slowwww cookin' parts 2 & 3

I'm in love...the slow cooker i borrowed from my mom has been getting a tonne of use...more use than she ever gave it!!
Since borrowing it ( well since taking it-who are we kidding?) i have been having so much fun and saving a tonne of time cooking in the evenings. It is the easiest kitchen appliance we have to use and it takes no time at all to prep for dinner-either in the evening before bed or in the morning before i head out the door.
My second time using the slow cooker, i just dumped some cut up vegetables (carrots, potatoes and onions) in, then put in frozen chicken breasts, topped with salt, pepper and about a cup of chunky salsa, turned it on low and left for the day, We returned home to a great meal and i had time to veg on the sofa watching TV rather than making dinner...ahhh what a life...
This morning i did something similar but i cooked a whole roast. I was skeptical that it would fit in our slow cooker as it is an older model and seemed smaller than the ones i have seen in stores today BUT i was pleasantly surprised to discover that 6 diced potatoes, a cut up onion and a 4 pound roast all cooked nicely in there. All i did was add a little diet coke (it helps tenderize the meat) some onion soup mix and a tiny bit of water. The meat was so tender i was really pleased, as was hubby since not only did he enjoy a home cooked meat and potatoes dinner on a Monday night but he also gets roast beef sandwiches for the rest of the week at lunch time:) Sure beats caf food!!

Slow Cooking...

after all the hupla over on Chrissy's blog about slow cooking solutions I decided it was time to borrow my mom's slow cooker and see what all the fuss was about. So this morning i woke up a little earlier than normal (was up at 6 instead of 6:35) to prepare our dinner for this evening. Since i didn't have a recipe to follow and i just had a bunch of different vegitables in the fridge along with some cubed veal in the freezer i just chopped up potatoes, yams, green pepper, red pepper and tomatoes. I dumped it all in the crock pot along with some chicken stock, water and tomato paste...put in on low and crossed my fingers.
Hopefully we won't have to order a pizza for dinner tonight as I have no idea what is going to come of this experiment i created...
I think i might buy some of those slow cooker solutions just to have on hand and at least i know they will taste alright. Plus i'm exhausted from getting up early to prepare dinner for this evening!!!