The Best Grocery Staples for Cheap Slow Cooker Meals, According to Our Readers
Based on what we know about our loyal Kitchn readers, if we had to guess a few of your favorite things, at the top of the list would definitely be slow cookers AND saving money on groceries. Did we guess right? We thought so. In the spirit of saving money on groceries while also making delicious slow cooker meals, we polled Kitchn’s Facebook fans for their favorite grocery staples.
Here’s what came up again and again.
Here’s what came up again and again.
Stock and Broth
Making soup in a slow cooker is one of the easiest things you can do. To make said soup, you will, of course, need broth — and in this case, store-bought is just fine. Kitchn readers suggest stocking up on cartons of stock to make recipes like chicken tortilla soup, veggie stew, hamburger soup, and more.
Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, and Celery
Countless recipes start with a combination of these four budget-friendly ingredients that help bulk up and add flavor to any dish. Pair potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery with a cheap cut of meat for a hearty stew or braise, or use a whole chicken, barley, and herbs de Provence to make chicken soup.
Canned/Jarred Everything
The best thing about the slow cooker is that you can whip up a delicious dinner with straight-up pantry staples and call it a night! Our readers love to use Ro-tel, canned beans, canned corn, cream of “anything” soup, jarred pasta sauce, and salsa to make delicious pantry-heavy concoctions
Frozen Vegetables
Make low-and-slow dinner prep even easier by throwing in a few freezer favorites. Our readers especially recommend using bags of frozen veggies to make super versatile yet low-lift soups, stews, or party appetizers. Another freezer pick: frozen meatballs.
Credit: Laura Flippen/The Kitchn
Spices
Our readers gave special shoutouts to spices like chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder, paprika, dried herbs, salt, ground peppercorns, ranch dressing mix, au jus gravy mix, dried onion soup mix (and more!). We recommend that you use ALL THE SPICES to make extra-flavorful slow cooker meals.
Credit: Jacqueline Klose
Less Expensive Cuts of Meat
The slow cooker can magically turn even the cheapest cuts of meat into a fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-your-mouth situation, so don’t worry about getting the pricey stuff. Our readers recommend buying things like ground beef or turkey or a whole chicken (instead of more expensive broken-down parts), and hunting for “the cheapest pork butt [you] can find.”
-Justin Thyme- The Arctic Blast that delivered first snow this morning. Made me think of being prepared for snowed in cold days ahead. Don't forget a couple cans of La Choy stir fry vegetables. They go well with shrimp or chicken to cook up in a crock pot, slow cooker! Also cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup and jugs of V8. Are handy to slow cooker with!
-Justin Thyme- The Arctic Blast that delivered first snow this morning. Made me think of being prepared for snowed in cold days ahead. Don't forget a couple cans of La Choy stir fry vegetables. They go well with shrimp or chicken to cook up in a crock pot, slow cooker! Also cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup and jugs of V8. Are handy to slow cooker with!
No comments:
Post a Comment