Matthew Gates https://notetoservices.com 3m 826 #slowcooker
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Spend Less Than 10 Minutes On Lunch and Dinner
If you’re anything like me, you’d prefer to not be cooking than to be cooking. Less much cooking for everyone else. It’s great that you can feed everyone and cook dinner, but every night, 365 days a year, almost, for the nights you decide to stay home and cook, it just feels like a chore. However, you should probably cook smarter, not harder. That is the joys of the crock pot. Set it. Forget it. Enjoy the smells the next morning and afternoon. Whoever came up with cooking food overnight and having the flavors absorb each other was a genius. So crockpots are for the lazy, but efficient. They also provide an abundance of healthy meal recipes.
You can even recycle the crock pot to make multiple meals for the entire week which will save you so much valuable time. Seriously, tell the kids you’re cooking, and if they come into the kitchen, they’ll be asked to help you. Than go sneak down the hall to take a hot bath. If they knock on the door, tell them you’re going to prepare dinner and if they bother you, they’ll be expected to help. Of course, they can setup the plates, though dinner isn’t going to be until the next day, as you’ll be cooking this overnight.
With that said, here are my simple but favorite recipes that feed an entire family. A crock pot is required for these meals. Whether you are a vegetarian or love meat, we’ve got it all covered.
Pot Roast
- Beef Broth
- Can of Pepsi
- Can of water
- Garlic
- Onion Soup Mix
- Pot roast (best if cooked for 5 minutes each on all sides beforehand to sear the outside of the meat and keep the juices trapped in)
- Seasonings of choice
- Optional vegetables
Cook overnight on slow. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.
Chicken
After your family is done with the pot roast, the next day, throw in some chicken breast. Let that cook overnight on slow. It’ll absorb the juices and seasonings of the pot roast. Amazing and very little time spent doing anything.
Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.Cook overnight on slow. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.
Pork Tenderloin
- Take a knife and cut some nice pockets into the tenderloin.
- Pour some olive oil into the pockets.
- Drop some garlic into those same pockets.
- Sprinkle some seasoning into those pockets as well as the outside of the pork.
- (You can also mix the three in a small bowl beforehand and just use a spoon to get them into the pockets.)
- Best to throw in a cup of water or other broth-type for moisure or to flavor. Could even do red wine.
Cook overnight on slow. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.
Salmon/Talapia/Other fish
- Pour lemon juice over salmon
- Cover salmon with seasonings and veggies
- Wrap salmon in foil (should help prevent your house from smelling like fish)
Cook overnight on slow. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.
Tofu
- Add with seasonings, peppers, and other veggies.
- Add coconut milk or almond milk or other type of milk for flavor.
Cook overnight on slow. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, vegetables, or beans.
We’ve got beef, chicken, pork, fish, and vegetarian tofu covered. All of these recipes should take no more than 10 to 20 minutes to prepare. You could throw in pork chops, lamb chops, meatballs, buffalo chicken wings, or just about anything you want. Depending on how much you throw in, you can have lunch and dinner. If your family doesn’t mind leftovers, you can leave it in the crockpot overnight for an “extra well-doneness” by leaving it on warm. The meats within will absorb the flavors. While it is recommended that you only “recycle” crockpot juice once or twice, you can definitely get away with a third time if you’d like to throw in the pork after the beef and chicken, though it is probably not a good idea for the fish get that same flavor, unless you like it.
If you start cooking on Sunday, you could definitely have meals for nearly six days out of the week and have spent less than an hour to do meal preparation for the family. There are other meats and other flavors you can come up with, including soy sauce, teryaki, wine, barbuque, A1, bacon, etc. You can even cook your meat with beans and rice. The meats will absorb the flavor of the beans, while the rice will absorb the flavor of the meat.
Lunch and dinner do not have to be hard or take a lot of time, especially time you really don’t want to spend doing it. Come off as a hero in making dinner and everyone will appreciate, despite the fact that your effort was very little, but the flavor will be a lot. You can’t really mess any of these up! Though you should definitely try experimenting with your own! Enjoy these recipes!
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