Ingredients:
4lb boneless pork roast
1 cup cranberries, finely chopped
1 tsp grated orange peel
¼ cup honey
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of ground nutmeg

Instructions:
Gently rub salt and pepper onto the pork roast, then place in the slow cooker.

In a bowl, thoroughly combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the top of the pork roast. Cover and cook on low heat for about 8 to 10 hours.

Enjoy with a variety of steamed vegetables.

Ingredients:

2 lbs stew meat
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, sliced
1/2 cup yellow pepper, chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
2 cup stock (preferably beef)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 can (8 oz.) chopped tomatoes
1 can (4 oz.) mushrooms
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

Instructions:

In frying pan sauté sliced onion, pepper, garlic and meat in olive oil. Add stock, salt and pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms and barbecue sauce and cook for a few minutes. Place in slow cooker and cook on low heat for about 8-10 hours. Just before serving, mix cold water and cornstarch in a little bowl and add to the stew to thicken.

Serve with hot brown rice.

By Julie Boyce

If you don’t have a crockpot, please go to Walmart and get one right now! If you don’t cook much, or don’t think you can, you will when you get a crockpot. You will actually use it! You can eat real food when you come home from work now. I will be adding lots of good, tested crock pot recipes from the freezing winters I spent in Minnesota and Iowa, and you will love them. Read more »

By Lisa B Scott

My grandmother was a baker – not by profession, but by habit. She was a country woman at heart and she baked a few pies every day whether she needed to or not.

I always loved her pies, but I really miss her apple dumplings. To me, they were the ultimate comfort food, and a mighty good breakfast with some milk poured over them! She also participated in making apple butter the old-fashioned way with a group of friends, cooking it all day in a huge black kettle and then canning it for the winter. In her later years, she began making her apple butter in a crockpot. All of the flavor, none of the hassle. Read more »

Slow cookers, or crock pots, are small appliances used by many families around the country. A look around will provide a myriad of cookbooks or websites on the internet with recipes for use with the crock pot. The benefits of slow cooking go far beyond the ease of finding recipes, however.

One of the main benefits of slow cooking is how easy it is. Unlike traditional cooking methods, you don’t have to stand over the stove to ensure the dish cooks properly. You can place everything into the slow cooker, set it, and then walk away. In fact, you don’t even have to be at home while your meal cooks as most recipes require four to eight hours cooking time.

Depending upon the recipe, you can place the ingredients into the cooker and the meal will be ready to eat either when you get up in the morning or when you return from a day at work. What could be easier than that? And the slow cooker did all of the hard work for you!

Saving time is another benefit of slow cooking. The major portion of the meal is done by the slow cooker, which leaves a side dish or salad and your meal is done. If you have more than one size of slow cooker, you can make a different component of the meal in each one.

Another benefit of using a slow cooker is how versatile they are. You can cook nearly any style of recipe in a crock pot. Do you need something special for breakfast? There are slow cooker recipes for that. How about a casserole for dinner? There are many ethnic recipes. The fact is you can find recipes for any meal of the day, even dessert.

Slow cooking is also nutritious. Use fresh or frozen ingredients rather than ingredients which are full of chemicals or preservatives. You can use fruits that are in season rather than canned ones which have fewer nutrients. Cooking foods on low heat over a longer period of time also helps the foods retain more of the vitamins and minerals.

Some people think slow cookers can only be used during the cooler months. The truth is, however, you can use a slow cooker at any time of the year. Slow cookers won’t heat up the kitchen the way an oven will, but will provide you with delicious food your whole family will enjoy.

Finally, the benefits of slow cooking can also improve your pocket book. You can find ingredients which are on sale at your grocery store to use in your slow cooker. You can also use cheaper groceries such as dried beans, noodles, and rice.

It’s obvious the benefits of slow cooking are many. If the ease of use isn’t enough to convince you to get one, think about the time you can shave off of preparing meals or how much money you can keep in your wallet. Why not give it a try?

Slow cookers, or crock pots, are wonderful tools in any home kitchen. Not only do they allow you to make a wonderful meal, you don’t even have to be present the entire time it’s cooking! You may want to try one of these three super-easy slow cooking recipes if you’ve never used a slow cooker before.

One meal commonly prepared in a slow cooker is pot roast. While this meal is often traditionally prepared in a cast iron Dutch oven or in the stove, there’s nothing quite like how moist and tender a slow cooker makes the meat.
Read more »

2 lbs. deli ham, sliced thin
1 C of water
1 C of ketchup
1/4 C brown sugar, packed
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp mustard

Place the ham into a slow cooker.  Pour the water into a mixing bowl.
Whisk in the ketchup and brown sugar until well combined.  Blend in thoroughly the Worcestershire sauce and vinegar.  Add the mustard and stir until blended in well.  Pour the mixture over the ham in the slow cooker.
Stir to ensure all the ham is well coated.  Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until completely heated through.

Makes 12 servings