The slow cooker is the workhorse of the kitchen. Set it, forget it, and 8-12 hours later, you’ll have a meal that will feed the whole family.
But, if you’re only using your slow cooker to make soups and stews, you’re missing out on a whole world of easy cooking. This simple gadget keeps heat even for low and slow cooking, perfect for those less expensive meats that need time to soften up, but it also works magic on breakfast foods and desserts that you don’t want to scorch in the oven or stove if you forget about them. Read: No more burned oatmeal and pots and pans you need to soak and scrape!
Plus, the slow cooker keeps things from sticking naturally without added fat, making it the ultimate diet device (outside of a complicated sous vide machine). To get your creative kitchen juices flowing, here are some of the most unexpected recipes you never knew you could make in a slow cooker. (Plus, don’t miss 15 Cozy Old-Fashioned Casserole Recipes Perfect for Fall.)
1
A Whole Ham
Oven taking up space this Easter? Don’t fret, while it’s true you need a large slow cooker for a whole ham–or a smaller ham—the slow cooker is the perfect place to heat an already cooked ham to temperature while potatoes and dessert bubbly happily in the oven.
Get the recipe to Dinner At the Zoo.
