“Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker is not your average cookbook. Author Nicki Sizemore has family-tested these recipes and throughout the book she informs us which ones are the home favorites. The book is sectioned to allow readers to go right to their preferences: Vegetables, Breakfast, Seafood (!), and two meat sections (Chicken/Turkey/Pork and Beef/Lamb). Along the way, the author has dressed up the pages with many full color pictures of her creations.

Ms. Sizemore offers hints and suggestions on what can be prepared one to two days earlier, making it easier to prepare wholesome meals at the end of your hectic workday. The author also suggests quick substitutes if you don’t have the time to create the entire meal she outlines (using chips as a substitute for cornbread, for example). Every recipe has a recommended shelf life, both in the fridge and in the freezer. From the author’s descriptions, she loves to salt her foods BUT there is no indication of how much to use so for those who are watching their salt intake (or just got used to the taste of less salt), the option of how much to use is left up to you. You can always add more, right?

As a lover of fish, I had never even thought about using a slow cooker to make a seafood dinner, and I have earmarked the Moroccan Braised Halibut to be my first attempt. There are loads of interesting recipes here, and none of the ingredients are hard-to-get or so little used they are outrageously expensive. This is an opportunity to dress up your weekly meals, earning yourself a combination of healthy and good-tasting food that is certain to enlarge your eating options. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for a complimentary ebook of this title.

Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker by Nicki Sizemore offers updated recipes as the author was searching for ways to improve slow cooked recipes. Her cookbook is the result. Sizemore writes the slow cooker has become “a weeknight warrior.”

She writes the majority of the recipes found in her cookbook use a 4 to 7-quart slow cooker to prepare the recipes. The recipes will be tagged with both the prep and slow cooker times. Some of the recipes you'll find include:

White Bean & Veggie Minestrone + Pesto
Chicken Noodle Soup
Garlic-Lemon Whole Chicken
Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps + Sesame-Scallion Sauce
Carnitas Tacos + Quick Pickled Red Onions
Bolognese + Buttermilk Caesar Salad
Slow Cooker Congee
French Toast Casserole
Peach Butter

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley

Ever since I was approved, I've always wanted to give slow cooking a try. After finishing summer, I finally bought a slow cooker last week and plan to try some of these recipes!

There are so many delicious looking ones but I plan to try the shorter ones for now so that I could get used to leaving the pot in the fire for long periods of time.

Thank you so much Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

4 out of 5

**OMG! I cannot believe that these reviews haven't been done! I am so sorry they are so late!!!**

Great cookbook for anyone who is having trouble with ideas for slow cooking creatively. This would make a great gift for any single person, newly working or in college (In my case graduate school).

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker" by Nicki Sizemore. I loved reading and learning new things from this cookbook! As a very inexperienced cook, this book takes harder recipes and makes them easier for someone of my skill level! The ebook version is a little choppy and hard to follow which is why I have taken away a star. This cookbook is perfect for cooks of all levels! I highly recommend it to everyone.

I thrive on slow cooker cookbooks and this one would be a top rated one for me. One I would keep in my kitchen library. Can't wait to try out some of these delicious sounding recipes, granted I may make some slight tweaks to the recipes. There are some ingredients that I know my family would not eat, but they are mostly optional.
#slowcooker #Netgalley

I thought this book offered fun new ideas for slow cooker recipes. I know I was intrigued by a lot of them and plan to try some of them out!

There are many interesting recipes, I think only about half to my personal tastes but I will be trying a handful for sure. This is my first time viewing a cookbook on kindle, that format does seem choppy and possibly hard to follow.

This is not your average slow cooker cookbook. These recipes don't rely on canned soups or packaged ingredients to create the dishes. Instead, these dishes combine the goodness of real, from-scratch cooking with the undeniable convenience of the slow cooker. There are dishes with international flair, everyday family favourites like pulled pork and tacos, and so much more. No matter what your family's tastes, there's something here for you -- all done in the slow cooker! Perfect for this busy back-to-school time.

This is a bright, clear and easy to follow cookbook for the slow cooker. The recipes are simple and appear to be very tasty. There are many vegetarian options and suggestions for ingredient substitutions for people with food intolerances. I can't wait to give a few of these recipes a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for an early copy of Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker, Reinvent the Slow-Cooked Meal, 77 Mouthwatering Recipes by Nicki Sizemore. This cookbook is filled with a variety of delicious, and mouthwatering, recipes that I really enjoyed making. The book can be summed up with this quote from the beginning of the book, “Even if you spend time in the morning (or the day before) prepping the ingredients to go into the slow cooker, I promise you this: when you walk through the door hours later and dinner is already simmering way, it will feel like there’s a grandma sitting on your countertop doing all the work for you.”

The introduction has lots of helpful tips and techniques, including how to pick the right slow cooker for you, “jump-start” tips that can be done ahead of time, and even a section on the different types of canned tomatoes.

Each recipe comes with a description, directions and ingredients, tips for serving, jumpstarts to get going faster, and some have extra tips or storage hints. Many of the recipes also include suggestions for optional side dishes to help you complete the meal. The recipe chapters are divided by ingredients: Vegetables; Chicken, Turkey & Pork; Beef & Lamb; Seafood; and Breakfast & Brunch.

My favorite recipes are:
- Greens & Cheese Lasagna + Quick Green Salad
- Squash Curry + Cilantro, Apple & Cashew Chutney
- Thai Curried Chicken & Rice Noodles
- Chicken Tikka Marsala + Garlic Naan
- Bibimbap Beef Bowls + Garlicky Bok Choy & Sesame Carrots
- Potato Puree
- Sriracha Braised Brisket + Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Cauliflower Couscous
- Tomato & Sweet Corn Salad (this was a side dish in the seafood chapter)
- Quinoa, Edamame & Cucumber Salad (so was this)
- French Toast Casserole
- Slow-Cooked Applesauce
- Peach Butter

While I am still afraid to leave my slow cooker on while I am not home, I did enjoy these recipes on the weekends. This is my second cookbook by Nicki Sizemore and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next! This book is filled with beautiful pictures and tasty recipes! I highly recommend this cookbook!

The focus of this recipe book is to provide new recipes to be made in the slow cooker, using less processed foods, less liquid and more seasonings. The recipes are indeed diverse, from curries to carnitas to Moroccan dishes. The book is richly illustrated with appetizing photos of each dish. There are also pairings with salads or other side dishes (recipes included). This really looks like an interesting book and I look forward to trying some of the recipes.

This is a great recipe book, and for once everything for a slow cooker isn't sludge! Some of these recipes sound so vibrant and fresh and I can't wait to give them a go.

When I usually use my slow cooker it all ends up tasting pretty same-y, but the recipes that are in this book have me excited to really test what I can do.

Think that with the new popular appliances that slow cookers are antiquated? Think again! There are always new things to do in your slow cooker, and veteran food writer, Nicki Sizemore, has put dozens of new, delicious ideas in her book Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker: Reinvent the Slow-Cooked Meal; 77 Mouthwatering Recipes. This cookbook has enough good ideas that it will get you bringing all of those slow cookers in from the garage or up from the dusty basement shelves.

One of the things that sets this excellent cookbook apart from the others is that Sizemore includes accompaniments, like luscious, crunchy Toasted Cheese Baguettes, several salads: Red Cabbage & Sweet Corn Slaw, Pickled Red Onions (to go with her excellent Carnitas Tacos), Lime & Cilantro Slaw, and Buttermilk Caesar Salad.

Even though this isn’t a basic slow cooker cookbook, there are recipes for grits and polenta (much better in slow cookers than any other way), as well as grains. The recipes in this cookbook are new and innovative and will appeal to modern cooks everywhere. Some of the recipes are quick – Slow Cooked Salmon takes only an hour and a half and it’s perfect. Others can cook all day – unattended, of course – so while the cook is at work, the house is being filled with heavenly smells, as well as tastes.

Favorites so far include Bibimbap Beef Bowls (Korean is quite the craze right now), a version of Chicken Tikka Masala that rival those served in London where it supposedly originated and is challenging fish and chips as the English national dish (breasts can be substituted for thighs if you prefer white meat), and a delicious Asian-Style Pot Roast. The cookbook is very light on dessert choices, but the Overnight Pumpkin–Brown Rice Pudding is good enough to make up for it. There is also slow cooked applesauce.

Even if you own dozens of slow cooker cookbooks, this one is definitely worth adding to your collection. The recipes are appealing, the instructions are easy-to-follow, and the results are picture-perfect. There are beautiful photographs of most of the recipes, which helps everyone know what their final dishes will look like. This one is highly recommended.


Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This book was very difficult to follow on a kindle. The pages were too choppy. It was very difficult to follow along. It may be different in a print copy. But the kindle copy the pictures were not in order easily and the layout of the recipes made it hard to follow.

Always on the look out for new takes on what you can do in a slow cooker and this fits the bill nicely. Good selction of dishes and side dishes, tips on portion size, batch cooking etc. Probably about 50% of the recipies that appealed to me in some way and about a third which I have/will be trying out. A handy little book to have if you have a slow cooker hiding in the back of a cupboard.

In the era of the Instant Pot, it feels like the slow cooker has been long forgotten. In fact, my own slow cooker has been relegated to the back of the pantry while my Instant Pot has a spot on my kitchen island. Let's face it--there are definitely some drawbacks to slow cookers (very long cooking times, having to be home on time to turn it off, sometimes having to prep things in the morning before work in order to start the recipe), but there's nothing like the feeling of coming home and knowing that your entire dinner is already done, and you don't even have to lift a finger.

Nicki Sizemore is here to prove that a slow cooker can still be an integral part of your kitchen, and you can cook modern, fresh, delicious food in your slow cooker. It's set up like your traditional cookbook dedicated to the home cook, with sections basically split into your veggies, meat, seafood, and breakfast. I wish there was a dessert section, but I know there's plenty of other cookbooks that fill that niche.

I was expecting the recipes to be simple comfort food, but I was pleasantly surprised by how diverse and eclectic the recipes were. The recipes include Thai Vegetable and Peanut Curry, Chicken Tikka Masala with Garlic Naan, Sticky Ginger Spareribs with Napa Cabbage Slaw, Morroccan Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate and Mint, and Green Curry Shrimp Noodle Bowls. If American classics are more your speed, there is also a recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup, Beef Chili, and a recipe for a whole garlic roast chicken, among others. A particular standout was the seafood section, which was filled with delicious and interesting recipes. I bookmarked pretty much all of them.

The design is colorful, accessible, and easy to read. The little blurbs before each recipe are well-written, helpful, and make me excited to cook the recipe. I can't wait to cook from this book and break out my slow cooker again.

Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Some great recipes that were easy to follow and fun to make! I love using my slow cooker and am glad there are still recipes being created for it.

Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker by Nicki Sizemore says it all with the introductory chapter which is entitled "Rethink the Old". I love using my slow cooker, but this book has really opened my eyes to some new ways that I can make use of this appliance. At the start of the book she goes over all the tips and techniques that she uses for cooking with a slow cooker, including a great comparison between a slow cooker and a multicooker. If you are new to cooking this way, this is a great book to get started because she offers such good advice on sauces, freezing, clean up etc. If you are a slow cooker pro this is also a perfect book for you because you are going to see recipes and techniques that you don't normally find.

Recipes in Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker

Here are some of the incredible recipes you will find in the following categories; vegetables, chicken, turkey and pork, beef & lamb, seafood and breakfast & brunch.

Thai Vegetable & Peanut Curry
Fajita Stuffed Sweet Potatoes + Guacamole (you have to try this one!)
Chicken Tikka Masala
Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps
Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate & Mint + Cauliflower Couscous
Best Beef Chili + Jalepeno-Cheddar Spoon Bread Muffins
Slow-Cooked Cod + Tomato and Sweet Corn Salad
Overnight Pumpkin-Brown Rice Pudding
Spinach, Prosciutto & Gruyere Strata

Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker is filled with beautiful photography which will inspire you to try new dishes. I also love the way that she includes details in the recipes about what will involve Stovetop Prep, then onto the slow cooker portion. There is even a section of "for serving" where there are ingredients for completing the meal. For example, the recipe for Squash Curry + Cilantro, Apple & Cashew Chutney includes cooked rice, Naan bread (optional) and the recipe for making the Cilantro, Apple and Cashew Chutney on another page.  She also includes "Slow Cooker Jump Starts" if you prefer to do prep cooking on a free day, and make your weeknights run more smoothly. For the same recipe this section gives tips that you can cook the stovetop ingredients and refrigerate and chop and refrigerate the butternut squash up to 3 days ahead. What a great help when you are meal planning!

I highly recommend Fresh Flavors for the Slow Cooker for any cook that is looking for an easier way to bring great meals to the table.