I'm In Love...With My Slow Cooker

I've discovered the miracle that is the slow cooker. 

Okay, I'm admittedly late to the party, but, man, what an invention! 

Just throw an assortment of ingredients into the plastic-lined pot, stir, put on the cover, and let it do its thing for approximately four to six hours (and, in my case, pray it doesn't explode!) while patiently waiting for a (hopefully) good result. Once it fills the kitchen with an amazing aroma, you know it's almost ready. It's like magic!

So far I've amazed myself by successfully making southwestern chicken, a meatless super-spicy chili, chunky applesauce, chicken noodle soup, chicken and spinach, and beef and broccoli over brown rice. And the best part is each cooking session produces at least four portions, so dinner for the next few nights is already in the refrigerator and ready after three and a half minutes in the microwave. Not to mention the initial cleanup is extremely minimal (just ladle each entree into a bowl and three or four plastic containers, lift out and throw away the plastic liner, wash the lid, and put the pot back on its storage shelf). That's my kind of cooking!

This is the least painful and most convenient (though by its nature not necessarily the fastest) cooking imaginable. If you're like me and you don't want to cook something different every evening and don't want a lot of fuss or cleanup (and don't mind eating the same thing for a few consecutive nights), I strongly recommend investing in a slow cooker (to the few, if any, who haven't discovered it).

I've read on many women's fitness and healthy-eating blogs that one of the secrets to their success is they prepare their meals in advance (usually on the weekends with their slow cookers' assistance) so they have clean meals and snacks ready to go without resorting to the toxic lure of fast, processed food. This is another slow-cooker benefit. 

 As I learn more about healthy eating, I have a newfound desire to know what ingredients I'm putting in my body. I don't always want to spend hours making my own food from scratch, but I do want to have a healthy body and life. Slow cooking is a step closer to achieving that goal. It's a win-win solution.