365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More

365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More

It’s that time of year. During the fall and winter my countertops receive a designated spot that my slow cooker rarely leaves. Who wouldn’t love the idea of buying a cheap tough piece of meat, putting it in your magic machine before you leave for work, and returning home to find the most tender, juicy and flavorful piece of meat you’ve ever tasted?

I’m always looking for new ways to expand my slow cooker’s talent and I love a good slow cooker cookbook. But I can not in good conscience recommend this one. Do not let yourself be fooled. When I look at this lovely long title I interpret it that this book will contain 365 recipes using my slow cooker that will contain brand name ingredients and there will be some bonus recipes on top of those 365 recipes. It does contain 365 recipes, no more, no less. It does contain slow cooker recipes, 174 slow cooker recipes to be exact. The second half of the book contains recipes done on your stove top or using your oven while your sad little slow cooker remains unused. Clearly their use of “& More” means that it will use your slow cooker “& More”.

As for the rest of the title “Favorite Brand Name” not many recipes featured brand name items which I was actually relieved about. Recipes that did contain “brand name” ingredients I had never heard of and could not obtain at any of my local grocery stores. So when a recipe specified one package or one can followed by a brand name, I was left puzzled, with no means of substituting because no actual measurements were given. Had they given how many ounces that can was or cups were in that package, I might’ve been able to continue. But I was actually frustrated picking out some recipes I could complete without improvising.

There is a great little section on slow cooker basics so if you’ve just purchased one and have no idea how to work it, it’s worth glancing at. The rest of the book is divided into your classic cookbook sections such as appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and desserts. It’s then followed by another set of sections that seems to repeat itself and this is of course because it contains a set of recipes that do not use your slow cooker. It does feature a standard layout for recipes, having the recipes in bold and never flowing onto a second page. This does make it easy to read and you never have to flip back and forth between pages.

You can find full page size photos on every other page, suggesting that this cookbook was well tested and you can see the end result for half of the recipes that you intend to make. I am all for having photos as it is certainly more appetizing than words! Since half the book is essentially photos I would’ve been even more pleased at two half page photos meaning that every recipe gets a photo. But I do have to commend this slow cooker book as it contains more photos than most cookbooks do.

The book was not a total loss. I did manage to find an awesome barbecue sauce that had a great mixture of both sweet and smoky. I also managed to find a great beef stew that I will no doubt make over and over. But I say to copy these recipes down and move on. For how big this cookbook is I definitely expected to be able to find more and in my small bookcase of worthy cookbooks, this one does not qualify.