With a busy lifestyle, it’s hard to find time to prepare meals for my family that are both nutritious and delicious. This is why my Slow cooker is one of my most precious appliances!

I’m sure that many people either received a slow-cooker as a wedding gift or purchased one with the best of intentions, used it for a month or two, and it now sits on the back of some shelf gathering dust.

I’m telling you to buy this book and break it out! Whether you work all day and just want to come home to a hot meal without having to slave over a hot stove, or live a busy lifestyle with your family, you will get a lot of terrific recipes from this book.

One of the terrific things about the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook is the binding which allows you to open the book flat. You don’t have to worry about the pages flipping on you or having to put something on it to hold the book open while you read.

The recipes are separated by chapter. There are Appetizers,Snacks, and Spreads, Breakfast Foods, Breads, Soups, Stews, and Chilis, Main Dishes, Bean Main Dishes for vegetarians, Vegetables, Desserts, and Beverages. This makes it easy to find a recipe for just the occasion you need.

The recipes are “Fix-It and Forget-It” because most of them are basically “put all of these ingredients in your slow cooker and come back many hours later and it’s done.” Some recipes require two steps, such as the browning or searing of meat before placing it in the slow cooker. This will help the meat stay together as it becomes more tender, as well as adding flavor. You’ll spend time in the morning preparing your dish, and then don’t have to do anything again all day!

Each page is divided up into three columns and there’s about one recipe per column. Credit is given to who submitted each recipe below the title along with the number of servings (although it doesn’t say what size a “serving” is). There are some variations listed to the recipes. Most contain ingredients we all have around our houses, making preparation simple. There is also the benefit of not just one meatloaf, chili, stroganoff or pot-roast recipe. If one does not appeal to you, simply try another. Or do like I do and combine ideas from several different recipes and come up with your own. There are a lot of vegetarian recipes in here as well.

In between the recipes are hints and tips for making the most of your slow cooker. Tips like leaving the lid on the slow cooker helps cook the food from the top down, or using your slow cooker in hot weather does not heat up the kitchen like an oven, or don’t peek cause it takes 15-20 minutes to regain the heat every time you take the lid off! We’re not talking rocket science, just some things you might not have thought of.

Two drawbacks to the book are that there are no pictures of each dish, so you won’t know if it “looks right” while you’re cooking. Hey if it tastes good does it matter how it looks? The other is that there is no nutritional information given for each dish. For someone like me who’s trying to stay away from carbohydrates, that is a problem.

I’ve tried a lot of the recipes in the book and made variations of my own. I’ve gotten many ideas from this book and it’s made cooking for my family easier than ever and just as delicious.