When the weather outside warms up, the kitchen can be a terrible place to be. There are many things you can do however, when it comes to cooking a nice home made meal that doesn’t require traditional stove top or oven cooking. By using the crock pot, you can beat the summer heat and keep your cool while preparing a nice hot meal for friends and family.
So, how does crock pot cooking really help beat the heat? Simply put, the crock pot in and of itself puts off far less heat when cooking than an oven or stove top. This is the first and possibly the best reason to utilize the crock pot in your summer meal planning. You should also consider the fact that by not heating the house by using your stove top or oven you are also preventing your air conditioning (or other cooling methods) from working overtime in order to compensate for the additional heat that other cooking methods introduce.
Most people think that crock pots are meant for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often utilized cooking methods if you can manage it. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost limitless. Almost anything that can be baked can be made in the crock pot and many, many more wonderful and enticing meals and treats as well!
The 13 Best Summer Crock Pot Recipes
- Summer Corn Chowder from Cooking Classy
- Slow Cooker Frittata With Zucchini, Tomato, and Feta from The Foodie Corner
- Slow Cooker Citrus Fajita Chicken from Carlsbad Cravings
- Slow Cooker Corn on the Cob With Chili Lime Butter from Slow Cooker Gourmet
- Sweet Chili Coconut-Lime Grilled Chicken with Coconut-Lime Cauliflower Rice from Iowa Girl Eats
- Easy Crock-Pot Chicken and Black Bean Taco Salad from Skinny Taste
- Crockpot Salsa Chicken from Jo Cooks
- Crock-Pot Thai Steak Salad from The Food Charlatan
- Mini BBQ Pork Sliders from Table for Two Blog
- Slow Cooker Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps from The Comfort of Cooking
- 3-Ingredient Meatballs from Chew Out Loud
- Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches from Cooking Classy
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos from What’s Gaby Cooking
And don’t forget, when you use the crock pot you have an easy clean up after dinner! Unlike pots and pans, most crock pot meals are made in one dish. This means that there will not be mountains of dishes to be either hand washed or loaded into the dishwasher (or if you are like me-both) afterwards. You can spend less time cleaning just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Once clean up is complete you can get back to enjoying the sun set, chasing the lightening bugs with your little ones, or waiting for the first star.
