I'm afraid this is of no help to me. Not everyone has a husband and kids. Many of us these days are solo acts, and I'm one of them. I have a small slow cooker that I've yet to use because I've found it impossible to find recipes for crockpots smaller than, say, four or five quarts. I don't know why they even make crockpots smaller than that when they make so few recipes for cookers that small. It's very frustrating to say the least.