Saturday, February 4, 2012

Crock Pot Cooking...What I learned

Well, I made it through the entire month of January cooking all new crock pot recipes.  I did a total of 17 recipes.  There are 7 recipes I haven't made yet that I put on the calendar.  I only ordered pizza once & didn't have any major catastrophes that warranted going out to dinner.  I only had 1 recipe I thought was terrible & wouldn't make again (never did post that).  I had 1 recipe that Trav didn't care for but I think would have been better if I would have stayed true to the recipe amounts.  I also had 1 recipe that was ok, but again would have been much better if I had stayed true to the recipe.

The month of February will be all recipes from a cookbook my mom got me about 2 Christmases ago called What's for Dinner?  30 weeks of menus with easy, practical recipes by: Jana Schofield.  I'm just starting today, so I'll be a little off, but, oh well.  What I really like about this cookbook is that it gives you recipes for an entire week at a time & it will tell you on which days to do what ahead of time.  The other thing I really like about this cookbook is that it doesn't just give you the main dishes.  Nope, it gives you all the sides, all the desserts & all the recipes to the sides & the desserts.  I've decided I really lack when it comes to figuring out what side dishes to do.  I'm hoping this cookbook will help me remedy that!  First up in this cook book is Malibu Chicken.


What I learned about cooking in my crock pot for an entire month:

1. I found that I really should have scheduled left overs for twice a week instead of once.  This was mostly a result of the fact that Travis is only here every 3rd week, so we ended up with lots of left overs.

2. It would be really nice to have more than 1 crock pot and to have different sizes.  The book I used the most (Fix It & Forget It Big Cookbook) tells you the ideal cooker size at the beginning of each recipe.

3.  I wish I actually knew what size my crock pot was!

4. It's ok to adapt the recipe.  Sometimes it turns out & sometimes it won't, but at least you tried!

5. You had better know if your crock pot is a super cooker like mine before you put a dish in & leave it on the setting in the recipe.  You might come back in six hours to find your dinner extra, extra crispy!

6. I'd like to find some recipes for desserts to do in my crock pot.

I'm still going to try & make the recipes I have on my calendar that I didn't get to.  It might not be until March, but, I'd still like to try them!

1 comment:

Justin & Ashlee said...

I have that cookbook too and one other that gives you the whole week plus side dishes and desserts. Love it! I the other one all the time and that one occassionally. Having such small storage space I have to be really good about a menu and only buy what I need. So those cookbooks are wonderful for that. I wondered if you have ever seen the book 101 Things to do With a Slowcooker? It has a few dessert recipes in it and a ton of really easy recipes including appetizers and drinks! Love that one too :)