5 Reasons You Need to Use Your Slow Cooker Every Single Week

There are a lot of benefits of using a slow cooker – find out 5 reasons to use your slow cooker every week and TONS of recipe ideas!

🍴 Menu Plan Note: MANY of these delicious slow cooker recipes can also be found in our Slow Cooker Menu Plan Box!

I was just dumping dinner in Mrs. Potts (I love her . . . ) and was reminded once again of all of the benefits of using a slow cooker.  It's quick, it's easy, and it completely limits your options to go over your budget.

Here are my top 5 reasons to use my slow cooker every single week. (And why you should too!)

1. It's easy.

Most slow cooker recipes require only 5 – 10 minutes of prep work, so you can get dinner started early in the day with just a few minutes of planning. I rarely (ever?) pre-cook my meat ahead of time, and it always turns out well!

(Um, that may not be true. I sometimes cook ground beef ahead of time, unless I remember to use this slow cooker ground beef recipe the day before to cook the meat. It just depends on how much of a hurry I'm in!)

2. It's cheap.

Most slow cooker recipes use inexpensive meats, and because you're cooking them over the course of a day they have plenty of time to tenderize. My slow cooker recipes cost so much less than just about anything else I make, and we eat better than if we headed out to a restaurant.

3. It forces me to plan ahead.

Using my slow cooker once a week forces me to plan my meals ahead so that I know what to dump in Mrs. Potts at least once a week. Because we have 3 or 4 favorite slow cooker recipes that require 5 or fewer ingredients, I always have the ingredient list for those items tucked away in my head and can easily run into the store and grab them. (In case I don't already have them on hand in my kitchen . . . usually I try to keep those recipes stocked though!)

4. It ensures that we skip the drive thru.

This is probably my absolute favorite reason to use the slow cooker, and I can't stress to you the importance of this one enough. When 6 o'clock rolls around and my family is all begging for dinner, having a meal already cooking in Mrs. Potts easily keeps my budget in tact.

If dinnertime comes and I don't have anything planned, the temptation to eat dinner out (or eat pb&j sandwiches for dinner . . . again . . . ) often takes over. But if my kitchen smells yummy and dinner's already done, eating at home just becomes the easy choice.

5. It's forgiving.

Probably more than any other method of cooking, slow cooker recipes are just forgiving. If I'm out of a certain seasoning or spice I can usually swap it out with something else or skip it entirely, and no one will ever know the difference.

UPDATE: Reason #6 🙂 It makes your home smell good, which makes you feel good too.

I love this. 🙂 Coming home to my home smelling yummy and dinner being done just makes me feel ahead of the game. In so many other areas I'm so not on top of things, that it just feels good to know I have it together in one small area of my life (and my family appreciates it too.)

Need more delicious slow cooker recipes?  Here are some of our family favorites!

1. Slow Cooked Chicken & Dumplings
2. Slow Cooked French Dip Sliders
3. Slow Cooked Chicken Tortilla Soup
4. Slow Cooked Creamy Italian Chicken
5. Ranch House Slow Cooked Pork Chops
6. Slow Cooked Chicken & Dressing
7. Perfect Slow Cooked Pot Roast
8. Slow Cooker Ranch Chicken Tacos
9. Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Soup
10. Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili 
11. Taco Meat in the Slow Cooker

If you're looking for a new slow cooker to get started (or just upgrading an older one), here is a list of my favorite slow cookers.  They've all been tested by either myself or my team! 

Looking for more yummy meals? This recipe is from week twelve of our slow cooker menu plans, including this meal + 59 other AMAZING recipes (and 12 desserts too)! You'll also get lifetime membership in our private Facebook group, full of other families encouraging one another to make dinner each night together too.

These are the BEST MENU PLANS on the planet (and, the only menu plan that ship all the grocery lists, menu plans and recipe cards right out to you ~ no downloading or hunting down recipes on your phone at dinnertime ever again!) Go HERE to learn more. I know you're going to love these!