My preferred workflow with a rice cooker/slow cooker is this:
Identify day when I can Make A Food.
Make a large batch of rice, rice-and-other-grains, quinoa, mixed veggies, etc in the slow cooker.
Optionally, pair this with also making a protein and/or a vegetable that I can quickly cook on the stove; top a blander, starchier slow-cooker thing with a smaller portion of something more highly seasoned that's faster to cook.
Immediately put about 6-8 portions of Slow Cooker Food into single-serving containers (I use recycled plastic tubs from hummus or yogurt, but any washable item that come sin standard sizes works); freeze most of them; put one or two in the fridge for the Next Few Days. Eat a large bowl of a serving-plus of what is left.
Most common failure mode: put it all in one leftover container in the fridge, and then Not GEt Around to directly eating or re-cooking it.
Freezing in portions right away takes all the thinking out of it; I just dump them in a bowl to microwave when I want, say, quinoa with almonds or brown rice and lentil dal with spinach. And I don't waste the thing or get sick of it because it keeps in the freezer.
I suggest you identify things you are okay eating for several days in a row with optional toppings, OR things that you really like but rarely make because they are tedious (meats if you are a meat-eater, pilafs and bean stews for veggits like me). A super-basic filling food without any seasoning you find easy to mix in later, OR an enjoyable complete one-pot meal with all the tasty bits, are what I consider worth making in batches, but not anything in-between that I have to cook *again* later.
Ask yourself: am I saving washing 2 or more pots/pans by making 1 batch in the slow cooker? If so, it's worth it to me; if not, it's not.
There are complex recipes out there, so try telling your search engines for a simple version of some whole foods or food-pairings you know you like; I might google 'winter squash carrot slow cooker simple' or 'easy plain buckwheat rice cooker recipe'; if you know how to make Thing in a simple way you like, making a more-complicated version of Thing is easier later.
A fformer acquaintaince, whose strategy for a *small* rice cooker I still admire, just makes a fresh batch of plain jasmine rice every time 2 or more people are either hungry or around at a Food Time without a planned food, and gets someone else to wash the cooker. That works for her and is an example of different model of using a small cooker - no thought or prep required, just 'there will be a fresh batch of rice Soon' and it pretty much always gets eaten.
Since your slow cooker is small, consider using it to cook down whichever Thing you would like to eat more of but don't because it takes too long to cook or cooks unevenly - carrots, artichokes, beef, five bean chili, whatever - or to infuse a broth or seasoning into a bland protein for richer flavor. Small batches of plainish grains/starches can also make more portions than you might think.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-01-24 03:52 am (UTC)Identify day when I can Make A Food.
Make a large batch of rice, rice-and-other-grains, quinoa, mixed veggies, etc in the slow cooker.
Optionally, pair this with also making a protein and/or a vegetable that I can quickly cook on the stove; top a blander, starchier slow-cooker thing with a smaller portion of something more highly seasoned that's faster to cook.
Immediately put about 6-8 portions of Slow Cooker Food into single-serving
containers (I use recycled plastic tubs from hummus or yogurt, but any washable item that come sin standard sizes works); freeze most of them; put one or two in the fridge for the Next Few Days. Eat a large bowl of a serving-plus of what is left.
Most common failure mode: put it all in one leftover container in the fridge, and then Not GEt Around to directly eating or re-cooking it.
Freezing in portions right away takes all the thinking out of it; I just dump them in a bowl to microwave when I want, say, quinoa with almonds or brown rice and lentil dal with spinach. And I don't waste the thing or get sick of it because it keeps in the freezer.
I suggest you identify things you are okay eating for several days in a row with optional toppings, OR things that you really like but rarely make because they are tedious (meats if you are a meat-eater, pilafs and bean stews for veggits like me). A super-basic filling food without any seasoning you find easy to mix in later, OR an enjoyable complete one-pot meal with all the tasty bits, are what I consider worth making in batches, but not anything in-between that I have to cook *again* later.
Ask yourself: am I saving washing 2 or more pots/pans by making 1 batch in the slow cooker? If so, it's worth it to me; if not, it's not.
There are complex recipes out there, so try telling your search engines for a simple version of some whole foods or food-pairings you know you like; I might google 'winter squash carrot slow cooker simple' or 'easy plain buckwheat rice cooker recipe'; if you know how to make Thing in a simple way you like, making a more-complicated version of Thing is easier later.
A fformer acquaintaince, whose strategy for a *small* rice cooker I still admire, just makes a fresh batch of plain jasmine rice every time 2 or more people are either hungry or around at a Food Time without a planned food, and gets someone else to wash the cooker. That works for her and is an example of different model of using a small cooker - no thought or prep required, just 'there will be a fresh batch of rice Soon' and it pretty much always gets eaten.
Since your slow cooker is small, consider using it to cook down whichever Thing you would like to eat more of but don't because it takes too long to cook or cooks unevenly - carrots, artichokes, beef, five bean chili, whatever - or to infuse a broth or seasoning into a bland protein for richer flavor. Small batches of plainish grains/starches can also make more portions than you might think.
Experiment!
Good luck with the Thing.