Comments on: The Frugal Magic of the “Five Ingredient Crock Pot Meal”

By: ed

ed — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:53:22 +0000

#57 Mike: YOU ROCK! I was beginning to think the sacrifice of mammal, fowl, or finned creature was a prereq for using a crockpot. I’m new to crockpots, not vegetarian eating, and, since I was raised by a TV dinner kind of family (part of why I went veg) have very limited training cooking, let alone converting recipes from one form of preparation to another. The very thought of trying puts me in a cold sweat. Anyway, this site has all kinds of recipes for tasty-looking vegetarian crockpot recipes, most of them not requiring a special trip to places that sale products unfamiliar to the western palate. Thank you for posting this site!

By: Jenna

Jenna — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:47:10 +0000

If you’re having an issue cooking the Breakfast Apple Cobbler, try using rolled oats instead of quick oats. Rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats) have a chewier texture than Quick oats, so they’ll probably hold up better for a longer period of time.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:56:28 +0000

Let me add to the list of people for whom the breakfast apple cobbler was a disaster.

It was charred beyond recognition on the edges, merely burned in the middle, and the few edible bits just tasted like bland apple oatmeal.

Oh wells, that’s the first of many Simple Dollar recipes I’ve tried that dudded out, so it’s still a good batting average! :)

By: Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:12:50 +0000

We love our crockpot too, but I am on a low-sodium diet so I try to avoid prepared sauces, salad dressings, beef stock, etc. My family loves pot roast done our way: I put sliced carrots and potatoes in the bottom of the crockpot, then a roast, some dried minced onion and garlic powder, and I top it all off with a 6 oz can of low-sodium V-8. Tastes great!

By: Kay

Kay — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:03:24 +0000

If you don’t want to use canned soup, make your own white sauce- what the soup does is basically bind everything together. Look in any basic cookbook for instructions- I usually just throw mine together without benefit of measurements. It’s basically just flour cooked in butter or another fat until fragrant, with milk or broth added, and then cooked until it’s thickened. You can steep fresh herbs in the milk or broth for more flavor, and when it’s done, add some onions/garlic/herbs/etc.

By: Kathie Allen

Kathie Allen — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:18:09 +0000

In researching healthy meals for my 8 year old son with arthritis, I learned that foods typically cooked at high temperatures, like meats, may contribute to the risk and exacerbation of chronic diseases linked with inflammation, such as arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. Research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York shows that frying or grilling certain foods at high temperatures produces compounds that can increase inflammation in the body. It is recommended that you limit your exposure to meats cooked at high temperatures and cook with lower temperatures, hence another reason benefit to using a slow cooker. This information was taken from:

http://www.arthritistoday.org/nutrition-and-weight-loss/healthy-eating/food-and-inflammation/cooking-temperature-inflammation.php

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:53:58 +0000

I made the Breakfast Apple Cobbler recipe and it turned out fantastic! Maybe part of the trouble is the type of granola being used. I did not pare the apples and it was rather dark but it tasted great. The second time we made it I used plain old rolled oats (not the quick type) and added extra cinnamon and a just a splash of water because the apples were sorta dry. This came out fine and it wasn’t near as dark. This method of cooking oatmeal has certainly taken the place of shredding the apple into a pot of water in our house.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:29:32 +0000

I hate touching raw meat, so the night before I will put a frozen roast in the crock pot. I take about a cup or cup and a half of water and but in some beef boullion (probably a teaspoon or two, but I don’t really measure), liquid browning, maybe a spash of worchestershire sauce (cause I like how it smells), maybe a dash of BBQ sauce or something like that, if I remember some pot roast seasoning that I bought once, dump it on then set on low and leave it until supper the next day. If the meat is thawed out, I do the same thing but in the morning. For Chile, I brown the ground beef first. Actually, if I have a big pack, I will brown up whatever there is then freeze it in smaller bags, so I would just plop in a chunk of browned then frozen ground beef. Or skip the meat if my husband isn’t around. I also add a can of corn and usually a can of mushrooms.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:05:50 +0000

One of our favourites is Salsa Roast.

Put a beef roast, as big as you like, into the slow cooker. Pour over a jar of salsa. Cook on low for about 8 hours. I generally pull some of the sauce out and thicken it with cornstarch, however you don’t need to.

Leftover roast gets sliced thin and dunked in batter and fried for meat fritters. Or chopped and then put through the food processor with carrots, onions, eggs, mint, mashed potato and made into rissoles. Yummo!

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:20:56 +0000

All this talk of crock pots reminds me of a joke of my parents. The very first Christmas they were married, my mom bought some really nice things for my Dad like well made sweaters and cologne.
Did my dad get mom some pretty jewelry or perfume?

No.

A mustard yellow crock pot.

In spite of all the teasing, Mom ended up using it way more than Dad ever used his sweater or cologne.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:15:50 +0000

I made the Apple Cobbler for breakfast this morning and it was pretty awful. I wouldn’t recommend this recipe. I’ll probably end up seeing if anyone else likes it to use as ice cream topping (it was completely crumbly) or else it’s going in the garbage.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:28:28 +0000

The recipes look VERY interesting, but I have one problem. Or should I say five. My wife and I have five 16 to 25 year old kids. Most of them good eaters.

My problem is how do I convert all of these recipes so that we can use them with our large family. None of them seem to have how many servings the recipe produces when cooked. Two? Four? You mention you and your kid(s) have eaten these meals in the last six months, but you don’t say how many kids you have and how old or good of eaters they are. Please help.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:38:46 +0000

Tried the Apple cobbler in a 6qt and ended up with a black carmalized mess too. I am guessing the size of the crock pot played a part in this, but 8 hours on low on a modern crock pot seems like it’s too long.

By: J Farber

J Farber — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:21:57 +0000

If you put some cooked pasta, and a LOT of food-processor-grated SWISS, or SMOKED, cheese into a crockpot, with a little tomato sauce, and some water, it will give you a melted-cheese hot dish all weekend. For the lacto vegetarians.

This is, absolutely, the time to buy a food processor, a Cuisinart if possible. It will pay for itself very well. Machines like this also may not be within reach later, after current supplies are used up! A lot of Chinese factories have closed! Get gear NOW! A warming tray, and a LARGE coffee urn are good to have. We are all going to be entertaining at HOME. If you want a rice cooker, go for it; it could be useful for having a lot of company. Get stacking, not folding, chairs, at STAPLES.
A pressure cooker is the opposite of a crockpot: little time, a lot of precision. The crockpot: a lot of time, no precision.
Look at Overstock.com website.

By: J Farber

J Farber — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:09:42 +0000

A good crockpot type starts on HIGH and later it turns ITSELF down to LOW. “Smart Pot”. You just: 1) put raw, real food into it, 2) fill with cold water to about an inch, or inch and a half, from the top, 3) cover, 4) leave for work. At night, you will come home to a meal. You can freeze what you don’t need right away. Put in a jar of tomato sauce: this makes ANYTHING good. You can put meat in, even FROZEN SOLID MEAT. Or, a few meat bits for flavor. When you are still learning, put in salt LATER, after it’s done. 1) A bag of rinsed little carrots, 2) a bag of little potatoes UNPEELED, 3) two sticks of celery with the leaves, 4) a small onion, or not, 5) a bag of rinsed dried beans, and you are fine. Don’t be scared. Place the machine carefully, so it is on a heat-proof surface, and away from everything, no twisted cords, and you CAN leave this machine alone all day, or all night. That is what is meant for. You can go to sleep or work and let it alone. If you need to add water, add boiling water. Don’t open it much while it’s cooking. Trust it and leave it alone. FOR SAFETY FROM FOOD POISONING, do NOT add anything to it, once it is done.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:28:39 +0000

We love the crock pot. I suggest you watch what you buy in the “spice packets” as many are mostly salt. You could pick up 2-4oz containers of the spices and seasonings your family enjoys and better control your seasonings and salt intake.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:15:36 +0000

I will echo the problems with the Apple Cobbler. I put it on at 11pm and by 7am it was a black mess. This seems like a good idea, but I think it might need something else to make it work…

By: almost there

almost there — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:25:05 +0000

Follow up on the featured Apple Cobbler. I used the exact recipe last night except with granny smith apples. Put it on at 10pm and had a black carmalized mess at 7am. I used a 1 year old crock pot 4 qt on low setting.

By: Sally

Sally — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:09:13 +0000

Becky — if you’re using ground meat, it’s generally cooked first. I think this is primarily because even if you break up/crumble ground meat before putting it in the crock pot, the texture is still different compared to when you brown it first.

Various cuts of beef and chicken go in raw. Some recipes call for browning first, but it’s for flavor.

I’ve done beef stew and pot roast, for instance, both ways. Some times I brown it first, some times I don’t. It depends only on what I feel like doing!

By: Becky@FamilyandFinances

Becky@FamilyandFinances — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:25:18 +0000

I saw someone else ask this, but didn’t see an answer:

For the chicken and beef recipes, am I putting in raw meat or cooked meat????