The slow cooker is one of my most treasured kitchen items.  It is how I survive the chaos of living with three adorable, but very busy boys.

A few years ago, I discovered Stephanie O’Dea’s blog A Year of Slow Cooking.  O’Dea pledged to make something in her slow cooker every day for an entire year.  When I first started reading her blog, I thought “This would make a great cookbook!”

And of course, I was right.  Her Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook is one of my very favorites.

O’Dea has now created a second cookbook,More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, and I love it even more than I love her first book.

The recipes and ingredients are simple, yet the flavors complex.  And like her first book, she shares time-saving strategies to make slow cooking even easier.  O’Dea also shares how her family responded to many of the recipes – something those of us with picky eaters will appreciate.

There are 200 budget-friendly recipes covering breakfasts, beverages, appetizers, soups and stews, beans, side dishers, vegetarian main courses, poultry, beef and pork, and desserts. She also has a chapter that covers basic staples (such as baby food, broth, dry beans, and even yogurt) that you can make in your slow cooker to stretch your budget.

All of the recipes in this cookbook are gluten-free, which is great for those who are allergic or have an intolerance to gluten.

The book is divided into three main sections: $7 and under, $10 and under, and $15 and under.  Each of these sections is then further broken down by type.  If you’re solely concerned about how much a meal costs to make, this is useful, but I personally found it cumbersome to find the exact recipes I was looking for.  There is a good index in the back that helps.

Most of these meals are one-pot meals that serve a large quantity of people, so don’t let those prices deter you.  O’Dea is also from the San Francisco Bay area, which means her estimates may be higher than other parts of the country.

We’ve made a few of the recipes already like Taco Lasagna and Honey Garlic Chicken, and they were big hits with my family. I’m anxious to try more of them: Perhaps Chocolate Pot de Créme with Ganache or Herb Roasted Chicken with Summer Tomatoes.

If you love your slow cooker, I highly recommend adding More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow to your cookbook collection. O’Dea teaches you that the slow cooker has so much more potential than just soups and cream of mushroom whatever.  Her creativity in the kitchen will make you want to use your slow cooker more often.

While Hyperion Books did provide me with a review copy of this book, the opinions expressed here are 100 percent my own and were not edited by the publisher, author(s), or their affiliates.  This post also contains affiliate links which help support this blog at no additional cost to you.  Please read my full disclosure policy for more information.