Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Family Favorites Review

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(More customer reviews)I was very excited to see this offering through the Amazon Vine program, because I've previously used Beth Hensberger's The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, and I found that book to be very helpful, informative, and full of recipes that my family enjoys. And, as a busy working mom, I'm always looking for new recipes for my crockpot, especially ones that DON'T seem like my mother's crockpot recipes - complicated, over heavy on the meat, or simply just the same boring flavors over and over.
Unfortunately, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Family Favorites was not a favorite with my family. I've tried four recipes from it now, and between my family's reaction to those recipes and looking through the rest of the book, I doubt I'll be trying too many more.
First, I was disappointed right away when I got the book. With a title like 'Not Your Mother's' I had hoped for some different flavor profiles than just the same old chili, pot roast, beef stew recipes that you find in every crockpot cookbook. And there are a good number of exotic sounding recipes, some of which I still want to try despite the poor experiences I've had so far - Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew, for example. But there are six pot roast recipes, five beef stews, six chilis - yet not a single curry other than the curried chicken salad!! There were a couple recipes that looked like they were based on Moroccan tajine recipes, which is great because these are a natural to adapt to the slow cooker, but why not a few more? I don't know too many people who are looking to add more recipes that use huge amounts of expensive red meat (many recipes use half a pound of meat or more PER PERSON), but I know lots of people who are looking for more ethnic recipes, and I was really hoping this cookbook would help me out there. Unfortunately not.
The first one we tried was the Oatmeal with Cranberries and Apple. This was tasty, but too sweet. I might make it again without the brown sugar or with a lot less brown sugar as the fruit seemed overwhelmed by it. Even my nine year old said it was too sweet. I liked the flavors otherwise, and it was very easy.
The second one we tried was the Vegetable, Beef, and Barley Soup with Whole Grain Beer Bread, except we didn't make the beer bread part. The soup was pretty bland, tasting very much of the barley and not much of anything else. My husband added a lot of hot sauce to his, and the kids wouldn't eat it at all.
Next, we tried the Fastest Chicken with Mole Sauce. Now this, my husband and I liked quite a bit. I like Chicken Mole and this was a really easy way to make it. The recipe made a HUGE amount of sauce for the amount of chicken in it - it looked like soup when it was cooking. Next time I will either cut the amount of sauce in half or make it with a big batch of chicken drumsticks instead of the 1 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs and serve it for a party. Other than that, this was the only recipe I would make again without changing anything major, just the proportions of the ingredients.
Finally, last night we had the Easiest Lasagna Bianco. I added a cup of chopped chicken to it, so I didn't quite make it as written. It was very bland & the kids wouldn't eat it, making it one of the few pasta dishes I've ever made that they refused. Now to be fair, this might have been because of the alfredo sauce - she has you use a jar of alfredo sauce but does not specify a brand. I used Trader Joe's Alfredo Sauce, which we have liked on other dishes, but for this recipe you also add a cup of chicken broth so maybe another brand would work better.
You may have noticed, all the recipes that my family tried are the easier ones - I work, so the crockpot is a time saving device for me, and I prefer 'throw it all in and cook' recipes. There are a number of recipes that have multiple steps that sounded very interesting, but I would never have time to make them. For example, Turkey Taco Salad, to serve 4 people, has 23 ingredients and require you to cook the beans in the crockpot, cool them, cook the turkey in the crockpot, shred it, bake tortillas in the oven, and make a separate dressing and several toppings. I'm sure it's delicious, but that's a lot of work and time for taco salad!
In short, it wasn't my favorite cookbook. There are probably some gems in here, but my admittedly small sampling did not impress me.

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Beth Hensperger gives 125 classic family-friendly meals the Not Your Mother's treatment in the fifth title in this best-selling series. Each recipe is adapted to the slow cooker with the busy family's schedule in mind, making it possible to enjoy favorites like Baked Ziti with Sausage, Eggplant Parmesan, and Old Fashioned Meatloaf, as well as sure-to-become-favorites like Thai Beef and Pasta Salad, even if Mom isn't home all day to prepare them!

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