You should own a slow cooker.

Everyone should! Do you work outside of the home? Would you rather eat at home than eat out? Is knowing WHAT is in your food important to you? Are you watching your salt intake, your fat, gluten, vegetarian? Are you trying to watch your budget right now, and REALLY need to start spending less money on food. Do you hate, loathe, despise cooking? Do you stay home with the kids, and feel like you don't have time to chop, sauté, simmer, and boil for dinner every night?

Do you eat?

You should own a slow cooker.

So first, I must tell you I am obsessed with my slow cookers. No, really! I thought they were just used to put giant pieces of meat in to tenderize after many, many hours, but I was so wrong!

I knew I had a crock-pot, since I remembered moving it, but I don't remember buying it or using it much until we got to Raleigh, and suddenly I was home with my daughter and pregnant. I had gotten very used to my husband cooking dinner every night. He is such a great cook, and would only cook really great tasting and high quality food. It only seemed fair that I attempt to help with dinners. The only problem was, I don't know how to cook. Nothing. I can put a mean macaroni and cheese (from the box) in front of you, but that is about it.

So I started looking around for recipes online. I had a pretty cheap 3.5quart crock pot (which by the way is a perfectly fine size for two adults with some leftovers for lunch).

I first came across this blog http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Which is a really great place to start, especially if you eat meat. She has a lot of dishes that have meat, and even those have lots of meat in them! Often times too much for me, but to each their own. I tried several of her recipes, and we liked them, even hubbers, much to my surprise! (What! I made dinner and it was GOOD?!) Then I got her book from the library:

"Make it fast, cook it sloe by Stephanie O'Dea
Make it fast cook it slow

I love this book, it has a lot of really fantastic recipes and the organization is perfect. I like how she has separate sections for poultry, take out,vegetarian, side dishes, breakfast, beans etc. Personally, if I were to recommend any single crock-pot book, it would be this one. If you are vegetarian, it has a section for that, there are lots of bean recipes, soups and stews, drinks, side dishes and desserts. You could always substitute 'fake meat crumbles' for the chili's and stews, although I have not tried that.

I implore you to get a slow cooker! Really, even if you just want to do an experiment it can be a cheap one. Get a small slow cooker, you can definitely find one for less than $30. Try it out for 30 days, if you don't like it, gift it to a local body for warming food, sell it to a college friend (perfect for dorms!) or just make rice in it! A 3.5 quart is perfect if your just dipping your toes into the water, anything smaller and it will really limit the kinds of dishes you can make. I think its better to have yummy leftovers, than not be able to make a certain dish.

Don't have money lying around, try to put aside $1 everyday for a month, and you can get yourself a nice slow cooker! Then get the cook book from the library! I promise you will make healthy, TASTY, dinners you will be PROUD to share with your friends and family, not to mention it can all be done in less than 10 minutes in the morning.

You’ll also save money by not eating out and having leftovers for lunch! Win, win!