With ever busier schedules, an old idea can be put to modern use.

Want to come home to a home-cooked meal after a hard day’s work?

Remember that crock-pot you probably got for housewarming, wedding gift or something, but has been gathering dust ever since?

Well, BREAK IT OUT and here’s a great “All-In-One Meal” that’s just wonderful you can start out with:

NEW ENGLAND DINNER

6 medium carrots
2 medium-sized yellow onions

4 celery ribs
1 small head cabbage
3-pound boneless chuck roast
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
2 cups water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 bay leaf

Clean the carrots and cut in half. Peel the onions and slice into quarters. Cut the celery ribs in half. Remove outer leaves from the cabbage, then cut the head into eighths.

Place the carrots, onion and celery in the slow cooker. Put the roast on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add the soup mix, water, vinegar and bay leaf on top. Add the cabbage. Do not mix ingredients. Cover and cook on low setting for 7 to 9 hours.

from The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook

lessons learned (I haven’t read this anywhere): if it’s a big roast, keep it on high and it will fall apart under your fork, if the pieces are cut up, use the low setting.

We usually prep the vegetables the night before so the next morning, all we do is stuff the crock pot, turn it on (it’s a good idea to check it’s getting warm before you leave for the day!!) and enjoy the home-cooked meal with no additional work.

You can make bread, cake and bake cookies in your crock-pot!

You will find good information about slow cookers in the book: how they work and how to use them, as well as 300 recipes. These recipes are what I call ‘skinny’ because they don’t involve lots of flavorful but fattening additions. These meals get their flavor ‘honestly’ and the slow-cooking blends everything so well.

BTW, recipes cannot be copyrighted – only collections can.