Monday Mining: Slow Cooker Gems

Good morning, all!

With softball season's first game tonight, the concept of quick and easy dinner ideas comes to the forefront of my mind.

So, I thought I would do a bit of searching for slow cooker ideas - you know, pop it in, turn it on and walk away?  It appeals and makes my life that much easier, at least part of the time!

I am sure I'll be doing this again, but here's a start...

The first thing that appealed to me was "Meal Planning for a Year"!  It's a notebook that you organize your cooking/meal planning with.  Wow?  A year?  I am lucky if I can decide what to do for tonight!!  So I think it's worth a peek-a-roo.  Of course in a few short months, there will only be two of us.... probably making this unnecessary.

That being said, making meals in the crock pot, serving them that night and then freezing them would fit right into the above concept, wouldn't it?


Let's see what we can find!

One of the first I ran across on Pinterest was for crockpot freezer meals.  Not only are these to pop into the slow cooker, you make up 4-5, freeze them and THEN pop them in!  I LOVE the idea of just putting the meal in without having to whip it up at 7 AM!!  All good here!

How about Once A Month Cooking - a series of recipes, the food necessary and the steps to go through to complete it?  WAY back in time, when we had the 3 kids at home, I tried the concept - but it was so much trickier to find recipes.  I am thinking that with the Internet, it should be MUCH easier... hmm... will let you know!

How about 365 recipes?  A year's worth?  My first thought would be that a crock pot full of food would last more than a day in our world, at this time, so I might find myself making some selections here.  That and I don't think we'll WANT meals from the slow cooker EVERY night!  We like to grill, enjoy breakfast for dinner once a week and such.  BUT if you are looking for a HUGE selection, here's a place to start: A Year of Slow Cooking, a blog by Stephanie O'Dea.  My guess is that she would have had a freezer full of goodies, as well!  You'll find yourself cruising through LOTS of recipes!

She also has some great ideas for meal planning (for YOU - plan your snacks so you don't eat junk!  GREAT idea!) and if you are like me, you'll spend some time checking her ideas out!

I think those articles and the leaping that occurs once you start on a website/blog will keep us going for a day or two!

Do you have recipe ideas?  I've added a Linky Tool below to help us!  If you come up with one to share, just click on the link below, add a picture and a link and viola!  We can share!

Happy cooking friends!
Carrie