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
• Slow Cooker Chicken & Sausage Stew

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.