9 Cheap & Easy 3-Ingredient Slow Cooker Meals for Seniors (No Frozen Meat, No Mush)

The slow cooker in your cabinet isn't the problem. Three things nobody told you are: chicken can't take eight hours, frozen meat doesn't belong in there at all, and a half-empty crock scorches. Tonight: five rules that'll make you trust that pot again, then nine suppers with three ingredients each (salt, pepper and water don't count), priced the way the store is this month. Real cook times, sizes for one, which ones are tomato-free, which are salty and what to swap, and how to do it in the oven if you don't own a slow cooker. The nine: soup beans with a ham hock, barbecue chicken and potatoes done in four hours not eight, pork shoulder with apple juice and sweet potatoes, smoked sausage and sauerkraut, chicken and flat dumplings cut in squares the old way, a whole chuck roast instead of pricey stew meat, chicken and gravy with the frozen vegetables in last, ham and potato soup, and overnight apple butter. I'm Ritsy Jean Anderson from East Tennessee. Pull up a chair. There's always room for one more. 0:00 Why you stopped trusting your slow cooker 0:50 Meet Ritsy Jean 1:10 five rules on the lid: frozen meat, real times, sizing, grease, the lid 3:30 1. Soup beans with a ham hock 4:50 2. Barbecue chicken and potatoes, done in four hours 6:00 Why the recipe never told you why 7:10 3. Pork shoulder, apple juice and sweet potatoes 8:20 4. Smoked sausage and sauerkraut 9:20 5. Chicken and flat dumplings, cut in squares 10:45 6. Pot roast from a whole chuck roast 12:00 7. Chicken and gravy, vegetables in last 13:05 8. Ham and potato soup 14:05 9. Overnight apple butter 15:30 What county, or what country?