Best Crockpot Cookbooks in 2018

 

Crockpot cooking is a great way to create healthy, delicious meals, even if you are short on time. Simply prepare your ingredients in advance in the crock pot, turn it on, and at the end of a busy day, you and your family will have a warm, delicious meal ready to enjoy. Slow-cooking foods over a long period of time can really bring out their natural flavors. Even tough cuts of meat become moist and tender in a crockpot.

While crock pots and slow cookers have been around for a long time, many people used them mostly for a few basic recipes. Today, there are tons of deliciously creative ways to incorporate a crock pot into your cooking routine. And the best way to truly take advantage of all the great benefits of crock pot cooking is to try a variety of tasty crockpot recipes.

These crock pot cookbooks are some of the best of the best. They include numerous recipes, great photos, and plenty of options to explore comfortable classics and new ideas for utilizing your crock pot.

Fix It and Forget It

The Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook is loaded with delicious and easy-to-prepare slow cooker recipes. This cookbook, created by New York Times Best-Selling Author Phyllis Pellman Good includes 1400 different recipes. Some of this cookbook’s top features include:

• Large variety of recipes for different types of foods and sizes of slow cookers.
• Great illustrations and photos of the recipes.
• Simple recipes, with many of them using five ingredients or less.

While this cookbook has an extensive list of recipes to choose from, many of them do call for ingredients such as canned soups, Velveeta cheese, and Stove Top Stuffing. It is comfort food at its best but does include a number of processed foods in the ingredients.

Crock Pot Recipe Collection

The Crock-Pot Recipe Collection cookbook includes 350 different tasty and nourishing recipes to use with your slow cooker. It includes a variety of recipes such as savory soups, fantastic main and side dishes, and even desserts. The cookbook is beautifully made with over 200 full-color photos of the recipes included inside.

• Recipes that use fresh, healthy ingredients.
• High-quality cookbook with thick pages and well-categorized recipes.
• Created by the makers of the original Crock-Pot.

We also like the focus on fresh ingredients.  Just be aware that fresh ingredients require more prep work.  The recipes are not complex, but many of them do require more time.

Skinnytaste Fast and Slow

The Skinnytaste Fast and Slow Cookbook is the creation of popular food blogger, Gina Homolka. Her healthy, fresh recipes designed for families have been featured on numerous media outlets. In this cookbook, she creates new, healthier versions of favorite slow cooker recipes that taste just as good as the originals. Some of this cookbook’s best features are:

• Recipes that include nutritional content and other important information such as “gluten-free” or “freezer-friendly”.
• Easy to prepare recipes that use simple ingredients.
• Bright, vivid photos and easy-to-navigate pages.

While most people who’ve rated the cookbook agree that the recipes are delicious, one complaint that the particular book received is that many of the recipes are the same ones or similar to her blog recipes.

The Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Cookbook

The name says it all when it comes to the Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Cookbook. This recipe book is designed to be simple with only a few ingredients and minimal prep work. It features 100 different recipes that can be slow-cooker ready in 15 minutes or less. Its top features are:

• Easy preparation with only a few ingredients and instructions per recipe.
• All recipes are labeled for things like allergy-friendly, low sodium, vegetarian, etc.
• Family friendly recipes that kids and adults will both enjoy.

This cookbook is full of flavorful recipes. However, the 5-Ingredient claim can be misleading. This slow cooker cookbook includes recipes with five main ingredients, but many of them require additional things. The additional ingredients are generally things that the author assumes you already have on hand such as commonly used seasonings and spices.

Taste of Home Slow Cooker: 431 Hot & Hearty Classics

The Taste of Home Slow Cooker cookbook includes 431 classic slow cooker recipes such as Chicago-style beef sandwiches and Ham Tetrazzini. Plus, most of the recipes included in this fantastic cookbook are all-in-one meals. So, once your slow cooker recipe is ready, dinner is complete.

• Easy to follow instructions that even include average times to cook and prepare.
• Recipes that use common ingredients so that you have on hand or can easily find at the store.
• A “lightened-up” section that transforms popular classic recipes into lighter, healthier versions.

Since this slow cooker cookbook is full of classic favorites, it also includes some classic ingredients like Velveeta and ketchup. So, it may not be the best choice for someone opposed to using processed foods in their cooking. However, the cookbook does include a “lightened” section with healthy recipes.

American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook

The American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook is focused on heart-healthy recipes that can be created in a slow cooker. The goal is to encourage people to eat healthier, so the recipes are both tasty and easy to follow.

• Truly tasty recipes that are rich in depth and flavor and low on unhealthy ingredients.
• Informative section detailing how to use the slow cooker and how these recipes can benefit heart health.
• Wide variety of recipes including ones with ethnic flair.

While there are a whopping 200 different recipes included in this cookbook, the downside is that it includes only 19 food photos. So, most of the recipes will have to be made to get a good visual of the final product.