Review: Too much attention to canned products cooked forever.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 04 25, 2014
The purpose of using a slow cooker is to be able to save money by using tougher, less expensive lower fat cuts of meat and "tenderize" them with liquids (stewing or braising) techniques and adding flavorful vegetables to the water to enhance the flavors of the meats selected.  This book neither promotes nor teaches that style of cooking.  It relies or recommends lots of prepared, canned vegetables and soups for flavor and then suggests you cook these canned vegetables 4-6 hours!  Makes no sense to me.So this book is of little to no help to me.  I would add any and all fresh veggies during the last 10-30 minutes of cooking and then serve.Tomato paste is a good ingredient because it adds a lot of potassium with very little sugar and nothing cooks away. It adds flavor as well as nutrition with almost NO sodium to defeat the high potassium.I don't trust the nutritional information in this book either.  For example, Pork Roast with Mushrooms says there's 11 grams carbs in each of the 8 servings. But the only 2 sources of carb in the recipe -- low fat cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix. The total carbs for these two items is 34.37 g carbs.  Divided by 8, that's 4.3 carbs per each of the 8 servings which is 1/3 the 11 claimed in this book. And that's not the only miscalculation.Rosemary Chicken only has 11 grams fat per serving and not the 13 the recipe  state.  But I ask you, why do you need 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter for low fat, boneless skinless chicken breast in a cook book that says "Slow Cook Yourself Skinny" and then has you cook this chicken for 8 hours in butter and chicken broth?  I realize low fat is a relative term but I'm not sure adding that much butter to a naturally low fat food stays within those guidelines.  It doesn't for me.I would not rate this as a worthwhile recipe book.