Slow cooker tips when on high and others remove the lid
I cannot use my slow cooker as designed, as I try to cook for my elderly parents. They do not rise before 11a.m., the kitchen is located upstairs with them, so they will hear or feel everything-and waking them at 8a.m. is NOT what I want. I end up preparing a lot of their food AFTER I eat brunch so I am forced to use the high setting.
And then, if I turn my back for a moment to do something else, they take the lid off! Apparently, it just had to be stirred - so I lose a good 1/2 hr. right there - each time! So really, it only slow cooks a couple of hours, in reality.
What can I do the able to use the slow cooker as I want?
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Five hours is still a pretty long time for low and slow. Many recipes will work within that time without modification.
For ones that won't, the best way to cut time off is to heat things through in a pot on the stove first. Slow cookers are pretty good at the low and slow part, but that means they're really slow at getting to the point where they're actually cooking. Depending on your recipe, you may be able to skip right past a couple hours of initial heating by bringing things to a simmer/boil before dumping in.
Also, don't worry too much about the lid getting taken off. If it's left off, yeah, that's not great, but if it's just opened to stir and it's full of food/liquid, the temperature is not going to decrease that much.
If after all that, it's still not enough, I'd look to suggestions like those in Kate's answer - sidestep your timing constraints by prepping the night before and finding a better place for the slow cooker so you can start it earlier and avoid the lid getting opened. If you can get a small fridge outside the kitchen, you really could do it all without ever going into the kitchen in the morning.
Put up a sign next to the slow cooker to not open it (explain that there will be a spoilage risk, or risk of damaging this model slow cooker)..
If that doesn't help, secure the slow cooker lid with something that is inconvenient to undo - rubber bands, clothespins, cable ties, a bicycle lock, F clamps... and find an explanation (maybe something about overboiling stuff driving the lid off...)...
My suggestion is that you do two things:
move the slow cooker out of the kitchen to somewhere they do not normally go, such as your room
do the noisy prep (such as vegetable chopping) the night before, keeping the prepped food in the fridge, possibly in a little water, until the morning.
At 8am, slip quietly into the kitchen and retrieve the meat and veg. Put them in the slow cooker in your room and leave it there. At 4pm or whenever they are going to eat, use oven gloves to carefully bring it into the kitchen and finish your prep. This approach will give you longer overall slow-cooker time, since you don't need to wait until noon, and it will be undisturbed time too.
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