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Amazon’s early Black Friday deals launched yesterday and if their early Prime deals are any indication, we’ll likely see an increase in big-name brands we love appearing in Amazon’s daily deals. Already, our predictions are proving right — today the KitchenAid Professional 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer is just over $200. Regularly priced at $280, until the end of the day you can pick up this kitchen workhorse for $209 in KitchenAid’s festive Empire Red color.

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Slow cookers can be miracle workers, but they do need a little help. And our favorite slow cooker helpers come in the form of store-bought, ready-to-dump sauces. Have a good sauce on hand and all you have to do is add it to the slow cooker with some chicken (or pork, or whatever!) and you’ll have dinner ready and waiting for you when you need it.

It really is that simple. To prove it, we came up with almost a dozen two-ingredient slow cooker dinners that are made with just a main ingredient and a sauce. Be sure to check that out (See: 2-Ingredient Slow Cooker Dinners With Grocery Store Sauces) and browse through this list of our 10 favorite slow cooker sauces.

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Mark Sisson encourages you live a really enjoyable life. I did not think it was difficult to stick to the Paleo Diet. I was 50. I found Mark Sisson and Loren Cordain on YouTube. Soon I would be buying cookbooks and enjoying my health. It sounded true to me and I jumped on board.

I had been constipated for 40 years. Both my parents were constipated their whole life. I had believed in All Bran and Raisin Bran and healthy muffins. My mother taught me to bake bread in my teens. What a joy, it could not be wrong. In high school an instructor recommended “Diet for a Small Planet.” A few years later in college I became a vegetarian. Many of my friends were vegetarians. It was obvious that we did not need to kill innocent animals and eat them. I ate beans and rice, tofu and vegetables, peanut butter and beer.

Around five years after college I visited an acupuncturist for muscle pains. He suggested that I eat meat and fish. So, for the next 20 years I would primarily be vegetarian but would eat meat and fish. About this time I would eat a breakfast cereal in the morning, a sandwich and potato chips for lunch, and for dinner it was often pasta followed by Ben and Jerry’s on the couch. Beer and wine were being consumed for fun quite often. I did not think that any of this was bad for my body. I ignored or made up other reasons why I was constipated and having chronic pain.

Chronic pain. I injured my knee skiing in my late 20s. No surgery, only rehab. I thought it would heal. Knee pain lasted for years. Wore a support on it for a long time. Got it needled by acupuncturist. Took pain relief. Other chronic pain areas developed, like both wrists and both elbows. Used supportive strapping aids on these parts for years. It felt like the muscle was pulling away from the bone. I figured it was my active lifestyle and normal. I wasn’t sleeping that well, since I would wake up with pain in the arms. The thought that my pain came from food was never considered. It was misery. It went on.

I was changing my diet before The Paleo Diet. The first change was dairy. I went dairy free to help my sinus issues. Then I tried gluten free to help my sinus issues. Sugar was still off the radar, as I was eating gluten free cookies, breads and pasta. I laughed off my coffee and donut at 10 a.m. and M&Ms at 3 p.m. Years went by. It was in 2013 that I changed.

It was one moment on YouTube. Then another. What do you mean a Paleo diet? Click, Click, Click. I went to thepaleodiet.com and read what to eat on the Paleo diet.

Mark Sisson was thoughtful and understood what was going on. I couldn’t get enough. Primal became my diet. I owned it.

I mainly started eating more vegetables. Breakfast had been cereal and now became eggs, bacon and vegetables. Lunch went from rice and beans to meat and vegetables. Dinner became big chicken salad.

I became regular and have never turned back. I felt great. Chronic pain went away. My biggest worry had become a hip that I thought would need replacement in the future. The inflammation slowly went away. It seems to be fine.

Weeks before going Paleo I was planning on buying spray on salad dressing to lesson the amount of oil. Now at 57, I happily use Primal Kitchen® dressing and pour it on heavily. What a sea change.

I’m thankful that I am not addicted to sugar anymore.

I’m thankful for beautiful movement of Taoist Tai Chi.

I’m thankful for Eckhart Tolle for the awareness of gaps between thought.

I’m thankful to Mark Sisson and the whole Paleo/Primal worldview that changed my life for the better.

[Final photo] Six months later.

The post The Primal Worldview Changed My Life For the Better appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Welcome to Snapshot Cooking, the home of Kitchn’s easiest recipes. These mini recipes are so simple you can practically cook from the before-and-after snapshot itself.

If you’ve ever had one of those nights where you wish dinner would just cook itself, you’re not alone. We’ve been there, too, and have just the answer you’ve been looking for. These slow cooker dinners come together with just two ingredients — a protein and a jar of store-bought sauce — and rely on the slow cooker to do all the heavy lifting. Just dump everything in and let the slow cooker do the rest. Ready to get cooking?

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As much as I like to enjoy a home-cooked meal with great ingredients (bonus if it’s healthful!), sometimes you just have to grab the quickest, easiest option and take dinner to the couch for some comfort Netflix binging.

In our house that option also happens to be something that costs so little, we mentally apply some more funds to another night’s better dinner (those dry-aged short ribs from our local butcher are amazing but don’t come cheap!) so it all balances out. When we don’t have this budget-friendly, zero-hassle dinner on-hand … well, I just try to never let that happen, by always stocking up on it.

I’m talking about Costco’s frozen gluten-free pizza.

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Between a new blender, a slow cooker, and a collaboration with the Pioneer Woman, the folks at Instant Pot sure have been busy. And they have another new product coming out soon (hopefully in time for holiday gifting!): As of today, the Instant Pot Smart WiFi is now available for preorder on Amazon.

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The thought of a wireless, battery-charged vacuum is great in theory — it lets you go where a full-sized vacuum can’t go, whether that’s because there’s no access to power or you’re trying to clean a hard-to-reach area. But I recently made the decision to trash my battery-charged hand vac out of pure frustration. Even after charging it overnight, within minutes of using it, the pitch would drop and I’d notice the slow trailing-off of power and suction. That’s why I’m seriously considering upgrading to a Dyson, as they’re offering 24 percent off their normally $240 Car & Boat Handheld Vacuum Cleaner, on sale for $183.

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If you’re craving comfort food, the slow cooker is a great place to turn. Among its many uses, churning out hearty soups and stews ranks high at the top. These soups and stews are even more comforting when made creamy, but that usually involves stirring in heavy cream, which can actually separate and make the broth grainy in the slow cooker. Luckily, there’s a $1 solution to the problem: a can of evaporated milk.

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At a recent promotional event for Ina Garten’s latest cookbook, Cook Like a Pro, I had the privilege of witnessing New York Times’ opinion columnist Frank Bruni ask Ina Garten all of the hard-hitting questions, including (but not limited to) which cookbook in her collection she would choose, if *pause for dramatic effect* she had to choose just ONE.

Dun, dun, dun.

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Kitchn’s Delicious Links column highlights recipes we’re excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

I love food photography. My biggest distraction at work is not celebrity babies or funny internet memes — it’s pictures of food. I like to look at fancy restaurant food that looks like it was assembled with tweezers and a magnifying glass, and refrigerators full of meal-plan lunches, but every once in a while I’ll pass a photo of something that makes me want to tilt my head back and make a deep guttural noise like Homer Simpson.

It’s not normally the fancy things, or the neat and pretty recipes that provoke that response — it’s the messy, homemade dishes full of sauce, layers, and melted cheese. Just looking at them, you know you’re going to need some extra napkins.

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