Slow Cooker Ideas! page

[Eccentricity]

Hey all! I'm trying to do my best to stay primal, but I've got some SERIOUS constraints on my time. As a general rule, I'm out of the house from about 7 a.m. to about 10 p.m, with about an hour between 5:30-6:30, to prepare and eat dinner. Which makes slow cooker meals about my only realistic option. The problem is, I'm running out of ideas! So what have you got? What are your favorite recipes? Thanks in advance guys, this will help me out a lot!

[Nuance]

We're a two working executive family.....we also don't like to eat out often and with our schedules... I'm with you. VERY HARD. But since we hate eating out MORE.... we've adapted over the last couple of years (but we've only been primal since Feb, so I'm still tweaking recipes etc)....here is an example of what we do:

We like to cook something large 1x a week and not overly flavor it and then use it the rest of the week for other meals. This week I have a roast chicken thawing (raised this with friends ourselves) that we'll enjoy tonight as a traditional roast chicken dinner...then half the breast meat will go for stirfry tomorrow night (OH! Should add we prechop and wash veggies or even in season blanch and feeze for quick use). The other half becomes chicken salad (random version of...but a favorite is chicken salad made with mashed avacado vs. mayo) and it will go a few lunches or dinner. I like to spread it on cucumber rounds or eat it in a hollow tomato. Then I'll pick the carcass and toss it in the crockpot with the cooking drippings, celery, onion, garlic, seasonings for a yummy stock. Leftover stirfry veggies (if somebody didn't eat it already) or veggies from the freezer, bits of the chicken and a few eggs make the best soup and it is so very quick. Make it the night before you want to eat....

Like - put the crockpot on for stock when you leave for the day, when you get back, while you eat one of the above meals, take the stock (remove bones but leave the spent onion and celery) and the veggies on the stove, when veggies are tender, toss in the egg, stir a bit until partially cooked...switch off, let cool until bed, toss in fridge and you'll have a lovely, nuke ready option for the next night.

I love soup stock because I can make a different soup every week and I can make it out of whatever bones from whatever I'm cooking or have cooked (I have containers in my freezer for all leftovers, bones etc, just waiting for their chance to be soup). But from cream soups, to spicy shrimp soups it never has to be the same thing and always soooo easy to take along or nuke after a long day!

We'll round out the chicken with pan-fry steaks or lamb chops and veggies nuked out of the freezer, using leftovers for lunches (if ANY) Eggs also feature 1x a week for dinner. Lately we've been using soft boiled eggs (pre boiled - we mass boil and store on the fridge door) and we just peel, chop with a bit of butter, salt and pepper, nuke until warm and serve with raw veggies and some dip. We tend to hit up method of night egg consumption in fads but right now this one has been a total favorite for weeks. So quick and easy and feels "spring like"

[Farfalla]

One of my favorites:
turkey upper leg or pork (preferably not very lean)
kale
onions
salt

Chop the onions and brown them. Cut the meat in bite-sized pieces and brown them as well. Chop the kale finely. Put everything in the slow cooker, add some salt and cook it on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours. I don't add water but then, I am usually at home when cooking. You may want to add some just in case.

Another big favorite is the Polish meal bigos. You will need fresh meat (various cuts, I mostly use turkey and pork again), smoked meat, sauerkraut, white cabbage, sausages (I usually skip them) and bacon. Optionally prunes and mushrooms - and many other things because this recipe has many variations.

Bolognese sauce is always a big success as well. I think you could eat it with spaghetti squash.

Goulash is a great option as well (Hungarian Goulash I Recipe - Allrecipes.com).

Tomorrow I am making beef cheek stew with bacon, onions and mushrooms. I've done that before with another beef cut, and it was divine.

Hundreds of recipes can be found here: A Year of Slow Cooking - not a primal website, but all recipes are gluten-free, and I think you can adapt most of them to your needs.

[Eccentricity]

Thanks a lot! Great suggestions! I'm pretty new to Primal, so this helps me a ton.

[nance13]

My slow cooker has become the traditional "stock pot" with leftover broth and bits carried over to the next meal repeatedly. Each time we have eaten most of the meat and veggies from the pot (with the pot stored in the fridge, of course) I freeze some of the broth in sandwich bags and use the rest to start the next batch. After the first meal with the new batch, I use a bag of frozen broth to cool the pot and the additional broth just gets stirred in after it melts.

Oh, each time I add new meat and veggies I add just enough seasonings for the new food since the existing broth is so rich. I keep it pretty simple since the food flavors are great and don't need to be concealed. I'm careful to reheat the pot every few days and store in the fridge.

The food just gets better and better!

[lorilr]

I get a lot of ideas here: a year of slow cooking They aren't "primal' recipes intentionally but many are and I get great ideas. E.g. I learned that food tastes much better with much less liquid than what most crockpot recipes have.

(never mind that the recipe on the front page of her blog today is bean and cheese burritos !)

[Blackcatbone]

Mix up a big batch of this and keep it in the fridge Mojo Criollo Recipe - Food.com - 135130 It goes on every kind of meat, just throw in some sliced onions. It's brilliant. I used it in the crock pot for goat chops last night, with beef it makes really good carne asada, chicken is fantastic with it but it absolutely shines with a pork roast. Put the roast in the crock pot, slice a whole onion and add that then pour it over top. You will be rewarded with the best Cuban roast pork ever.

[welcometogoodburger]

Make jerked pork. It's a unique flavor. I used to like it on sandwiches, but it's great by itself or on a salad.

Get a pork shoulder and season it with lots of salt, ground allspice, fresh thyme, garlic, onion, and scotch bonnet peppers. Lots of scotch bonnet peppers, because jerk is supposed to be flaming hot. Put it in your slow cooker on low. When you're home from work, eat it. Fried plantains would be a classic Caribbean accompaniment, and maybe primal? You may need to reseason the pork, because it sort of washes away while it cooks.

I say pork shoulder because there's lots of fat and a bone, which of course means more flavor. You can also pull the meat apart easily for jerk pulled pork. This won't be the same (or even very good) with a lean pork tenderloin.

[pattyd]

I get a lot of ideas here: a year of slow cooking They aren't "primal' recipes intentionally but many are and I get great ideas. E.g. I learned that food tastes much better with much less liquid than what most crockpot recipes have.

(never mind that the recipe on the front page of her blog today is bean and cheese burritos !)

I turn to that site alot as well. Although not entirely primal most are adaptable and I believe her child(ren) is gluten intolerant?

[Meadow]

Crockpot carnitas are a huge fav around here, I put the recipe up on this post. We use the meat for salads, 'lettuce' tacos, or just heated up with some guac on the side.