Slow cooker meals on a budget

[lookingforsunshine]

Can anyone suggest some simple meals I can make using slow cooker that will save me money? I have a young baby and very little time. Looking for simple recipes with not too many ingredients. If I cook something in slower cooker, I presume I can then let some of it cool, freeze and reheat in oven at a later date?

I thought I'd heard you can buy very cheap cuts of meat...cook in slow cooker will taste lovely. Is this right?

Anyone know of any slow cooker recipe websites, I've looked but can't find anything.

Thanks in advance.

Lots of nice SC recipes here
Stick to veg, pulses and grains for low cost and nutritious dishes. Cheap cuts of meat cook very well in a SC. All leftovers can be frozen. Some recipes tell you to fry or brown ingredients first but I don't bother any more I just chuck it all together.

Tonight Lamb tagine

Cheaper cuts of beef, especially, are cheap precisely because they are horribly tough unless they are cooked for a long period of time. So ideal for slow cooking or casseroling. Meat is still expensive, however, so the way a traditional stew works is to pad out the meat with plenty of cheaper root vegetables or pulses so that a little goes a long way. Casseroles and stews freeze well because of the liquid content.

There are a lot of slow-cooker websites but I don't use one so don't know any. All I would say is to avoid any recipe suggestion that includes words like 'bung', 'shove' or 'throw'. :) Even cheap food needs a bit of care and attention or the results will be tasteless and disappointing.

Cog's Standard Beef Stew
1kg beef described either as shin, 'stewing', 'braising', brisket. Diced into 3cm cubes
2 tablespoons plain flour seasoned well with salt and pepper
oil
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 celery stalks, cut into chunks
some small new potatoes, halved
90g pearl barley
Beef stock (a cube is OK) - about 250ml
Dash Worcester Sauce
Teaspoon dried thyme
Good squeeze of tomato puree

• Toss the beef cubes in the seasoned flour and then fry in a little oil, a few at a time, until browned. Add to the slow cooker
• Add the onion to the pan and cook that a little until browned at the edges. Add to the slow cooker
• Same again with the vegetables
• Sprinkle in the pearl barley and thyme
• Now mix together the beef stock, Worcester Sauce, tomato puree, add to the pan & heat up, scraping up all the bits from the bottom at the same time. Add this to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
• Cook for the time recommended in the instruction book. (If you were cooking this in a traditional oven you'd let it cook for about 3 - 4 hours on Gas 2, 150C, fan 130C)

Brilliant! Thanks Jam and Cognito. Exactly what I was looking for. :-)