What’s your go to method for finding recipes? Do you just search in Google? Do you have a recipe box full of tried-and-true recipes? Do you have a shelf of cookbooks where your journey begins? What about a stack of recipes torn from magazines?
I’ll admit that I use all those resources. In fact, I’ve got more recipes than I will ever prepare…but I sure love looking through them.
On top of that, I’m a gadget guy…just ask Hectic Mom. She’s not a kitchen person, so she doesn’t understand why I have so many slow cookers. She’s baffled by the sous vide and panini maker. And my favorite Instant Pot is a mystery to her. But for me, my gadgets make the process of cooking fun and rewarding.
The odd thing is, I think of certain gadgets and tools for particular parts of the meal. I’ve got one slow cooker that I use for side dishes. I’ve got a different one that usually cooks main courses. And I’ve got a triple slow cooker (check it out…it’s awesome) that can serve three parts of a meal. It’s amazing on taco night!
But like anything else in life, thinking of my slow cookers in a particular way, limits my thinking. I get stuck in a rut. The same old recipes get prepared exactly the same way. Sure, it’s easy to throw them together without thinking a lot about them. On a busy day, when things are crashing down all around me, it’s a no-brainer task that still leads to a successful dinner on the table. But it’s kind of boring.
Correction…it’s mind-numbingly boring!
For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about both how I’m making the meals at Hectic Manor as well as what I’ve been preparing. I haven’t really taken the opportunity to think about it quite this globally in a while.
One of the things I discovered is that I have a fairly limited repertoire of items I prepare in my slow cookers. I’ve got a bunch of main courses I make, a load of side dishes, and a few desserts. Even an appetizer or two. But for the most part it’s not a very broad range.
So I was on the hunt for a cookbook that would help me think differently and guide me towards preparing some new and exciting things. And they had to be foods the Hectic Family would eat.
Tall order.
My first step was to grab all my slow cooker cookbooks and start browsing through them. I even made the radical decision to read the introduction and the longer prose in the cookbooks. You know, cookbook writers are actually authors and they have more than just recipes in their books.
Far too often I grab a cookbook, especially one of my favorites, and jump right to the recipes. Sometimes I use the Table of Contents or the Index to find a recipe. But seldom do I bother to read anything other than the recipes.
That’s a shame.
There are some awesome tips, great anecdotes, and tons of love poured into all the cookbooks on my shelf. They’re a treasure trove of thoughts from like-minded individuals who love being in the kitchen as much as I do. Reading the preface and introduction to those cookbooks was like sitting down with a bunch of new friends.
When I opened up Pamela Ellgen’s The Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook I’m not sure what I was expecting. I guess I figured it’d be the same old meat and potatoes recipes you see in every other slow cooker cookbook. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there were several stew recipes, a bunch of chili recipes, and a slew of chicken concoctions. Imagine my surprise when I found a salsa recipe. For the slow cooker!
Honestly I got pretty excited by the unique recipes. While I’ve made a few desserts in my slow cooker, this book had an entire chapter dedicated to them. The Rice Pudding with Almonds was delicious!
The last chapter on Spreads and Sauces got me thinking about all sorts of new and different things I could make. This was exactly the cookbook I’d been looking for to get me thinking differently.
Between the creative Breakfast and Brunch recipes that go way beyond the standard egg casserole-style fare to the Appetizers and Sides (including an awesome Apple Sauerkraut with Sausage recipe), this cookbook has some really awesome recipes.
If you read the Amazon reviews there are a lot of complaints about the lack of pictures. Quite honestly I’m seeing those sorts of reviews a lot. There’s so much whining about cookbooks without pictures. What, are we all pre-schoolers who just must have our pictures? Have we gotten to the point where we can’t actually read…we have to be entertained? Even by our cookbooks?
Sorry for the rant, but my cookbooks serve a pretty limited purpose. They’re on my shelf to deliver recipes to me. Sure, I have recently discovered there’s other things to read in them…but the primary purpose of a cookbook is the recipes.
Don’t get me wrong, I love photos of food. I find my salivary glands working overtime when I’m on Pinterest or Instagram looking at food photos. But my cookbooks don’t have to be chock-full of photos.
If you want that…find a different cookbook. This isn’t the book your looking for (just say it in the Obi-Wan Kenobi voice and humor me, OK?).
This also probably isn’t the best slow cooker book if you’e only going to have one in your library. The Pork and Poultry and Beef and Lamb recipes are good, but they only go so far. The real value are in all the other recipes that are further off the beaten path. If you’re looking for a killer chili recipe, just Google slow cooker chili. Even using the wizardry to limit the findings to just those two terms, I came up with 49,200,000 results. I’m sure you can find one you like. And for all those photo-loving folks, I’m sure they can find their pics too.
But if you want a really solid Five-Spice Chili recipe that doesn’t take a lot of muss…there’s a great one on page 154 of The Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook. Plus, where else can you find a slow cooker recipe for Chunky Fig Spread or a first rate Spicy Ginger Stir-Fry Sauce?
If you’ve read many of my prior book reviews, you know I throw out stars like they’re glitter at a pre-teen girls’ sleepover. I pretty much love every book in my library. Since I’ve also decided I’m not allowing myself half-stars, I’m going to surprise you and only give this book four stars.
The reason this is something of a specialty cookbook. While it might be able to serve as a primary source in someone’s kitchen, I’m not sure that it’s well-rounded enough to provide everything you need. But as an adjunct to a more basic slow cooker cookbook this one is perfect!
The Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook has rated a pretty sweet location on my bookshelf and I’ve been using it a lot lately. I guess only time will tell whether it stays in the primary rotation. But even if it doesn’t, I’m sure I’ll be diving in every once in a while to come up with a recipe for something totally new and different.
As a gift for somebody who has everything or for a friend who wants to expand their cookbook collection, you can’t go wrong with  The Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook! I’m sure it’d help anyone make it a great day in the kitchen!
