Faith in Fairy Tales: Crock Pot & Rice Cooker Love

Daily Dinners

Dinner is by far the trickiest meal of the day for me and I’m sure I’m not alone in that! My daughter Jocalyn is a fairly light sleeper and trying to do much while she is napping can be quite the ordeal. Especially anything in the kitchen tends to wake her up pretty easy. This makes getting dinner ready while she naps a real trick a lot of the time. To top this off my hubby Jeff gets home at different times depending on the day so we don’t usually have a set dinner time. Sometimes we go to the gym once he gets home and that means we really don’t have much time when we get home to get dinner done and eaten before Jocalyn’s bedtime routine starts. I hate feeling rushed and that is especially true at the end of the day when I’m tired and just want to chill before bed. For all of these reasons and more I have been really loving my crock pot and rice cooker lately. It is just so easy to throw everything in and be done with it. I also really love that dinner is kept warm and ready so you can eat whenever you are ready without having to either heat something up or cook it right then. This is especially true on nights we go to the gym after Jeff gets home.

Holidays and Company

Over Thanksgiving I really wanted easy lunches that would be healthy, yummy, and quick that didn’t involve sandwiches every day. Everyone was staying pretty busy and not always on the same meal schedule and my crock pot and rice cooker came to the rescue yet again. I just made a big batch of brown rice and another of Jasmine and a huge batch of.. well I’m still trying to figure out what to call the recipe I came up with actually. I guess a cajun curry thick stew would be the best way to describe it. It was so great to have everyone just be able to dish up a hot lunch or snack whenever they wanted and go back about the day without taking a bunch or time or making a mess in the kitchen. It was extra awesome on Thanksgiving when I was taking up the kitchen and most of the dishes making the big dinner. Even though my parents kitchen is much larger I think it will be equally as nice when we head to their house for Christmas or anytime you have company.

Favorite Crock Pot

Recently my crock pot died on me and so I was looking around for a new one. After researching quite a few I settled on the following one and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase! I got mine from Amazon and used the prime shipping. (I love Amazon and the prime shipping!) At $50 you can definitely find cheaper options but I really love the features on this one. We have get-togethers pretty often at my hubby’s work and the lid latches work wonders for transporting your creations spill free. Another big one for me is being able to set the cooking options any way you want.

Hamilton Beach 33969 Set and Forget 6-QuartSlow Cooker

(Picture from Amazon.com)

Crock Pot Liners

If you have never tried a crock pot liner you are missing out! I typically just get the Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners from the grocery store. I know you can get a variety of options online but I haven’t tried any of those out. All you do is put the liner in, fill the crock pot as usual, cook, and then throw away the liner and mess! So easy and with no cleanup required this makes crock pot dinners all the better for me. Sometimes I will wipe the crock pot down with a damp paper towel just to make sure it is extra clean but this usually isn’t necessary.

(Picture from Amazon.com)

Favorite Rice Cooker

This rice cooker is amazing. We received it as a Christmas present two years ago and I can’t say enough good things about it! It cooks the rice and any other grain perfectly and it has a stay warm feature that is amazing! When it comes time to clean up it is the easiest thing ever. It is a little pricey at $140 but I think it is totally worth the money and we use ours allll the time! They have a bigger option as well which my parents have but the smaller size works perfectly for us. There is actually a whole cookbook of recipes you can make using just the rice cooker as well.

Zojirushi 5-1/2-Cup (Uncooked) Neuro FuzzyRice Cooker and Warmer, Premium White