Getting out the Slow Cooker, Crock Pot whatever you call it

It is that time of year again the time of year when I drag out the slow cookers.  Now that I have the added responsibility of a new job and will not be at home to prep the meals to ensure that we will get a nice hot tea in a timely fashion I am bringing out the slow cookers.  This way on we can have a nice hot meal that will be ready within half an hour of us getting in (after the veggies have been cooked) and also a hot pudding of some sort as well.  I also have a multi pot cooker which is also very useful but at least with the slow cookers I can leave them on low during the day and then as I have said come home to a nice hot meal of an evening.

I have several slow cookers of different sizes.  My first slow cooker was a little tiny one bought specifically for me to make mulled wine in for Christmas.  OH does not like mulled wine and I do not like wasting ingredients and this was a way of me being able to have what I liked and be able to go backwards and forwards to it without wasting anything.

As the weather has turned particularly colder this week, next week I am going to be more organised with the meals.  Main meals and puddings are to be prepped the night before (over the weekend to start with).  I have some beef sausages to have with tinned tomatoes (a favourite supper here), some gammon steaks, 1kg of mince and a joint of pork to make use of before I nip to the shop to top up for next week.  I would like for next week to get a chicken, some stewing steak, some pork steak, some chicken breasts (for Hawain chicken) as well as some more mince to make Lasagna, chilli, and Cottage pie.  Together with veggies this should bulk out the  meals.  I also intend to make semolina, rice pudding, some fresh fruit of some description with a little cream and maybe a fresh fruit salad as well as a bread and butter pudding.  Will see how things go, but predominantly I hope to do much of the cooking in the slow cookers one way or another.

Since acquiring the mulled wine slow cooker, I have acquired a few more of different sizes including my mum's old one which I intend to use for making soap at some point in the future.

There are some recipes that I have not tried yet with the slow cooker.  Puddings is a new venture for me and I intend to have a go at making the rice pudding recipe to start with.

This is just an outline out loud of what I am thinking but no doubt things will change along the line apart from the fact that the slow cookers will mean the difference between an early or a late tea.

Do you use the slow cooker in your kitchen at this time of the year.  If so what sort of things do you cook and would you be without them.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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