By Kalyn Denny of Kalyn’s Kitchen

It’s not hard to understand the appeal of the Crockpot slow cooker, since everyone has times when they’re just too busy to cook, but we’d all love to have a good meal ready when we get home. I’m a fan of the crockpot, and use it often all year round. If you’re new to crockpot cooking, or don’t use your crockpot nearly enough, here are some tasty-sounding slow cooker ideas, sorted by cooking time to help you when the schedule isn’t leaving much time to cook.

I’m sorting recipes by the cooking time the food blogger has recommended first, but many crockpot dishes can be cooked for a longer time on low or a shorter time on high, so if a recipe appeals to you, check the individual blog to see if there is an alternate cooking time that will work. Now dust off that slow cooker and get cooking!

Slow Cooker Soups or Stews to Cook All Day:

Soup weather is rapidly approaching, so let’s start with soups you can throw in the slow cooker and leave all day. If you’re really going to be gone for a long time, you might opt for the Moroccan Lentil Soup (pictured) from Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking, which cooks on low for 8-10 hours and makes plenty for leftovers. Chels from We Are Not Martha tested out her Slow Cooker Chili on a day she was home to watch it, but now says she’s ready to let it cook all day while she’s at work. Eat This serves up spicy Chicken and Hominy Stew that cooks on low in about 7 hours. The Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup from Sweetnicks cooks for 8-10 hours, and what a budget-friendly recipe! Finally, I love meatballs, green chiles, and cilantro, so the Slow Cooker Mexican Meatball Soup from Simple-Nourished-Living seemed like a perfect combination.

Other Slow Cooker Dishes That Can Cook All Day

What if you’re going to be gone all day but don’t really feel like soup or stew? No worries, because there are plenty of other slow cooker options that can cook all day, like the Ropa Vieja from The Perfect Pantry (pictured) which cooks on low for 9 hours. At Baking Bites Nicole cooked the meat for her Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwich for 7 1/2 hours and it was falling-apart tender. The Slow Cooker Beef and Potatoes from Cooking by the Seat of My Pants cooks for 8 hours on low. If you have 7 hours, you can make Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage from Columbus Foodie, seasoned with a surprise ingredient. Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce from Savour Fare cooks on low for 8 hours, and when you get home, you just need to cook the rice. Life’s Ambrosia has Slow Cooker Pulled Pork that cooks for 8 hours, giving you plenty of time to buy the buns. If you can find the intersting Anasazi beans, you can make Slow Cooker Anasazi Beans from A Fridge Full of Food, which cook in 8 hours. Finally, who wouldn’t love to come home to The Inadvertent Gardener’s Slow Cooker Roast Beef with Fresh Sage and Dried Tomatoes?

Slow Cooker Dishes to Cook in 3-6 Hours
When you’re going to be gone for part of the day, having a dish that cooks in 3-6 hours is a perfect way to use the slow cooker. I love the sound of the Chicken Tortilla Soup from Andrea Meyers (pictured) which cooks in 5-6 hours. My Kitchen Cafe used the slow cooker for Maple Brown Sugar Ham which she says she’ll cook on low for 4-5 hours next time. At The Feast Within, Gabi makes Slow Cooker Black Beans that can cook in 4 hours on high. Alanna from A Veggie Venture says her Slow Cooker Peanut Soup was perfectly done in 6 hours. The Healing Vegetable Curry from Karina’s Kitchen cooked in the crockpot for 6 hours when she didn’t want to heat up the kitchen. Finally, one of my personal favorite crockpot dishes is Chicken Fajitas in the Crockpot (pictured) which I usually cook on high for about 3 hours.

If you haven’t been giving your slow cooker enough time on the kitchen counter, I hope you’ll try at least a couple of these crockpot ideas from great cooks. You can also find lots more Crockpot Recipes in the recipe search engine at FoodieView.

Kalyn Denny also blogs at Kalyn’s Kitchen, where she shows her love of crockpot cooking with an entire section of Crockpot Recipes in the recipe archives.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.