My love language is food. My weakness is effort. 

I have the bad habit of getting way into the side quests of holiday hosting (tidying the house, getting flowers, making sure there’s enough beer in the fridge) and then leaving the actual cooking part until the last minute. Stressful, much?

A few years ago, I treated myself to clean cookware wizards GreenPan’s slow cooker, and discovered that it could save the holidays. I could toss in dinner, wrap some gifts, make up the guest room, and come back to a kitchen that smelled delicious. All for very little effort. 

I’m hosting again this year. My GreenPan slow cooker’s been my reliable rock for years, so when I heard they’d released a new model so I decided to upgrade. I brought home GreenPan’s Elite 14-in-1 6-Quart Slow Cooker as an early holiday gift to myself.

How GreenPan’s slow cooker earned its counter space

GreenPan’s new and upgraded slow cooker offers all the things I crave in December: in-pot browning, a full buffet of presets, and very little thinking for me to do about getting food on the table. 

Most importantly, this slow cooker has a PFAS-free nonstick coating. If you don’t know, PFAS, also called forever chemicals, are harmful chemicals that can be found in conventional nonstick coatings that live forever in your bodies and the environment. Not exactly an appetizing prospect. This slow cooker is made with GreenPan’s healthy PFAS-free nonstick that's infused with diamonds (fancy!) to create a high-performance, durable surface that releases food easily.  Plus it’s dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup!

Its flexibility is where GreenPan’s Elite slow cooker really shines. With 14 one-touch presets, options include slow cook (high, medium, low), stir-fry, bake, soup, steam, sear/saute, white and brown rice, reheat, keep warm, delay timer, and more. Practically, this means that this slow cooker can do basically everything and anything in the kitchen. You can go from browning meat to simmering soup to baking something soft and cozy, all without switching pots or overthinking the dishes.

The 6-quart slow cooker comes in six color finishes (Clay, Graphite, Oxford Blue, Sage, Black, Cloud Cream) that actually look good sitting out on your counter. I chose Cloud Cream because the color went with everything in my hodge-podge of a kitchen. 

The holiday meal that cooked itself

For previous holidays, GreenPan’s slow cooker performed flawlessly whatever I cooked, and this new model has even more presets to try out. Last year my slow-cooked spinach and artichoke dip was the hit of the season. Even my mom asked for the recipe! 

Other slow-cooked favorites include glazed holiday ham (perfect for sandwiches!), scalloped potatoes (the cooker makes them extra creamy), and even a batch of hot cocoa that I kept warm for hours while my little cousins played outside.  

This year, I kicked off my holiday hosting journey with a beef roast. I hit sear/sauté, added oil, and browned the meat right in the pot. No extra pan, no stove splatters, no drama. Then I added some veggies and potatoes, switched the heat to low and wandered off to polish the silverware and shove clutter into closets (hopefully no guests feel curious enough to check inside). 

The Elite slow cooker’s tempered-glass lid let me keep an eye on the food without letting precious heat escape, and I watched as the low-and-slow cooking delivered that deep, dark, layered color and flavor that suggests hours of effort. The truth is that the slow cooker did all the work. Mostly, I contributed limited cleanup and drinking coffee. My favorite way to cook.

You can even prep a meal, leave it in the cooker reader to go and use the delay timer so it’s ready when you get home. The food will start cooking whenever you tell it to. 

GreenPan’s slow cooker: effortless hosting, delicious leftovers

I basked in the smug praise of my guests while everyone tucked into our cozy holiday meal. The 6-quart pot fed six people comfortably and left enough for my favorite holiday tradition: leftovers sandwiches. 

I even served the food right from the slow cooker. It’s a stylish addition to any holiday table. And because I cooked everything all-in-one, all I had to do was put the slow cooker pot into the dishwasher and reclaim my evening instead of scrubbing until midnight. 

Holiday magic without the labor

If you want one appliance to handle the holiday heavy lifting, you can’t do better than GreenPan’s slow cooker. Being able to simmer a tasty, nutritious meal while you get on with wrapping gifts, making cookies, and decorating the house is the secret to stress-free holiday hosting for lazy people.