34 crock pot meals in 1 day

D&DD

daska wrote: »

I've done similar to this, but not so much in one day. It works OK and courgettes stand up to the abuse as long as you don't mind them mushy in a stew - they won't do for al dente LOL. I'm feeling inspired to try an equivalent with my dehydrated veg as well.

great idea daska I have tons of veg ready prepped thankyou!

katieowl_2

Is it safe to put raw meat to defrost and then cook in a slow cooker? I think I'd be a bit worried about it, especially chicken.

I can see the idea is a godsend if you are busy though.


Kate

Popperwell

I have cooked raw chicken in a slow cooker but now if I have taken it out of the freezer I have learned how to defrost it using the microwave so it is not going into the slow cooker frozen.

katieowl_2

It's just the length of time it would be 'warmish' from bits still being frozen, while other bit were warming up that would slightly alarm me.
Cooking it from raw is slightly better, as the whole piece heats up at the same time. There's going to be a point at which bacteria will have a lovely time multiplying if you have a dodgy bit of meat.

Just having my health and safety hat on, I did a food hygiene course last year, and I'm uber careful these days.

Whenever I use my slow cooker I brown all the meat first anyhow, I can't bear the anaemic look

Kate

Popperwell

katieowl wrote: »

Just having my health and safety hat on, I did a food hygiene course last year, and I'm uber careful these days.

Whenever I use my slow cooker I brown all the meat first anyhow, I can't bear the anaemic look

Kate

I'd go along with your concern. I would not put frozen meat in a SC...Defrosted yes, Browned yes!

krlyr

You could always freeze everything together bar the chicken, then just have a portion of chicken (or one big tub of chicken pieces that you've prepared by open-freezing cut chunks so you can grab a serving at a time) that you quickly brown before chucking in the SC. Not quite as timesaving but no worries about the raw chicken side of things.

katieowl_2

krlyr wrote: »

You could always freeze everything together bar the chicken, then just have a portion of chicken (or one big tub of chicken pieces that you've prepared by open-freezing cut chunks so you can grab a serving at a time) that you quickly brown before chucking in the SC. Not quite as timesaving but no worries about the raw chicken side of things.

I'd feel that was much much safer - quite happy with that

Kate

Slinky_Malinky

I am loving the idea of freezing prepped meat & veg. I am tempted to do this with the intention of cooking in the pressure cooker. This would help me to avoid the lazy/unhealthy things I tend to eat after getting home from work and deciding I am too tired to stand peeling/chopping etc. Also far better for me to freeze my veg soon after buying rather than letting it spoil before I get chance to eat it and throwing out £££ worth of food.

I think the pressure cooker would also be fine if the food was not entirely thwaed out as you can cook from frozen in a PC. Plus to be honest while I love meat cooked in a slow cooker I have found that any veg other than root veg can taste nasty after several hours in a slow cooker.

eilidh_s

I have read this thread with interest and I have to say that I love cooking and due to my job I usually have enough time to do whatever I want but I hate prepping vegetables. I work away for four weeks and I am terrible at stopping buying stuff and trying to run my fridge down before I go away so I used to spend my last day at home chopping and preparing vegetables for the freezer.

It is great just reaching into the freezer for a handfull of chopped onions or some grated ginger or whatever but it used to take so long to prepare before hand that I got to the point where I couldn't be bothered and just started to throw stuff away. However, a few months ago I bought a mandoline. I can slice up an onion in about 30 seconds! There are four different attachments for it so I can do more than just slice and I spent a wee while yesterday working out roughly how much it has saved me if I compared it's price and the amount of uses to how much I earn an hour and I think it has paid for itself over and over again. There is a wee bit of wastage due to the finger protector but I don't think it is much more than if I was chopping by hand and you get uniform slices which is brilliant for things like potato gratin.

It is worth thinking about if you plan to go down this route.

Eenymeeny

I've been trying to do this by prepping veg as I bring them into the house (sick of finding bendy carrots in the salad drawer!) and I do find it much easier when putting a meal together. I also admit to buying things like frozen peppers and stir fry mix as only OH likes peppers so I can use in small amounts (less wastage) and fresh stir fry ingredients have to be used so quickly.
Thanks for reminding me about the mandolin stored at the back of my kitchen drawer and I'm thinking that the veg 'ends' will go into the compost, so not really wasted!;)
Thanks everyone especially OP for making me think about it in a more organised way