During my first 3 years of crockpotting, I almost entirely made baked goods,
retort products, and other items that required little or no cleanup.
I'm clumsy and have limited water, so washing my crock is a challenge
(I'm Not Paranoid -
Frater Secessus recently broke his first crock,
and he's not as klutzy as I am).
I have wanted to make actual complete (messy) "meals" in my crock, mainly to save money on cookstove fuel.
The solution was to buy some sort of light, easy to wash insert, which I had researched somewhat,
but have not yet found a good inexpensive product.
In early 2022, hyper inflation tripled the price of butane, which gave me a huge incentive to find a solution.
It suddenly occurred to me to try my shorter (800 mL) backpacker pot, which does
fit well (albeit a bit too snugly to be able to remove easily) and is
both lightweight & drop-shatter-proof.
I already owned it, and rarely used it, so repurposing it was 100% win. :)
I kludged a lifter strap out of some Aluminium foil, which worked well enough, though was a bit short.
Later, I made a much longer, wider, and thicker lifter (shown below).
Over the next few months, I plan to make some truly messy dishes, including: lasagna, split pea soup! :)
Pot sitting in crock, with homebrew Al foil lifter strap: