Fix-It and Forget-It Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook: 150 Whole Food Recipes for Paleo, Vegan, Gluten-Free, and Diabetic-Friendly Diets

by Hope Comerford (editor)

Here are the best-loved healthy slow cooker recipes all in one place. Whether your body responds best to a gluten-free, vegan, paleo, low-fat, or low-sugar diet, you will find dozens of easy and delicious recipes that will make dinner a snap.You can trust these recipes because they from some of America’s best home cooksTested in real-life settingsCarefully selected from thousands of recipesEveryone wants to feel like a smart cook, but it’s tricky when you’re navigating food sensitivities or allergies, different ages, and different dietary needs. Fix-It and Forget-It Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook has something for everyone, with each recipe tagged to indicate if it in the back list recipes by healthy category for easy reference. Finally, a cookbook that makes dinner easy, even for families with diverse dietary needs!

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Vegan, Food

603 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 4, 2017

About the author

I'm a wife and a mother to a beautiful 7 year old and active 4 year old . I love to cook, but as crazy busy as my life is, the slow cooker is my life-saver! My passion for developing recipes started at a young age when my grandma taught me and my cousins to cook. During my college years, I began to experiment on my own and as I entered the work force, my creativity really developed. My second cookbook, The Gluten-Free Slow Cooker will be released on Oct. 1, but it available for presale wherever books are sold now. My first cookbook, Slow Cooker Recipes 10 Ingredients or Less and Gluten-Free is available for sale online. In addition to writing cookbooks, I teach Elementary Music, I'm a Young Living Essential Oils Educator and a blogger. Am I crazy busy...or just crazy? Yes, but I love living my life the way I'm living it!

Reviews

[Shipshapeeatworthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I've noticed since my daughter has gotten older that we have more and more activities to do and with that increased amount of activities comes days when there seems like there isn't enough time to get dinner on the table and I think this is where kitchen tools, like slow cookers, really help to ease that burden. Prior to receiving the Fix-It and Forget-It: Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook by Hope Comerford I had two dishes in my slow cooker recipe repertoire: chili and lasagna. But I've found it more challenging to find good, meatless recipes for the slow cooker. So looking and cooking through this book was exciting because it challenged what I thought could (and should) be cooked in a slow cooker.

What the aim of this book is to help busy home cooks utilize healthy ingredients in order to get food on the table without any stress. The beginning of the cookbook starts with the chapter Slow Cooker 101 which helps cooks to (re)familiarize themselves with the types of slow cookers and different tip and tricks one can use to make using this piece of kitchen equipment more efficient. While she recommends is having two slow cookers (a 3-4qt and a 6qt+) because she says that cookers work more efficiently when they're 2/3 - 3/4 full but I found that using my 6qt cooker worked just fine for the recipes I tried. While I don't mind having several small kitchen appliances I feel that having more than one cooker seems a bit excessive (however maybe if I really used my cooker more I'd feel differently).

Each recipe is marked with symbols signaling whether the recipe is Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free, Low-Cal, Low-Fat, Low-Sodium, Sugar-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian, Paleo, or High-Protein and at the end of the book there is a Special Diet Index which allows you to see all the recipes for any given diet. The book is divided into 6 chapters (Breakfasts, Appetizers & Snacks, Soups, Stews, & Chilies, Main Dishes, Side Dishes & Vegetables, and Desserts) and at 150 recipes I think there are recipes to suit everyone.

What I found is that there weren't as many vegetarian (or vegan) main dishes that I would have liked to see but I found some really great lunch/dinner ideas in the Soups, Stews & Chilies section. Both the Split Pea Soup and the Red Bean Stew were really tasty. I started cooking them in the afternoon (don't have a timer on my slow cooker) and by supper I had very little mess to clean up (except for the cooker and dinner dishes) and I was able to have enough leftovers for dinner a second night (I could have frozen the extra too).

For all of the recipes I tried, I found that sourcing the ingredients was very easy. Most of the components I was able to find in my pantry (such as stock and canned beans) and it was nice to be able to pull together a recipe without having to shop beforehand. Some of the recipes even helped to build up pantry staples -- such as the granola.

I'm not sure if cooking granola in a slow cooker saves time over using the oven-method but I found it nice to try different ways of preparing food. However there were some recipes, such as the frittata recipe, that I don't think I would try just because while the skillet method for making frittata is less than a half-an-hour the slow cooker method takes 3-4 hours (maybe if you were having a family brunch this cooker method might save time). There were recipes, such as the oatmeal recipes, that I wanted to try but in the past I've made slow cooker oatmeal and found that they didn't work as well in my slow cooker because it over cooked. This is where a timer function would be handy for a particular recipe so that it wouldn't overcook.

Another recipe I tried in my slow cooker that my husband and daughter really enjoyed were the Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bars. When I posted this picture to my Instagram people had the same reaction as I did when I first saw this recipe -- You can make bars in a slow cooker?! This goes to show that slow cookers can be real workhorses in the kitchen and can be used in myriad recipes.

What this cookbook does really well is to make whole food cooking really accessible to the home cook with the different ways in which a slow cooker can be used to create tasty family meals. The recipes are meant to be flexible and forgiving so that if you lack a certain ingredient you should feel free to substitute. Overall, I think that Comerford wants home cooks to see that using a slow cooker can help ease meal-time stress so that the time is more enjoyable.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Skyhorse Publishing for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Please note that this is an excerpt from a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com

[Jeanny · Rating 2 out of 5]

MEH 1.5 stars
Just MEH.

[Sarah Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often slow cooker cook books and the Fix-it and Forget-it series in general call for a lot of processed food from boxed mixes and cans that I have to put them down shortly after opening them up. I try really hard to cook most of our meals as much from scratch as possible and only used premade or processed food only when absolutely necessary for a special treat meal or lack of time completely. The idea for me personally of using a slow cooker is that I can cook more meals from scratch even if I am not home to do multiple steps and not used processed food. A quick mix is going to cook for me just as quickly in the stove as in the pot so why...why? Okay so now that is out of my system this book is mostly from scratch and when it does call for things like canned items its things like canned beans or veggies that I don't mind occasionally using or that I can sub in the fresh/dried ingredients with the same results. This book has many of your traditional slow cooker foods that are tweaked to be healthier, and also lots of great ideas for meals I haven't thought of using my slow cooker for. I can't wait to try many recipes from this book and feel it is easy enough for those who are new to cooking with slow cookers or those who are experienced. I also like that the recipes tell you right on the page without having to read all the ingredients to find out if it fits a certain diet style. I have to cook slightly different for various family members so it's nice to know when a recipe will cover one or all of their dietary needs.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this because 1) I love using my crock pot and 2) I eat a gluten free diet. I’ve read through the recipes and they all look delicious. Each recipe is clearly marked for the diet it will fit. I didn’t see too many exotic ingredients that I would have a difficult time finding in my hometown grocery store. I’m excited about trying several recipes out.

[Lost · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the cover, I was under the impression that EVERY recipe would be suitable for list shown on the front. This is not the case though, for example on one page you may encounter a vegan recipe while the next page is something made with meat.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been looking for more meals to make for my family, and I have to admit I would be lost without my slow cooker. There are some great recipes in here, I can't wait to make them.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was Cathy who recommended the Fix It and Forget series to me. My favorite recipes to make a vegan version of are: huevos rancheros, split pea soup, Moroccan spiced stew, black bean chili, southwestern chili, Italian "chicken," espresso braised "beef" (minus the espresso actually, the turnip is the star of this dish), & cabbage and potatoes. I might have made the strawberry mint crisp. The vegetable stuffed pepper is okay too but the peppers may burn on the bottom. Complaint: the index. The stuffed peppers, for instance, are listed under Y for "yellow pepper"--I mean, seriously?

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the other Fit-It and Forget-It books but this one was a bit of a let-down. May have went in with to high of expectations though. Meat recipes where mixed in with other recipes too. Not as well organized as other volumes.

[Chris Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great, simple, family favorite recipes in this book!

[Kgparkhurst Parkhurst · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but not my cup of tea

The recipes in this book are quite interesting but are definitely not my cup of tea. A bit too austere I think.

[Valerie Wyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found some great recipes in here to try! Most likely gonna buy this book in the near future.

[Miki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I would call particularly healthy foods.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, there are 15 that are earmarked for making very, very soon.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not many recipes in here that appealed to this gluten-free, dairy-free vegetarian.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read through this cookbook for simple recipes for my elderly diabetic Dad.

I liked the ease of the recipes and nutrition information.

I will update when one of us tries the recipes.

[L.C. Tang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love my crockpot, and I enjoy exploring new recipes. This cookbook is a keeper!

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some decent recipes in here. Many of the recipes were for things we wouldn't eat. This cookbook triesb to hard. Paleo, vegan, gluten-free and diabetic friendly?