The great thing about using a slow cooker is that you can prepare your meal in about 15 minutes and not have to worry about it anymore. I know I have the most energy when I get up in the morning so it makes it easy for me to add all of the ingredients and be off to work.
I know that I don't look forward to working all day long and then coming home and spending the next 2 hours preparing our dinner. There are a few tips though that can save you even more time and allow you to get the most out of your slow cooker.
One thing you can do to make things easier is prepare as much as you can before bed and put this in the refrigerator. This will save you time in the morning because you only need to place your ingredients in the slow cooker and you are done! There are some ingredients that you will not be able to do this with so be sure to check your recipe and prepare as much as possible. Most of us have enough to accomplish in the morning with getting our children ready for school, preparing breakfast, etc.
I have found that cooking my meals on low gives me the best results 99% of the time. Most slow cookers have only two settings - low and high. Cooking on the high setting is risky because you have a very good chance of overcooking and sometimes even burning your food. I have never overcooked any food by using the low setting. Programmable crock pots are also an excellent idea because they make it literally impossible to cook something incorrectly because you can set and forget.
Many slow cooker recipes call for vegetables and if you are going to use fresh ones, you will want to plave these under the meat as they will take longer too cook. You can put canned vegetables over the top as they do not take long too cook. If you have frozen meat, it is better too thaw it before putting it in the slow cooker. Some people will put a frozen roast in a slow cooker but I have found that my roasts have cooked better when they are thawed out first.
I hope that these small suggestions will help you utilize your slow cooker better and save you time. As you gain more experience in preparing different types of meals, you will develop your own shortcuts and your own unique cooking style.
