!

As Spring approaches I start to get a little nervous--warmer weather means more demands on my time (gardening and yard work for instance), and I already feel like I'm spread thinner than a drink of water. I still want to be able to provide healthy, budget-wise, and yummy meals for the family, so how do I manage with less and less time at my disposal?

Behold the slow cooker--the busy cook's best friend (wouldn't you love to be the guy that invented it?). I thought just for drill, I'd do a little research to see if anyone had suggestions for different ways to use their slow cooker. Boy did I come up with a boatload of ideas. For instance:

• Soak beans in the pot overnight, rinse them in the morning while making breakfast, and then cook them all day. When you get home from work you have beans ready to go into anything.
• Slow cookers are a fantastic way to make oatmeal. Use Scottish or Irish-steel-cut oats for the most nutrition and best flavor. Put water and oats in the cooker before you go to bed, and wake up to a great breakfast base in the morning. Add milk, maple syrup, dried cherries, raisins, or craisins, chopped nuts, some cinnamon, coconut...the list can go on. This is amazing!
• The easiest way to cook a vegetarian meal in the cooker is to throw everything in at once (grains, cooked beans or lentils, veggies, water, oil, or spices. Then cover and cook for 8 hrs. Add any salt at the very last of the timing (salt toughens legumes and slows the cooking process).
  
• Roast or bake vegetables (which can be done without oil or herbs). No water is needed because the veggies have enough of their own, and they won't dry out in the cooker like they do in the oven. Using a digital time to turn the slow cooker on at the right time is the best way to prevent over-cooked veggies. You can bake a large or medium yam on low in four hours, or on high in two hours. Root vegetables or potatoes cut in big chunks take less time. A good idea is to coat them in oil.
  
• There are some clever ways to extend cooking time without hurting the integrity of the meal. Using the aforementioned digital timer is the first place to start. Say that you leave the house at 8:00 am and return at 7:00 pm. The slow cooker recipe you want to start before you leave, will be done five hours before you get home. So just plug your cooker into the timer; set it at 1:00 pm, and supper will be perfectly ready when you arrive. There are several digital timers to choose from on the Internet.
• Another way to extend cooking time is to go with a cold start. Pull a container of soup or stew out of the freezer in the morning, put in the cooker on warm or low; set the digital timer to cook for however long you want.
• Finally, start the day before: Add the ingredients for a one dish meal to the crockpot the night before, put it in the fridge, then start it cold in the morning. This will add another hour or two to the cooking time.

Now for more drill, let's try a recipe. This is very easy and quick, so the idea here is to make it ahead of time, freeze, and place it in the cooker frozen, and cook on low for a few hours (I don't have a timer yet, but I think 6 hours would be OK).

MRS. DASH'S BAKED ZITI (serves 8)
(This recipe is courtesy of Cook'n, edited to accommodate the slow cooker approach)

8 oz pkg ziti pasta (uncooked)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 C chopped onion
2 C sliced, fresh mushrooms
1 tsp Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning
2 tsp Mrs. Dash extra spicy seasoning
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried)
2 Tbsp shredded Romano cheese
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
2 (14.5 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, no salt added
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

In med. saucepan, saute onion and mushrooms in olive oil until onions are translucent and mushrooms release their juice. Add seasonings, rosemary, Romano, and pasta and toss to incorporate flavors.

Line cooker pot with heavy-duty tin foil so foil goes up the sides of the container (you want enough left over to fold over top of casserole to make an airtight seal); shape well to cooker; grease foil well. Place all ingredients except stewed tomatoes in foil lined container. Then pour stewed tomatoes over top, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Fold foil over contents and seal well, then place container in freezer. Watch closely and as soon as contents begin to freeze (where it all holds the shape of the cooker), remove, and lift contents out of cooker pot. Return food to freezer.

On cook day, run foil covered casserole under hot water to loosen the foil; remove contents from foil and place in cold cooker. Set on LOW; you might add 1/2 C water. Cover and cook for 8 hrs. Serve with more shredded cheese, crusty french bread and tossed salad.

Now, do YOU have a suggestion for slow cooker use? Please share--we're all in this together, remember. Let me know what you think of this recipe, should you try it, and until next time, happy cook'n!