Gee, Pytn, I'm sorry you have been disappointed. We've always been quite pleased with the meals that were prepared in out crock-pot(s). Yep, we have several, too.
As a matter of fact, I did an experiment in June in which I planned nearly all our menus of the month using the crock-pot. After it was all said and done, of the 27 meals (2 omitted because of monthly dinner meetings and 1 because we ate out), I wound up preparing 20 of them in the crock-pot. The ones that weren't done in the crock-pot were the few we cooked on the grill outside or fish dishes.
You mentioned you have several crock-pot cookbooks. Do you have any by Mabel Hoffman? Her books, especially Crockery Cookery, are the best IMO. I've cooked nearly every recipe out of that book. I got it in the early '70s when I got my first crock-pot, which I'm still using. You might want to give one of her books a try.
And, actually, since I've been without an oven for over 2 weeks, we're having a teriyaki beef dish cooked in the crock-pot for tonight's meal. The recipe is from Crockery Cookery and we're looking forward to it.
Good luck with crock-pot cooking.