A stellar collection of slow cooker recipes from best-selling author Donna-Marie Pye.

Slow cooking is the perfect mealtime solution for anyone who wants to enjoy delicious food with a minimum of effort. The premise is simple:

• Assemble and prepare the ingredients at your convenience, either the night before or earlier in the day
• Place the ingredients in the slow cooker
• Turn on the appliance and let the food cook unattended
• The author has collected her best recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts, including:
• Sweet and spicy BBQ beef pot roast sandwiches
• Steak fajitas with tomato-corn relish
• Polynesian pork
• Cinderella stew
• Pulled pork taco supper
• Italian chicken stew with crisp polenta
• Beef pot roast with caramelized vegetables

All of the recipes are easy and convenient to prepare yet provide incredibly satisfying results.

Canada's Slow Cooker Winners includes dozens and dozens of tips and techniques for slow-cooker success, as well as general kitchen counseling and serving suggestions. The "make ahead" advice helps make these easy recipes even more convenient. Each of these dishes will tantalize and inspire the busy home chef.

Donna-Marie Pye has sold more than 300,000 slow cooker cookbooks. She is a highly respected home economist, food writer and recipe developer and recently opened her own cooking school.

Donna Marie Pye's profile page

This wins my recommendation for best book for a working parent, or best food to bring to superbowl party. You know that cooking and preparing doesn't go on during the game. You cook it and let it go. Today we went to my brother in law's to watch football. We had errands to run first and I knew we would only have an hour between the time we got back home and we had to leave for the game. So I put Chipotle Baked Beans and Kolbasz (supposed to be turkey kielbasa, but I used the good hungarian kolbasz) into the crockpot. Turned out that their planned dinner didn't work out because the meat had gone really bad, and my crockpot dinner was perfect. I think crockpot meals are great for working nights too. There's a great variety in the meals in this book as well as the breakfasts and desserts. You could do a whole crockpot day if you had enough crocks in your home. Donna-Marie uses a few shortcuts like adding barbecue sauce and taco seasoning and so do I. This may be the one I use so that my husband avoids those box mix dinner nights.

Cookerati.com

Canada's slow cooker queen has had a 20-year love affair with this time saving appliance. Featuring wholesome recipes for families, smaller households and get-togethers, you can make the most of your slow cooker. With 300 well-tested recipes and helpful hints, this cookbook is a fabulous resource to add to any cookbook library.

The Test Kitchen Inc.