My schedule is changing next week and in preparation I decided to try a series of freezer meals.
I devoted the evening before to finding recipes that my family and I would be interested in eating over the next few weeks and then compiled my shopping list. I spent 30 (!!!!!) minutes in Costco getting the items that I needed -spending less than $200. I only walked away with a few things in my cart that weren’t on the original list. My recipes came from two different locations – http://www.5dollardinners.com/ and The New Creative Crock Pot Cookbook by Robin Taylor Swatt. As I was choosing recipes – I picked those based on what I could alter to use similar ingredients and also to adjust based on my families taste.
This is as close a list as I can get – I made 2 each of the recipes. So my list below is set up to support making 2 freezers bags of each recipe.
- 25 to 30 chicken breast
- 10 – 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes or 5 of the 28 oz cans and split each one in 2
- 6 cans – 15 oz can of corn
- roughly 20 lbs of potatoes
- 1 bag onions
- 12 red, yellow or orange peppers
- 12 apples
- sausage – I purchased a chicken apple sausage, based on recipe on http://www.5dollardinners.com/
- 1 large bottle of BBQ sauce
- 8 pork chops
- 1 package stew meat
- 2 boxes chicken broth
- 4 cans of beans – your choice. I used black beans
- 2 cans coconut milk
From the Crock Pot Cookbook
Chicken Provencal – adjusted for us……..Add into a Freezer bag
- 3 chicken breasts
- 1 pepper – diced
- 1 onion – sliced
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 can corn
- salt pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning = 1 tsp each
Curried Apple Chickens – adjusted for us…….Add into a freezer bags
- 3 chicken breasts
- 3 apples – peeled and sliced
- 1 onion – diced
- curry, salt, pepper = 1 tsp each
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Sunday Dinner Roast Beef – adjusted for us…….Add into a freezer bags
- 1lb of the stew meat
- 3 potatoes – chopped or sliced
- 1 can corn
- 1 onion – diced
- 1 cup water
- 3 tsp Italian seasoning
- salt, pepper = 1 tsp each
Italian Stew/Roast – adjusted for us…….Add into a freezer bags
- 1lb of the stew meat
- 3 potatoes – chopped or sliced
- 1 pepper – diced
- 1 onion – diced
- 1 small can of diced tomatoes or half the large can
- 3 tsp Italian seasoning
- salt, pepper = 1 tsp each
From www.5dollardinners.com\ (you should check this site out – if you haven’t already – when I was searching for freezer meals, this was the first one that kept popping up)
- Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Apples & Sweet Potatoes – substituted the sweet potatoes for regular
- Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken & Potatoes – made with chicken breast
- Slow Cooker Sausage, Peppers, Onions – made with 1 can diced tomatoes
- Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chicken Curry – substituted the sweet potatoes for regular and chicken breast
- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup – made with chicken breast, a can of corn
To make each one – dump in your crock pot and cook as listed below:
- Thawed: low for 6/8 hours
- Frozen – kinda thawed: low for 8 to 10 hours
I am excited to try the new ones and see how the 2 hours in the kitchen and the 1/2 hour of shopping pays off in the long run. Do any of you guys do freezer meals? This is new to me, so I want to know how it goes over the course of time.
Cilantro lime chicken -freezer crock pot meal
3 chicken breasts
1 bag frozen corn
1can black beans – rinsed & drained
1/2-1 whole onion chopped
1-2 t. Cumin
1/4 c lime juice
1/2-1bunch cilantro chopped
Combine in gallon size freezer bag…freeze
To cook: place all frozen ingredients in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with tortilla shells and taco toppings or over rice. This recipe makes a lot. Great to serve for a crowd when you don’t have a lot of prep time.
Ohhhhh.. good addition! It has all the right ingredients to add to this set of freezer meals. Thanks!!!
Update: First meal used is Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Apples & Sweet Potatoes. It was super easy and tasted pretty darn good.