I buy jars or the ready made onion marmalade and use that instead of browning stuff first, it works really well. I add some raw onions too and will often add some jaggery goor which is the Indian blocks of unrefined sugar you can find at the supermarket.
I've got a great slow cook recipe book, will try to find its name for you. I have posted it on here previously somewhere.
In the mean time have you tried doing slow roast Chicken or lamb shoulder? They both work well - I usually put them on a chopped up couple of onions , spoon of onion marmalade and a splash of sherry for some starting moisture. Because all the juices come out of the meat and onions it's best to use something fortified like sherry to give a nice back flavour to the juices ready for the gravy, wine, water or stock can be a bit watery.
Put a sprinkle of herbs on top of the meat (we like thyme on chicken and rosemary & garlic for lamb) and a spray of olive oil if you have one of those little bottle that sprays it fimely, seems to help it brown up a bit.
Then just put the lid on and forget about it for a few hours!
Fav recipe is a star anise pork - I use pork chops or ready chunked pork but could use pork loin. Chop a couple of onions and use as a base, put pork on top and sprinkle on a little sr flour and mix so everything coated. Separately mix up half and half orange juice and sherry, add a good squirt of sweet chilli sauce and another of hoisin sauce (or plum sauce or sweet and sour depending on what you have in and like) and mix up well. Zap in the microwave until boiling. In the meantime add about 4 star anise to the pork (in half if you can) and then pour over the hot orange / sherry mix and then cook until done (use timings from your own slow cooker's instruction book for a pork casserole to get the right timings for you!)