16 Kid-Friendly Slow Cooker Meals for Any Night of the Week

If your slow cooker has been gathering dust, it’s time to promote it to all-star kitchen status again, because you can turn out all your family favorites to be ready when you are, with, we promise, the absolute least effort. And we’re not just talking stews. How about macaroni and cheese, Cuban sandwiches and even deep-dish pizza? Once dinner is this easy, maybe there’s even hope for you to slow down a little and soak up the moment.

You might never make macaroni and cheese any other way. Trisha Yearwood’s version is so creamy, due to the can of evaporated milk coming in clutch, with no chance of any oily separation. That’s despite using sharp cheddar — our favorite option for mac and cheese. We love how that dash of paprika makes the cheddar all the more cheddary.

Though you do employ store-bought broth as a sort of kick-start here, this soup has all the best from-scratch elements that will make it your family’s go-to through colds and the snowiest of winter days. Chicken thighs stay moist and shred into the ideal bites, and egg noodles, added in the last 15 minutes of cooking whenever you’re ready to eat, require no extra pot or pan — winning! A little lemon juice is the key to bringing out all the vibrant flavors without oversalting, and the parsley will have everyone asking, why so fancy tonight?

Though there’s much to recommend the versions of stroganoff that have you blanching and peeling a million little pearl onions and for some reason requiring the onions, beef and mushrooms to each have its own saute pan, we love Stroganoff too much to only eat it when we have time to do that, like, once a decade. With this version, you’ll have to do a beef sear first, so be sure to allow time for that the morning you want to serve it. After that, the slow cooker does the rest of the work. Just whisk in the sour cream when you’re ready to eat and cook up those noodles. We love the twist of using pappardelle, which turns this into a delicious ragu.

File under: Weird, but it works! It particularly works with kids, who will eat nachos on top of just about everything (we haven’t tried it with asparagus or broccoli, but one wonders). Beneath those nacho “croutons” you’ll find a tomatoey vegetable stew with chewy little knobs of hominy. Turns out, it’s our kind of stew, too.

When slow cookers first came along, every homemaker had a version of this dish, meatballs simmered in a sauce sweetened with grape jelly. Though those Brady-Bunch-era meatballs evoked instant party, some of those recipes really were quite sweet. This is an updated version, given balance and acidity with Dijon mustard and cider vinegar, along with a spike of hot sauce. Serve over rice or buttered noodles or just with some crusty bread.

When you crave chili-ish vibes but something different, turn to salsa verde, which gets its tang from tomatillos, rather than the usual tomato. Here, a jar of store-bought salsa verde eliminates the need to de-husk and wash all those tomatillos, and jump-starts the flavor-building. Ground turkey and cannellini beans make this soup so easy to love.

This is such an obvious contender for slow cooker hall-of-famer. Though of course we won’t say this pulled pork is like something that sat in the outdoor smoker for 12 hours while you kept feeding hardwood into its fire and maintaining temperature, we will say that this cheater version is worth every bit of effort put in and so much more. A dollop of slaw on top of each sandwich brings such a wonderful combination of fresh crunch and unctuous sweet-and-salty pork (not to mention that pillowy bun).

Chicken and wild rice soup is a comforting classic in the Midwest, and that combination is such a match made in heaven that it’s hard to imagine why it hasn’t caught on across the country. No matter — Ree Drummond’s take is hearty, full of veggies and toothsome texture, and crazy simple. Her signature move of little flourish of pesto won’t make anyone angry here.

Everyone should have a great vegetarian chili recipe in their back pocket. Why not make it one this easy? With some cans of beans and other pantry staples, this one comes together quickly and goes so well with a sprinkle of Monterey Jack and cilantro.

You’ll be amazed at the results of this recipe for deep-dish pizza. While we can’t classify this as one that you prepare in the morning and eat in the evening, we promise that the fussing will be minimal. But the result will definitely scratch that itch. It’s the next best thing to boarding a plane to Chicago midweek.

This soup is as big a hit as Taco Tuesday, because you essentially set up a taco bar, but for soup fixings! Put it together hours ahead, then shred the chicken and prep the fixings when it’s go time. Go ahead and show me the kid who won’t be delighted to put tortilla chips in their soup.

What makes an epic sandwich? In the case of a Cuban, it’s slow cooked, garlic and oregano-rubbed pork, layered with pickles, ham, mustard and Swiss. You’ll be amazed at how much depth can be coaxed out of these sandwiches with just 10 minutes of prep time.

Black beans with a Mexican bent tend to be a big hit with kids these days. We love how you can start with dried beans here, for a super-budget-friendly soup without all the added sodium of cans. Pump up the protein with a chicken garnish, because the only other thing that can sweeten the deal for a kid is chicken. Or keep it, and all the other garnishes, to the side so that everyone can doctor their own bowl — another surefire dinner hit.

Remember those store-bought kits to “help” turn ground beef into a meal? (Maybe you remember it from yesterday, when you made it!) This homemade hack lets your slow cooker create that same combination of cheeseburger flavors with macaroni that has had kids flipping their lids for decades. This one gets a little boost of creaminess from the addition of snacking cheese wedges. We’re here for it.

You’ve heard of Italian wedding soup. This is Molly Yeh’s answer to that, which employs another kid favorite, ramen noodles. The meatballs are inspired by dumpling filling, and there are plenty of fresh ingredients in there, like shredded cabbage and sliced scallions, so that this soup feels like the equivalent of a big hug.