As an expert on frugal homemaking, women approach me daily who desperately want to cook homemade meals for their families, if only there was time to take care of work, chores and dinner as well. While I have the luxury of staying home all day, the vast majority of today’s women work full-time and are still expected to feed their family at the end of the day.

How did the women that came before us deal with this? They didn’t. Just two generations ago, it was perfectly normal for the wife to stay at home and spent all day taking care of home and family. That included having plenty of time to cook a nice slow cooked meal. You do remember those famous stews and soups your grandma used to make. Or how about that bean soup? Grandma had plenty of time to stir pots in-between making beds, doing laundry and mending socks.

What’s a modern mom to do? In the seventies a new tool came on the market that I couldn’t live without. It allows you to slow cook a homemade meal while you are at work or running around town on errands or playing taxi for your kids. Here are some of the different types of meals you can cook in a crockpot.

• dips
• main dishes
• stews
• sauces

Are you curious yet to try this way of cooking? Here are a few recipes for the crockpot for you to make. Take a few minutes to browse through and read through these recipes and then pick one or two to try out this week. You’ll be surprised at the taste and texture. Your grandmother’s way of cooking is reborn in your own kitchen and you don’t even have to be there to stir the pots.

When you get back to your kitchen after a long day, dinner will be ready. If you are making a hardy soup or stew, you may want to make a batch of warm flaky biscuits to go with it. The batter is ready in minutes and since these are quick breads, they bake up in under 10 minutes. After that it’s just a matter of sitting down to a delicious meal. Clean up is a breeze as well since everything cooked in just one pot. Hard to beat that. Happy Crockpot Cooking!