We only get a precious few years with our children, before they leave our nest to start lives of their own. And the years are shorter still that they will enjoy being around us and see us as bigger than life and invincible—before they see us as the simple humans we truly are. Humans who make mistakes and aren’t perfect. I have two children, boys, 14 and 4. In ten years’ time I’ve gone from being chased by my 14-year-old to chasing him and trying to have him make time for me. Already, I feel him stretching his wings, and preparing for his first flight. It seems like yesterday I was teaching him how to talk before I was always trying to get him to shut-up, and teaching him how to walk before I was putting up barriers and restricting where he could go.
While I digress from my point it brings me directly to my point. Time. Time is a finite resource, or at least my husband tells me it is. There is only so much you can fit into a day and only so much you can do. My goal is to optimize my time, make the wisest choices so I can use my time for what is important, and to do that I have to change some things at home.
My grandmother bought me my first Crockpot when I was 19. I used it all the time (even though I didn’t have a family at the time) until the novelty of it wore off. I was so excited to be a grown-up and embraced all things domestic—cooking, baking, cleaning, crafting. I haven’t used a Crockpot in years aside from the occasional little smokies and BBQ sauce or pot-roast. So now, X number of years later, I am re-introducing myself to the Crockpot and being illuminated to the possibilities in time saving.
My equation for spending more time with my family was simple: Prepare food after children are in bed + Cook food while at work/school = More quality family time with the kids. Sounds simple, right? Well, evidently not so.
I have found a wealth of recipes online for the Slow Cookers or Crockpot. Today, I am mostly vegetarian—I do eat fish, occasionally eat chicken and rarer still, red meat (no pun intended). Vegetarian recipes for slow cookers are also harder to come by. Some of the time varies as well as the complexity of some of the recipes. Last week, I decided to put my time saving measurements into place. I sent my husband a list of recipes and I asked him to pick one and I picked one. Of course, he picked the most complicated recipe. Also, I asked my husband to do the grocery shopping. Unfortunately, I have been blessed with ADD and can literally spend hours in the grocery store. Thankfully, my husband is a list person and gets only what items are on the list (without deviation). Plus, we both work full time and I thought it only fair to share the responsibility of preparing our meals. My husband was a week late in getting the groceries (another story for another time perhaps) and when he finally did get them, I stayed up late that night to prepare our meal for the next day. My husband leaves for work after I do and the recipe, Vegetarian Chili, calls to cook for 8 hours—so I asked him to turn it on. My husband also takes our four-year-old to school, and something happened, a slight deviation in the chaos that our mornings are, and somehow the Crockpot was forgotten. I leave for work at 8, my husband leaves (if he is lucky) for work at 8:30. Most recipes call for cooking time on low for 8 hours. My recipes will actually be cooking for 10 hours as I don’t get home until 6:30pm. Also, I found that when I did let it cook for 10 hours, my vegetables were over cooked. Already my idea was already falling apart before I could even get really started. So, I went back to the drawing board.
The solution to my problem was another nifty little invention called an outlet timer. I’ve known about these things for years, but never had given much thought on how they could make my life easier. With the outlet timer I can make my recipes like before (after my children are in bed), set the Crockpot out before I leave for work and set the timer to come on so I can cook the recipe for the precise amount of time needed. Plus, my new idea is to tweak recipes so not to overcook vegetables by possibly decreasing cook times and making new recipes of my own. Then, I can review and share these recipes with the world and maybe share what we are doing with all this extra time we have!
As far as Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson, it is a wonderful cookbook that I love and I would recommend to everybody. It’s so beautifully put together and is full of delicious recipes that are relatively simple to make—not to mention are delicious and extremely flavorful. I also love the colorful narrations she gives regarding how she came up with her recipes, why she loves them, and how she makes them. I hope that she comes out with a slow cooker cookbook some time because I know I would love every single recipe.
Feel free to comment or share any recipes or other time saving ideas on here—I’m always up for suggestions. Keep posted for more recipes and the occasional digressions I have on my family life.
Stay tuned—I am posting a recipe later tonight or tomorrow for Vegetable Dumplings!!!
Stay tuned—I am posting a recipe later tonight or tomorrow for Vegetable Dumplings!!!
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