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I make bison chili most often in my slow cooker. It's 1 lb ground bison (or lean ground beef if you must), 1 c dried kidney beans, 1 c dried black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a 12 oz bottle of whatever beer is in the fridge, salsa, chili powder, and some sort of chile pepper (usually chipotles in adobo, sometime poblano). Cooked on low for 8 hours.

You could try the recipes from the cookbook "Fix It and Forget It / Lite". Make sure you get the "Lite" version, though. And feel free to tweak even those - they're good for giving you a good general overview of what's possible. A little low-brow, but sometimes that's just what's needed on those weekday nights.

One of the best things to make in a slow cooker is ribs. I know they're not for the calorie-conscious, but file this away till after the wedding, if you must. We use baby back ribs, coat them in our favorite barbecue sauce (either homemade, or the stuff from Dinosaur BBQ), and cook on low for 4-6 hours, until they're fork tender, just a hair away from falling apart. An insanely good dinner with collard greens and freshly made hot cornbread.

It's worth remembering that you need very little liquid in the slow cooker, much less than for any other cooking technique. Almost any stew or braise comes out very well in the slow cooker if you cut back on the liquid.

I suggest: Bolognese, of course. In my opinion maybe THE slow cooker dish of all. Use good quality beef and mince it yourself (for a good bolognese ragu never buy hash at a supermarket). roast gently with diced onions, mirepoix, a wee bit of garlic and tomato puree in olive oil. Add white wine (believe me, in this case rather don't use red wine - despite the beef-) and canned, skinned tomatoes, salt and pepper and let it cook gently for, lets say, at least 4, better 6 hours. Simply glorious.

This thread inspired my dinner tonight. I haven't used my slow cooker in a looooooong while. I put the roast in a zip loc bag last night and sprinkled it with adobo. Threw it in the crock this morning with carrots, potatoes, celery, onion, garlic cloves and a cup of liquid 3:1 water to red wine. Sprig of rosemary and set it to low to cook all day! I'll let you know if it was any good.

This is one of my favorite quick slow-cooker recipes (other than black bean chili). I can't remember where I found the original version, but it has great flavor and you can modify the heat to your taste.

2 lb boneless pork loin, trimmed of fat and cut into 4 pieces
2 large red bell peppers, cut into strips
1/3 c teriyaki sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes (I used a dried salsa mix)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c creamy peanut butter (I used a little more, but I had a bigger roast)

Garnish
1/2 c chopped green onions
1/4 c chopped dry roasted peanuts
lime wedge

Coat slow cooker with cooking spray. Put ingredients pork thru garlic in the cooker. Cover and cook on low until pork is tender; 8-9 hours.

Remove pork from cooker and shred or coarsely chop. (At this point, I use my tongs to fish out the larger bits of stringy pepper skin. I've also experimented with adding the peppers towards the end of cooking so they keep their shape.) Add peanut butter to liquid in cooker and stir to blend. Return pork to sauce and toss to coat.

Serve over hot plain or jasmine rice and garnish. Don't skip the lime, it's a good counterpart to the heat and richness of the sauce.

Enjoy!

OMG. A recipe for choucroute! I'm going to have to check that one out. My fave choucroute recipe is in my school binder and that's in storage with the rest of my life.

I think hard beans are great in the crock. I like to add either ham bone from a baked holiday ham or smoked hocks, maybe one or two of those meaty country ribs. I love beans in the crock because you leave the house with a bunch of pebbles and flavorings and water in the crock and you come home to a wonderful smelling, yummy dinner.

I also second any of the chili ideas. Stew does great too.

i put on ribs in the slowcooker for dinner tonight thanks to this thread. never done it this way before. looking forward to trying it.

@jcrisco - How did the pot roast turn out? Did you brown the roast before putting it in the crock? And what cut did you use? I bet your house smelled so good!

I still have a big pot of rosemary growing in my garage. I'm thinking a chicken in the pot with rosemary, lemon, garlic and white wine for this weekend, maybe toss in potatoes, parsnips, carrots. Definitely still in the comfort food mode.

@frederika - I used a top round roast that was on sale at my butcher shop! The smell slapped me in the fact as soon as I got home. My husband (who works from home and had been smelling it all day) attacked me! He couldn't stand it anymore and had to eat it! After I got a plate -- he at the entire thing.

I think next time though, I'm going to add some parsnips. I didn't sear it off first (not a morning person---EVER), but I will next time and add a little more salt. The adobo worked well for the flavor, just needs a little more kick.

If I have a ridiculous 70+ hour work week or a busy weekend, I use the crock. Yeah, I know, makes me a non-foodie, non-chow, yada yada yada. Im sure I can do worse, HOWEVER, here are a list of my go-to's. Need recs and specifics, just yell!

chili (no peppers, no onions, meat/beans/tomatoes/beer/jalapenos)
queso dip (gasp...velveeta, hot sausage, rotel, jalepenos, cilantro)
apple butter
pumpkin butter
sauce/meatballs
ITALIAN BEEFS!!! (you so cannot go wrong with this)
roast/veggies
pork roast/veggies
bbq pulled pork
salsa chicken
stock (beef/chicken)
caramelized onions
french onion soup after the above mentioned caramelizing
white bean/sausage/spinach soup
Did I mention ITALIAN BEEFS????