Shaun, not sure how your day's routine is at the moment, but I find that I can adapt recipes that need the onions cooking first (tomato sauce for pasta etc) by putting the onions and oil in on high for an hour, then adding in the wet and/or bulk ingredients. That only works if you're around an hour later to put in the rest, of course! Mine have been a little more brown on the edges that you might want a couple of times! This method seems to give a bit more flexibility in adapting non-traditional crock-pot dishes.

Zillah