Southwest Cuisine In Your Slow Cooker

In a world where everything moves at such a fast pace, it’s nice to know that you can depend on a nice, home-cooked meal when you return from a long day at work.  In the world of southwest cuisine, there are many recipes that can be turned into a slow cooked delight.  The colors, flavors, and carefully chosen ingredients are what makes America's southwest cuisine stand apart from other regions.  What are some of the reasons for using a slow cooker for your southwest meal?  Let's take a look.

Timing

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We live in a world where everything seems to move at the speed of light.  This 'microwave' society has its benefits, but a good home-cooked meal is not one of them.  Between work, kids, and family events, we often feel we don’t have time to turn around much less come home and prepare a meal from scratch.  That’s where the slow cooker comes in.   With a small amount of preparation time, you can throw a bunch of ingredients together and leave the slow cooker to its own devices while you go about your day.  Then, at the end of the day, your family can all sit down together and enjoy a tasty meal.

Healthy

The slow cooker allows you to prepare a balanced meal that you may not otherwise have the time to do.  Also, you don’t have to add the extra cooking fat that you may use in other methods.  The slow cooker preserves the natural juices and flavors of the foods you are cooking and allows them to blend together to create a hearty, healthy meal.  Slowly cooking vegetables in their own juices means no more throwing nutrients down the drain in the boiling water. If you have a vegetarian in the house, the slow cooker works wonders for meat-free meals, as well. 

Save Money

You can also view the slow cooker as an energy saver.   It doesn’t take up nearly the amount of energy that it would to fire up the oven and have it going for hours.  And, since the idea of the slow cooker is to cook at a low temperature for a long time, slowly cooking and tenderizing your food, it’s also possible to buy cheaper cuts of meat.  Your slow cooker will produce tender, juicy, tasty meals out of the most humble ingredients.

(Photo credit: Tobyotter)

Versatile

Not only can you create well balanced meals in the slow cooker, but you can also make a wide array of appetizers, snack foods, and even beverages.  Hot dips and sauces, along with a variety of tiny bites are perfect in the slow cooker.  Shredded chicken  taquitos and mulled sangria are definite crowd pleasers that are easy to make and serve right out of a slow cooker.  Imagine preparing a snack or beverage the 'normal' way, then tweak it a bit and prepare it in the slow cooker instead.

When it comes to cooking southwest cuisine, we can see there are many reasons why the slow cooker should be put to work in the kitchen.  It saves time and money while making it possible to have a filling, delicious, and nutritious meal or snack waiting when we're ready to sit down and enjoy.

For some tasty Southwest recipes for your slow cooker, be sure to check back later this week!