You gently pull the new, soft yellow blanket over your newborn's tiny sleeping body. You smile as you watch the blanket move up and down with her breathing. Quietly you tiptoe away and sit down on the sofa and think, "I am so tired! All I want to do is sit here and do nothing! BUT I HAVE TO COOK DINNER!"

For new mothers, a Crock Pot can be a lifesaver. In the morning, when you still have a little bit of energy left, you can toss a few things in this magic pot, plug it in, and by the evening have a great meal all ready for you.

Slow-cookers have been around since the early 1970s. We tend to call all slow-cookers Crock Pots, but actually the term "Crock Pot" is the trademarked name of the Rival slow cooker. Whatever you call them, they are great to have around!

Meats, chicken, vegetables, beans and even fruits can be cooked in a slow-cooker. I owned my Crock Pot for over a year before I learned this. The only thing I cooked in mine was pot roast. I had no idea what I was missing!

Don't get me wrong – slow-cooked pot roast is wonderful. Take a chuck or sirloin roast, dust it with a little flour, add whatever seasonings you like, throw it in, put some sliced onions on top and in the evening you have something the whole family will be raving over. Imagine my surprise when I found out that almost everything, excluding seafood, could be cooked in it, too!

Put your ingredients into the cooker raw. Try to chop all vegetables about the same size to promote even cooking. Meats are put in raw, with the exception of ground beef or turkey, which must be browned before added to the pot.

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