During these challenging economic times, as people are looking for ways to cut back, I wanted to invite readers to share ways they’re making-do.

So a few weeks ago, to encourage that sharing, I launched Make-Do Mondays.

I’ll share some way that I’m making-do and/or highlight someone else’s fabulous solutions.

I invite you to do the same, via comments or writing up a post of your own and linking up.

(I’ll put Mr. Linky first, because this post got a little long-winded. If you blog and link via Mr. Linky, I’ll try to come back and add the links by hand, as well, so you’ll get picked up by search-engines.)

 

Make-Do Readers–check it out:

1. Kristin at The Goat (Corral the Curling Iron)
2. Amber at the run-a-muck (Making-Do–a tour of the Love Shack)

And…be sure to see bonus crockpot recipe submitted in comments below

I decided to share how I’ve made-do with crock pots, and how crock pots have helped me make-do.

For many years I made-do with an old hand-me-down crockpot I was given by a friend who was moving overseas. It was a little out of style, and the previous owner let a Target bag sit a little too close while it heated up.

But it worked just the same as any new-fangled crock pot with fancy timers and warming features. So I made-do.

A year or so after that, I flopped in a rock-hard frozen roast and broke the removable crock.

I was in a phase where I resolved to be all FlyLady-decluttery and tossed the entire thing into the trash–not just the two pieces of broken crock, but also the base, which still worked fine. Good-bye faithful crock. It’s been a good run, but there’s a time to let go.

Then I had second thoughts and dug it out again.

I set the good old crock pot on a shelf in the basement and watched Goodwill for a replacement.

Months passed; no one donated a crock.

Just when I was considering tossing it a second and final time, it happened: A make-do girl’s dream-come-true! A crock–no heating unit, just the removable crock–sat on the shelf. I could have sworn it gleamed like gold under the industrial flourescent lights.

I snatched it up–a perfect fit. The faithful old crock was returned its rightful spot on the counter and served us for several more years.

Then, for Christmas two years ago, a good friend gave me a brand-new, huge-capacity stainless-steel crock pot.

Dazzled by its new-fangled features and shiny stainless-steel body, I whisked Old Faithful to the basement shelf and set this Dream Crock in its place.

I set it to work right away cooking chili, roast beef, chicken, and overnight steel cut oatmeal.

Then, one day, inexplicably, the plastic handle popped off. Here’s a photo of it cooking steel-cut oats. Handle-less.

I contacted customer service, but they had no replacement handles or lids available.

I had to make-do. 

Eventually, after long discussions with customer service, the company sent an entirely new crock pot so that I could have a new lid, which is a story in itself that I won’t bore you with. But if they had not, listen to what Amanda at Living, Learning, Loving, and Growing  did when her handle broke off (I think it’s brilliant–almost makes me want to pull out the broken lid and cute-it up like she did!):

What i did to my crock after my husband broke the handle off: (i just like to blame it on him, im not sure if it was him or the party potatoes that did it) i took a knob for a dresser and put it on, using the rubber washers that fell off of it on either side. works like a charm, and new knobs are only a buck fifty! i put a cute one with a lion on it from my kiddos dresser that i redid, but you can use wood, metal, whatever suits your crock!  

And here’s another make-do crock pot idea submitted by Jake Carr, who combined crock-potting with ”freezer cooking”:

My wife and I were both college students when we had our children. I guess we did it the hard, albeit very fulfilling way. With our crazy study / work / parenting schedule we found that we just didn’t want to cook a healthy dinner when we finally got home in the evenings. We’d get fast food all too often.

Our awesome solution was that we would take a Sunday afternoon and package five or six uncooked crock pot recipies in gallon freezer bags. We’d make each recipe five times so we’d have a ton of food ready go to! We’d freeze them as cube shaped as possible. (We scraped money together to get a used chest freezer which sat on the balcony of our apartment! It was totally worth it) In the morning while we were getting ready we’d cut the bag off a cube of frozen food, toss it in the crock pot on low, prop the lid on top so it would fit when the food defrosts, and head off to school etc. By the time we got back we’d have a wonderfully slow cooked meal.

We not only saved a TON of cash, but we ate healthy food as students!

Hope this helps someone! I know a couple of people who’ve sent their kids off to school with a crock pot and a chest freezer because of us. Then when they come home for a quick visit, they often get sent home with a box or two of frozen crock pot dinners all ready to go! On that note, you can even mail a frozen recipe (package carefully, of course) all ready for the crock pot and treat them to a home cooked meal EXACTLY like mom used to make!

I guess I’m a bit of a crock-a-holic, but like my mom used to say: if it weren’t for the slow cooker, we’d have starved long ago!

There you go. Creatively making do with crock pots.

How about you? In what ways are you making-do?

Be sure to visit the other Monday post–Progress Report #2 for Mega Memory Month!