Is there really any truth to the assumption that cooking with a crock pot, or slow cooker, saves you both money and time? How exactly can a crock pot do this?
Save Time With a Crock Pot - If your meal is going to be in the slow cooker for 8 hours or so, doesn't saving time seem like an oxymoron? The time savings comes in a few ways, but certainly being able to walk out of your kitchen while your meal is cooking does save you some time to do other things.
Like most families, you probably cannot designate one person to do the cooking each and every day. With our busy schedules, we have to get a bit of help in the kitchen. Because we're not dealing with hot burners and open flames, we can recruit even our youngsters to help out with the meal preparation. Chores such as adding ingredients to the crock pot can now be delegated, freeing up your time for other tasks. Also, many recipes for the crock pot are kept very simple, making them ideal for the cooking-challenged family members. Everybody can help!
A watched pot never boils, and this is never truer than when you're in a hurry to get dinner on the table. If you don't have to stir a pot and watch it to make sure it stays on simmer, you can go about your business. After the ingredients are in the crock pot, you are free to take care of what you need to the rest of the day. Time spent over a hot stove is wasted time, indeed.
Frantic stops at the grocery store to quick grab something for dinner are a huge waste of time. You know you're going to spend 30 minutes or more wandering around the store trying to think of something to cook for dinner. Of course, as time goes by, the choices for dinner start to narrow as time starts to slip further and further away. Planning two or three simple crock pot meals for the week allows you to consolidate your shopping trips into one instead of wasting time stopping every night trying to figure out what to cook. The time it takes to plan the meals and the shopping trip never adds up to the time you spend stopping every night in a panic. And, it's so nice to come straight home after a busy day to enjoy a delicious meal.
Save Money With a Crock Pot - You've got to cook dinner anyway, so how can cooking in a crock pot save money? Food is food - it all costs the same, right? But, there are a couple ways that you can save money both in the grocery store and on your energy bill when you use a crock pot.
March right past those expensive cuts of meat in your grocery store's meat department and head over to the budget cuts. Yes, those less expensive cuts of meat such as rump roasts, pork shoulders, and briskets make the perfect choice for a crock pot meal. Why? Because more expensive cuts tend to cook apart in a crock pot, losing their texture very quickly. Budget cuts with more sinew and other connective tissue hold up better, while those fibers break down in the crock pots environment, ending up with a perfectly tender and succulent meat. The slow, low cooking method is perfect for less expensive cuts of meat, while the moisture trapped inside the crock pot keeps the meat juicy. You can provide a wonderful meal for your family without spending the extra money on expensive ingredients!
If you consider your crock pot a "miniature oven", you're on your way to understanding why your crock pot will save money on your energy bill. Given that an oven commits about 2500 watts to a meal, while a crock pot only commits about 200 watts, you can see where you would save energy. Even if you consider that you'll be cooking a pot roast in a crock pot for twice as long as in the oven, you're still saving total energy used. Your oven would use 10 kWh to cook a 3 hour pot roast, while your crock pot would use 1.2 kWh to cook the same pot roast for 6 hours. Even roughly estimated, there's no denying the fact that your oven uses a whole lot more energy than your crock pot.
If you are a busy family with children, you know how often you get stuck during that evening rush without dinner plans. Have you called your husband to pick up dinner at the fast food place more than once this week? You know that is a real budget-buster! While you're running your child to piano lessons, or baseball practice, your crock pot can be working away cooking up dinner, saving you from yet another stop of the fast food place. No more frantic calls to the spouse for take out! That's more money saved.
Save Both Time and Money With a Crock Pot - Cooking larger portions, and planning for your leftovers, is one way to save both time and money. With a large crock pot, a 6 quart size, you can cook larger cuts of meat, turn that meat into several dinners, then package up the leftovers for lunches. By cooking one large meal, you have now created several dinners plus lunches all in about the same time it takes to cook one meal. Not only are you saving energy by cooking more than meal at a time, but you're saving the time it takes each day to put together a new meal. Plus, if eating lunch out is a routine for you, just think of the money you'll be saving by bringing your own home-cooked meal to eat each day. And, maybe instead of using your lunch hour to run out and get something to eat, you can use the extra time to do something you enjoy.
I think these reasons for cooking with a crock pot will convince most folks that it just makes sense. Using a crock pot does save time and money, yes, but above all it saves your sanity when you've got a busy family! That hectic "what's for dinner" cry when everyone finally comes through the door each night no longer has to overwhelm you - not when you've got dinner in the crock pot!
Save Time With a Crock Pot - If your meal is going to be in the slow cooker for 8 hours or so, doesn't saving time seem like an oxymoron? The time savings comes in a few ways, but certainly being able to walk out of your kitchen while your meal is cooking does save you some time to do other things.
Like most families, you probably cannot designate one person to do the cooking each and every day. With our busy schedules, we have to get a bit of help in the kitchen. Because we're not dealing with hot burners and open flames, we can recruit even our youngsters to help out with the meal preparation. Chores such as adding ingredients to the crock pot can now be delegated, freeing up your time for other tasks. Also, many recipes for the crock pot are kept very simple, making them ideal for the cooking-challenged family members. Everybody can help!
A watched pot never boils, and this is never truer than when you're in a hurry to get dinner on the table. If you don't have to stir a pot and watch it to make sure it stays on simmer, you can go about your business. After the ingredients are in the crock pot, you are free to take care of what you need to the rest of the day. Time spent over a hot stove is wasted time, indeed.
Frantic stops at the grocery store to quick grab something for dinner are a huge waste of time. You know you're going to spend 30 minutes or more wandering around the store trying to think of something to cook for dinner. Of course, as time goes by, the choices for dinner start to narrow as time starts to slip further and further away. Planning two or three simple crock pot meals for the week allows you to consolidate your shopping trips into one instead of wasting time stopping every night trying to figure out what to cook. The time it takes to plan the meals and the shopping trip never adds up to the time you spend stopping every night in a panic. And, it's so nice to come straight home after a busy day to enjoy a delicious meal.
Save Money With a Crock Pot - You've got to cook dinner anyway, so how can cooking in a crock pot save money? Food is food - it all costs the same, right? But, there are a couple ways that you can save money both in the grocery store and on your energy bill when you use a crock pot.
March right past those expensive cuts of meat in your grocery store's meat department and head over to the budget cuts. Yes, those less expensive cuts of meat such as rump roasts, pork shoulders, and briskets make the perfect choice for a crock pot meal. Why? Because more expensive cuts tend to cook apart in a crock pot, losing their texture very quickly. Budget cuts with more sinew and other connective tissue hold up better, while those fibers break down in the crock pots environment, ending up with a perfectly tender and succulent meat. The slow, low cooking method is perfect for less expensive cuts of meat, while the moisture trapped inside the crock pot keeps the meat juicy. You can provide a wonderful meal for your family without spending the extra money on expensive ingredients!
If you consider your crock pot a "miniature oven", you're on your way to understanding why your crock pot will save money on your energy bill. Given that an oven commits about 2500 watts to a meal, while a crock pot only commits about 200 watts, you can see where you would save energy. Even if you consider that you'll be cooking a pot roast in a crock pot for twice as long as in the oven, you're still saving total energy used. Your oven would use 10 kWh to cook a 3 hour pot roast, while your crock pot would use 1.2 kWh to cook the same pot roast for 6 hours. Even roughly estimated, there's no denying the fact that your oven uses a whole lot more energy than your crock pot.
If you are a busy family with children, you know how often you get stuck during that evening rush without dinner plans. Have you called your husband to pick up dinner at the fast food place more than once this week? You know that is a real budget-buster! While you're running your child to piano lessons, or baseball practice, your crock pot can be working away cooking up dinner, saving you from yet another stop of the fast food place. No more frantic calls to the spouse for take out! That's more money saved.
Save Both Time and Money With a Crock Pot - Cooking larger portions, and planning for your leftovers, is one way to save both time and money. With a large crock pot, a 6 quart size, you can cook larger cuts of meat, turn that meat into several dinners, then package up the leftovers for lunches. By cooking one large meal, you have now created several dinners plus lunches all in about the same time it takes to cook one meal. Not only are you saving energy by cooking more than meal at a time, but you're saving the time it takes each day to put together a new meal. Plus, if eating lunch out is a routine for you, just think of the money you'll be saving by bringing your own home-cooked meal to eat each day. And, maybe instead of using your lunch hour to run out and get something to eat, you can use the extra time to do something you enjoy.
I think these reasons for cooking with a crock pot will convince most folks that it just makes sense. Using a crock pot does save time and money, yes, but above all it saves your sanity when you've got a busy family! That hectic "what's for dinner" cry when everyone finally comes through the door each night no longer has to overwhelm you - not when you've got dinner in the crock pot!
About the Author:
Get out your favorite slowcooker recipes, search for a few new recipes, and brush up on your slowcooker cooking methods! It's time to get started and get serious saving money with your slowcooker!
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