Hi! Welcome to The Lazy Slow Cooker! I am so happy you are here! My name is Susan and I am the recipe developer/blogger behind the posts on this site. I am the mom of three amazing, but super busy kids and the wife of one awesome and also super busy husband. All 5 of us have very different schedules and I would not survive mealtime without my crockpot.
I just love the word: Lazy. In my mind, I picture a warm summer afternoon with a drink in one hand and a good book in the other. Or, a snow day where schools and businesses are closed, the hush of too much snow covers the town like a blanket and I don't even bother to change out of my PJ’s. In the real world, this kind of lazy doesn’t come around very often.
In my reality, lazy is a code word for efficiency. I am always looking for an easier way to achieve my goals. In that way, the slow cooker represents the ultimate “lazy” to me. I throw in a bunch of ingredients and out comes a home-cooked meal (I wish more things could operate like that!).
Meet The Team!
Lazy Susan
I have always loved trying new combinations of food. I am the person you wrinkle your nose at and say “are you actually going to eat those foods together......EW”! Sometimes, the results are amazing! Sometimes, they are not…
This is not a new habit of mine. (Note from my third-grade self: peanut butter, ketchup, and celery on white bread do not make for a good tasting sandwich!!!).
You live and you learn!:
My favorite (not weird) lazy recipes are:
Oh and Oreo bark !!
Luckily for me, I have a panel of patient (most of the time) taste testers. They are as follows:
Mr. Wonderful
Number One
Number Two
Number Three
(Shout out to @nbcthisisus!)*
Mr. Wonderful
Mr. Wonderful and I have been blissfully married for many years! He has put up with loads of my strange concoctions. He and I are basically Mr. and Mrs. Jack Spratt. He metaphorically eats no fat while I eat no lean. Vanilla is his default favorite flavor - I eat chocolate. He prefers everything from hamburgers to salmon well done. I don’t really like red meat, and as for fish, I say go raw or go home! When it comes to pizza, he eats the saucy part and I gladly devour the crust. You get the picture…
His favorite Lazy Slow Cooker Recipes are:
Number One
Number One enjoys cooking (much more than I do, actually) and has picked up on my habit of trying unlikely food combos. She is very inventive and bold with her pairings, but, she is easily offended if you comment on how gross it looks. She has yet to find a food that she feels is not somehow improved by adding hot sauce. Her mashups can give me heartburn from across the room.
When she was born I decided I was going to be one of those parents who put all sorts of adult-like food in front of my kids. no special meal, no kiddie foods, no exceptions. That is until one day my father-in-law (to whom I just cannot say no) was over for dinner. The moment dinner arrived at the table, Number One announced that she did not like what was being served. I was opening my mouth to tell her to find something else on the table to eat when Mr. Wonderful Sr. said “Mommy will make you something you like more”. And just like that all of my good parenting intentions flew out the window.
Her favorite recipes are:
Number Two
Number Two has picked up on my taste for chocolate! However, in general, he is not much of an adventurous eater. He was one of those little kids who ate mostly white foods (Mac and cheese, popcorn, rice, etc...). As a little guy, he did not eat any vegetables. This was a struggle for a mother who had read too much about the importance of veggies in growing humans.
When he was four I decided to put my foot down. I told him he could not leave the table until he ate one baby carrot. While thinking this over, he devoured a plateful of spaghetti and meatballs in red sauce. After mustering up some courage, he looked at me and picked up the dreaded baby carrot. I nodded encouragingly. He slowly and begrudgingly began to eat. Each bite registering on his face as if he were eating ammonia
Finally, he managed to eat the entire tiny orange stick. I waited for a reaction. Seconds later I got one! His stomach emptied itself of red sauce, spaghetti, meatballs, and one tiny carrot - projectile style. It was all over him, the walls, me, the table, and the floor. Needless to say, the only one who learned a lesson that day was me. I did not serve him another vegetable for many many years. And even then, no carrots!
His favorite lazy recipes are:
Number Three
Number Three is the typical third child when it comes to food (and most other things!). I have no memory of what (or if!) she ate as a little kid. Who had time to focus on that?? I was too busy making sure Mr. Wonderful’s dinner stayed in the oven 10 minutes longer than everyone else’s, that Number One had different types of hot sauce to cover every different need, and cleaning old spots of red sauce off of every nook and cranny in the kitchen courtesy of Number Two.
I do remember the day I discovered the magic - the secret ingredient to Number Three - LOLLIPOPS! A lollipop was the answer to my prayers. It’s how I got through every rough situation. Trips to the food market, school plays, and sporting events - all were conquered by a lollipop. It was the key to keeping her happy and quiet.
I bought them by truckload and I rationalized. I only bought the small ones I told myself (@dumdums). They’re only baby teeth after all…. I repeated to anyone who would listen. I am not sure if I am to blame, but to this day Number Three has quite a sweet tooth. Everything sticky, chewy, or gummy and sweet. You name it she loves it!
Her favorite lazy recipes are:
And so a blog was born
Reading the above, you can clearly see how the path to hell (and slow cookers) is paved with good intentions! How else can one human satisfy five very different eaters? There is no other way to make a dinner that remains hot from before the first diner leaves for an early evening activity until after the last one returns home from a late study group....all while driving carpool?
So, I started to use my slow cooker and document my findings, just in case someone else might find them helpful!
My goal has always been twofold:
- to share fun, easy and delicious things to make in the slow cooker and
- to share Lazy Hints and Hacks (tips) that will help us all spend less time doing and more time lazing.
Hope you enjoy my recipes!
~ Lazy Susan
Ps - Now where did I put that Margarita??
*This was written before I saw the crockpot episode of This Is Us!!!