Organic & Thrifty

Ever the cookbook junkie, I have been excitedly anticipating the release of the book Make it Fast, Cook it Slow.

Penned by the amazing blogger Stephanie O’dea, who is the genious  (wow, how embarrassing! I’m obviously not one) genius behind the blog A Year of SlowCooking, this book is everything I hoped it would be and more! You know when you are constantly visiting a website for recipes that chances are you’ll enjoy the book!

The reasons that I love her book are many. For one, they all involve the slow cooker which makes life much easier.  All the recipes are gluten free, which doesn’t always mean they all work for our diet, but there are certainly plenty of good choices.  I also love the recipes because they are not your typical slow cooker recipes. She has a whole section called “Take Out Fake Out” where she has simple, frugal recipes for Thai, Indian, and Chinese takeout favorites. Her Inidan and Thai curries are amazing. Her Korean ribs and Chinese beef and broccoli look fabulous as well and I plan to try them as soon as I get rid of the frozen beef in my freezer (and can therefore justify buying ribs!).

For the generally gluten-free, you will be pleased with the diversity of pasta recipes (using rice pasta) including macaroni and cheese!  She also manages to create enchilada casserole in the slowcooker (one of my favorites!). She has lots of great rice and bean recipes and fantastic soups, including a homemade broccoli and cheese soup! 

If you’re eating a paleo/gaps type diet, you will enjoy the wide variety of tasty meat recipes, including lots of different ways to enjoy chicken and beef!  She has a delicious rotissarie-chicken wannabe recipe that has the most amazing blend of spices that totally rivals store-bought rotisserie chicken! 

Stephanie makes many nonconventional items in her crockpot, including Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Chai Tea, Dolmas, and even Falafel!!!  She has a delicous recipe for gyros and that crispy lemon chicken like you get at the Chinese Restaurant!  And to add to the fun, she has these simple, genious recipes for fancy cheese fondue and chocolate fondue!  All of these recipes are entertainment-worthy, and I can’t think of a way to make having guests over easier than by slow-cooking!  I’m really excited  to try Stephanie’s creme brulee recipe, the famous recipe that got her on the Rachael Ray show!

These recipes are thrifty and kid-friendly, and very simple.  They are just my style because I think Stephanie and have the same taste in food. There are lots of ethnic food recipes (I love Indian and Thai food and this book has lots of unique restaurant-food quality recipes!)  including Peking Duck!!  We don’t eat out often, but when we do we love to go to Indian or Thai food. I am excited to save even more money by cooking these dishes at home!

A Few Caveats

A few things must be mentioned about this book, even though I love it.  There seem to be quite a few recipes with added sugar (particularly the beef recipes). I am interested to test these recipes using some honey, stevia, or simply leaving out the added sugar and seeing how it works.   There are also several recipes calling for fat-free dairy, which I think is essentially a “non food”, so I simply will replace with whole milk, yogurt, cream, etc. 

All in all, I highly reccommend this book and encourage anyone who’s looking to expand their reperatoire of slow cooker recipes to check this one out!