Weekly Meal Planning with a Slow Cooker

Weekly meal planning with a slow cooker works best as a simple routine: pick 4 or 5 slow cooker dinners, prep them all on one day, and store each as a ready-to-cook kit in the fridge or freezer. Each morning, one kit goes into the cooker. Below is a sample week, a shopping approach and the safety rules that matter.

Set yourself realistic targets. Most households need 4 to 5 slow cooker nights a week, with leftovers and a simple night filling the gaps.

A Sample 5-Day Slow Cooker Week

• Monday: chicken tortilla soup. Chicken thighs, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, black beans, corn, broth, cumin and chili powder. Cook 6 to 8 hours on low, then shred the chicken.
• Tuesday: beef and vegetable stew. Beef chuck cubes, potatoes, carrots, onion, broth and tomato paste. Cook 8 hours on low and thicken at the end.
• Wednesday: pulled pork. Pork shoulder, onion and your spice rub with 1/2 cup of liquid. Cook 8 to 10 hours on low, then shred it into barbecue sauce. The leftovers go into Friday’s tacos.
• Thursday: lentil and sweet potato curry (meatless). Red or brown lentils, sweet potato, onion, curry paste, coconut milk and broth. Cook 6 hours on low.
• Friday: leftover night. Pulled pork tacos or bowls, with no cooking.

The Prep-Day Routine (About 90 Minutes)

1. Shop once from a list grouped by recipe, so nothing is forgotten.
2. Chop all the vegetables at once. Onions and carrots appear in several recipes.
3. Pack kits. Each recipe goes in its own labelled gallon bag or container: vegetables, spices and sauce in one, raw meat in a separate sealed bag inside it or next to it.
4. Refrigerate kits you will cook within 1 to 2 days (poultry and ground meat) or 3 days (whole beef or pork cuts). Freeze the rest.

Slow Cooker Safety Rules

• Thaw frozen kits in the fridge overnight. Do not put solidly frozen meat into a slow cooker, because it stays too long in the temperature danger zone.
• Kidney beans: use canned, or boil soaked dried red kidney beans hard for 10 minutes before slow cooking. A slow cooker alone does not get raw kidney beans hot enough to be safe.
• Fill it half to two-thirds full, and keep the lid on while it cooks.
• Check that meat is done: 165°F for poultry, 160°F for ground meat, and 145°F with a rest for whole cuts of beef and pork (pulled pork is cooked far past this, until tender).
• Do not use the slow cooker to reheat leftovers. Reheat them on the stove or in the microwave to 165°F, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

Shopping List Shortcuts

Buy family packs of chicken thighs and chuck, and split them between recipes. Cans of tomatoes, beans, coconut milk and broth cover most of the week. Keep a basic spice kit on hand: cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, oregano and curry paste.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Low or high setting? Low gives more tender meat and suits a workday. As a rough guide, 1 hour on high is about 2 hours on low.
• Can I add dairy at the start? Add milk, cream and cheese in the last 30 minutes so they do not curdle.

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