Did you purchase a crock pot recently? Have you seen it around? Alright, I'm one of the guilty ones who filed my crock pot under "long lost kitchen appliances" a few years back and have forgotten about it. Until recently, when my budget took a hit and I had to put in more hours at work. So, out it came, all shined up and ready to use and my family loves having actual meals on the table again.
Now, if you bought your crock pot more than, say, 6 years ago, look into getting a new one. They have improved so much that it's worth the $35 or $40 you'll be spending. The newer crock pots have better energy efficiency, plus features like warming cycles, latched tops, temperature settings, and all kinds of fun stuff. But one of the best features about using a crock pot is that they save you money and time. Seems like a good thing, but how do they figure that?
Money Saving: When you are cooking a beef stew, simmering soup or spaghetti sauce, or making a nice pot roast, you are using your appliance for long hours. If you use an oven, you are committing roughly 2500 watts to this meal. If you cook your pot roast in the oven for about 3 hours, calculated roughly, you'll be using about 10 kWh for that meal. If you cook that same pot roast in a crock pot for about 6 hours, you'll be committing about 200 watts, or calculated roughly again, about 1.2 kWh for the same meal. Heating up a whole oven for a pot roast doesn't make sense when you can put it in it's very own, personal sized oven - your crock pot. Using any of the informative energy consumption calculators on the internet, compare your own data and see if cooking with your crock pot makes sense to you.
Crock pots are the perfect home for inexpensive cuts of meat. You're going to cook using low heat and a long, slow cooking method. This method best suits meat that is more sinewy with more connective tissue because it breaks down all the tough stuff. You'll be cooking in liquid, too, which tenderizes the budget cuts, which you'll find becomes fork-tender. As a matter of fact, the more tender meat cuts don't work that well in crock pot recipes as they just break down too much. Try budget cuts like brisket, rump roasts, round steak, pork shoulders, and the like, for some surprisingly delicious and tender meals.
Your family is rushing home from work and school, and there's nothing for dinner. You make a quick stop at the drive-thru, plunk down a huge pile of money and think "there's got to be a better plan". Well, there is. You work too hard for that money to throw it away on bad food. How about, instead, you plan a meal, prepare it ahead of time and throw it in the crock pot in the morning? Everyone comes home to a hot cooked meal and all is well. Now, you have time for the evening routine, without worrying about that anguished cry - "what's for dinner". The fast food joints can get along just fine without your money.
If your air conditioner is running, you really don't want to start that oven, or even have a burner going on your stove top for any length of time. I know you're thinking, well, it's hot out so why not just eat salads and sandwiches? But, if you live in a part of the country where the summer heat lasts sometimes for seven or eight months out of the year, you and your family can really get hungry for a nice pot roast or hearty soup. And when it's hot and steamy outside, and the air conditioner is just barely keeping you comfortable, you don't want to stress it, or yourselves, out by adding more heat to your kitchen. Your little crock pot just won't crank out that much additional heat.
Time Saving: If you are watching your pots boil, you are wasting time. Even stirring soups and sauces take time, especially if you're making something that could stick to the bottom of the pot if left unattended. When you make a meal in one pot it truly does save time, but not if you have to watch it! Sure, you can put a pot roast in the oven and you won't have to stand over it while it cooks, but now you're not saving money. Don't we want to save both money and time?
Another time saver is getting my family involved with some of the cooking tasks. I can have my children in the kitchen with me, washing vegetables, peeling potatoes, and putting ingredients right in the crock pot for me because there is little danger of getting a burn since the crock pot is not turned on until everything is inside and ready to go. And, since most of my favorite crock pot recipes are three, four, or five ingredients, it's easy to ask my husband to start dinner on some of those busy mornings.
If you've been running to the grocery store several times a week to hurry up and get something for dinner, you've been wasting a lot of your very precious time. Wouldn't it be nice to pick up the kids from swim lessons and be able to go right home without that frantic stop for food? I keep several of my favorite crock pot recipes in my purse, so all I have to do is make one planned stop at the grocery store, buy the ingredients I need for a couple meals, and my shopping is done for the week. I even have time now to clean all my vegetables when I get home so they're all ready when I put my planned crock pot dinners together. Now, we're really saving time!
Money and Time Saving: By doubling your crock pot recipes, you'll have leftovers for lunches or be able to put the extra meal in the freezer for later. Not only is it convenient to have your lunch all ready, but it is also a money saver; no more money spent eating out at work. Having a freezer full of meals is a great time saver, too. Who doesn't love finding a meal all ready to just heat up and go? The money saved by using your crock pot just once to produce two meals just makes sense to me.
Look at your poor crock pot just waiting for you to come to your senses, once again. I know you can do it, once you start looking through all the new recipes! Get your kitchen counter cleared off, set up your crock pot, and make out your grocery list. Now, won't you enjoy saving all that time and money when you cook? - 16492
Now, if you bought your crock pot more than, say, 6 years ago, look into getting a new one. They have improved so much that it's worth the $35 or $40 you'll be spending. The newer crock pots have better energy efficiency, plus features like warming cycles, latched tops, temperature settings, and all kinds of fun stuff. But one of the best features about using a crock pot is that they save you money and time. Seems like a good thing, but how do they figure that?
Money Saving: When you are cooking a beef stew, simmering soup or spaghetti sauce, or making a nice pot roast, you are using your appliance for long hours. If you use an oven, you are committing roughly 2500 watts to this meal. If you cook your pot roast in the oven for about 3 hours, calculated roughly, you'll be using about 10 kWh for that meal. If you cook that same pot roast in a crock pot for about 6 hours, you'll be committing about 200 watts, or calculated roughly again, about 1.2 kWh for the same meal. Heating up a whole oven for a pot roast doesn't make sense when you can put it in it's very own, personal sized oven - your crock pot. Using any of the informative energy consumption calculators on the internet, compare your own data and see if cooking with your crock pot makes sense to you.
Crock pots are the perfect home for inexpensive cuts of meat. You're going to cook using low heat and a long, slow cooking method. This method best suits meat that is more sinewy with more connective tissue because it breaks down all the tough stuff. You'll be cooking in liquid, too, which tenderizes the budget cuts, which you'll find becomes fork-tender. As a matter of fact, the more tender meat cuts don't work that well in crock pot recipes as they just break down too much. Try budget cuts like brisket, rump roasts, round steak, pork shoulders, and the like, for some surprisingly delicious and tender meals.
Your family is rushing home from work and school, and there's nothing for dinner. You make a quick stop at the drive-thru, plunk down a huge pile of money and think "there's got to be a better plan". Well, there is. You work too hard for that money to throw it away on bad food. How about, instead, you plan a meal, prepare it ahead of time and throw it in the crock pot in the morning? Everyone comes home to a hot cooked meal and all is well. Now, you have time for the evening routine, without worrying about that anguished cry - "what's for dinner". The fast food joints can get along just fine without your money.
If your air conditioner is running, you really don't want to start that oven, or even have a burner going on your stove top for any length of time. I know you're thinking, well, it's hot out so why not just eat salads and sandwiches? But, if you live in a part of the country where the summer heat lasts sometimes for seven or eight months out of the year, you and your family can really get hungry for a nice pot roast or hearty soup. And when it's hot and steamy outside, and the air conditioner is just barely keeping you comfortable, you don't want to stress it, or yourselves, out by adding more heat to your kitchen. Your little crock pot just won't crank out that much additional heat.
Time Saving: If you are watching your pots boil, you are wasting time. Even stirring soups and sauces take time, especially if you're making something that could stick to the bottom of the pot if left unattended. When you make a meal in one pot it truly does save time, but not if you have to watch it! Sure, you can put a pot roast in the oven and you won't have to stand over it while it cooks, but now you're not saving money. Don't we want to save both money and time?
Another time saver is getting my family involved with some of the cooking tasks. I can have my children in the kitchen with me, washing vegetables, peeling potatoes, and putting ingredients right in the crock pot for me because there is little danger of getting a burn since the crock pot is not turned on until everything is inside and ready to go. And, since most of my favorite crock pot recipes are three, four, or five ingredients, it's easy to ask my husband to start dinner on some of those busy mornings.
If you've been running to the grocery store several times a week to hurry up and get something for dinner, you've been wasting a lot of your very precious time. Wouldn't it be nice to pick up the kids from swim lessons and be able to go right home without that frantic stop for food? I keep several of my favorite crock pot recipes in my purse, so all I have to do is make one planned stop at the grocery store, buy the ingredients I need for a couple meals, and my shopping is done for the week. I even have time now to clean all my vegetables when I get home so they're all ready when I put my planned crock pot dinners together. Now, we're really saving time!
Money and Time Saving: By doubling your crock pot recipes, you'll have leftovers for lunches or be able to put the extra meal in the freezer for later. Not only is it convenient to have your lunch all ready, but it is also a money saver; no more money spent eating out at work. Having a freezer full of meals is a great time saver, too. Who doesn't love finding a meal all ready to just heat up and go? The money saved by using your crock pot just once to produce two meals just makes sense to me.
Look at your poor crock pot just waiting for you to come to your senses, once again. I know you can do it, once you start looking through all the new recipes! Get your kitchen counter cleared off, set up your crock pot, and make out your grocery list. Now, won't you enjoy saving all that time and money when you cook? - 16492
About the Author:
No need to slave all day long over a pot of soup boiling on the stove. You can get the same great taste by making your soups in teh crockpot. Here are two yummy recipes. The first is for a heardy crockpot split pea soup, the other for an equally delicious crockpot minestrone soup. They both make for a hardy lunch or dinner on a cold day.
