Q: Do you have ideas for easy-to-freeze casseroles or slow-cooker dishes that don't use pounds of of cheese and dairy? My husband and I are looking for an easy-to-store, easy-to-transport healthy alternative to fast food salads while we spend time with a family member who is in hospice. (The hospice has taken great care of all of us, but it only has a microwave.) Thanks!

Sent by Liz More

It's a busy time of year. This you know. So every bit of extra planning goes a long way, and lately we've been all about a little breakfast prep the night before. That way, you wake up and put the coffee on, the kitchen smells delicious, and breakfast is done! More

Winter is here, and the holidays are coming, and we want comfort food to feed a crowd. Best way to do that? The slow cooker!! Here are 10 recipes from our archives for easy, delicious, cold-weather food. Most of these recipes will handily feed a dinner crowd, or give you leftovers to freeze. And most use the most frugal cuts of meat, so they form the holy menu trinity of cheap, easy, and yummy. More

Want something spicy, hearty, and — above all — easy for dinner this week? Whip out your slow cooker and make this 5-ingredient (OK, 7, if you include salt and pepper!) green curry pork! It takes 15 minutes to set up, and will give you such tender, rich, and spicy pork curry. More

One of our favorite things to eat is slow cooked beef and pork — better known as barbacoa and carnitas. Their luscious, slow-cooked tenderness may seem hard to achieve at home, but it's actually incredibly easy. It's all about the technique and the tools. Here are three options. More

We make zero claims as to the authenticity of this dish, but we do know that it's extremely tasty! We love how the tortillas get soft and chewy during cooking, absorbing some of the salsa and providing the perfect vehicle for lots of oozy cheese. This is one of our go-to meals when we're out of ideas, and it always hits the spot. More

I started this website to help people get cooking and to put them closer in touch with their food. While do we want to make your cooking easier, most of us here at The Kitchn get excited if a reader says they hung out in the kitchen and cooked all day.

But this week I had to draw the line. For four straight days, the temperature climbed to 100 degrees in New York City and throughout much of the country. Like most people, I didn't feel like cooking.

So I did something you might think was nuts: I got out the slow cooker and cooked an eight-pound pork butt. More

After yesterday's discussion about how to use a slow cooker and which models to buy, we couldn't leave you without a few recipes to try! These are some (or rather, all) of our favorites plus a few new ones we can't wait to try soon. What are your favorite dishes to make in the slow cooker? More

It's bulky and takes up precious cabinet space, but we'll never get rid of our slow cooker. It can be such a life saver those weeks when time is scarce and we just want to make a big batch of something to see us through the week. No matter what kind of slow cooker you own, the basics of how to use it are the same! More

Do you like to cook overnight? Do you load your slow cooker up at night and let it do the work while you sleep? We are huge, huge fans of this cooking method, but we do recognize one or two drawbacks. The major one is, well, the smell. More