Quick Meals for Winter

Winter’s just around the corner, and that means getting out your old cookbook and making your favorite comfort foods. But what if you don’t have all day to spare? That’s where your slow cooker comes in. Crock pots are great for winter cooking because they do all the work for youyou just set them in the morning and come home to a nice, hot meal that’s been cooking all day.

Just because it’s called slow cooking doesn’t mean it should take up your entire day. In fact, cooking with a crock pot can cut your time in the kitchen by as much as 50%–without sacrificing flavor or nutrition in your meals. There are lots of quick crock pot recipes that can be done even by kitchen neophytes. Not convinced? Start making your favorite winter foods with these simple suggestions.

Beef recipes

Crock pots are great for tenderizing meats, especially cheaper cuts of beef. This makes it ideal for traditional dishes that usually take all day on top of the stove, such as thick stews and soups. You can even put the meat in raw and it’ll cook itself throughjust set the right temperature and check it once in a while to make sure the cooking is even. Technically you can put it in frozen, although this may not be safefood needs to reach a certain temperature within the first couple of hours to make sure all the bacteria is destroyed.

Some people like to brown the meat in a pan before putting them in the cooker. Most crock pot beef recipes don’t call for this extra step, but it does make the meat more attractive. Just make sure not to overcook it, as this can dry up your meat.

Chicken recipes

Chicken, turkey, and other poultry meats make some of the best crock pot dishes. Their ability to absorb flavors quickly means you can leave your pot on all day and not end up with a bland, flavorless dish. Since they don’t need tenderizing, you can chuck them in raw and use any cut you want. Thighs, breasts, and fillets are some of the most versatile cuts. You can even pop in a whole chicken if you want a nice dinner roast!

Again, browning the chicken first is optional, but it can help seal in the juices if you’re cooking it all day. For most crock pot chicken recipes, just a few seconds in the pan is enoughany longer and you may end up with a dry, rubbery meat.

Vegetarian recipes

If you want something lighter, vegetarian dishes make a great alternative. Although crock pots are more associated with meat, you can make some pretty good winter foods using only your favorite vegetables. Root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, and rutabagas are especially useful for slow cooking, as well as beans, grains, and pulses. You can use them as your main course or as a side dish to heavier meat-based dishes.

If you’re cooking vegetables with meat, place them in the bottom of the pot to allow them to cook faster. Cut them in moderate-sized chunks and try to keep the sides even to help them cook through. Most crock pot vegetarian recipes aren’t too strict when it comes to cutting, so it shouldn’t affect your dish.

Crock pot chili

Chili is easily the most popular winter food, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a very personal dish; practically everyone likes their chili a certain way. With a crock pot, you can make your chili sweet or spicy, smooth or chunky, heavy or light.whatever your taste buds tell you! Just like any other crock pot recipe, you just throw your ingredients together and it does the rest of the work. What’s better than having slow-cooked chili that took a mere 15 minutes to prepare?

If you’re using meat chunks instead of ground, set your crock pot to high heat for the first few hours. This takes care of any thawing that needs to be done, and also removes most of the bacteria. Add the spices near the end of the cooking time, as slow cooking can wash out the flavor.

Soups and stews

Another classic winter recipe is crock pot beef stew. Like chili, it’s extremely easy to personalizeyou can use any cut of beef, add your choice of vegetables, and season it the way you like. If you’re feeling adventurous, try cooking your beef stew with beerit goes surprisingly well with the meat and really brings out the flavor.

If you have time, try adding a dimmer to your crock pot so you can let your stews cook longer. Some of the best beef stews take up to 30 hours to prepare, and the result is a very rich and tender meat that’s well worth the wait!

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