A Year of CrockPotting - One woman's crock pot obsession pays off for all of us

I cook a lot of things in the crock pot -- my favorite is Moroccan Chicken and Lentils (mmm, cinnamon-y).  But finding crock pot recipes that really work well can be a long process of trial-and-error, and honestly, I just want to toss the raw food in and then dish up dinner eight hours later.  I don't want to mess with the testing and tinkering.

That's where Stephanie O'Dea comes in. Steph made a New Year's resolution to cook for her family, every single day this year. The twist?  She's using her crock pot for all of those meals. 

Stephanie is a stay home mom of two, a writer, and a crock pot devotee.  Her blog, A Year of CrockPotting, is full of recipes -- over 200 at this point.  She makes main dishes and vegetables and soups and desserts and, recently, French toast.  In the crock pot!  How cool is that?  She is honest about her successes and her failures (and in a year, there are bound to be failures).  She is also funny and relaxed, and is clearly enjoying this project, which makes it fun for her readers, too.

What I love about Steph's approach to cooking is her balance of humor and adventure; recently she made something she called clean out the pantry crock pot chili, which she described this way: "We had too much food in the house for me to feel comfortable buying more, so I dug through what we had on hand, threw it in the pot, held my breath, and hoped for the best." The chili was a success, but more than that, Stephanie was reminded of why she does this in the first place: because she enjoys it. "Cooking should be fun. When preparing dinner becomes a chore -- and it's no longer fun -- that's when you reach for the phone to call for pizza." 

When we talk about teaching kids to eat healthy, we often over focus on what's on their plate -- is there a vegetable? A starch? A protein?  Stephanie's year of crock pot cooking is a gentle reminder that there's more to healthy eating than simply covering all the food groups.  When we teach our kids to love cooking, and to see it as an adventure rather than a chore, we give them the tools to make good choices about what they eat and how they think about food.

This week, get out your crock pot and try one of Steph's recipies.  Have your kids help you choose one -- maybe the French toast!  Why not?  And then, in the time you are spending NOT standing over a hot stove, do something fun with your family, and when dinner is ready, you can all sit at the table and talk about your day.  Doesn't that sound nice?

Yes, it really does.