Be a crock star
All together now: We love crockpots!
They provide that little piece of heaven when you are craving a home cooked meal but you don’t want to spend too much time cooking and cleaning. They cook low and slow.
“Keep calm and crock on!”
– Unknown
Crockpots, also known as slow cookers, gained popularity in the 1970s. Story has it that as more women started working outside the home, crockpots came in style as they could fill the pot in the morning with ingredients, turn the power on low and come home to a fully cooked hot meal for the family.
Thank goodness, the times have changed and now all hands are in the kitchen.
What can you make in a crockpot?
Yikes. I can’t list everything because that would take up my entire 700 words for this column. What I can tell you is that there is an extremely wide variety of foods you can make. Anything and everything from apps to dessert, even beverages. From sloppy joes, meatballs, BBQ chicken, lasagna, pulled pork (my fave), enchilada casserole, fajitas, stroganoff and jambalaya. Oh, and all sorts of tasty soups. The possibilities are truly endless. You enter crockpot recipes in Google and hundreds will appear.
I tend to look for recipes that take all of 10 to 15 minutes to prep.
This week, I made an absolutely delicious chicken curry. Get this, I put chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, curry powder in the crockpot. As I was home, I put it on high for four hours. When the chicken was cooked I poured coconut milk and peas in the pot and let that sit for an additional 30 minutes.
As the curry was cooking I made Arborio rice. It’s the same rice used for risotto. Oh yes, the most wonderful creamy and soft melt in your mouth rice. I made it because I thought the chicken curry was missing something — a base. Once the rice was cooked I added it to the crockpot, stirred up all the ingredients, plated the curry and topped it with cashews. Full disclosure, I forgot the cashews when taking my picture.
Doh! But I added them after.
“Do you smell what the crock is cookin’?” – Unknown Tips: Cook your rice in chicken or vegetable broth, not water, for additional flavour. Don’t add frozen ingredients as they’ll bring the temperature down. I mean a few frozen peas won’t make a huge difference – you get the idea.
Let’s face it, as much as I love to cook and bake, I also love the idea of little prep and work for supper after a long day. Cooking with a crockpot is also a great way of avoiding take out. With minimal prep in the morning, you come home and all you have to do is plate it and clean the inside ceramic pot. Or, if you’re super organized, prep the evening before and put the pot in the fridge overnight. In the morning, take it out and put it in the pot on a low heat and you’re set for the day.
“Crock it like it’s hot.”
– Unknown
Ha ha … that quote killed me. A take on Snoop Dog’s “Pop it like it’s hot” song.
Can we please have a moment and acknowledge the cutest mini crockpot in the picture? My mother bought two of these for myself and Paul to take to work. I know, some sweet, wha? It just goes to show that it truly doesn’t matter how old you are, your mom is always there to ensure you’re taking good care of yourself and eating nutritious food.
I don’t want to turn this into an endorsement but I can’t help it, they’re fabulous. It’s so simple to use. Fill the inner container with delicious food, put it in the warmer, bring it to work, plug it in, and by lunchtime you have a hot meal waiting for you. It doesn’t get better than that foodie friends.
“According to Pinterest, all I need to be a great cook is a crockpot.” – Unknown
Be a crock star! There is no question, crockpots make all sorts of food that is definitely fit to eat.