Slow Cooking For One

Slow cooking for one conjures up images of a freezer full of stews that you spend a month eating every other night. Historically this may have been so but with today's slow cooker designs and a resurgence in truly interesting recipes for the slow cooker you can cook fun and diverse food on a daily basis with your slow cooker.

For many years, slow cookers were giant cauldrons sitting in the corner of the kitchen slowly bubbling away with the latest soup or casserole. These behemoths were 5, 6 or 7 quarts upwards in capacity and you could get 8-12 portions out of them without too much fuss.

With the shift towards smaller family sizes, people settling down later and many more singles living on their own there has been a recent change in the slow cooker landscape with the advent of the mini slow cooker.

These smaller slow cookers are 1.5 to 2 quarts in capacity and are perfect for singles or couples looking to produce a single meal and not having to freeze 90% of what they cook. These are definitely not your mother's slow cookers but pack all the essential features into a small pot that is usually less than 10" in all three dimensions so are perfect for more compact kitchens.

With the downsizing of your slow cooker you would expect some functionality to have been lost. Thankfully, all the essentially functionality is present and correct. A quick run down of these essential slow cooker features is below:

1. Removable crock - essential for easy cleaning and for serving at the dinner table
2. Glass lid - keep the meals moisture sealed in by viewing it as it cooks through the lid
3. Multiple temperature settings - get your meat up to temperature quickly on the high setting and then let it cook out over an extended period on low without burning
4. Stay warm - once your food has cooked, flip it to stay warm and the food is kept at serving temperature for several hours without drying out

Your slow cooker is much more versatile than just being a producer of soups, stews and casseroles as it has been pigeonholed for many years. Modern slow cooking is about using a variety of ingredients and cooking everything you may want including:

1. Whole pieces of meat or small chickens
2. Meal staples such as pasta and rice can be added at the appropriate point
3. Breakfast favorites such as porridge are perfect for an overnight slow cook
4. Desserts such as steamed puddings and even cakes can be slow cooked
5. ...and of course the traditional slow cooker classics of soups and stews!

Hopefully by now you are convinced by the sheer range of food you can cook and are certain that the svelte dimensions can fit into your kitchen!

The final string to the slow cookers bow is that it encourages healthy eating on a tight budget. Slow cooker recipes tend to be very light on oils that would normally be used for frying, especially with meat. They also tend to use a lot of vegetables and introduce significant variety into your diet. Importantly, unlike boiling vegetables, the water soluble vitamins from slow cooking are not poured down the sink but remain in the meal.

The slow cooking process also tenderizes the meat and enables the use of much cheaper cuts that over the 8 hour cooking process become juicy and melt in the mouth. These cuts can represent a significant saving over the more common meats used to fry and grill and can make a big difference to your weekly shopping.

Compact, versatile and healthy - today's mini slow cookers are perfect for one or two servings and are also cheap to buy and cook with. With models such as the Proctor Silex 33015 1-1/2-quart round slow cooker on the market for less than $20 you can't afford not to have one.

Backing this up are a huge variety of cookbooks for carnivores, vegetarians and even vegan slow cookbooks that get you using your slow cooker in new and unusual ways.

Remember - there is nothing better than coming home to a freshly prepared meal that the cook hasn't been slaving over for the last eight hours!!