Slow Cooker ideas for multiple days worth of meals

[Norman Quill]

Hi!

Recently diagnosed type 2 (Jan 2019), first time poster here.

I am a lazy person. I live alone, and work 5 days a week. If I come home and haven't got a meal ready, I am more likely to go and grab a take away (even though it would take about the same amount of time as cooking something for myself).

However, over the last month or so I have gotten into the habit of using my slow cooker. I cook myself a meal whilst at work, and it feeds me for four days.

The weekly habit I have gotten myself into is this:

Sunday - cook a roast, ensuring that there is sufficient meat to last two days
Monday - whilst I am cooking the veg to go with the leftover roast, I prepare my bolognaise sauce for cooking whilst I am at work on Tuesday
Tuesday - Whilst I am cooking wholemeal spaghetti and broccoli for a nice spag bol that day, I am layering up a lasagne to stick in the oven when I get back from work on Wednesday. I do everything bar adding the grated cheese; that gets added before it goes in the oven. I confess that I use a jar of Tescos lasagne sauce rather than make my own, but if I were to do my own white sauce I am likely to just give up with the whole enterprise. Maybe in time, but for now I don't want to push myself into failing.
Wednesday - Lasagne (and veg. I get through a LOT of broccoli in the week; I'm just glad there are no naked flames in the house!)
Thursday - lasagne and veg again. (What can I say; I like lasagne!)
Friday - the rest of the bolognaise sauce gets mixed up with a tin of hot and spicy mixed beans (Tesco again) and chilli powder to make a chilli con carne, which I have with wholemeal rice.

The only day I don't plan for is Saturday, and that is my shopping day for the week. I'll choose something that I fancy as I stroll around the aisles, making sure to check the traffic light system on the side of the packaging.

Anyway, the reason I say this is that much as I love bolognaise (and ADORE lasagne) if I am not careful there will come a time when I will become sick of that as a food. And should that happen, I fear that I will stop cooking for myself and lose all that progress I had made since I attended the Desmond course a couple of months back: 11kg weight loss, sugar and cholesterol levels back to near normal, and BP from 146/80 to 126/73.

So, what I am after are slow cooker meal ideas. Something I can make one day, then tweak and reheat over the course of several days so I end up with three or four meals for very little effort.

But if I am going to ask for your ideas, I feel it only right and proper to share my recipe. I say "my" recipe, but credit where credit is due, it is based on the lasagne recipe I got from attending one of the Cook and Eat Well courses that are run in the West Midlands. There are loads of recipes on their website (https://cookandeatwell.co.uk/).

Norman Quill's Slow and Lazy Bolognaise

Ingredient quantity is entirely up to you. With me it is generally an entire tin. Reminder - when using a slow cooker, the items that get cooked need to be cut up quite small.

Pork mince (low fat - about 10%)
Chopped onions
Chopped celery
Sweetcorn
Chopped sweet pepper
Chopped tinned tomatoes
Baked beans
Gnocci (someone suggested switching to butter beans or chickpeas. Not tried that yet, but it sounds nice)
Tomato puree
A good dash of Worcestershire sauce (1 to 2 tbsp)
Oregano

(You can also add any other veg that you fancy. Mushrooms, carrots, courgettes, anything really)

Mix all the above into the slow cooker pot.

Heat up some water, and pour into a bowl (or one of your empty tins if you want to cut down on washing up!). Sprinkle in a low-salt stock cube, and mix. Let the stock cool down, then pour into the slow cooker pot and stir to ensure that there is sufficient liquid in there for cooking. Pop the whole lot in the fridge for the following day.

For cooking, stick it on low. It only needs 8 hours of cooking, but by the time I get home from work and a walk by the canal, it has been cooking for roughly 12 hours.

It is now ready for eating, and converting to other meals.

Enjoy!

 

[Drummer]

Well - not bad apart from the pasta, the rice the sweetcorn the baked beans, and the Tesco sauce is 23 gm of carbs by itself - but you could change to eating lower carb by - for instance, substituting the lasagna sheets with leeks - split the tube and you get sheets, but you might need to watch the amount of liquid as they don't absorb like the pasta.
I avoid low fat and low salt as they are not good options - low carb, non processed foods are low in salt, and when eating low carb fat is used for energy.

 

[Felinia]

How about swapping the pork mince for 5% turkey thigh mince? I actually have a recipe very similar to you, but I have 50/50 turkey and cannellini beans and make sure the baked beans are the low salt and sugar version. I also don't use gnocci. I add flavour with tomato paste. How about swapping the pasta for butternut squash sheets? My go to slow cooker recipe is 8 skinless chicken thighs, packet of casserole veg (fresh or frozen), low salt chicken stock cube made up to just cover chicken and veg (or I make my own when I roast a chicken), herbs to taste. Makes 4 meals and I usually freeze 3 for future use. I serve with roasted squash instead of potato, rice or pasta, and lots of green veggies. Too much liquor can be saved, frozen, and go in home made soup.

 

[grainger]

You can cook a chicken in slow cooker, have that with veg one night then the following use the rest of the chicken and slow cook a curry/casserole etc.

Could make a casserole and then just have different accompaniments each night? Eg cauliflower rice one night, pasta, additional veg etc.

There’s probably loads of veggie options you can slow cook which might give you some variety.

You can cook a variety of joints in a slow cooker so there may be options to do various things with leftovers

You can make onion soup etc in a slow cooker too. So maybe soups in winter?

 

[Pigeon]

I do this recipe for beef brisket: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/817946/recipe/slow-cooked-chipotle-beef-brisket , cut the fat off after cooking and shred it. It's good in a wrap or with nachos (maybe a bit carby for a T2?) or you could have it with sweet potato or beans or something. Freezes well too - you could do that with your bolognaise to mix up the days a bit!

 

[AndBreathe]

@Norman Quill - Personally, I don't touch pasta for a couple of reasons, but this chilli recipe is excellent, and freezes well too.

https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/low-carb-chili-in-crock-pot-or-instant-pot-paleo-gluten-free/

What we tend to do is have a bit of a cook off, and, for instance, cook a couple of days in a row, but freeze the leftover portions for other days. It means we'll always have something in to eat.

We buy alluminium containers in the pound shop, at 10 for £1. You know, the sort of things takeaways come in, so each carton is a portion, or 2 portions if we buy the larger size.

It also means if we get caught out, for time, we can usually take something out of the freezer and either pop it in the over for 45 minutes, or decant the block and microwave it.

Casseroles, soups, curries, chilli, bolognaise sauce. The list is very long, if not necessarily endless.

 

[rebrascora]

I just bought a smoked gammon joint and cooked it in the slow cooker overnight. Then I made a big batch of bacon and lentil soup with the stock and carved up the joint so that I can have nice thick slices of it with cauliflower cheese, as per @Drummer 's recipe or in omelettes with mushrooms and cheese or a salad. Just bought a bag of reduced spinach for 20p and will be wilting that in a pan tonight and then stirring in cream cheese and that will go nicely with ham and eggs. My partner will also eat some in sandwiches.... I no longer eat bread myself. You could also make a white sauce and have it chopped up with leeks or broccoli and a little wholemeal pasta, if you can tolerate pasta without spiking too much.