Crockpot cooking or meals fast to cook/prep...

[Moonsunit]

So long story short I take care of my grandmother (who lives with me) and I also work 12-16+ hours a day. I am having an issue finding time to cook healthy meals for my grandmother and honestly need help with ideas. My grandmother can check on stuff if I leave it in a crockpot during the day but I have never really used a crockpot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ThePrincessLuxy]

I've done this one and it's a hit! It saves really well too in the freezer.

http://www.marthastewart.com/1016127/pork-and-hominy-stew

 

[ThePrincessLuxy]

This one has a nice little slide show you can go through and click the links to the recipes. Lots of variety though I haven't tried any of these ones so I don't know how good they are.

http://www.delish.com/cooking/g1419/healthy-slow-cooker-recipes/?slide=1

 

[Gen]

I make crockpot chili during the semester and it's soooo easy and super yummy.

I never use a recipe, just dump one or two onions, a zucchini, one can black or kidney beans (or one of each), one can diced tomatoes, one can crushed tomatoes, handful of mushrooms, a head of garlic, some hot sauce &I chili powder. Sometimes I add meat (brown it first in a pan if you do), frozen corn, red peppers, really anything you like. Cook it on low for eight hours or high for four.

It's super versatile and hard to fuck up, haha.

 

[Tilly]

There's no limitation for what you can do up in a slow cooker. I personally don't go by recipes. I like cooking on the fly with whatever I have on hand. My favorite slow cooker recipes have been comprised of cheap cuts of meat (usually beef or pork roasts- whatever I can find on sale at the local butcher) plus some sort of stock or broth and water to cover, plus lots and lots of your favorite veggies and spices! You can add beans, rice, noodles, whatever!
Here's a recipe that inspired me to do something similar in my slow cooker. Might spark a few ideas! http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/pork_white_bean_kale_soup.html

 

[Bocefish]

It's difficult to screw up a slow cooker recipe providing there is enough time.

It all depends on what she likes or will eat.

Wish I knew the benefits and ease of slow cooker recipes while caring for my mother after my dad died.

Buy a chuck roast, throw in some chopped red taters, chopped celery, chopped or whole baby carrots and some quartered onions along with beef broth, spices... and after a few hours... voila.

Some stores even sell pre-packaged slow cooker packages.

Other than that, I was basically a short order cook with a lot of soups...

Best of luck!

 

[Jesse0328]

1. There's room for modification to suit taste, but this base slow cooker pot roast recipe takes less than 10 minutes to assemble and produces good results: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16066/awesome-slow-cooker-pot-roast/

2. It's called "taco soup" but is more of a chili with taco seasoning. If you cook for 8 hours, browning the beef may not be necessary. Again, you can easily add or delete from the recipe. This soup/chili freezes and reheats fairly easily: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16678/slow-cooker-taco-soup/

 

[Kelsey Star]

I seen some lady buying a mini crock pot for her mother at walmart once.
It was a cute little thing

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I love having a crockpot. It's so easy to toss stuff in and just forget about it the rest of the day.

Occasionally I do 'other' dishes, but mostly I stick to a few I like making in it. Chili, of course. Soak the beans overnight, toss them and the other ingredients in and set on high for an hour to get it up to temp quicker. Then low all day. Always turns out great. I've made lasagna in it, that doesn't turn out too bad. Soups; about as easy as you can get.

Pork roast or butt and slow cook that in some broth and sliced up onions all day. Fork shred that. Then just glob in Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue and heat back up. Toss that on an onion bun and I'm always happy.

My favorite meal though is take some meat, either beef spareribs, pork spareribs (boneless or bone on however you like it), or even a cheaper cut of pork steak. Toss that in. Can of sweet Bavarian sauerkraut, and some Shiitake mushrooms, usually a can of those. Let that cook 6 hours at least, longer is better. Even the cheaper meat always turns out really tender after it's slow cooked all day.

 

[AmberCutie]

This one made enough to last us for nearly a week! Toss it in some tortillas for burritos or tacos, or put on top of rice. Or just scarf it down plain.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/crock-pot-santa-fe-chicken-425-pts.html

 

[Moonsunit]

Thank you all so very much.

 

[AerynShade]

I just made this Black Bean and Quinoa Soup for like the 100th time. I ignore the extra work and just dump all the ingredients in at once, it still tastes divine. You can leave it vegan or add meat (I recommend chopped up polish sausage or shredded chicken).

Growing up my dad often made "crockpot chicken". Basically he dumped raw chicken (wings and legs usually) into a crockpot, covered it with bbq sauce and left it to cook all day. I hated it because I don't like barbecue very much, but the rest of my family enjoyed it. Here's a recipe that pretty much replicates it.

 

[eyeteach]

Kudos to you for being your grandmother's caregiver; I'm telling you, MAJOR Brownie points for that. Seriously.

I think it'd be great to have a food board on his forum, but seeing as we don't whenever anyone posts food questions or recipes I get excited. Okay maybe excited isn't the proper word. Anyway...

Crockpot roast with the above already mentioned; ie, potatoes, baby carrots, quartered onion, either a chuck roast or a sirloin (my preference) and into that add pepperchinis (not sure if that's spelled correctly, but you can find them in the pickle section at the grocery store...oh, add the entire bottle, juice and all) and then lastly an entire pouch of dry, Ranch dressing mix. Just sprinkle the Ranch over everything in the crackpot and let all that cook for a good 6-8 hours or whenever the roast is good and tender.

It is so scrumptious!

 

[JerryBoBerry]

and into that add pepperchinis (not sure if that's spelled correctly, but you can find them in the pickle section at the grocery store...oh, add the entire bottle, juice and all)

Just wondering if a whole bottle of pepperoncini's would set well with an elderly woman's digestive tract.

 

[eyeteach]

Just wondering if a whole bottle of pepperoncini's would set well with an elderly woman's digestive tract.

A small bottle, with like four or so, cooks down and really mixes well with all the juices that collect while cooking. Unless the grandmother has some type of digestive tract or upper GI disorder then everything should be good. Or, you can just skip them altogether. But that was a great point.