Souvy

LOL!

And the sprouts?

Madmac

Evil little fart bombs!

Atlantic Xpat

The key with meat is to brown it first to seal it and provide more flavour. Trouble is this is an extra step in the morning when you are rushing to get stuff in the slow cooker, feed yourself and the kid(s) and get out the door to work. So, the Mrs, this morning didn't brown the meat first. She put it in with onions, a stock cube disolved in a very small amount of water and a can of mushroom soup. Veggies are added an hour or so prior to the time you want to eat to reduce the soggie veggie problem.

A slow cooker helps with 'minimal preparation and fuss' type cooking when you are busy. It also has the bonus of generally being able to be ate in a couple of hour window if you are running late without being spoiled. It is not going to give you haute cuisine though. When time permits I do casseroles/stews the conventional way in the Le Creuset Crock Pot.

Souvy

We had one of those things. She used it for bulk preparation of bolognese and chili for freezing. It got dirty. We slung it.

fledermaus

That's it though, to make anything halfway decent you have to brown stuff before hand and fuss about. So there's no time saving involved. If I have time to do all that I can just put the oven on a timer but I find I can come home and cook a couple of chops and spuds quickly enough without wrestling with frying pans before work. I do use it for chilli and other mince and beans confections but only when I am home long enough to start the whole thing off.

When I first got it I cooked a pork joint in it, the sauce was great but the meat was terrible, tender but no flavour.

Atlantic Xpat

Chilli is the thing that slow cookers do really well.