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I received a Thermal Cooker for Christmas. I have so far made spaghetti sauce, chili, and a pot roast. I only had to use a stove top for 15 minutes each for the spaghetti sauce and chili and 30 minutes for the pot roast, which had to be brought back to a boil before adding potatoes and carrots. I seared the roast first in a separate pan. Ditto for softening onions and garlic and browning meat for the sauce and the chili.

The 1 gallon main pot for the thermal cooker will hold a 3# beef roast. I think it will hold a 5#-6# chicken easily if the chicken is cut up first. There is a smaller pot that fits inside the main pot. It can be used for rice. I needed to fill space when doing the pot roast, so I filled the top pot with boiling water and fitted it in before adding a lid and closing the thermal case.

Besides cooking in about the same time as a crock pot (6 hrs), I can hold the food much longer (over 8 hours) without any change in flavor or texture, and it is still at a perfect serving temperature. All of this with no additional electricity needed after first searing, browning and bringing the fluids to boiling. The instructions call for holding at a boil on the stovetop for 10 minutes, but I found that just bringing to a rolling boil is sufficient. This is great for both not having to watch for burning of settled contents and for saving energy costs.

I still have 4 servings each of chili and spaghetti sauce in the freezer, as well as about a quart of the pot roast gravy, which goes well in further meals over biscuits or potatoes or rice. I use Ultra Gel to thicken the gravy and the spaghetti sauce, since there isn’t any reduction with thermal cooking and I dislike freezing and reheating anything thickened with flour or regular cornstarch. The frozen gravy is only medium thick and can be used as a soup base, if I so decide, or just thickened further, if necessary.

When I have freezer space/containers free, I am going to make a chicken soup with a whole chicken. However, right now, I have 1/2 gallon of carcass soup in the freezer, so that will wait.

Occasionally, I make a Mexican sauce using either chicken or beef. I always have left over sauce, which I freeze. I can take out the sauce, add in whatever leftovers I have on hand and in 15 minutes, we have either burrito or enchilada filling.

Another budget stretcher is homemade eggrolls. Small amounts of meat and a large amount of vegetables fill 20 wrappers. I fry them once and immediately put the extra hot eggrolls into foil and freeze. I then have 2 more meals of eggrolls that heat and serve in 20 minutes from freezer to plate. Any excess filling goes into either a hot & sour soup
or a fried rice dish.

I’m only feeding two people, but our large dog always gets a serving added to his dog food. Food lasts around here and there is little menu fatigue, since the frozen food can be cycled in weeks later.

I buy as much meat as possible from the markdown bin. I also use tougher cuts of bargain beef to grind for burger and I can grind venison to stretch to further. I save beef fat to add to these if the beef is really lean. Grinding 3-5 pounds of meat takes an hour from set up to finished cleanup. Some of these meals come out to .50/serving for the main course. Adding pasta, biscuits, cornbread and a salad results in meals at well under $2/person, even when my husband has seconds.