I love cooking — I am a food editor, after all — but at the end of a very long day, the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. There, I said it. I can be staring at the fastest, easiest, one-dish recipes and still pick up my phone and open Seamless or UberEats.
Is this peak laziness? Perhaps. But more so, takeout offers so many perks — it’s easy, convenient, delicious and doesn’t require me to use (or clean!) a single pot or pan. Plus, on the nights when my husband and I order takeout, everything just feels calmer. During a particularly busy season of our lives, we found ourselves opting for takeout at least four times a week.
After a while, we took a close look at our budget and had a real no way are we spending this much moment. Takeout’s downside: Its high price tag, especially compared to groceries. Inspired to cut costs, I made it a mission to prioritize cooking dinner once again.
The first few weeks were successful. Reenergized and driven by a renewed desire to save money (and you know, maybe put those savings toward a vacation or something), my husband and I were back on the home-cooked dinner bandwagon. We were doing really well, but it wasn’t sustainable.
Real life crept back up — and once again, it was 6 p.m. and takeout was calling.
Turns out, I just don’t have the energy to cook dinner every single night. So, if I wanted to still save money, I needed to find a new approach to meal planning. First, I tried — and failed at — meal prepping a couple of dinners while I assembled lunches for the week. On busy nights, I loved popping a prepared meal into the toaster oven to reheat. Sundays, though, felt extra exhausting trying to squeeze all that extra cooking in. (Not to mention the stress I’d feel if we had plans over the weekend and I couldn’t make the time…)
Then, I saw the solution sitting on a shelf in my basement, collecting dust: my slow cooker.
Until this point, I pretty much only pulled out this appliance a couple of times years to make something cozy like a big batch of pulled pork. Now, I realized it could be the solution to conquering my cooking fatigue. Dinner could cook while I’m at work? Sign me up.
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I decided to designate one day a week to slow cooking and stash leftovers in the freezer to thaw and reheat at a future date. Setting up a slow cooker day means guaranteeing myself one night where I’ll have a homemade meal (basically) ready to go when work ended. Freezing extras allows me to build up my stock of meal-prepped foods without having to spend a full day cooking a dozen dinners. Win-win.
To begin, I identified which night I most often order takeout (for me, it’s Tuesday; for you, it could be Thursday). And then I follow a few ground rules:
Rule #1
Recipes can involve prep before going into the slow cooker, but I avoid ones that require any heavy lifting at the end of the day. I’ll opt for all-in-one meals, salads and sandwiches. Or I leverage my rice cooker for sides and toaster oven to quickly heat up rolls or tortillas.
Rule #2
Prioritize the slow cooker’s Low setting. Because the whole point is to have this appliance cook low and slow all day when I’m at the office, that’s exactly what I want it to do. I am not looking to use the High setting or pick foods that cook up quickly. I’ll lean on proteins that are less prone to drying out, choosing beef chuck, ribs, pork or thighs over chicken breasts. And while the thought of making macaroni and cheese in the Crock Pot is a fun one, the reality of leaving pasta to cook for hours on end will be disappointing thanks to a gummy texture.
Rule #3
Take this is an opportunity to experiment with different slow cooker recipes. I wrote down a list of all the things I’d want to try making — including many recipes from the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen! — and I select one each week.
Slow-Cooker White Bean Soup with Pistoumike garten
BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches with Pineapple SlawMike Garten
Ropa Viejamike gartenRule #4
Don’t wait until the last minute. Part of the beauty of this meal planning method is that it takes one more decision out of your afternoon (read: no more 3 p.m. “what’s for dinner?” thoughts). To really get that benefit, I’ve found it’s important to plan each week’s recipe a few days in advance. I also look for opportunities to meal prep components the night before, so I don’t have to scramble in the morning. Sometimes this means I’ll get everything measured and ready-to-go in a container, so all I have to do in the a.m. is dump it into a slow cooker and press start.
Rule #5
Switch things up based on the season. While many people think of slow cooking as solely a winter activity (hello, hearty soups and stews), it’s actually ideal in the summer for cooking without turning your kitchen into a sauna on 100°F days.
Trish Clasen Marsanico / Good Housekeeping
Winter calls for a hearty slow-cooker beef ragu over polenta.
Trish Clasen Marsanico
Summer calls for carnitas-style tacos.
Rule #7
Freeze extras. Since most slow cooker recipes yield 10 to 12 servings — and I’m typically cooking for two — I love to stash the leftovers in the freezer for another night. I’ll keep a list of all my freezer meals on my phone that I can reference whenever I have a busy week coming up. Currently, in my freezer: coconut cauliflower curry, carnitas and Tuscan tortellini soup.
Rule #8
Embrace the community! I started talking about my slow cooker Tuesdays with friends and colleagues — and loved the conversations (and recipe ideas) that came out of it. Plus, sharing my journey with others helped to keep me accountable and committed to this meal planning method.
And, I found out that one of my coworkers is also a huge slow cooker fan. “My slow-cooker has a permanent spot on my kitchen counter and I consistently use it multiple times a week. I’m all about putting as many things on auto-pilot in my home as possible so I can spend time with my family and do what’s important to me. I meal prep every week but try to be efficient with my food preparation methods, which is why I always turn to my slow cooker,” says Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab Director Stefani Sassos. “And the lower cooking temperature can also preserve more nutrients. I cook everything from pulled meat to soups and stews in there, and my family always raves about how delicious the meals are.”
Our Best Tips in One PlaceThe verdict
I am over six months into my slow cooker Tuesday journey and so far, it has been very helpful in kicking my takeout habit. Checking my bank statements, you can definitely see the amount spent on food decreasing (and the savings adding up!). I’ll admit that I have missed a few weeks here and there and not every recipe I’ve tried has been a winner, but for the most part I am really enjoying this process. On Tuesdays, I often find myself rushing home, since I know a delicious dinner is waiting for me. What can be better than that?
Get to Know Your Slow Cooker Really Well