Crockpot Cooking:
Crockpot Cooking: A Smart Investment for Your Health, Budget, and the Environment
by Josh Day
Let me tell you why the crockpot will save you money, improve your health, and make cooking easy and fun.
The humble crockpot, or slow cooker, is essentially an electrical Dutch oven. A ceramic or porcelain pot sits inside a heating element that heats the pot at a consistent low temperature. The crockpot is designed to safely cook foods for six or more hours, unattended.
Compared to traditional ovens and stoves, especially older, less energy-efficient models, the crockpot uses much less energy. You can load an entire meal into a crockpot and not turn on the oven, stove, or microwave.
You'll need raw ingredients for the crockpot, which means you'll save money buying fresh items opposed to boxed and processed goods. Frozen or boxed side items, as well as processed entrees, can cost up to two times as much as their fresh, raw counterparts.
Next time you're at the grocery store, equip a calculator and add up your purchases, separating your produce and raw meats to your frozen, canned, and boxed goods. You'll probably be surprised.
By avoiding boxed and processed foods, you'll also be doing your health a favor. Compare the ingredient list of frozen mashed potatoes to the ingredient list on a bag of raw Russet potatoes. Compare the wall of preservatives and chemicals in a large frozen family meal to the ingredients of fresh onions, squash, mushrooms, and a chuck roast from the meat aisle.
Finally, you'll find cooking with a crockpot can easily be done in the morning before work on busy days. Prepare your vegetables and other ingredients, throw them into the crockpot, and turn it on. Compare this to the time it would take to cut everything up after work, often using both the stove and the oven and possibly even the microwave.
For example, a basic roast simply calls for one onion, peeled and quartered; a scrubbed and washed carrot, roughly chopped (you don't even have to peel the carrot if you don't want to); potatoes, cut into halves or quarters (the skins are delicious when cooked under the slow heat of a crockpot); a tender chuck roast, washed; herbs and seasoning of your choice; and a cup of water or broth.
The stew and pot roast was practically invented for the crockpot. You've never had tender meat until you've had beef or a pork roast from a slow cooker. You may end up pawning all the knives in your silverware drawer.
Once again, here are the benefits of crockpot cooking:
- Save energy by cooking on low heat in a small, largely heat-contained environment that won't heat up your house or significantly add to your electrical bill
- Save money by buying fresh ingredients and in-season produce, as well as helping your budget through reduced energy costs
- Improve your health by cooking with and appreciating fresh produce and meats
- Save time by prepping and "cooking" in the morning before work
Get help to start cooking with a slow cooker today and sign up for our free crockpot newsletter. You'll also want to peruse over a hundred free recipes from crockpot lovers all over the world on our healthy crockpot recipe site and blog.
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