Why would I do something so crazy?!?
As the chef in the house, I am always looking for ways to make my time in the kitchen less so that I can do more then rush home and cook, day in and day out. So I had this 'great' idea, why not make a bunch of crock pot meals that I can toss in freezer. Then the boys can pick what is for dinner the night before and take it out to start to defrost then before leaving for work/school, they can empty the meal into the crock and set it to cook. And just like that. I don't have to worry about dinner!
The meals I made were Teriyaki Chicken (Made two dinners), Sweet Barbecue Hawaiian Chicken, Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Alfredo, Black Bean Taco Soup (Made two dinners), Zesty Chicken, Colorado Beef Burritos, Taco Chili, Homestyle Chicken & Rice Soup, Cheesy Ravioli Bake, Chicken Cacciatore, Crock Pot Pizza Pasta, Crock-pot Italian Chicken, Creamy Chicken and Rice, Sloppy Tamale Pie, Cowboy Stew, Divine Chicken (Made two dinners) and Beef Stroganoff. Each look to make enough leftovers for another meal or at least for a lunch or two!
The meals I made were Teriyaki Chicken (Made two dinners), Sweet Barbecue Hawaiian Chicken, Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Alfredo, Black Bean Taco Soup (Made two dinners), Zesty Chicken, Colorado Beef Burritos, Taco Chili, Homestyle Chicken & Rice Soup, Cheesy Ravioli Bake, Chicken Cacciatore, Crock Pot Pizza Pasta, Crock-pot Italian Chicken, Creamy Chicken and Rice, Sloppy Tamale Pie, Cowboy Stew, Divine Chicken (Made two dinners) and Beef Stroganoff. Each look to make enough leftovers for another meal or at least for a lunch or two!
Tools of the trade..
To prepare for such an undertaking I did my best to start off organized. Start with an almost empty freezer because mine is a smaller size one, I wanted to have as much room as possible for all the meals I was about to make. I dug out and cleaned up my crock pot, I love my Hamilton Beach 'Set 'n Forget' 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker! You can set it to cook for 8 hours on low and after the 8 hours it will switch to warm until you turn it off. Got to love that type of cooking service! I spend an evening organizing my recipes and creating my shopping list. The next day spent some time scanning my local sales ads, food store apps, coupons, planning out my shopping trip. Last but not least, I stopped at the dollar store for two boxes of gallon size freezer bags!
To save you some time here are the recipes and here is the shopping list for the items I made.
To save you some time here are the recipes and here is the shopping list for the items I made.
Here goes nothing..
Then came the day of truth, I had a rare Friday off from work so I decided to attack this project right after dropping off Short Round at school. It amazing but at 7am the selection is good and the store is empty, perfect time to shop! After shopping I came home and started the assembly process. I put on my favorite Pandora station and off I went. Below are a few pictures of almost all the food after it was unpacked.
So I have all this food, now what?!?
Here are the steps that I followed, for better or for worse.
One: Using the recipe list I provided above, label your freezer bags and with a permanent marker, write the meal name and cooking instructions on it BEFORE you add ingredients.
Two: Sort the dry/canned goods and group them together by recipe. I used sticky notes to keep track of what group was for what recipe.
Three: I pre cooked the meat for the recipes that needed it.
Four: I pre chopped all the necessary fresh veggies and put them in separate bowls to be able to measure from as I created the individual meal.
Five: I organized the bags and recipes and the dry goods by what is the easiest to make. (I'm a weird mix of type A and lazy.)
Six: I started with the first bag and added all the necessary ingredients, then I squeezed out as much air as I could, zipped it about a million times just to be safe and laid each it flat in the freezer.
One: Using the recipe list I provided above, label your freezer bags and with a permanent marker, write the meal name and cooking instructions on it BEFORE you add ingredients.
Two: Sort the dry/canned goods and group them together by recipe. I used sticky notes to keep track of what group was for what recipe.
Three: I pre cooked the meat for the recipes that needed it.
Four: I pre chopped all the necessary fresh veggies and put them in separate bowls to be able to measure from as I created the individual meal.
Five: I organized the bags and recipes and the dry goods by what is the easiest to make. (I'm a weird mix of type A and lazy.)
Six: I started with the first bag and added all the necessary ingredients, then I squeezed out as much air as I could, zipped it about a million times just to be safe and laid each it flat in the freezer.
And The Final Result Is..
With some planning and a few hours of hard work, I was able to fill my freezer and my cupboards with healthy home cooked meals that I was able to make in one day, that will feed us for at least 20 days and all for about $6.50 a meal! I did have one slight mishap, besides spilling an almost entire can of pineapple down the drain! In my haste of trying to do so many dishes at once, I ran out of space to make two of the twenty dishes, that is until everything froze and I could stand them up. All and all, I like going to work not wondering what I am going to make for dinner or getting upset because I’m the only one to cook all the time. And now I’m left the luxury as to wonder how long the meal will last my family and what am I going to make the next time the freezer looks a little empty!
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