A happy slow cooker new year

Hi All,

Again my blog has been neglected. Probably for various reasons but mainly working a lot. My shift pattern has now changed so who knows maybe I will blog a bit more.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year :)

For Christmas one of my presents was a slow cooker. Now I'm sure this could potentially for some people be one of those things you get, use a few times and then it sits in the back of the cupboard forgotten. Not for me (I very much hope). Last Sunday I made a stew whi ch I put on before I went to work.

Today I am making BBQ pulled pork. I got a piece of pork a few weeks ago which was reduced to half price due to the shelf life left. I grabbed the bargain not knowing what I would make and froze it until such a time as I had a use. That is today. I used a recipe from the Good Food website although I omitted a couple of ingredients from the rub (onion powder-couldn't get it and I swapped garlic powder for fresh garlic as that is what I had). Anyway it has been in for about 30 minutes now. I am hoping it will be delicious. I am going to make burritos with it with spicy rice for tea. The spicy rice will just be a take on the jambalaya recipe I usually make. I have also got lettuce, jalopenos and sour cream to go with the burritos. I really hope they are nice.

I have got the ingredients to make a chicken jalfrezi in the slow cooker tomorrow. This recipe doesn't take as long to cook. Searching the internet has really opened my eyes to just how many things you can make in a slow cooker. I have also purchased a slow cooker book online which was just a few pounds so I can have even more ideas.

I am not sure if I will be able to use the slow cooker on a normal work day as I work 9-6 and with travel time will be out the house 10 hours. So I am not sure if that would be too much cooking time by the time you add on not getting straight too it when we get home etc. Hmm I don't know. If I work Sundays I only work 10-4 so that works out quite nicely for putting something in in the morning before I leave. I think I may well mainly be using the slow cooker on days off but that is cool with me.

My plans for today are to clean/tidy the house a bit this morning and then this afternoon I am heading over to my sister's to play a bit of Just Dance. It should be a laugh :) Have a great day everyone.