If you listened to last year’s slow cooker episode, you know that we’re slow cooker skeptics. So was this week’s guest, Nicki Sizemore, until she found herself with two kids, scrambling for dinnertime solutions. That’s when she begrudgingly listened to her mom’s advice to give the crock pot a go. And like any professional cook would, she did it with the challenge to reinvent slow cooker meals. Nicki’s challenge turned into her latest cookbook (so, yea, it went well), and she’s spilling all her slow cooker secrets to us.
So much so that Stacie — who once asked what’s so good about slow cookers anyway? — chose to marry her slow cooker in a game of kiss, kill, marry.
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“Can I Make This Stuff Taste Good?”
Like so many of us, Nicki Sizemore was gifted a slow cooker for her wedding, tried cooking one dish (it was a disaster), and then promptly put it in her garage where it gathered dust. Until, years later, when she found herself with two kids, struggling to get dinner on the table night after night.
Sound familiar?
Well, this is where your story might diverge from Nicki’s, because this is when she pulled her dusty slow cooker out of the garage and put her culinary degree to work. The challenge she set for herself: create 5 totally delicious slow cooker recipes. Five turned into ten, ten turned into fifteen, fifteen turned into her latest book, Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker: Reinvent the Slow Cooked Meal.
In this episode, Nicki shares all the tips and tricks she learned to make slow cooker meals that are healthy, fresh, vibrant, and delicious. Kid-friendly too.
Our chat was so full of Nicki’s own tips, that we hardly have links this week, but you’ll understand why these two are so valuable once you listen:
About Our Guest: Nicki Sizemore
Nicki Sizemore is a food writer, recipe developer, video host and educator. She is the author of Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker: Reinvent the Slow Cooked Meal , Build-a-Bowl: 77 Satisfying & Nutritious Combos: Whole Grain + Vegetable + Protein + Sauce = Meal , and The Food Processor Family Cookbook .
Nicki is the creator of the blog, From Scratch Fast, which features recipes and meals that can be made from scratch in under an hour, and her work has been featured in publications such as Parents, The Washington Post, Eating Well, AllRecipes Magazine and Fine Cooking. She is a video host and instructor for NBC Universal’s streaming platform Bluprint, and she appears regularly on the PBS series, Moveable Feast.
Find Nicki as @fromscratchfast on Instagram and all other social media.
Other #DIJFY Episodes You Might Like
Spice Up Your Family’s Food with Chief Spice Mama Kanchan Koya
How to Cook Vegetables So That They Taste Good — Even To Kids
Half the Sugar, All the Love — and Flavor with Jennifer Tyler Lee
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Let’s Be Friends
Be sure to join our private listeners’ group on Facebook (our favorite cocktail is WHISKEY — you’ll understand when you try to join). There, we’ll be sharing more of our favorite slow cooker recipes and also asking: are you interested in an episode on how social media food content is shaping teens’ relationships with and understanding of food, nutrition, health and wellness.
We think that sounds interesting. Do you too? (By the way: the image above is via @notplantbased on Instagram, one of the body positive accounts for teens that we discovered through Grown and Flown.)
You can also find us at @didntijustfeed you on Instagram and on Facebook at large. And if you happen to love us as much as we love you (we really do!), you can find Meghan as @meghan_splawn and Stacie as @staciebillis on Instagram.
Your Next Listen: Good Kids
Do you ever look around and think: Man, everyone is such a jerk! You know where that starts? Childhood. Good Kids: How Not to Raise an Asshole is a new podcast from Lemonada Media that offers advice, rants, stories, and reflections on how to raise kinder, gentler, better humans. For 15 minutes each week, a diverse set of parents, experts, celebrities and world shapers grab the mic for a no holds barred, TED-style podcast on child-rearing. This isn’t just another parenting podcast. It’s the podcast we all need to make the world a better place. Subscribe now wherever you listen!
You Asked, We Delivered.
Or did we just want Cheese Me totes? Either way: they’re available! Head to the Didn’t I Just Feed You store on Society 6 to grab yours now. We’ll have more products coming later this year, but get this baby STAT to help us bring cheesy back.
We’re thrilled to share two recipes from Nicki’s book, Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker: Reinvent the Slow Cooked Meal. Here is the Slow Cooker Salmon that you heard Stacie get so excited about. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter where we’re a Slow Cooker Carnitas you won’t want to miss!