5 Reason to Use Your Crock-Pot in the Summertime

This heat! Summertime in Kansas can be suffocating. When I go outside for longer than 5 minutes I feel like a baked potato, and when we use the oven inside I feel like I just installed a sauna in our home. If only!

Not to mention that we just received our latest energy bill and even though I have been implementing these tips to lowering our utility bill, our usage in 100+ degree weather is staggering.

RELATED: 33 Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills – Without Spending a Dime

I refuse to use my oven in the summertime (or at least to use it often). Instead I use our Crock-Pot as much as possible. In fact, we have two! One can never have too many Crock-Pots.

Ladies and gentlemen , I present to you…

5 Reasons You Should Use Your Crock-Pot in Summertime

1. It’s quick. Throw everything in, give it a stir (or not) and in several hours you’re ready to eat. Even I can’t screw that up. Spend more time at the pool than you do in your kitchen. #winning

2. It’s easy. How easy is it to literally throw everything in, set it on “low” or “high” and forget it? If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know that I {Ashlea} try not to cook. It’s just better that I don’t. But, I also have a hard time screwing up dinner in a slow cooker!

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3. Just say “no” to drive-thru. Throw in your raw ingredients in the morning and by the time you’re done with baseball practice, piano lessons, tutoring and running around town as the chauffeur of the family, dinner is ready.

Instead of swinging through a drive thru on the way home from all of these activities (you’re tired, I know) come home to an already cooked meal!

4. Plan ahead. By using our Crock-Pot to its full advantage, we are able to meal plan and schedule our meals out. I like to create “Crock-Pot bags” where I throw all of the ingredients in one large Ziploc bag (minus the meat, if I’m using any) and label accordingly. Come morning I can literally dump it in and leave for work.

You don’t have to freeze them, if you’re combining multiple bags on Sunday, you could simply throw them in the fridge and use them throughout the week.

5. It saves you money and your health. Not only are you not going through the drive-thru as often, you’re not heating up your house with the oven and you’re not having to crank up the AC to cool your home back down.

If you must bake, do it late in the evening to avoid heating up the rest of your home, and run the self-cleaner in your oven only after you have used it for baking. Already hot = better value!

This is the biggest/best slow cooker we own, and we absolutely love it. It is large, and has a programmable timer along with a temperature probe. We also have one of these little Crock-Pots to use for smaller dishes and to use for BBQs etc.