Cooking: Who's Got Time?

Turns out, you do! I know it sounds crazy, but you really do. You don't have to feed your family out of a box (though there's nothing wrong with it every now and again; we ate frozen lasagna out of a box last week). In fact, the above meal, a pot roast with carrots and potatoes, was an easily prepared slow cooker meal. For the recipe, read on.

When I first got married, I used to get up before 4:00 AM to complete my workout routine before leaving for work, mostly so I would have time in the afternoon or evening after work to walk my dogs and cook dinner before my husband came home.

You see, I like to have dinner on the table--or pretty darn close--as soon as my husband gets home from work. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the fact that, well, I'm hungry. If I were to wait for my husband to get home from work so he could cook dinner, there's a chance I'd starve to death before bedtime (a little hyperbolic, but you get the point).

So, I used to choose rising pre-4:00 AM over eating post-7:00 PM. And then this wonderful thing happened: My husband bought me a slow cooker for Christmas (or maybe it was my birthday). Might not sound like the most romantic gift in the world, but it is still one of my favorites.

I am a huge advocate of the slow cooker. It might be the greatest thing since sliced bread (or dry shampoo--see my posting from April 11). If you don't have a slow cooker, get one. If you have one, use it. It is one of the biggest time savers in my life. Partially due to my slow cooker, I have switched around my entire routine from that terrible 4:00 AM workout schedule. I now get up a little before 5:00 (which gives me time to take my dogs out for a 30ish-minute morning walk), run after work, walk my dogs (again) after work, shower after work--and still (almost always) have dinner on the table and ready to eat as soon as my husband gets home.

Here are even more time-saving tips for using the slow cooker:

1. Instead of waiting until the morning of the meal, get a little more beauty rest by chopping any vegetables the recipe calls for the night before. Cut them right up, plunk them into the slow cooker, and put the slow cooker in the fridge.

2. If possible, prep the entire meal the night before--broth, meat, vegetables--whatever the recipe calls for. That way, in the morning, all you have to do is take the slow cooker out of the fridge, put it into its warmer, and turn it on.

3. Plan ahead to utilize leftovers. For example:
Sunday night before bed--prep beef stew and put in fridge
Monday morning--take slow cooker out of fridge and turn on
Monday night--enjoy beef stew; store leftovers--still in the slow cooker--in fridge
Tuesday morning--remove slow cooker from fridge, turn slow cooker on to  "warm" setting
Tuesday night--enjoy beef stew again, and wash slow cooker so it's ready for the next meal
Right there, we have two completely hassle-free weeknight meals in a row. Voila!

The recipe pictured above is my own slightly modified version of a recipe you can find in Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining: Slow Cooker Favorites for All the Year Round, by Phyllis Pellman Good and Dawn J. Ranck.They also have a light edition, Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. Below is my modified version of the recipe in the former book:

Pot Roast

4-lb. chuck roast (or any beef you can roast)
meat tenderizer
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1 pkg. baby carrots
3 to 4 potatoes, chunked
1 cup boiling water (or broth)

*Steps 1 and 2 can be done the night before*
1. Place roast in slow cooker. Sprinkle with meat tenderizer and onion soup mix.
2. Add carrots and potatoes around roast.
*Morning Of*
3. Pour boiling water (or broth) over vegetables.
4. Cook on high 4 to 5 hours.

Other nutritious, delicious, slow cooker meals we love:
Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken Alfredo
Beef Stew
Miriam's Chicken
Meatloaf
Roast Beef
Chili
Potato Soup
Chicken in Honey Sauce
Hearty Spaghetti Sauce

The slow cooker is a phenomenal way to prepare a tasty, nutritious, homemade meal--fast (well, slow...).

Fast Fitness Tip: Do calf lifts in the shower while you let your conditioner set.