[ADVICE] your best slow cooked creations for the whole family?

Hi there,

With me working full time and DH at home full time with a 5mo and 26mo boys PLUS study, writing for publication, an anti-human trafficking movement and all the rest of it, DH and I tend to do our cooking in big batches every few weeks, and then tub it up and pop it in the deep freezer, and then supplement with lovely fresh veggies steamed or as salads and/or some steamed rice to accompany.

The casseroles I've been doing in the slow cooker have something to be desired though ... they all come out tasting the same, and are a little bland and dry when reheated in the microwave, and the potatoes get a bit watery ...

Clearly I'm doing something wrong!!

Please tell me your best reheatable, most reliable slow cooker creations which will suit the whole fam - me and DH, a not too fussy 2yo and (in a couple of weeks!) a BLS bubba.

Anything which I can cook, tub up and reheat with or without a side of veggies or rice would be stellar.

Thanks in advance, fabulous ones!!

I do Beef Stroganoff in slow cooker.
Beef
onion
Carrots
Packet sachet
garlic
chilli crushed
red wine
crushed tomatoes
tomatoe paste
wostershire sauce
what other vegies you want I tend to add peas and corn and mushroom about 40 mins before end.

Stir thru some sour cream and done.

Have frozen it before and it was ok.

Sausage casseroles I do as well but never frozen them as well as lamb shanks and chicken curry.

Beef strog
Spag Bol
Beef/red wine/garlic casserole
Silverside (haven't tried it reheated though)
Butter chicken
Beef goulash

I use the slow cooker packets too and find a lot of them do well reheated. Although I always do double the packets to ingredients listed so it's extra saucy and better when reheated

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Beef strog
Spag Bol
Beef/red wine/garlic casserole
Silverside (haven't tried it reheated though)
Butter chicken
Beef goulash

I use the slow cooker packets too and find a lot of them do well reheated. Although I always do double the packets to ingredients listed so it's extra saucy and better when reheated

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I do the same love lots of sauce!!! I have used left over beef stroganoff to make pot pies the next day as well.

A good one for kids (and adults!) is one of my childhood favourites...

Porcupines (Recipe for stovetop but easy to adapt to slowcooker)

420g can concentrated tomato soup
500g beef mince
1 brown onion, grated
1/2 cup long-grain rice, rinsed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
mashed potato, to serve

Place soup and 1 3/4 cups cold water in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil.
Meanwhile, combine mince, onion, rice, garlic and parsley in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Using 1 tablespoonful mixture at a time, roll mixture into balls.
Add meatballs to boiling soup. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until rice tender and meatballs cooked through. Serve with mashed potato.

Other ideas....
Risotto
Chilli (doesnt have to be too spicy for kidlets)
Chow Mein (mince, curry powder, grated veg, pkt chicken noodle soup, rice, cabbage, garlic, soy sauce, beans, mushrooms, water)
Pea and ham soup (bacon bones, yellow split peas, water, onion, curry powder to taste)

I cheat and use the packets. I've just put a beef and red wine on for tomorrow - I double the ingredients and use two packets, tonnes for freezing.

I don't have a problem with reheating - I've done that one plenty of times, it always tastes yum!

We had defrosted Bol sauce today, yum.

We also do a mild chicken curry that freezes really well and the kids seem to love that one. It's another packet.

I do a stroganoff too, from first principles but we haven't frozen that one.

Something I find to get rid of the bland is a few tricks. Make yourself some caramelised onions and store in the fridge/freezer for later. To freshen a slow cooked meal stir through some fresh herbs or a bit of zest before stirring, even some pitted kalamata is good. When I make red wine beef casserole I save part of the batch and stir through plain risotto with a bag of baby spinach, a squeeze of lemon juice and some zest. Or serve it up with some pasta. I always add more herbs/spices that are part of the dish at the end of cooking time to liven it up. If you're worried about veggies overlooking don't add them till half way through and stir through some frozen peas or blanched fresh veg (you can blanch fresh veg the night before and keep them in a zip lock bag in the fridge) not long before cooking.

Another good trick is prepping meals for the slow cooker and freezing all the ingredients in a zip lock bag. Then pulling one out the night before and popping it straight into the slow cooker I the morning even if still partially frozen.

thanks all !!

any more?

From a thread in the slow cooker recipe section:

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moroccan lamb shanks!

brown shanks in frying pan, add to slow cooker.

slice 2 medium-large onions, brown in frying pan with a little olive oil. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tablespoon of moroccan seasoning (available in multiple brands in the supermarket spice aisle!), add half a can of water, bring to boil, pour over lamb shanks.

leave cooking all day long. Add a can of chick peas and a bunch of baby spinach about half an hour before serving. You can leave the spinach until right before serving if you don't want it quite so wilted. Serve with rice.

Too easy, amazingly tasty! And shanks are cheap =)

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I do this one all the time and my kids LOVE it. At least my DD does & my DS used to until he decided he didn't like rice lol! DH & I are big fans too. It reheats well. I usually pull the bones out before adding the chickpeas.

Corn, potato and chorizo chowder

Ive done a moroccan lamb shank meal before with chickpeas it was yum. Served with Ainsley harriets packet flavoured cous cous and DD1 loved it!

The mild chicken curry slow cooker packet mix is nice too, I use coconut evap milk not coconut milk so less fat but it does seperate a bit, tastes great just looks odd. I add pumpkin, cauliflower and zucchini to it.

I also do an oven chicken casserole, which you could adapt to the slow cooker just use a little less liquid

Brown Floured diced Chicken Thighs (about 600g) Brown bacon (about 200g) add 1 diced onion 2-3 diced leeks and about 2 cups diced muhroom, I glass white wine, garlic, 1-2 cups chicken stock (enough to cover) and then put in casserole dish in the oven. Delish with mashed potatoes and green beans or if you are having it that night crinkling some filo over the top about 20 minutes before you pull it out the oven for some crispness.

I use a similar method to make a mild curry with rogan josh paste, 1kg diced beef (cheap cuts), 1-2 onions, 1 zucchini, capsicum, 2 potatoes 800g diced tomatoes. Brown meat and paste then add all the veg and about 1/2 cup water, cook on stove top about 10 min then in casserole dish in oven. Not a traditional curry but nice all the same.

Oh Yummy. These all look great!

Olive, the Corn, potato and chorizo chowder sounds delish!

N2L, oh my gosh that sounds Divine. Do you heat soup up first then add meat to slowcooker?

Novella, using curry paste sounds like a good way to make a dish extra yum too!

Black beer casserole

Beef
Veges - onion/carrot/celery/whatever
Black beer (Cascade is best)
Pepper, salt, beef stock.
Packet of vegetable soup mix
Packet of brown onion gravy.
Cornflour to thicken

Sometimes I double the beer, soup and gravy to make a bigger lot.
Can add in Kumera or potatoes to bulk it up.

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From a thread in the slow cooker recipe section:


I do this one all the time and my kids LOVE it. At least my DD does & my DS used to until he decided he didn't like rice lol! DH & I are big fans too. It reheats well. I usually pull the bones out before adding the chickpeas.

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That one was my favourite!! Until we stopped eating lamb.

Um, I made a beef and sweet potato one the other night that was yummy and a coconut flavoured pork one. That was really yummy and the meat was such a big lot that it lasted us for a couple of days!

What's wrong with lamb, MNB?

ok, our things are not going well.

pre-frozen and chopped veggies are going brown (carrots) or getting waterlogged and gross when defrosting (carrots, capsicum, etc) and other things are getting gross and waterlogged (potatoes) or dry (meat) and just NOTHING is tasting nice ... help?

is your meat / veg in a sauce or just cooked and frozen??

Just chopped and deep frozen :(

That's probably why. You'll have more luck freezing your meat/veg in sauces, they don't tend to do well without a sauce :)

I didn't know that.

The veggies you buy in a bag frozen - how do they do that?

I do chicken cacciatore. It's a while since I looked at a recipe so I'm not sure if this one is authentic or not, but it's the way I like it.

I brown the chicken (thighs, skin off) in the fry pan, take out. Fry onion, garlic, chilli and bacon in the fry pan.

Put whole lot in slow cooker with tin tomatoes and chicken stock. Actually, it's a while since I've done it in the SC, maybe drain the tomatoes so not too much liquid. Give it a few hours then add sliced mushrooms and olives.

Serve with rice or mash and sour cream (not essential). Could prob make white bean mash to make it a little more healthy.

I also do a shepherds pie base in the SC (mince, carrots, peas, celery, tomatoes, beef stock, sometimes corn for extra veg) and then just top with mash and put in oven close to dinner time. Or you can then freeze and top with mash later. Or sometimes I freeze mash too.