/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>need to save money
>buys a useless gimmick

It's a pot you idiot. I bet you have a rice cooker too.

If you're problem is that you lack the time to cook so you end up spending too much money eating out, then I could see the rationale. You throw everything in in the morning, then come home to a great dinner.

Personally, I lack the organization to pull that off (ADHD ftw), but then again, nothing I cook takes more than a half hour to make, so there's that.

>>6152710
london broil or your cut of choice meat. 2 cans of tomato soup,2 cans of mushroom soup,1 to 2 cans of water ''using either can as a measure'' 1 packet of french onion soup mix.Spices of your choosing when its close to done. put them all in and give it about 3 to 4 hours on low or 2 to 3 hours on high. serve over egg noodles or eat as is.

Well, I would use the slow cooker to make beans, and then get a rice cooker. You can get a rice cooker on Amazon for like $15. I wish I could buy everyone who comes here asking this question a rice cooker because I really believe in them.

If you're like me, and you want to come in the door, push the button, and then jump in the shower before dinner, it's the only way to go. Mine actually has a timer that I set to go off a few hours before I come home. It can hold rice up to 12 hours.

For example, I might throw in one of those bags of 15 bean soup into the slow cooker. Toss the packet it comes with, and add a smoked ham hock, 1 tsp. black pepper, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, and a quartered white onion. Then season to taste before serving. Have that with some rice and steamed vegetables.

The vegetables you can cook in your rice cooker if it comes with a basket. If you want a brand, then I can show you one. But it's the Panasonic, I just don't know the model offhand.

Personally, I think I would just buy a humongous bag of mixed vegetables and cooked them in a pot with a tiny bit of water. It comes with corn, carrots, green beans, green peas, and maybe some other stuff. Boil out all the water and it should steam the vegetables. Then toss in a teaspoon of butter and minced garlic. Toss and serve.

>>6152779
>2 cans of tomato soup,2 cans of mushroom soup
WHO THE FUCK IS THIS
IS THAT YOU AMERICA?
GOD HELP ME AMERICA I WILL HURT YOU

>>6152781
Is it a time saving device, then? Vegetables don't take that long to cook.

Unless you're coming home to a fully cooked meal (with the rice cooker), it seems like you're gonna have to do some work anyway.

Maybe this is just my perspective because I don' eat meat, which generally takes longer to cook, but don't most people just cook something when they have time and eat it for two or three days anyway?

>>6152710
>some of your favorite (and possibly cost effective) slow cooker recipes
>>6152788
? um ok

>>6152770
This is a serious part of my budgeting problem. I have a tendency to stay out of the house all day and only come home fairly late at night. So I often have to 'eat on the go'. It'd be nice if I could cook a stew or something that I can portion into containers and take to work with me.

>>6152781
Here's some prices for you, OP:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Long-Grain-Enriched-Rice-20-Lb/10315883

Rice: $8.98 or $0.45/lb.

That's 202 servings!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hurst-s-Hambeens-W-Seasoning-Packet-Original-15-Bean-Soup-20-oz/10295039

This is $2.28 and has 16 servings.

But I would probably also get some pinto beans and cook them exactly the same way.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Pinto-Beans-8-Lb/10314949

That has 104 servings and is $7.98. Oh, and if you get fresh garlic for your steamed vegetables, then just use that instead of the garlic powder. Or vice versa.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Birds-Eye-Mixed-Vegetables-5-lb/16654198

This has 26 servings and is $5.98.

Total: $25.22 for almost a month of food. You'll have rice and beans leftover.

Price doesn't include the ham hocks, onion, pepper, garlic, salt, etc. But that should only be about $8, maybe.

Now if you're like me you're probably thinking to yourself: I want some meat.

Well, you can brown just about any piece of meat and have it with this. But for the sake of time, I like to buy some Cajun smoked sausages and fry that up in a skillet. It's already cooked and only takes a few minutes to get them crispy.

My favorite brand is Conecuh, but to keep this national let's look at Hillshire's prices:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hillshire-Farm-Smoked-Sausage-42-oz/19276113

That's $8.98 for 21 servings, but let's be real, you'll probably get about half as many servings.

Note: prices may vary when you click on links

>>6152804
Shit nigga you could have the best meal of anyone at work. Beef stew. When that alone gets boring, make some rice to put the stew on top of. Or some good french bread. Same for chili. You could easily make 4-5 different meals with one pot, and easily budgetable.

I hate this boring slow cooker trend. I can't wait for it to die out. Slow cookers are for the lazy and uncreative.

>>6152812
Like you've ever eaten French bread you dirty scumbag.

I have three Crock Pots and only use the smallest one, and that's to make steel-cut oatmeal in. Set a timer so it kicks off about 10 at night. Put three cups of water and one cup of milk in the pot, along with one cup of steel-cut AKA pinhead oats. Stir it and leave it alone for eight hours. Eat it with some cinnamon, honey and cream. Delicious and cheap. Hot and ready when you wake up. I seriously eat this every morning rather than spending $3.45 at the McDonald's on two sausage McMuffins and a coffee. 3.45 x 5 = 17.25, x4 = $69.00.

Vegetables and salad are the way to go to save money and eat semi-healthy food. Get yourself one of those seed sprouters and some decent seeds and sprout seeds for salads and sandwiches. Very good for you and much cheaper than buying them at the stop-n-rob.

>>6152804
Having ADHD, a lot of getting shit done is knowing your limits. I knew I would never manage to make myself PP&J's every morning, so just buy a grip of ramen every week or so. If I get tired of it, I'll bring in last nights dinner. It's not super healthy, but it's better than taco bell or eating meals of a 7-11.

Cooking dinner is hard for me because I roommates and don't want to be sauteeing at 1 in the morning, but generally I'll cook too much and then me and the gf will eat it over the course of a few days. Right now I'm eating soup for breakfast I made the other day. Pretty fucking tasty it is.

I have used my slow cooker to make almost everything

Tamales
Hummus
Chicken and dumplings
Meat loaf
Every soup and stew
Menudo
Lasagna
Everything

>>6152862
Hummus in a slow cooker? The recipe is lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, chickpeas, blender. What do you need a slow cooker for?

>>6152869
He's probably cooking the chickpeas, genius.

>>6152869
Cooking it slowly dumb ass

>>6152710
1 can large cream of chicken (campbells), ½ can of water, ½ can of milk, couple breast of chicken (or stray dark deboned for soup), mixed veggies to desired amount, few dashes of salt, decent amount of pepper to taste, garlic and onion powder, other seasonings, buttermilk biscuits in small balls, enough corn starch or flower to thicken, ¾ C of shredded cheese blend

>>6152825

You sound like a working class chump. I bet you thought it would be a great "investment", how you would wake up to a warm, healthy breakfast to start off your long day. Maybe, you even had a couple thoughts about all the other nifty little uses you could find for the thing, how it would help you cook healthier meals in general, shed a couple pounds off the old gut, boost your confidence around work and with the ladies. Yeah, maybe that slow cooker would start your life cooking again, wouldn't it? I can see your strained hands holding the box and reading through it carefully at the store. A little bit pricey, but you're the type of guy who thinks everything is more than you can spend, aren't you. And look what happened to you. Look what the slow cooker did to you. Fucked you over, and made you clean it like a useless bitch. You don't even fucking like oatmeal. Piece of shit, you've been repeating those three words your whole life, haven't you. Yeah, how was work after that piece of shit fucked you over? I bet it was on your mind the whole day, you probably didn't say shit to nobody. Can't be telling people about your mistakes. How your little fix yourself plan, failed you. Don't want people to start thinking you're the failure. You're the piece of shit, all along. You don't want that do you? You don't want to be the piece of shit everybody secretly whispers about, do you? Was your father a piece of shit like you? I bet he never had a slow cooker. He had a woman, a house, a damn good job. I bet it's slow cooking you the fuck alive, isn't it. Comparing yourself to him. How one day when all the steam runs our of your life, you'll discover how you're nothing more than burnt shit to be scrapped off and thrown in the trash.

>>6153189
> being this mad ever

they are good for beans. and stew.

that's it.

so if you eat a lot of beans and stew these are a great investment.

>>6153341
This. Personally I hate stew so I don't see the point getting one (although my mom had one). If you're poor but a committed meat-eater, they're good because you cooking cheap-ass tough cuts of meat for ages in a slow cooker makes them more palatable, but if you would rather eat vegetarian protein than eat offcuts cheap offcuts, it's not worth it. You can also make soup in them but you can do that on a stove since it shouldn't take 8 hours to cook.

If you're in the market for a big-ass kitchen appliance that'll have food ready when you get home, rice cookers with timers are pretty great. Ones without a timer function aren't worth it, but being able to wake up/come home to cooked rice is great, since it's easy to then make a veg and protein to eat with it. If you like the slow cooker concept, try pressure cookers. They cook the same tough meats or dried beans that a slow cooker does, but a heck of a lot faster.

This is one of my faves

Peachy Barbecue Chicken

ingredients

2 1/2-3 pounds chicken drumsticks, skinned (if desired)
1 cup barbecue sauce
1/3 cup apricot or peach preserves
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
Fresh peaches, cut into wedges (optional)

Place chicken in a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together barbecue sauce, preserves, and mustard. Pour over chicken.
Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 to 4 hours.
Transfer chicken to a serving dish; cover and keep warm. Transfer sauce to a medium saucepan. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until sauce is desired consistency. Serve chicken with sauce. If desired, garnish with fresh peaches.


you can also substitute the peaches for other fruits, pineapple bbq chicken is great as well

>>6152717
>implying slow cookers and crock pots are expensive.
>implying unless your at a stove all day a cooker is a gimmick.
You are an idiot and yes those are useful and so rice cookers. They are useful and I don't have to worry about burning my food if unattended, I won't have to worry about a shortage from an electrical stove. I can also have it retain heat and also put it away with ease. Plus the amount of space saving I have compared to you so can go clutter your kitchen up

>>6153444
>chicken in a slow cooker ever
Please leave.

>>6152836
Crock pot steel cut oats ruin the texture imo, and that's the whole point of eating them outside of dietary reasons

>>6153189
6/10

>>6152710
Haven't you heard what obese people say? Mcdonalds is way cheaper than eating good homecooked food....

>>6153524
Bone in legs and thighs are awesome in a slow cooker.

slow cooking is fucking baller for budgeting because you can use cheap parts and it gets all the meat/flavour off the bone

this is probably wrong but i also think the lower temp retains more nutrients for your body

love slow cooked lamb with wine, thyme and onions in there.. perfect for winter

>>6152804

Don't you have a freezer? Can't you make something and then store it there?

The slow cooker itself will not save you money. The trick is to buy your proteins on sale and make large batches you can portion and freeze.

>>6153189
haven't read this copy pasta in a while, always makes my day top fucking kek

>>6152717
>rice cooker
Rice cookers are goddamn amazing and even a cheap $15 one is more useful than most of the shit I see in kitchens. Keep warm mode alone makes it the best low-effort way to cook tasty rice.

>>6154804
Depends what rice you eat and where you live. In the US it seems possible to get one with a timer mode for pretty cheap, but in the UK only a couple of brands sell rice cookers with the timer function for our plug sockets and they all cost like $150. I wanted one for ages and only got one this year - it's great for Japanese rice, which is a pain to cook and I now have nearly every morning for breakfast, but most of the time I eat pilaus and chelow and stuff made with basmati rice which don't taste right unless you do them on the stove.

>>6154855
What? You don't need a timer mode, and a cheap one (I paid £10) will do the trick. You turn it on, and once the rice is done it switches into keep-warm until you switch it off. If you want to set your rice up in the morning and have it freshly cooked when you get home, you might need a timer (or buy a cheap plug timer that switches the rice cooker on 15 minutes before you get in), but any cheap piece of junk will do the job.

Works great for basmati in my experience. Sometimes you want to cook rice manually though.

>>6154576
at the supermarkets the reduced fresh proteins are the same price as the frozen so i just get frozen all the time.

beans and frozen fish are cheap protein.

>>6154868
Being able to set it up in the morning and have it ready when I get back, or set it up before I go to bed and have it ready in the morning is the entire reason I bought one. That and that Japanese rice is a faff to do on the stove. I've been cooking rice on the stove my whole life (South Asian background) so if it tastes better and I've got to be in the house to start it off anyway, I'll just use a pan and make pilau instead, since it's only about five minutes more work to fry the ingredients before I stick the water in.

Also I hadn't thought of getting a plug timer, will recommend that to my sister since she wants a rice cooker too.

>>6154879
Try dried bean curd sheets (fried or deep fried they have the texture of chicken skin, and you can make them taste that way too) and frozen squid if you're near a Chinese supermarket.

>>6152825
>Confirmed for welfare scum.
Get a job parasite.