Courtney Ellis

Daryl sometimes jokes that I’m a crock pot.

Apparently when you go 10 days overdue with one baby and then five days overdue with the next, you get labeled a slow cooker.

The thing is though, I am in love with my crock pot, so I don’t care.

One of the easiest ways to simplify a crazy day is to make a crock pot meal. Toss in the ingredients and then go about your day.

I’m not unique in suggesting this, but it’s made a huge difference for our family’s soul space, especially on Sundays.

After being at church all morning the kids are usually in hunger meltdown city. After preaching or assisting in worship, Daryl and I are so tired we feel, as Eugene Peterson once wrote, that we don’t have “any skin on.”

Then we walk in the door and smell a beef roast, or carnitas, or chili, or vegetable soup. It’s hot. It’s ready. All we have to do is scoop it into bowls or ladle it onto plates.

Bliss.

Our latest favorite is salmon with red potatoes. Drizzle a little olive oil on the salmon, sprinkle on some salt, pepper, and garlic, and put each filet into a sealed aluminum foil packet (rip off a piece of foil, put the fish in the middle, crimp the edges, and voilà). Wash the red potatoes and poke each one a couple of times so it doesn’t explode, and put them on top of the foil salmon. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6.

If you get home a little early, you can throw in some fresh green beans for half an hour, too. The fish steams to perfection inside the foil, and you only have one dish to wash. Win, win, win. 

If you need some recipe ideas, check out Stephanie O’Dea’s A Year of Slow Cooking. Tons of free recipes, all gluten free, many can be pre-frozen, and I met her at a conference once and she’s just as nice as she looks in the header photo.

Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe? Care to share?