Winter Warm Up In A Slow Cooker

I write winter as it is raining outside and plus 2 degrees. Regardless I still feel the need for warm comforting one dish meals served on top of fluffy quinoa, mashed potatoes, basmati rice or noodles. I inherited a slow cooker from my aunt Rhonda about a half century ago and just started using it this past year. I purchased a vegetarian slow cooker recipe book and have been somewhat blahed about the results. Now I'm not one for overly spiced food, hot or savoury, but these recipes are beyond boring and there seems to be just as much prep outside the cooker as there is in it. All onion, garlic, and veg must be sauteed first and beans must be canned. I don't have a problem with the prep as it takes place on one pan but I thought the whole point was slice and dump in bowl, add liquid and 6 - 8 hours...a big time cooking difference if you want my opinion....voila dinner is served. We have tried the sloppy lentils - lentils were still very dry after 6-8 hrs, bean bourgionne - empty taste though I used a very full bodied red in it and more tomato than it called for, Mexican pot pie with biscuit crust - we ate immediately as the recipe advised and were treated to a chewy biscuit topping and dried out middle section where all the liquid had been absorbed. I refuse to do any of the desserts as they are all mushy fruit ones and that's one thing I can't stand. A sweet and sour eggplant dish didn't get  eaten in Donald's lunch the next day which makes me think he fed his dinner to the dogs when I wasn't looking and starved that night. All in all no success with those recipes. Flipping through the book I happened to notice some of the other titles written by this author...Meat in Slow Cooker Done Right, Best Meat Slow Cooker Recipes Ever, Got Meat? Slow Cook It! and the like. This woman is not a vegetarian and should not be writing a cookbook and having it shelved in the vegetarian cookery section of Chapters. I firmly believe that if you are a veg or vegan, you have adapted some of your old favourite meat filled recipes to your new diet. But everything changes not just the omission of meat. Of course you will need to add more flavour and spices and cooking methods. Browning, searing sauteing and caramelizing all do something for meat and can be the same for veg but you don't see those directions. Essentially this book is a recipe collection of All Your Meaty Favourites Without The Meat and Flavour. Don't buy one. Stick to your own recipes and save yourself 25 bucks.