Breakfast and Dinner in One Slowcooker!

This is what I do when I go to bed late (curse my love of reading and knitting!) and have to make a quick start the next morning...

Last night, before bed, I pulled out my littlest slowcooker, the cute little 2qt one my husband bought me for Christmas four years ago.  First, I sprayed the sides with cooking spray, dumped in 3 cups water, and 1 cup steel cut oats, put the lid on and cooked on low over night.

This morning, I gave a quick stir (IMPORTANT: Only stir immediately before serving!  There will be a layer of overcooked oats around the rim of the pot, I leave it there and just take the oatmeal from the center of the pot, there's plenty; but if you want to stir it in, it just adds a little bit of texture and flavor to the rest of the oatmeal, no harm done; but if you stir and let the oats sit again, more oats will overcook at the rim). Turn off slowcooker immediately after or just before stirring.  Then dish it out into four bowls, and stir in whatever toppings anyone wants.  Milk, Brown Sugar, and a drizzle of Maple Syrup are a favorite in my household. And done!  About as fast as pulling a poptart out of the cupboard, and a lot more filling!

Then, after breakfast, while the slowcooker is cooling, I get the kids and myself ready for the day; and when the slowcooker pot is completely cool, I peel off the now-stiffened layer of overcooked oats and dump it in the trash.  A quick rinse at the sink with some warm soapy water, and it is back in the slowcooker, and ready to make dinner! 

Tonight, we are having flank steak Stroganof!

Chop up one onion, any size (I like onions, so I chop big ones), put it in the bottom of the slowcooker, place a couple of Flank Steaks (or round steaks, doesn't matter) on top.  Now, for the sauce, I take one can of condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup and pour it into an old widemouth jar with a well-fitting lid, add another half-can of water - I use the can, to make sure I get as much soup as possible - Shake until well blended, and dump over the steaks.  Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours, et voila!  Hardly any dishes to wash, and I served breakfast and made dinner in about the same amount of time as it would take to get the weather report off the morning news. 
Then, this evening, I will cook a bag of egg noodles and make a quick salad, and in ten minutes, dinner will be done.  Slowcooking for me frees up my time, and it saves energy.  (Maybe I can convince the husband to pick up a baguette on the way home, too).

Slowcooking is Dinner for Morning People

I discovered the joys of slowcooking about a year ago, and the more I use my slowcooker, the more I love it! 

You see, I'm a morning person...  Yes, one of those horrible, despised morning people that the entire world seems to abhor.  I don't mean to be, blame my genes; my dad is a morning person too.

Anyway, as a morning person, my favorite time of the day, and when I am most active, is between the hours of 7am and noon.  After that, I just keep at a steady "maintenance" pace until bedtime, usually around 9pm. 

But unfortunately, dinner falls right in the middle of my maintenance time...  So, what to do?!?  I have kids and a husband to feed, and as much as they might disagree with me, cereal should not be a daily dinner food.

That is how the slowcooker has saved me.  I am finally able to use my annoying morning-person powers for good.  Instead of waking up rediculously early and wondering why the rest of my house is sleeping in, I now use that time to make dinner and toss it in the slowcooker.  Then I go about my day, and when I am worn out by mid-afternoon and my husband inevitably asks, "what's for dinner?" I can confidently say something amazing like; "Terriyaki Chicken," or "Pulled Pork Fajitas" or something like that, and not have to do more than five minutes of work to put a fantastic dinner on the table.
  He thinks I'm Betty Crocker, and all I did was toss some ingredients in a pot in the morning.  Faster than fast food, and about as much effort.

  So, that's what this blog is for.  I am using it to log my slowcooked creations, along with a complete list of ingredients and cooking times, as well as the general response to the final product.

Tonight, it's dessert in the slow cooker: ApplePie Breadpudding.  Tomorrow, I will post the full list of ingredients, and how it turned out. 

I will admit, not all of my creations are a success, but enough of them are that I am able to learn from the disasters.