It’s a brilliant story, Nathan who comes from Portadown, started his blog in 2020 during the pandemic. He wanted to share the meals he was cooking in his own kitchen ‘to help people to cook healthier, more interesting meals at home’.

More and more of us are looking for ways to cook delicious, healthy, hassle-free versions of our favourite meals – while still keeping an eye on our household budgets. Slow cookers are a cost-effective way to cook, using a fraction of the energy of a conventional oven, but Nathan takes this budget-friendly approach further by focusing on everyday, easy-to-source ingredients that won’t break the bank. Slow cookers are perfect for making curries and stews – the long cooking time allows the flavours to deepen and develop. My top tip for these dishes is to leave out any vegetables until the last 30-45 minutes of the cooking time. Adding vegetables from the start can lead to them being mushy or too soft, so leaving them out until later helps retain a slight crunch and adds a gorgeous texture to the dish. The only exception to this rule is harder vegetables like carrots, onions and potatoes, which can be added from the start. All new ' e ven easier' slow cooker recipes to enjoy delicious, healthy and budget -friendly food every day.

Recipes

He makes brilliant use of his slow cooker. Most of the recipes are cost-effective and perfect for those who want to prepare meals for themselves and for the family for the week ahead. Most recipes are made with ingredients that you are likely to have in your pantry or are easy to source so you won’t have to go hunting in a deli or specialist shop. There’s much to choose from, weekday lunches and dinners, light meals, family, favourites, comfort food, feeding a crowd, and even a chapter on fakeaways….

From Nathan Anthony, the home cook with over 3 million followers, comes another book of recipes to transform your weeknight cooking. Filled with all your favourite fakeaways, pastas, pies, soups and curries, as well as a whole chapter on meal prep recipes, you will be amazed what you can make in a slow cooker. The book is flying off the shelves and bringing joy and fun to the many who feel they are just too busy to cook.… Bravo, Nathan. Here are recipes with hardly any prep, fewer ingredients and clever time-saving tips, making it a must-have for any busy home-cook. Every recipe is 500 calories or under, providing a hassle-free way to enjoy lighter versions of your family favourites. When your meal is finished cooking, remove the dish from the slow cooker and portion it onto your plates or into lunchboxes as soon as you can. Slow cookers continue to retain heat even after they have been turned off, so your sauce might dry out if it’s left in the pot too long.

To be ultra-energy efficient and save even more money, turn the slow cooker off for the last 20 minutes of the cooking time. The pot will retain enough heat to continue cooking for anywhere up to 45 minutes after it has been switched off, so for example if a recipe says to cook a dish for 4 hours, turn it off after 3 hours and 40 minutes. Save yourself time when making pasta and noodle dishes by adding uncooked pasta or noodles to the slow cooker. They will then cook using the sauce already in the slow cooker (add some extra liquid as well if needed), saving you the time and energy of boiling the kettle and turning on your hob.