Safely pre-assemble slow cooker meals

Using a slow cooker is a great way to cut down meal time preparation to next to nothing for the evening meal. But sometimes even mornings are rushed and doing the prep work for a slow cooker meal the night before means you can save time the following morning when you are putting it all together.

Here are some tips on how you can get a head start by doing prep work the night before.

• Chop all the vegetables needed and store them in the refrigerator.
• Defrost the meat overnight in the refrigerator instead of using the microwave the next morning.
• Measure out ingredients for the sauce… and many sauces you can mix the night before and store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
• Prepare meat, such as trimming or cubing, the night before but store separately in the fridge overnight.

And here are some don’ts to ensure your meal is safe to eat

• Don’t combine all ingredients, mixing meat/poultry with the other ingredients, as there could be cross contamination and bacteria being produced. Always store meat separate from the other ingredients.
• Don’t pre-assemle in your slow cooker insert and store it in the fridge overnight. Your insert should always be at room temperature when you place it into the slow cooker base and turn it on. If it heats from cold to hot too quickly, it could crack the insert.
  

Also read: Pre-assembling slow cooker meals to save time.