My New Fetish (and yes the Tonioli's are still alive)

I have a new love in my life. My crockpot! Yes, that's right my crockpot. While there is nothing new or exciting about my new crush my reasons for my obsession are justified.

1. It helps to make life so much easier.
Ever since our adorable third one has come into the world it seems like life has been more crazy. I must admit three has been a big adjustment. I have come to appreciate anything that can make life run a little bit smoother. At our house between the hours of 4-6 seem insane. That seems to be the time when there are whiny and tired kids mixed in with hyper spurts, Four girls trying to get daddy/husband's attention the second he walked in the door from work, and an attempt to get dinner ready. Just by eliminating one of those stresses really makes for a more peaceful home.

2. It easily fits into our schedule. (That is whatever it is that may pass for a schedule these days.)
It's so nice that I can get dinner ready at a time that is convenient for me. That by the way is while Lily is taking her morning nap.

3. No more wondering
It seems like there are more days than I would like to admit that the following situation will happen: It's 4:30pm and I am racking my brain to think of something to make at dinner. I begin searching through recipes to find out that I'm lacking an ingredient here or there. Suddenly it's 5:00pm and I still have idea what to fix. Finally at 5:30 I begin to make some sort of breakfast food like scrambled eggs or pancakes for dinner because it's the easy thing to do. (I'm not knocking the breakfast for dinner thing.I actually do enjoy it. The kids love it too, they think it's so fun to have breakfast for dinner. It's just growing up we never had breakfast foods for dinner, NEVER. Jared suggested it one time and my first thought was, "What?! You can have breakfast for dinner!" I didn't know it was an option.) I know it's not the crockpot that solves this problem. I could just plan my meals out a week at a time, but there are those times when I just don't do it. By using the crockpot the decision is already made and I don't spend any time throughout the day trying to come up with an idea.

4. Better clean up
I don't know about you, but cooking and eating in a messy kitchen drives me insane. The kitchen is usually at it's best in the morning because it's still clean from the night before or I just got done cleaning it while Lily takes her nap. Therefore, it's the perfect time to put everything together and cleaned up so that by dinner time the only mess is from the dishes we ate on.

I do realize that I have just rambled on and on about a silly kitchen gadget. While I still do plenty of cooking without the use of my crockpot, those days when I use one sure are nice. So, any good recipes I can use for my crockpot?

P.S. Sorry that that months go by without writing a single thing and when I finally do it's about a crockpot. I promise I will post soon about what's been going on with our family. There is much to share.