Good - Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes!

Although the analysts and editors have attempted full accuracy in the nutritional data and analyses included with the Light recipes in this cookbook, many variables (including variations related to particular brands, to the refinement of products, and to the exact amounts of ingredients, as well as whether they are cooked or raw) could result in the analyses being approximate. Because many factors influence your health, please check with your health-care expert before making substantial changes in what you eat. FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT BIG COOKBOOK Copyright 2008 by Good Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Good Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Good Books books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes.

Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Good Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or . Good Books in an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.goodbooks.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Good, Phyllis Pellman Fix-it and forget-it big cookbook : 1400 best slow cooker recipes! / Phyllis Pellman Good. cm. cm.

Includes index. ISBN 978-1-56148-640-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Electric cookery, Slow. 2. I. Title. Title.

TX827.G6324 2008

641.555--dc22

2008030360

Design by Cliff Snyder Cover illustrations and illustrations throughout the book by Cheryl Benner. Photographs at bottom of front cover, photograph on back cover, and photographs on by Jason Varney. Photographs on pages by Oxmoor House. Print ISBN: 978-1-56148-640-3 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68099-014-0 Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents THE MAIN COURSE About
Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook This grand treasury of the best make-it-again slow-cooker dishes is ready to be your steady kitchen companion. I selected these 1400 favorite recipes from the five cookbooks in our beloved Fix-It and Forget-It cookbook series. They are gathered here in one handsome, meant-to-be-used volume! THE BIG SOLUTION Fix-It and Forget-It BIG COOKBOOK offers tasty cooking solutions every day.

Too little time to cook? Worried about your skills in the kitchen? Scared of a flop? Note the Prep Time at the head of each recipe. Most are happily short. Each recipes instructions spells out every step so you wont get stranded along the way. This book makes cooking manageable, even though you might feel inexperienced. (I first fell in love with the peepy-step approach to cookbook instructions when I was a completely novice cook.) And all of these recipes come from home cooks. These are their favorite dishes, loved by families and households across the country.

So get out your slow cookeror cookersand choose from these flexible, forgiving, and absolutely scrumptious recipes. Theres tempting variety among the recipes, and many differ only by a tantalizing ingredient or two. So pick the particular recipe that suits your mood, pleases those who eat at your table, or matches the ingredients you have on hand. Youll find helpful Tips spread among the recipesthe kind of pointers that you usually learn only after a long acquaintance with a slow cooker, or with cooking in general. Think of them as the voices of your favorite aunt or grandmother, standing at your elbow with their cooking wisdom. A WORD ABOUT SLOW COOKERS Slow cookers have proven to be the efficient friend of those cooks who are gone all day, or who dont want to be occupied in the kitchen for hours, but want to offer substantial home-cooked food to their households.

You can prepare a dish one evening, store the filled lift-out vessel in the fridge overnight, and then place it into its electric component in the morning as you do your dash to the door. Or you can tote the whole works to a buffet or carry-in meal, doing no damage to the quality of its contents. These great little appliances can vary considerably in their heat intensity and speed of cooking. Older models often require more cooking time than newer ones. Thats why I give a range of cooking times for many of the recipes. Experiment by using the shorter cooking time first.

Then make a note right on the recipe page itself about what you discovered works best for your cooker. Personalize this cookbook. IDEAL SLOW-COOKER SIZES The ideal slow-cooker size given with each recipe is just a suggestion. I went big in most cases so that you arent faced with a pot thats running over. (On the other hand, be aware of the fact that your food may get too dry if your pot is less than half full.) Some raw vegetables stand up and take a lot of room. As they cook, they quiet down and sink together.

So some recipes with an abundance of uncooked vegetables suggest a larger cooker than other recipes which yield the same number of servings. Slow cookers are great for carry-in meals and pot-lucks. But who wants an overflowing pot in the back of a vehicle? So, again, I tilted toward the larger size. VARIABLES TO KEEP IN MIND Ideally, you should fill your slow cooker about full. You may need to increase the cooking time if youve exceeded that amount, or reduce it if youve put in less than that. The fuller your slow cooker, the longer it will take its contents to cook.

The more densely packed the cookers contents are, the longer they will take to cook. The larger the chunks of meat or vegetables, the longer they will take to cook. If you put ingredients into the cooker straight out of the refrigerator, you may need to add 2030 minutes to the suggested cooking time. If you put frozen meat into the cooker, you should add 46 hours of cooking time on Low, or 2 hours on High. If youre using a slow cooker at an altitude over 3,500 feet, you will need to cook its contents somewhat longer than the recipe states. Allow time to experiment, and then write what worked next to the recipe.

If you want to check that the meat in your slow cooker is fully cooked, use a food thermometer: Beef should reach an internal temperature of 155160 F. Pork should reach an internal temperature of 155160 F. Poultry breasts should reach an internal temperature of 160 F; poultry thighs 175 F. CONVERTING RECIPES FOR SLOW-COOKER USE Many stove-top and oven recipes can be adapted for a slow cooker. If you want to experiment, use these conversion factors: Low (in a slow cooker) = 200, approximately (in an oven). High (in a slow cooker) = 300, approximately (in an oven).

In a slow cooker, 2 hours on Low = 1 hour, approximately, on High. CONSIDER THE WONDER OF OWNING SLOW COOKERS OF VARYING SIZES Slow cookers do their job famously well, whatever their size1-quart, 3-quart, 6-quart, or in between. Little ones work well for singles or doubles, or they cook the vegetables while the beef burbles away in a bigger cooker, sharing the same counter-space. In fact, you can do a whole meal in slow cookers, thereby multiplying the pleasure without significantly increasing the work. Just be alert to the lesser amount of cooking time needed by the small cookers. (Check the instruction manuals to get the cooking time right.) LIGHT RECIPES Youll notice that some of the recipes in this book include nutritional analyses.