Healthy, natural (no red meat) crockpot ideas

[chappie]

I am the primary cook of our humble household, but because my wife and I have conflicting work schedules — she works all day, I work nights — our meals together tend toward weekends. Or, I'll tinker in the kitchen at 2 a.m., or in the morning.

I'm looking for meals I can prep in advance and leave in the crockpot for her, so she can come home to a healthy and home-cooked meal. But she doesn't eat much red meat, and she hates most legumes, both of which comprise a lot of crockpot recipes.

Any ideas using fish, chicken, veggies, etc?

[Gabriel Lewis]

Does she eat pork? There are lot of great stews and crockpot dishes you can make with pork, particular mexican ones such as chile verde or chile colorado.

Another good idea would be Indian or thai curries. There are a lot of these you could leave simmering in the crockpot that involve chicken, seafood, or in some cases pork (pork vindaloo for example). If they were going to simmer too long you could simply prep the base and let that simmer, and have her add the fish/meat when she got home and simply continue to simmer till ready. Or you just just as easily cook it ahead of time and have it easy for her to reheat. Many of these things improve with age.

Other ideas that come to mind are ratatouille, coq au vin, moroccan style stews (chicken with olives). Perhaps some of the braises from the Braising with Molly book? There are plenty of braises that don't involve red meat.

Soups might be another idea, plenty of great veggie, seafood, or poultry based soups that are delicious and tasty, and would only require reheating.

[dockhl]

I do a whole roast chicken with preserved lemons and olives that is good, esp if you have a good presalted or brined chicken. Great leftovers, too.

[Majra]

Congee is easy to make in a crockpot, and I've also had success making avgolemono soup that way. Either one would be nice to come home to.

[chappie]

I do a whole roast chicken with preserved lemons and olives that is good, esp if you have a good presalted or brined chicken. Great leftovers, too.

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How do you keep it from getting soggy in the crockpot? Do you brown it first in pan? Also, could I use chicken parts for something like this?

[DerekW]

Shallow fry a dried chili pepper or two until they blacken, then crank it up and brown chicken [bone-in thighs, usually, although drums with the tendons cut work too]. Set the chicken aside to drain, wipe out the pan and gently fry some chopped ginger and a few green onions, sliced big on a slant. Scallions, spring onions, whatever they're called near you. Pick the stemmage out of a good spoonful of szechuan peppercorns before crushing them a bit and adding to the vegetables. Don't omit. Return the chicken to the pan and add enough dark soy sauce and beer to make up a shallow braise. Into the crockpot with it all.

[mollybloom1109]

One thing that is great in a crockpot is Irish Oatmeal, cooked on low, substitute 1/4 of the liquid with cream or 1/2 and 1/2. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Trow in raisins, dried cranberries or even sliced drained peaches when cooking is done.

I have adapted gumbo(Vegetarian, seafood or meat) to a crockpot with good results, email me if interested. MOL

[dockhl]

I do a whole roast chicken with preserved lemons and olives that is good, esp if you have a good presalted or brined chicken. Great leftovers, too.

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How do you keep it from getting soggy in the crockpot? Do you brown it first in pan? Also, could I use chicken parts for something like this?

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Normally what I'll do is pour off the juices when I get home and crank it up to high. It doesn't brown like in the oven, tho. (Frankly, I usually pull the skin off and fry it up in a pan to eat ! )

If you used parts, you could brown them first and then put them in the crockpot. I guess you could brown your whole chicken, too.... ??