I used my slow cooker every day for a week to see if it saved me time, and I would never do it again

I'm not sure when my specific Crock-Pot model was made, as it was actually a hand-me-down from my mother.

It comes with two high heat settings, which run for either four hours or six hours, and two low heat settings, which run for either eight hours or 10 hours.

These might seem like enough settings to make slow cooking a snap. However, I found that many recipes called for either four or two hours on low, which meant I had to be home to switch my slow cooker to the "warm" setting.

Before I got started on my experiment of using the Crock-Pot every day, I set a few ground rules for myself.

First, I had to make at least one dish in my Crock-Pot every day for five days. I chose a workweek since many fans of the slow cooker explain they love being able to set it in the morning and have dinner ready when they come home at the end of the day.

Second, I didn't have to make the entire meal in the Crock-Pot, but one part of my meal had to be cooked in it. This ended up saving my sanity, as I found it was harder than I imagined to plan my day around the slow cooker.

I loosely followed a recipe from Well Plated, with a couple of swaps and additions. For example, the original recipe called for a jar of roasted red peppers. After realizing that I had forgotten to pick that up from the grocery store — like I said, I'm a cooking amateur — I had to improvise.

I decided to chop up a whole red pepper I found in my fridge, roast it in a pan with a little olive oil, and use that instead. The week was off to a shaky start.

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are pantry staples, which I found helpful.

I lightly sprayed my slow cooker with cooking spray to prevent the ingredients from sticking. The recipe also suggested arranging the vegetables around the chicken, not on top, so I made sure to follow that instruction.

After the ingredients were added to the slow cooker, I poured my garlic, vinegar, and honey mixture over everything.

The chicken breasts looked a little bland even though I sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper before I browned them. However, the sauce from the cooked-down olives, onions, and red peppers looked and smelled delicious.

I happened to have these other ingredients in my kitchen, which totally made the meal. It was packed with flavor, and as a bonus, it was pretty healthy.

I would definitely make this meal again, especially now that I have most of the basic ingredients. The week of making all my dinners in the Crock-Pot, despite initially being off to a shaky start, was going well so far.

I followed a recipe from The Cookbook Network to make my meal. I started by cutting four large boneless, skinless chicken breasts into one-inch cubes and coating them in cornstarch.

I started by frying my cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in some vegetable oil. I found working in batches of around 10 pieces of chicken worked best.

You don't have to cook the chicken all the way, just enough to get a light brown coating on the outside. I've always been intimidated by frying food but found this to be surprisingly easy, though a little time-consuming.

The sauce is made with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, garlic, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, dried ginger, and crushed red pepper.

The original recipe also called for brown sugar, but I decided to nix it after tasting how sweet the sauce already was. In the end, I didn't miss that ingredient at all.

My finished dish looked pretty similar to General Tso's chicken I've had in the past.

On this day in particular, I had prepared the chicken at around 4 p.m, which took around an hour, and then headed out two hours later to meet a friend for a drink nearby.

I ended up getting home right at the four-hour cooking mark to find my dinner waiting. Hungry and tired, this dish was the perfect antidote to a long day.

To be frank, I had no desire to make anything in the slow cooker this day. It was the middle of the week and ordering takeout was sounding increasingly appetizing as the day went on.

However, I pulled myself together, popped into the nearest grocery store, and grabbed a few ingredients to make a basic spinach and artichoke dip.

I loosely followed a recipe from a couple of different sources. I already had frozen spinach, sour cream, shredded mozzarella, and fresh Parmesan cheese in my fridge, so the only ingredients I needed to buy were cream cheese and canned artichoke hearts.

The hardest part of making the dip was thawing and draining my block of frozen spinach. The green, watery juice got everywhere, and I ended up going through multiple paper towels attempting to squeeze out all the liquid from the spinach.

However, once I mixed all the ingredients together in the Crock-Pot, it cooked seamlessly.

I felt a little odd about eating spinach and artichoke dip and tortilla chips as my dinner, but it was totally delicious.

Like most of the dishes I made during the week, it was also more than enough to feed my roommate and me. I had leftover dip for two days before having to throw the rest of it away, so this dish definitely works best for a larger group.

I definitely didn't follow a recipe for this one, but it turned out surprisingly well.

First, I seasoned my two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and put them in the slow cooker. I topped that with a large can of pureed tomato, a splash of olive oil, and Italian seasoning.

I transferred my chicken breasts to a cutting board, shredded them with a knife and fork, and added the chicken back into the tomato sauce.

I was pleased with myself at the mere fact I was able to pull this simple pasta dish together without going to the grocery store and without a recipe.

It looked pretty good for a thrown-together meal.

I let the cheese melt for around 20 minutes before serving.

While the meal definitely could have used some more seasoning, it was fine.

I was proud of myself for actually cooking dinner every night, but I found working around the timing of the slow cooker to be increasingly challenging.

I had to remember when to check the slow cooker, when to add different ingredients, and having to begin preparing my dinner in the middle of the workday was more of a hassle than a time-saver. Even though most recipes only took a half-hour to an hour to prepare, carving out that time in the middle of the day was an adjustment.

While I was pleased to have dinner ready to go when I signed off from work, having to set time aside during the day to cook a full meal wasn't something I was used to.

My mother's recipe for a slow-cooker pot roast is simple but admittedly unusual. It calls for a small beef chuck roast, a bottle of Heinz chili sauce, gingersnap cookies, and carrots.

Before I lose you on this one, trust me — it's really good.

My mother explained that the roast should also be covered halfway, and to add more water to the pot if it got too thick or cooked down too much. I didn't have this problem, and it cooked seamlessly on low heat for five hours. About one hour before it was done, I added in sliced carrots I had prepared earlier in the day.

Timing, however, was still an issue. When I went to work in a coffee shop for part of the day with my roommate, I had anxiety that I would get home too late and find my roast burned. The separation anxiety between the Crock-Pot and me was almost overwhelming, despite that being one of the main benefits of slow cooking.

I couldn't wait to dive in and see if it lived up to the meal I remember eating on Sunday afternoons at home.

As an admittedly lazy home cook, I decided to make red skin mashed potatoes for the sole reason that you don't have to peel them. After boiling my quartered red potatoes for around 20 minutes, I drained and mashed them.

Then, I added in two tablespoons of butter and a splash of oat milk to make them creamy.

The beef and carrots were super tender, the gravy was thick and delicious, and the mashed potatoes proved to be the perfect base. It was perfect comfort food, and made enough for me and my roommate to both have another full serving of mashed potatoes and pot roast the next day.

However, having to plan, prepare, and monitor my dinner every day for five days was enough to drive anyone a little bit over the edge.

The slow cooker is an incredible cooking tool perfect for cooking amateurs. I found some new recipes I will definitely make again in the future, and I expanded my cooking skills during the process.

However, I found it didn't really save me time cooking, it just shifted when I was cooking. I'm used to preparing my dinner at the end of the day and, while making my food earlier made for a more relaxing evening, it meant I had to disrupt my usual workday routine.

Additionally, most of the recipes I tried made way too much food for one person. A Crock-Pot would generally work better for a family or a few roommates to really reap the benefits.

As for the cleanup, it didn't save me from any dish-cleaning either. My slow cooker didn't fit in my dishwasher so, unlike most of my regular pots, I had to hand-wash it every night to be ready for the next day. I still needed to use a cast-iron pan and other pots for a few of the meals, so it didn't serve as a one-pot cooking tool during the week.

For an amateur home cook, a Crock-Pot can be the most helpful tool in your kitchen ... just not every day.