Now that youve started using your crock pot slow cooker regularly, youre probably wondering how you can adapt your traditional recipes to use in a crock pot. The ease of preparing a meal with a slow cooker has literally changed the lives of busy families. With the help of their slow cookers, families are eating healthier and consuming less greasy fast-food.

Here are some hints for adapting your favorite traditional recipes for crock pot cooking.

1.) Add vegetables like peas and broccoli to your recipe in the last 15 60 minutes. If youre using frozen vegetables, remember to add them to your crock pot recipe during the last 30 minutes.

2.) Make sure to soak your dried beans so that they are completely softened before adding them to your recipe. If your recipe includes tomatoes, salt, or sugar, then your beans should definitely be soaked before cooking.

3.) If your recipe calls for pasta, any kind of seafood, milk or other dairy products, then only add them during the last 60 minutes of cooking, and cook pasta to just a bit tender before adding them to the cooker. Condensed cream soups are good alternatives to dairy products because they can withstand longer cooking times.

4.) When cooking a recipe with rice, add an extra cup liquid for every cup of rice.

5.) Always remember to reduce the liquid in your recipe by when youre using a traditional recipe in your crock pot.

6.) A good idea for cooking stews and soups that call for vegetables is to put the veggies on the bottom and sides of the slow cooker and then place your meat on top.

Traditional Recipe to Slow Cooker Use:

15-30min traditional = 1.52hrs High or 4-6hrs Low in Crock pot

35-45min traditional = 3-4hrs High or 6-10hrs Low in Crock pot

50min-3hrs traditional = 4-6hrs High or 8-18hrs Low in Crock pot

If youre like most families, your slow cooker supplies lots of food per meal, so youll very likely have leftovers. Always remember to never reheat your leftovers in the crock pot. One of the additional rewards of slow cooking is the ability to make lots of food and freeze for future meals. Happy slow cooking!

Sherry Frewerd

Sherry Frewerd is a busy work at home mom of 3. Discover for yourself how she is creating a better quality of life for herself and family by building a successful Watkins home business. Visit her slow cooker website for delicious crock pot recipes at Family Crock Pot Recipes. Sherry is also a family child care provider and publishes an early childhood resource website for parents and family child care providers at Family Play and Learn. Find out how she does it all and still remains sane at her blogs 'There's More to Life Than Food' and 'Recipes to Live By'.