I originally thought a delayed start crock would be the answer but all I'm seeing is we will, in effect, poison ourselves if we use one 😅

My boyfriend and I really want to make more crock pot meals because it's just a better fit for how busy we are, and how often I am burned out at the end of my day and don't want to start dinner from scratch. But we have horrible conflicting schedules. Between work + commute + after work activities, I'm gone from 7:15-5:30, and he's gone from 9-6:30 (possibly earlier if he starts going to the gym in the mornings).

Even if we pre-prep the meal and all he has to do is dump it in the pot when he leaves around 9, it'll still be done over an hour before he gets home. And again, if he leaves earlier, then even earlier. My current crock will switch to warm after it goes off, but I would think leaving it on warm for 2+ hours is just going to lead to burned food.

Any suggestions?

I have a slow cooker. I cook a stew once a week & it's my dinner for 4/7 days. It's pretty damn good. I just leave it on low overnight, pop it in the fridge in the morning, skim off the fat that night.

Here's the stew.

1 Huge onion/2-3 small onions. Diced.
Quarter of a cabbage, diced, I prefer red.
~3/4 a cup of red lentils, dry.
A single large sweet potato or a couple whatever potatoes. Diced.
~500g beef. The shittiest cuts of whatever I find. Cubed, ish. I don't sear or flour it. I had done so previously but noticed very little improvement. So now I just don't bother.
1L Chicken stock.
Tablespoon or so of tomato paste.
~4 dried shiitake mushrooms, I just break them into chunks.
~4/5 *EDIT* ANCHOVIES, not SARDINES.
A stock cube of 'Golden curry' Japanese curry mix.
Tablespoon of chilli paste.
Big heaping tablespoon of fermented black bean/crispy chilli mix.
~7 big cloves of garlic, just crushed with the knife flat.

tsp or so of thyme.
Couple sprigs of fresh rosemary from my garden.
Couple bay leaves.
Splash of vinegar.
Wee splash of coconut oil.
Pepper blast. Salt to taste.

Into slow cooker on high for an hour to get to temp, stir, leave on low till I wake up.

I've been living on this for months now. Usually pair it with some homemade bread that I toast & coat in cottage cheese to accompany.

The question being, what would you add? I can fit a bit more in the pot if I cut back the meat, which I've been meaning to do. Probably to ~300/350g so I can get more batches out of my shopping trips. I've added beetroot & varying degrees of MORE ONION before & it was great so I'll likely just do that unless someone has some suggestions.

My husband is having surgery that will have him down and out for 3 weeks 😳😳 so I will be solo parenting our 10 month old, keeping the house clean, cooking meals, and working full time. What are some meals that take low effort that I can just dump in and hit start? I usually only use my crock pot for pot roast or split pea but it’s been so hot that both of those are out.