Ms. LazyPants

Worst photo ever, but proof of my point:

I have called myself Ms. LazyPants before, and I figure I should explain.

Now, I am married, so one might say that I should call myself Mrs. LazyPants.  However, my husband is off industriously bringing home the bacon (though he works in neither a plant nor a meat processing location), so I cannot malign his good name by calling him lazy.

On the other hand, I sit here on my keister at 2:22 pm, doing nothing but cleaning my email box and sipping on a glass of wine.

Ms. LazyPants.

So it is only fitting that my post today be about a bunch of nothing.  I present to you the beauty of the crockpot.  A perfect subject for a discussion of nothing as it has been around for decades and subjugated to the bottom section of pantries for almost as long.  Yet my friends, it has great value.  Instead of wasting money when you are too tired to cook, just think about your day in the morning (honestly think about the likelihood of you cooking dinner), and when the day promises to be brutal, toss a chunk of meat (it need not be thawed) and a salsa or cooking sauce of choice into the slow cooker, set to low, and go to work.  In 8-12 hours, you will come home to yumminess.

(sidebar: Some people may not believe you can leave chicken in a slow cooker for 12 hours.  I have done it.  I believe that the vinegar in the marinades for those long days (read: a jar of simple salsa) kept the meat from getting tough.)

For instance, I bought a vaguely Indian cooking sauce for $4 at Sprouts and 2 lbs of chicken breasts for $4.  $8 total to feed Tom and I for 3-4 days.  Figure in a salad and half cup of rice each and adjust the price to $10 for 4 meals for 2 people.

On days I don't do this (because I am not that good at honest self assessment at 5:30 am), we spend at least $20 per meal on even Mexican food.  Sure, Mexican food seems cheap with $6.99 plates, but when you figure in tax and tip, $20 total is actually pretty decent.  We sure didn't get fajitas on those nights!  Now, imagine that instead we had used the crockpot.  4*20=80 for a week of meals out.  We would save $70 with our handy dandy crockpot, and the savings are greater when we use cheap salsa.

Today, I put 1 lb of sausage in the crockpot, a can of tomatoes, sprinkling of italian spices, two chopped zucchinis.  This will be food for Tom and I for 2 meals for $4 total.  Plus, I literally dumped stuff into a pot and walked away (okay, okay, I spent 1 minute chopping zucchini, I know).

If you need more convincing, think of it like this: now you have more to spend on wine.