The crock pot slow cooker is the cornerstone of my mom's Sunday lunch. We usually leave the house early on Sundays because we are active in our church. Mom would load it up, set it and by the time we get home at noon its ready to go. It's such a comfort knowing when you get home you don't have to cook when you are starving since the meal is already prepared and still hot.
Making mashed potatoes in a crockpot can be useful. Just a couple of weeks ago I was sick with a sore throat, and I asked my husband before he left the house to cut up some potatoes and throw them into the crock pot on low while I went back to sleep. I was able to wake up hours later with the potatoes already done, eat them, and go immediately back to bed without having to worry about standing sick over the stove for twenty minutes, or even worse, accidentally falling asleep with the stove on.
Ah, Classic, that's a good example of when it would be a good idea. It must've been nice to have food already sitting there and ready to go so you didn't have to do anything with it. I hope you weren't sick for too long.
LOL, what do you mean Jessi, I hope you weren't sick for too long? Do you think crock pot cooking is not healthy? The concept is fascinating, I'd love to try it, I just wonder how expensive this pot is and if in fact it's healthy. I'm doing my own research!
No, no, my message was a direct response to Classic (the post above mine) where she said she had been sick. The crockpot was a life saver for letting her cook without actually being stuck sick in the kitchen. I definitely think crockpot cooking can be healthy!
I love the crock pot. I don't use it every night because of the cleaning it and storing it, but boy I think about buying a few more so that I can just make my whole meal in it. Sometimes you can, like a pot roast you have your meal or tortilla soup you have your meal. I am sure I could cook my whole meal in it but I am just not that much of a pro. I usually do meatballs and spaggetti sauce and then do the noodles in a pot on the stove. I also do BBQ chicken, onion pork chops, and a few others but I always do my mashed potatoes on the side or have to fix some other side dish that is not in the crock pot. When ever I use the crock pot I am excited about dinner because my cook time is cut in half.
I would be careful with the mashed potatoes recipe. You may want to try a smaller test batch first to see if you like how they turn out, before wasting a whole bunch of potatoes. I've had mixed results cooking potatoes in a my slow cooker/pressure cooker. One of the most common problems, is the potatoes start to turn brown/grey - it's almost as if they are getting oxidized or something during the long cooking process. Some web sites I've read suggested it was the result of cooking them in a reactive pot, but my slow cooker has an enameled coating. I've also heard it helps to add a little lemon juice, but I wouldn't want my mashed potatoes tasting sour. I've also tried recipes for pressure cooking my potatoes. The recipe said to just wrap unpeeled potatoes in foil and pressure cook them for X amount of time. They ended up taking much longer than the recipe suggested, and the texture of them was a little odd. Kind of hard to describe, they were "cooked" but not entirely mashable - sort of like canned potatoes.
Having a crock pot does make cooking easier because you don't need to be watching your food as closely and I find that beans in particular come out better than on the stove. I haven't used the crockpot for cooking anything else which I need to be doing. I get concerned about cooking things like meat in it, but sure it would be find if brown it first then let it cook long enough.
Next to my stand mixer, my slow cooker is the best thing in my kitchen. I am constantly amazed at the desserts and meals I can make with it. I've made everything lasagna to chicken tacos to meatloaf. I love it because I can put all the ingredients in there in the morning and not have to worry about dinner for the rest of the day. I love that the popularity of the slow cooker is growing again because it makes it very easy to find new recipes to try. There are whole blogs devoted to a slow cooker and they offer great recipes.
