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Pls help me decide!



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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:13 am
So I work full-time and literally walk in together with my kids (no transport or carpool). So even when my food is cooked it still takes time to warm it up and they're always staaarving no matter how much food I send them to school with. Do I need a crackpot? Will it help me? I don't need it for tshulent! My only hesitation is I once borrowed it from a friend and made chicken with it and left it on a long time the chicken came out yuck so slimy! So if the crackpot works only for meats then it's not so interesting because meat here costs a fortune! So we basically eat chicken. WWYD? please help a mom out!
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Chayalle




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:23 am
Make suppers that you can heat up in the microwave. Or stir fries that can be cooked quickly.
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mom!




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:34 am
How about a time bake setting on your oven? Saves me…
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jewishmom6




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:34 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
So I work full-time and literally walk in together with my kids (no transport or carpool). So even when my food is cooked it still takes time to warm it up and they're always staaarving no matter how much food I send them to school with. Do I need a crackpot? Will it help me? I don't need it for tshulent! My only hesitation is I once borrowed it from a friend and made chicken with it and left it on a long time the chicken came out yuck so slimy! So if the crackpot works only for meats then it's not so interesting because meat here costs a fortune! So we basically eat chicken. WWYD? please help a mom out!


why dont you start off with a snack (cut up apples, peppers, pretzels) while your food warms up
or bring these along in the car if you pick them up from school.

I doesnt take longer than 20 min for food to get hot.
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amother
Crystal


 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:39 am
You could have cut up salad ready for eating while the rest of the food warms up.
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honeymoon




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:40 am
The right croc-pot can be a lifesaver for people like you. It takes some figuring out but once you get to know the settings its great. My croc-pot dinners are always juicy, tender and absolutely delicious.

You can also have a ready container of soup in the fridge and pop it into the microwave as soon as you walk into the house. By the time the kids used the bathroom, put away their backpacks and kicked off their shoes there will be hot soup ready to tide them over till the rest of dinner gets hot.
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SuperWify




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:42 am
You can buy a crockpot for $40. You can make stews, soups, meatballs, extra. If you do chicken cut the time in half because it dries it quickly. I lived crockpot dinners when I worked out of the house.

Another option is slow cooking in the oven on 200’.
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amother
Olive


 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:46 am
I’m
Not. A crockpot fan

We do snack on the way home and/or as soon as they get home. Dinner is a set time about an hour later so there’s time to heat it up (properly)
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honeymoon




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:47 am
Light chicken won't work in a croc pot. Use dark chicken like goulash or drumsticks.
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ra_mom




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:52 am
Yes, it will help you!
There's a learning curve to using the crockpot for chicken, but once you have the right recipe, you'll learn from that what works and what doesn't. Buy an oval crockpot that gives you more surface area for dinner cooking (not too big or taste will be diluted).

Try this. See how it goes.
It's best on low for 7 hours. Use a shabbos timer to have it turn off at 7 hours so it doesn't overcook.

Succulent Chicken

4 chicken legs (drum&thigh attached), with skin
1 large or 2 small onions, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp paprika
black
4 garlic cloves, cut in half

Place onion slices on the bottom of the stoneware insert.
In a large mixing bowl, toss chicken parts with olive oil, salt, paprika, pepper, and garlic. Pour into crockpot, on top of the onion, laying the chicken in one overlapping layer. Nestle the pieces of garlic underneath the skin of the chicken.
Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.
The onions will kind of melt together as if sautéed. Serve them with the chicken.


Last edited by ra_mom on Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:53 am; edited 2 times in total
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SixOfWands




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:52 am
mom! wrote:
How about a time bake setting on your oven? Saves me…


How does that work for chicken or meat, though. Wouldn't it be sitting at room temperature in your oven too long before the timer tells it to heat up?

In case not clear, this is genuine curiosity. I'd love to do it, but always worry about it.
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ra_mom




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:55 am
mom! wrote:
How about a time bake setting on your oven? Saves me…

I love to do this too. I season and freeze so it's ready to go in the oven. Slide into the oven in the AM, while fully frozen. Set the oven to go on at say 3:30pm. The chicken/meat will thaw and still be cold when the oven goes on. Come home to fresh hot food.

(Don't do this with boneless chicken or fish as they defrost too quickly and take much faster to cook).


Last edited by ra_mom on Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:57 am; edited 2 times in total
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honeymoon




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 11:55 am
SixOfWands wrote:
How does that work for chicken or meat, though. Wouldn't it be sitting at room temperature in your oven too long before the timer tells it to heat up?

In case not clear, this is genuine curiosity. I'd love to do it, but always worry about it.


This could work if your oven has a delay start option and the chicken is cold or even semi frozen.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 12:00 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
So I work full-time and literally walk in together with my kids (no transport or carpool). So even when my food is cooked it still takes time to warm it up and they're always staaarving no matter how much food I send them to school with. Do I need a crackpot? Will it help me? I don't need it for tshulent! My only hesitation is I once borrowed it from a friend and made chicken with it and left it on a long time the chicken came out yuck so slimy! So if the crackpot works only for meats then it's not so interesting because meat here costs a fortune! So we basically eat chicken. WWYD? please help a mom out!


1. Have some light non-appetite-killing snacks available to tide them over until you can heat up the main meal. Dry whole-grain cereal, a fruit, yogurt, a glass of milk, half a peanut-butter sandwich, a small cube of cheese, even a hard-boiled egg if they'll eat that. In winter you can make hot cocoa in the morning and keep it in a large thermos so it'll still be warm when the kids get home.

2. It's crockpot, not crackpot. A "crackpot" is a nutcase, a loony, a meshuggener. A crackpot you definitely don't want cooking your food.

3. Crockpots--generic term "slow-cooker"--is not just for meat, though that's what it's used for the most because of the cooking time. It can be used for chicken, beans, root vegetable stews and soups. Check out recipes online. Soup is also a great thing to serve on arrival home, especially in winter.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/.....46305
https://veganinthefreezer.com/.....ooms/
https://thecheekychickpea.com/vegan-stew/
https://diethood.com/slow-cook.....soup/

Chicken soup with rice and veggies is a great crockpot dinner, but the cooking time is only about 4-5 hours.

In general you're not supposed to hook cooking appliances up to a timer but if you find that a dish is badly overcooked when you get home, you could set it up to go on some time after you leave the house. If it's all vegetables and no meat or chicken, spoilage should not be a problem, especially in cold weather. or you could make a chicken dish, add ice cubes instead of water, and by the time the crockpot switches on the ice cubes will have melted but kept the chicken safely chilled. Personally I don't care for the idea of leaving ANY appliance (other than a clock and the fridge) running when nobody is home, especially if you have uncaged pets, and timers have been known to malfunction and never turn the appliance on.

IMPORTANT: Make sure the amperage and wattage of the timer are at least equal to and preferably greater than the amperage and wattage of the crockpot. If you're given only one unit, amperage times voltage equals wattage, so if your crockpot is labeled 2 amps and your wiring is 120 volts, the appliance draws 240 watts of power. (The average crockpot is rated between 0.6 to 2 amps.) A timer meant for a table lamp with a 150 watt bulb may not necessarily be able to handle a crockpot.

Is a microwave a possibility instead of a crockpot? Cooked food doesn't take that long to heat up in a microwave.
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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 12:08 pm
Thank you so much for the ideas and zaq for pointing out my auto correct I guess my phone knows how nuts I am Tongue Out
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amother
Oleander


 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 12:08 pm
SixOfWands wrote:
How does that work for chicken or meat, though. Wouldn't it be sitting at room temperature in your oven too long before the timer tells it to heat up?

In case not clear, this is genuine curiosity. I'd love to do it, but always worry about it.


The night before I move the chicken from freezer to fridge so it's just defrosted enough to seperate and put in the pan, but still mostly frozen. Pop it in the oven and it defrosts during the day.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 1:00 pm
Unlike other people, I don't really like chicken in a crockpot. Also chicken really can't be cooked in a crockpot all day - some foods are all right like a chili or stew but chicken really doesn't work for extended time in the crockpot.

I don't understand why you can't heat food that is already cooked. It takes just a few minutes to microwave a dish. You can cook on Sunday and have food to reheat for the rest of the week. I used to work long hours so I couldn't "cook" on weekdays so the first thing I would do when I got home was to put food in the microwave to be reheated - I had recipes that worked well when reheated. Some dishes just can't be reheated successfully and some dishes actually benefit from being reheated because the flavors marry together - e.g. stews are really better the next day when reheated.

There is generally a period of time when people get home and change into clothings; get washed etc. If your children must eat something immediately when they walk in the door, plan to have something that can be eaten as a first course like a bagged salad or some other food that doesn't kill their appetite entirely.
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bk




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 05 2021, 5:30 pm
How about an Instant Pot? The pros is that you set it to cook for whatever amount of time and then it switches to 'warm' automatically until you open/shut it.
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