If you came to dinner at our house, you would hardly believe that a little over a year ago, I barely knew how to cook an egg, let alone make a nutritious and delicious meal. I don't make great meals every time, and some nights I am lazy, but most nights nowadays my meals come out great! And healthy!
I never would have gotten to where I am now without two very important tools: a slow cooker and a pressure cooker.
I see both of these as almost opposite sides of the spectrum. A slow cooker--often called "Crock Pot" which is actually a brand of slow cooker--allows you to slow down the cooking time needed, while a pressure cooker allows you to speed up the cooking time. Both have been life savers. And while I don't use them now as frequently as I used to, they helped me to see how easy cooking can be. I would not be the cook I am today without them.
Let's focus on the slow cooker for a little while. Generally speaking, a slow cooker is the ultimately lazy cook tool. You throw everything in the pot, turn it on and come back to a finished product! It's also really nice because they are really inexpensive. You can get a slow cooker that will work great for about $20. I suggest getting one that is at least 4 quarts and has a dial that allows you to choose between settings (off, keep warm, low & high).
Now the down side of using a slow cooker is that it requires you to be a bit of a morning person. You have to know what you're doing and get it all ready in the morning in order for it to be ready by dinner. I am NOT a morning person, so I *try* to plan the night ahead to get all the ingredients together, chopped, thawed, etc. so literally all I have to do in the morning is throw everything in & turn it on.
There are TONS of slow cooker cookbooks, check out your local library to avoid buying one. They even have cookbooks that only have recipes with 5 ingredients or less, for the super lazy cook! Also just try googling a few ingredients and "slow cooker recipe."
Now onto pressure cookers. These are definitely nice for when you look at the clock at 5pm and go, "Uh-oh, what am I going to make?" Or when you had something planned and lost track of time and suddenly don't have enough time to cook it. This happens FAR more often than I'd like to admit....
Pressure cookers are wonderful because you can either find a recipe for the pressure cooker (there are many online), or in the case of not leaving enough cooking time, you can simply adjust your regular recipe to cook in the pressure cooker. The essential part of using a pressure cooker is liquid. You need some sort of liquid because the pressure cooker uses the steam to pressurize the cooking; this is what makes it cook quicker. Generally about 1/3 of the time needed otherwise.
Make sure not to fill the cooker more than 1/2 to 2/3 full (according to the manufacturer instructions) or it won't have enough room for the steam to move and to bring to pressure. This is why Kevin & I spent the money to buy a BIG pressure cooker, so we could make larger recipes. If you have an electric stove...you will need to use two burners. One on HIGH to bring to pressure and one on LOW to cook on. With gas stoves, you can go from high immediately to low with no problem. But unfortunately with an electric stove, the burner needs to cool off rather than adjusting from high to low.
You can supposedly cook rice and oatmeal in the pressure cooker, though you have to use the "pot-in-pot method." I've never done this. I'm not sure we have the right bowl, and I'm just a little skeptical of it in general. Especially since we just had to get rid of a rice cooker (selling it on CraigsList for $10 if anyone is interested!) because we found out while it cooks white rice GREAT, it does not properly cook brown rice, which is all we eat.
The down side of the pressure cooker is that it is a greater investment than a slow cooker. It's worth it to buy a nicer version, since it will work better and last longer. You're looking at a minimum of $100, versus the $20 or so for a slow cooker. I think it's worth it though.
So go ahead and slow cook and pressure cook to your hearts desire!
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