I just bought a slow cooker :) would love your suggestions!

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We eat a lot of cheaper meat/veg and usually make stews/casseroles and resent having to use the hob or oven for so long, especailly in summer.... so have bought a lovely slow cooker [I;m very happy!]

I have just prepared [before going out to work to lok forward to my first slow cooked dinner....man I hope its ok....] a simple beef, peppers, red wine stew that I';m hoping to use tonight, then have with pasta, then have with other stuff, freeze etc.

I wondered if any of you had tips, dos and don;ts etc and could tell me/direct me to some recipes. My sister was given one and she said she has got a bit stuck in a rut.

ALso, is it really like leaving alightbulb on? It definietly won;t blow up or anything while I;m out will it?

my suggestion is dont put it in the cupboard, you will forget its there

I tend to brown stuff on the hob tbh. The pots are ceramic

Mine's too big to fit in the cupboard!!!

it says they're hob safe, though. i was just thinking along the lines of cutting down on washing.

I think it's a case of reading the instructions carefully

oooh off to look in supermarkets at slow cookers - part of preparing to go back to work. Will obviously have to dust mud off wellies and leave my rural idle and go into a town. Also part of going back to work preparations!

Tesco is selling a slowcooker for £12 at the moment. I bought one, so now I have two.

Check out your local butchers for good deals on cheap meat. I'm off to buy a small whole chicken, stewing steak, mince beef and sausage for just £11.99, it is their Monday freezer deal.

Last week we had lamb's shoulder with garlic and red wine. Stewing steak with gravy and onions and garlic chicken (bits with skin and bones...shudder. Which I deskinned and cooked on the bone)

All cheaper meat bits which get so tender in the slow cooker. We don't normal eat so much meat in one week but I am trying to use the slow cookers again.

I use my new slowcooker to make rice or jacket potatos and my original one for the meat and sauce and a steamer for the veg.

i have the enormous morphy richards 6'5 l slow pot, and use it loadsin the winter

if you have a real butcher, shin of beef with the bone in is very cheap and very tasty...pile sliced onions and chopped carrots into pot, lay meat on top, S&P, beef stock cube, dod of tomato purée

it does need all day and you will need to pick out the bone and i pick out the fatty skin bits (ick...but the dog loves that bit!)

and ideally pop it into the fridge overnight and skim the next morning, but it's well worth it, when it's reheated next day with a pile of herb dumplings!

It's also fab for making a huge vat of bolognaise for the freezer

another fan of rice pudding too

and i did a chicken in mine last year, impossible to carve though, so would only do that again for soup.

...oh ^^ up there, should say to cover beef with hot water! doh!

when dh and i got together he bought me a 6.5 litre one and i complained as it was way too big and asked if he intended to spawn a football team within three months we were pregnant now we have 3 dc's and us and its perfect i am now not allowed to insult his buying ideas based purely on this one fluke incident

There is a great Sara lewis book out there.. curries from around the world for the slow cooker. Def. take a look at it if you want to get past the casserole/spag bog sauce/rice pudding stage..

yes...makes a fab curry, but i would advise starting any curry off in a pan....just to cook off the spices/paste with a good amount of heat

lamb with butter nut squash or sweet potato is lush! :D