****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is a great healthy cook book. I was a bit concerned when I just read the other two reviews posted as I fully appreciate those reviewers' concerns: there is often a bit more prep than just throwing items into the slow cooker, and two, that you usually can't start the slow cooker before leaving for work, and come home to a finished and ready to eat meal because most of the recipes have shorter cooking times than 8-10 hours. Those concerns set aside, I love this book because it's helping with the continuation of my cooking education. The recipes call for a bit more prep work, but I fully understand that the reason America's Test kitchen is doing this is to provide better and tastier food. I really wanted recipes where I wouldn't miss the fat and additional calories, but would still feel satisfied. The instructions are also incredibly clear in how to do everything, so that although I'm not an experienced cook, and don't have an easy time cooking, I know that I can follow what is written and the dish will come out well. I have made two recipes so far, and the way I plan to use the book until I get more recipes down is to cook on the weekends so that I have food for the week.Also, a previous reviewer mentioned that a lot of the cooking times were 1-2 hours. That isn't really true, except for the fish section, which obviously, you don't want to be cooking fish for very long. I was truly excited by how many recipes there were that included fish, as I hadn't previously realized that one could prepare fish in a slow cooker. The other cooking times range, and there are definitely some where you could do the traditional 8-10 hour cook time on low, then leave the meal on warm until you ate dinner.