Monday, February 23, 2009

Slowcooker Recipes: Easy on Your Schedule and Budget

Preparing delicious, home cooked meals can be difficult to work into today's busy schedules. One of the easiest ways to combat the dinner time rush is by relying on slowcooker recipes. Using your slowcooker creates tasty, nutritious meals that are a breeze to make and budget friendly as well.It's not uncommon for today's busy parents and professionals to have a mere 30 minutes between arriving home and dinner time. That doesn't leave a lot of prep and cooking time for that night's meal. Imagine how stress free it would be to come home and have the delicious aroma of a ready meal to greet you at the door. That's what slowcooking does.Prepping slowcooker recipes takes, on average, very little time. Simply cut up your ingredients, place them in the slowcooker's pot and leave it to simmer and cook all day while you get on with your daily activities. Don't have time in the morning? Prep your meal the night before, refrigerate overnight and turn it on in the morning as you're heading out the door. When you arrive back home your delicious meal is ready when you are. Another advantage to cooking with a slowcooker is the process' ability to turn cheaper cuts of meat into tender, delicious meals. When grilling or frying you often have to choose more expensive, marbled cuts of meat to avoid a brick-like outcome. A slowcooker, so named because it cooks meats over a longer period of time at lower temperatures, breaks down tougher connective tissues and delivers premium meals at rock bottom prices.Every time you throw away leftover foods you're throwing money in the garbage. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to quickly and easily reuse those leftovers in a future meal and save money on your grocery bill? With slowcooker recipes it's simple to use leftover roasts, steaks, rice or even vegetables. Make a stew with your leftover pot roast, throw pre-ccoked vegetables in a few minutes before serving to reheat them and the cost of that night's dinner became pennies a serving. For leftover rice use it to make stuffed green peppers that is both healthy and inexpensive thanks to the reuse of leftovers.Slowcooker recipes are an excellent way to take the stress out of dinner time and reduce your grocery bill. With a little preparation ahead of time your family can enjoy healthy and hearty meals with minimal work for you. Now's that's a cooking method worth trying.Beef Stew in the Slowcooker: 2 pounds fresh stewing beef or leftover roast, cut into 1-inch cubes 4 carrots 3 potatoes 1 medium onion, chopped 1 celery stalk, sliced cup flour tsp. pepper tsp. salt 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 cups beef broth 2 tbsp. HP sauce 1 tsp. Paprika Place your cubed meat into the slowcooker. Mix flour, pepper and salt together and pour the mixture over the meat to coat thoroughly. Then add the remaining ingredients. Stir together well. Place the lid on your slowcooker and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours or, if rushed, 4 to 6 hours on high heat. Stir well before serving your stew.

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