3 Slow Cooker Recipes and a Cookbook Review

As you may know, I’m just now coming out of several weeks of horrible pregnancy nausea/vomiting. Food has been my arch-nemesis. I felt sick if I didn’t eat. I felt sick if I did eat. The thought of food was just unbearable.

Now that my cookbooks aren’t vomit triggers and I can enjoy them again, I took an afternoon getting to know the beautiful new edition of my friend Stephanie Cornais’s From Your Freezer to Your Family: Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes eCookbook.

It’s a treasure of a cookbook filled with REAL FOOD recipes. I was head over heels for Stephanie’s first edition and it honestly completely changed how I handle our family’s meals. No more 5 o’clock scramble! No more losing it with my kids at the end of the day when we’re all tired and they need me, but Mama is in the middle of trying to pull something together from the dark recesses of our pantry so we won’t all starve. You know, good changes in my life.

In short, here’s what I love about Stephanie’s eCookbook:

It’s so easy. It’s designed so you can prep several meals (veggies, meat, spices, etc.) put them in freezer bags to store, and then drop them in the slow cooker, and voila: Dinner!

It’s REAL FOOD. Before Stephanie’s eCookbook, I had never in my life used a slow cooker. All the slow cooker recipes I could find were full of processed ingredients I don’t stock in my house. All of Stephanie’s recipes are healthy, unprocessed, real food ingredients. LOVE IT.

It’s structured so well. There are shopping lists for each recipe’s ingredients and a great introduction about real food and healthy eating.

It’s frugal. Planning our meals with this cookbook really did bring down our grocery bill even though I bought more meat than we usually budget for. Win.

It’s flexible. We’ve easily adapted the recipes to use whatever is being harvested from our garden and usually we don’t add as much meat as the recipes call for to save a few bucks and they’re still delicious!

It’s 95% grain-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free. Our 3-year-old has a severe gluten allergy and it’s heaven to be able to use a recipe without having to make a million substitutions first. It’s very Paleo-friendly.

What Improvements Are in the New Edition?

If you purchased the first edition and loved it, you will want to get the second edition because there are 10 new slow cooker recipes and 5 new one dish freezer recipes!  There’s an introduction from a professional chef, better organized grocery lists, and edits and improvements made to the Real Food and How to Assemble chapters.

If you’re skeptical about whether slow cooker freezer meals can really be delicious, here are three of Stephanie’s recipes from the eCookbook that she’s given me permission to share. Save them, pin them, use them. Yum.

Ginger-Cranberry Pork Roast

2 pork roasts
2, 12 ounce package fresh cranberries or 2 cans of whole cranberries,
1 cup peeled and sliced or minced ginger,
2 tablespoons rapadura sugar,
2 tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca or some other thickening agent,
1 cup filtered water

Divide all ingredients (except water) into two, one gallon bags. Label and put in freezer.
Day of cooking dump contents of one bag into slow cooker, add the water, and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours, or until fully cooked. Remember each slow cooker is different, so the first time you make a recipe, really watch it so you don’t over or under cook it.
Serve with sauteed broccoli in lots of butter. I cook frozen broccoli this way, no need to thaw, just dump frozen broccoli into a hot pan with hot butter and it is delicious.
Enjoy!

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

3 medium unpeeled sweet potatoes cut into 1/2 inch pieces (about 2 cups),
2 large green peppers cut into strips or cubes (about 2 cups),
1 large red pepper cut into strips or cubes (about 1 cup)
2 zucchini chopped (about 2 cups), 
2 cups chopped onion,
2 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca (or flour, or some other thickening agent),
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks,
2 15oz cans of tomato sauce,
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar,
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce,
2 tablespoon ground yellow mustard,
2 clove garlic finely minced (about 2 tablespoons),
1 teaspoon salt

Divide everything into two separate one gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. On the day of cooking, dump it into your slow cooker and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or low 6-8 hours, depending on your specific slow cooker.

Orange Beef Stew

3 to 4 pounds of chuck roast (or any other kind of roast),
2 cups of beef broth (I use homemade stock),
2 cups of orange juice (fresh juice is best, but I was running short on time and just used Uncle Matt’s Organic),
1 tablespoon of rapadura sugar,
2 tablespoons of soy sauce,
2 tablespoons of arrow root powder/flour,
2 tablespoons of minced garlic (fresh is best, but not having to cut up garlic is so nice!),
1 bunch of scallions,
2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes. (I scrub them good, but leave the skins on),
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions: Label 1 one-gallon freezer bag. Chop sweet potatoes and scallions, then add to freezer bag. Add in sugar, arrow root flour, soy sauce, garlic and orange juice. Mix up well and then lay bag flat and place in freezer. Day of cooking: add contents of freezer bag, roast, 2 cups of beef broth, salt and pepper to slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Serve with fresh salad and homemade sourdough bread, if you have it.

If you’re looking for an easy, delicious, and healthy way to feed your family. This eCookbook is a good ‘un. The only folks I don’t recommend it to are vegetarians. There are some vegetarian recipes but many are meat-based (with a lot of the flavor coming from chicken stocks, etc).

The new edition is currently priced at $9.99 which is really a great deal. My whole family has enjoyed these meals (including my husband who is a bit of a food snob). Inspiration for easy, healthy meals might be a good gift to give yourself as the holidays come ever nearer 🙂

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this eCookbook. The links are affiliate links. All opinions are my own. I only tell my readers about products that I use myself and love.