Crock Pot Tips

Easy Easy Easy Crock Pot recipes, my favorite kind of dinner...the one that cooks itself while I am at work! Tips for "crock potting"...

•USE THE LINERS. I cannot stress this enough. The cleanup involves peeling the liner out of the pot and chucking it and wiping out the pot. Available at grocery stores, probably near the foil packets or the saran wrap and tin foil displays.

•If you're in the kitchen anyway, like cooking tacos or spaghetti or something...make TOMORROW's dinner in the crock pot (like a pot roast or pork roast) and put it in the fridge overnight. I mean, you're in the kitchen anyway, so why not? Take it out in the morning and turn it on and it cooks all day. Two meals handled at once, your husband will think you're a freaking genius.
•I've found that it's okay to use either frozen or thawed meat in most of the crock pot recipes I will post (like pot roast and pulled pork and green chile chicken tacos). I often start with frozen solid meats, turns out great as long as you have ALL DAY to cook it on low. I start mine at about 7:30 am.

•Just expanding on the last tip, and this is a "take it or leave it" tip (meaning you should take it or leave it but I've been doing it for years)...I leave the frozen solid meats out all night inside the crock. I put all the ingredients together in the crock pot, including the frozen meat, onions, seasonings, whatever, and leave it on the counter! OH HORRORS!!! But the frozen meat keeps the other ingredients cold enough as it thaws and never once have I made anyone sick. Yes, it's okay to cook from frozen solid (above tip) but I prefer the meat to be at least somewhat thawed and this does the trick. If your meats are already thawed, put the ingredients together the night before and put the removable crock part of the pot in the fridge overnight if you've made-ahead for tomorrow.

•Crock Pot setting Low is always preferable if you have all day, unless of course the recipe tells you different. General rule of thumb: If you don't have 8 - 10 hours....use high for 6 hours and then go to low. Less than 6 hours is usually not enough time to cook meats to the proper tenderness that I like.

•Resist the urge to constantly lift the lid on the crock pot. I read somewhere that it takes 30 minutes to re-capture the lost heat/steam/cooking ability for each time you lift that lid. So, stir the meal every once in a while but otherwise, let it cook without lifting the lid.
Anyone else have any other tips they'd like to share?