What happens when you overboil broccoli?? Well, why do you expect it to stay a beautiful green in a slow cooker if it turns to yellow slime in a pot of boiling water??? Add the broccoli towards the end of cooking another time, or start off testing with vegetables which are safe in a slow cooker forever like sweetcorn, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions. Green veg is asking for trouble, and even carrots courgettes and aubergines will turn to mush eventually, so if you want texture, add them later.

Another thing you might want to try next time is to do an all-in-one recipe you're already familiar with. A lot of one pot stuff translates easily to the slow cooker, just ensuring that you can walk out of the house safely while it cooks, instead of having to turn the gas off. My number one safe suggestion?? Pasta sauce. Whatever you normally do for pasta sauce will work perfectly in a slow cooker I promise, so no need to splurge on fancy ingredients for a new recipe. Just don't leave it on high after the first hour or so or it will eventually dry out. You could probably resurrect it - I've had to in the past when I forgot to switch to Auto (starts on high than automatically moves to low after a couple of hours), but it's best not to have to!

Stick to what you know. The slow cooker is new, so don't also try to work with new and unfamiliar recipes or you're asking for trouble.

Kerri.