How Your Slow Cooker Can Help You with Your Resolutions
By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor for EatingWell Magazine
Resolved: I will lose weight, save money and be healthier in 2012. Sound familiar? If you made even just one of these resolutions this year, I have a tip for how to get started…use your slow cooker. Sound wacky? Find out how this one handy piece of kitchen equipment can help you meet your new year's resolutions (and if your resolution is to revive 1970s cooking methods, even better!).
If your resolution is to: Lose weight
How the slow cooker can help: Cooking at home is a great first step in trying to get your diet under control. Since slow-cooked food relies on long, moisture-rich cooking, you can use less oil than if you were cooking with dry heat in the oven or on the stove. Using your slow cooker to make dinner means that dinner is ready when you get in the door-no more hungrily snacking on other food while preparing dinner.
Recipes to Try: 20 Low-Calorie Meals from Your Slow Cooker
If your resolution is to: Cook more healthy meals
How the slow cooker can help: Using a slow cooker can save you major time preparing meals. By prepping ingredients and putting them in the pot before you leave for work in the morning, you know that when you come home dinner will be waiting. Bonus: Use the extra time you save and hit the gym after work.
Related: The 5 Healthy Meals You Should Learn to Make This Year
If your resolution is to: Save money
How the slow cooker can help: Crock pots lend themselves to stews and other one-pot meals that let you stretch more expensive ingredients, like meat, further. Try these Slow-Cooker Recipes for $3 or Less per Serving, such as Pulled Pork with Caramelized Onions. Chances are a slow-cooked meal will yield leftovers (like these Crock Pot Recipes to Cook Once, Eat Twice). Bring leftovers for lunch the next day and you'll save on lunch money.
Don't Miss: 7 Secrets to Making Better Crock Pot Meals
What's your best resolution helper?
By Kerri-Ann Jennings
Kerri-Ann, a registered dietitian, is the associate editor of nutrition for EatingWell magazine, where she puts her master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University to work writing and editing news about nutrition, health and food trends. In her free time, Kerri-Ann likes to practice yoga, hike, bake and paint.
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