Crock Pot Liners – are they worth it??

I make a ton of stuff in my crockpot, especially this time of year. Pot roast, minced beef and noodles, all kinds of pork dishes, and beef stroganoff all will see my crockpot multiple times this fall and winter. In the last 6 months or so I have started using those crock pot liners and let me tell you, clean up is much easier! Since the one thing I don’t like about cooking is the clean up, I am in love with these things! Don’t get me wrong, you still need to wash it out with some soap and hot water, but the hours of soaking and the elbow grease to get the stuck on, cooked on, leftover grime off the pot is long gone. Good riddance!!

This is the liner, some stock in to keep it in place and the finished dish.

I was having a hard time with the plastic bag being around heat, but I finally realized I have been using cooking bags made of the same stuff for my turkey and beef stews for years, so why not give it a try? The bags don’t seem to impact the taste or texture of my food and I have not had anything melt to the outside of my crockpot. I’m going with win-win here. Yeah, it’s another expense on plastic products but I figure that’s offset by all the water I’m saving by not having to soak/wash/soak again/finally give up and throw it in the dishwasher. I have tried both the name brand and the generic grocery store brand and they work equally as well. I do have a hard time finding them for my smaller size crock pot, but I can deal with that. I say YES – use these babies because doing dishes is a chore we can live without! 🙂

This is a huge batch of minced beef (and noodles comes later) that I made with the liners. Just a quick rise out and wash of the lid and dishes are done!