More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: 200 Brand-New, Budget Friendly, Slow-Cooker Recipes by Stephanie O'Dea- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Hyperion; Original edition (December 28, 2010)
* Baked Herbed Feta
*Smoky Bean and Corn Soup* Maple-Glazed Pork Chops
*Moroccan Chicken with Lentils* Apple-Pecan Bread Pudding
*Orange and Honey Tilapia* Chocolate Pot de Crème with Ganache
--and many more. More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow is the perfect cookbook for easy-to-prepare meals that don't take a toll on the family budget.
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I love to cook, but here is the problem...I'm kiiiinda broke and honestly, I'm lazy (yeah, I will admit to that). If I can just throw stuff in a pot, come back 4-8 hours later and it is edible I am all for it. Slow-cookers are the way to go. This cook book has 200 recipes! All of them are simple and budget friendly. The majority of the ingredients for most of the recipes are things that I typically already have in the pantry. I really like the convenience of that.
The recipes are sorted by price: $7 and Under, $10 and Under, and $15 and Under. In each of these sections it is then broken down again by type of recipe (beverages, breakfasts, etc.). I prefer it when ALL beverage recipes are together, breakfast recipes together, etc. I think it is a little easier to navigate that way, however I am sure many people can appreciate the way this cookbook is organized when they are on a budget.
There are no pictures of the final dishes. That is something that normally bothers me with a cook book, but not this one. Slow-cooker food is not usually the most attractive (tasty yes, attractive no) so a visual of it would be pointless.
There is a large variety of recipes in the book. Many of them were for things I didn't know you could even cook in a slow-cooker (like pesto lasagna). Here are some of the recipes that caught my eye:
- Root Beer Pulled Pork
- Greek Ribs
- Chicken with Apricots and Dates
- Maple Banana Oat Bread
- Pizza Potatoes
The recipe I tried (and LOVED) is the Loose Meat Sandwiches. I used to watch the show Roseanne and she had a loose meat sandwich place. I always wanted to try one because of that and now I finally got to. The meat is so flavorful. As for the texture of the meat, it was a little mushy but I got over that quickly because it tasted so good! Here is the recipe from the cookbook:
serves 8
The Ingredients
1 onion, finely diced
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp prepared mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups beef broth
8 hamburger buns (you can use gluten free, toasted)
hamburger fixin's: pickles, lettuce, sliced tomato, additional mustard
Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Crumble the ground meat into your slow cooker. Add the onion, dry spices, and sugar. Add the prepared mustard and apple cider vinegar. Pour in 1 cup of beef broth, and stir the contents of the cooker very well. Pour in the other cup of broth and cover. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Stir well before serving and scoop onto hamburger buns. Top with the desired fixin's.
As with any recipe you are going to have to tweak things to your personal taste a bit. I ended up adding a little extra of the spices and vinegar to get the taste I really wanted. I love that I was able to throw everything in the cooker with almost zero work. I didn't even chop an onion...I went the lazy route and bought the frozen diced ones. This is a great cookbook and I can't wait to make more meals from it!
4.5/5
1 comment:
Thank you Raelena, for sharing your review! I'm so glad that you are enjoying the book. LOL on the loose meat sandwiches---we're alike with the Roseanne connection!
Happy New Year! xoxo
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