So many great, easy things to make. Google A Year of Slow Cooking.

I love b-b-q pulled chicken in the crockpot, I've made pesto chicken and sweet potatoes in the crock pot (layered), and chicken tacos are great. I think all of them are from that blog. The quinoa casserole is pretty good too.

I'm a food snob as well and have given up on the slow cooker. Everything I make in it tastes the same and is a mushy mess.

The only possible exception is barbeque pulled pork, which I've made using the McCormick spice packet. It is passable (but still not great IMO).

I don't think slow cookers make it possible to produce good food while cutting out a lot of key steps. They are just good at doing an unsupervised braise or simmer. Their real value to me is that I can walk through the door and dinner is ready.

There are a few things that slow cookers make easier:
caramelizing onions overnight
slow-cooking pork butt (let it sit in a rub overnight, dump into crock pot with a little liquid in the morning)
cooking unbrowned meatballs in sauce (my kids like their meatballs soft, not crusty)
making chicken stock

Mostly, though, slow cookers make your life easier by sparing you the need to stir and check on things.

Anonymous wrote:I have a slower cooker that I never use. I got a larger one and all the recipes seem to be for small/medium size pots. None of the recipes explain how to adjust the recipe for a larger pot. Any suggestions. Right now it is the bottom of my shelf gathering dust.... Starting full time work this month so figuring out how to use it would be great!

I just double recipes.

Anonymous wrote:I have a slower cooker that I never use. I got a larger one and all the recipes seem to be for small/medium size pots. None of the recipes explain how to adjust the recipe for a larger pot. Any suggestions. Right now it is the bottom of my shelf gathering dust.... Starting full time work this month so figuring out how to use it would be great!

I would get an America's Test Kitchen cookbook from the library. The make ahead recipe one that I have gives the recipe for chili, for example, that feeds 6-8 and they give you instructions on how to make a larger batch, e.g., 20 people.

You could extrapolate to the recipes you already have once you get a sense of scale.

I have a slower cooker that I never use. I got a larger one and all the recipes seem to be for small/medium size pots. None of the recipes explain how to adjust the recipe for a larger pot. Any suggestions. Right now it is the bottom of my shelf gathering dust.... Starting full time work this month so figuring out how to use it would be great!

I hear you, kids have seriously hurt my culinary abilities I just made this the other day. Took about 15 min to prep
Pot roast ( I used a top round roast)
Brown meat in pan w olive oil
While browning put in crock pot
1/2 jar if tomato sauce (I used Classico spicy red pepper)
Splash of soy sauce
5 smashed cloves of garlic
2 large sprigs of rosemary
Handful of fresh thyme sprigs (use spices whole no need to chop)

Add roast after each side is browned, sautée 1 pkg sliced mushrooms in pan. Once brown deglaze with red wine and pour into crock pot.
Cook for 5-6 hours on low
It was Soooo good, my 4 and 1 year olds both gobbled it up

Agree with PP...I don't bother browning meat. Just throw a pork loin or roast or some chunk of beef in the cooker with some vinegar (any kind) and water, about a half cup each, along with some chopped onions and a few cloves of garlic. Cook on low for 5-6 hrs. Drain, shred, add BBQ sauce, cook on low for another hr or so. If you can find a brand of BBQ sauce that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup, those tend to be better.... or make a big batch of homemade BBQ sauce (keeps well in fridge). Serve on rolls with coleslaw on the side.

I like slow cookers, and I almost never pre-brown the meat. I'm sure it adds just that little something, but it's not worth it.

What works really well is a vinegar-based "barbecue" recipe. I'll take pork, or chicken breasts with some white or apple cider vinegar, salt, hot pepper flakes, etc (pick your favorite rub recipe) and slow cook it in that until the meat falls apart. It also works well if you want to do it with a barbecue sauce, but I find all ketchup based sauces (which is all barbecue sauce is) really really nasty.

OP, I hear you. I love ATK, but they definitely have some long winded recipes.

I have their Best Make Ahead Recipe cookbook and the slow cooker recipes are a little more truncated, but not very many in number. (Yes, there's a little sauteing ahead but not complicated.)

I would check a copy out of the library b/f buying yet another book and just photocopy the recipes if you like them.

(One slow cooker cookbook I hated was "Not your Mothers Slow Cooker" or something like that. The recipes were awful.)

We aren't into most stuff that comes from the crock pot. Like you I used to have time to prep for an hr. Even with 1 preschooler and baby. Now with 3rd coming I am stretched thin and have had to learn to use it. I agree with PP skinny taste has some great stuff. We like the chicken taco chili on that website. I also like the Martha Stewart short rib ragu recipe.

We have the 'Fix it and Forget it' cookbook along with the Williams Sonoma slow cooker recipe book - have found good options in both (*Love* the Butternut Squash Chili recipe in the first, and liked the adobo recipe -we did the beef variant - from the WS one.) The WS book might be a good start for you as it has a variety of recipes, some very fast, some with a bit more prep, but also includes some recipes that serve as the base for a couple of meals in the 'make X tonight, use leftovers for Y tomorrow and Z on another day.'

I've also had good luck just looking on line depending on the ingredients on hand - for instance a delicious whole-chicken recipe with rosemary since the chicken was on special at WF and I have a rosemary plant out front.

Not to say this always works, but since I'm not a great planner, picking a recipe to try based on 'I need a slow cooker recipe for that whole chicken and I want to use the rosemary' and then looking for fast recipes has actually worked out well for me in terms of quickly winnowing down options.

This is pretty easy and everyone in our house (incl kids!) loves it:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/pork-carnitas-recipe/index.html

Love the Italian pot roast & chicken curry recipes from here (they do have some prep steps, but not too too time consuming):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1580084893

I have used recipes from skinny taste and taste of home. I agree, slow cooking should be easy.

I used to be a serious cook - would think nothing of spending an hour every night cooking a good meal, had good technique, etc. Then i had kids, ha ha. Anyway, like everyone else I'm looking for good meals with not too much work. I just bought a slow cooker and the america's test kitchen slow cooker cookbook, and found that virtually all of their recipes require about an hour of prep (browning meat, blooming spices, etc). Its just not realistic - doing all that defeats the point of a slow cooker!

So, i'm looking for recipes (or recipe sources) that are reasonable and still tasty. I dont mind 1/2 hr prep including chopping, esp. If it can be done the night before. Definitely dont want to make things that taste like a pile of mush.

Thanks!