ODea - 5 Ingredients or Less Slow Cooker Cookbook

Copyright 2015 by Stephanie ODea

Photography 2015 by Tara Donne

Food styling by Chelsea Zimmer

Prop styling by Martha Bernabe

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-544-28422-7 (paperback); ISBN 978-0-544-28380-0 (ebook)

v1.1115

This book is a group effort. Thank you to the amazing readers I have on the A Year of Slow Cooking website and at stephanieodea.com. I love being able to be of service to you and your families in some way.

Thank you especially to my loving family for your support and hand-holding. I could not have the best job in the world without your help.

Thank you to the following websites for your inspiration and continuous friendship:

5dollardinners.com

adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com

cocktail365.blogspot.com

cookitallergyfree.com

dailybitesblog.com

dineanddish.net

glugleglutenfree.com

glutenfreeeasily.com

glutenfreeforgood.com

glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

godairyfree.org

kalynskitchen.com

lexieskitchen.com

lifeasmom.com

lillianstestkitchen.com

moneysavingmom.com

onceamonthmom.com

theperfectpantry.com

simplygluten-free.com

slowcookerfromscratch.com

soupchick.com

suddenlyfrugal.com

surefoodsliving.com

thewholegang.org

threekidcircus.com

todayscreativeblog.net

whatscookingwithkids.com

Thank you to the following people who helped bring this book to life:

Alison Picard

Justin Schwartz

Perky Ramroth

Tara Donne

Adam ODea

Carol Kicinski

Lisa Irvine

Jessica Fisher

Jennette Fulda

Jenny Lauck

To my wonderful readers, this is the book that youve been asking for! These recipes are quick to pull together during the busy week, but are still packed with love.

Happy Slow Cooking!

I am in love with my slow cooker. I feel so confident knowing that dinner is all ready to go by the time Im on my second cup of coffee. There truly is no easier way to cook than to plop ingredients into this marvelous machine, push a button, and walk away.

This is my fourth slow cooker cookbook, and in the past six years, Ive created more than 1,000 slow cooker recipes. Ive learned that if theres a will, Ill find a way to make pretty much anything in the slow cooker. Except for hard-boiled eggstrust me, thats not an experiment you want to try!

My first cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, is a compilation of the 300 best recipes that I created during my vow to use my slow cooker every single day for a year. My second cookbook, More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, contains 250 budget-friendly recipes, and my third cookbook, 365 Slow Cooker Suppers, contains only dinner recipes.

This book comes directly from reader requests. Although slow cooking is pretty easy, Ive been asked to create simplified versions of some of my absolute favorite recipes to help with the early morning dash. All of these recipes have five ingredients or less, but are still packed with lots of flavor and are certain to please you and your family. To keep each recipe to only five ingredients, I have opted not to include typical kitchen staples such as salt, pepper, or cooking spray in my ingredient count, and I do not include the addition of water.

Many of the standard slow cooker recipes from the past have relied heavily on canned cream-based soups. I have decided to steer clear of those types of recipesthere is already a ton of them online and in vintage cookbooks. Instead, Ive chosen recipes that are more contemporary and fit the flavor and nutritional standards of todays everyday cooking.

This cookbook will teach you that while the slow cooker makes a rather tasty pot roast or a large batch of chili, you really can do so much more. You can steam fish to perfection in foil packets, make a delicate dessert like flan, or host the entire neighborhood for a fondue party.

As I shared in my housekeeping shortcut book, Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life, Im a meal planner. I find that our family runs better and sticks to our monthly budget when I take the time to plan out our weekly meals in advance. It also keeps me from wasting valuable time and energy thinking up meal and snack ideas five to six times a day, every day.

The beauty of slow cooking is that it actually helps facilitate meal planning because it forces you to think ahead to your nightly dinners instead of waiting until the last minute when youre already famished. This is a good thing for both your wallet and your waistline because walking through the door at the end of a long day to a fully cooked meal keeps you out of the fast food drive-through lane and away from the pizza delivery guy.

One of my favorite ways to keep my freezer stocked is with what I call slow cooker TV dinners. To do this, pick out a slow cooker recipe, and instead of loading the meat, vegetables, sauce, and seasoning into the slow cooker, put it all into a plastic zippered bag (or other freezer-safe container).

Write any extra directions on the outside of the bag with a permanent marker and place it into the freezer. The night before, take the bag out of the freezer to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, plop all of the ingredients into the cooker and slow cook as directed in the recipe. Most recipes work quite well with this method, but I have found that freezing uncooked potato results in a rather mealy textureI suggest adding room temperature potatoes to the cooker in the morning instead.

The recipes in this book have been prepared completely gluten-free, due to a family intolerance. If you are not gluten-free, feel free to ignore my notes, or file them away in case you ever need to cook for someone with gluten sensitivity. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye. Oats are off-limits too, unless they come from a specified gluten-free source. Please read all manufacturer labels carefully; ingredients sometimes change with little to no warning.