Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
Hello, Friends! I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! If you missed my pics from last night, you can see them here. Now my job is convincing my boys that they don’t really need to eat candy for 3 meals a day…
It’s finally November, which means my third baby boy will be arriving this month! And, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I have been stockpiling some dinners in my big chest freezer to prepare for the impending chaos. I know that once this little guy arrives, I won’t have the time, energy, or desire to prepare dinner for my family each night. But you know what? My husband and my older boys will still expect to eat!
Do you know about Crock Pot Freezer Meals? They’re really just an easy and efficient way to prepare multiple dinners in advance – saving busy parents time and energy when life gets particularly hectic. All of these meals are frozen (before cooking) in large zip-top plastic bags. When you want an easy dinner, just defrost a bag in your refrigerator overnight. The next day, put all of the ingredients in your slow cooker and let the crock pot do the rest. By the end of the day, you will have a delicious supper to serve your family, and very few dishes to wash. Can’t beat that!
The idea behind Crock Pot Freezer Meals is that you spend a couple of hours one day putting together multiple meals that you can enjoy later.
My first mission was to compile a list of family-friendly dinners that everyone would love and that could be prepared in my slow cooker. Aiming for a variety of cuisines and a variety of meats, here’s what I came up with (click on each title for a link to the complete recipe and photos):
– Italian Beef Sandwiches (from Kraft)
– Slow Cooker Sesame Beef (from Six Sisters Stuff) (to make this freezer-friendly, I just placed the beef, oyster sauce, and broth in a plastic bag. I will add the rest of the ingredients at the end of the cooking time)
– Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan (from Chef in Training) (to make this freezer-friendly, I prepared the chicken with the bread crumb coating and placed it in the plastic bag. On the day I cook it, I will add the mozzarella cheese and the marinara sauce on top before cooking)
– Slow Cooker Creamy Salsa Chicken (from My Recipe Magic)
– Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops (from Stockpiling Moms)
– White Chili (from Taste of Home)
– Forgotten Jambalaya (from Taste of Home)
– Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches (my recipe!)
– Sweet n’ Sour Pork Chops (from Taste of Home)
– Slow Cooker Honey Glazed Ham (my recipe!) (to make this freezer-friendly, I prepared the sauce in advance – including boiling it on the stove – and then poured the sauce into the plastic bag with the ham)
Once my “menu” was set, it was time to put together a shopping list. Of course, you can choose to just make one or two of these recipes at a time. However, if you would prefer to prepare all 10 at once (like I did), you can use my Master Shopping List at the following link: Crock Pot Freezer Meals Master Shopping List
After a trip to the grocery store, it was time to get started! First, I made sure that all of my recipes were easily accessible:
My groceries were all set out on my counter:
This is obviously not a picture of all of my ingredients. Just a quick snapshot of some of the canned goods.
Once I had all of my ingredients out, I made a separate little pile for each of my 10 recipes:
Each pile included the correct amount of seasonings and condiments.
I also labeled a large zip-top freezer bag for each meal, complete with cooking and assembly instructions.
Then it was time to chop my fresh produce for each recipe.
Once the veggies, canned goods, seasonings, and condiments were all in their appropriate piles, I just had to add the meat to each meal and place all of the ingredients together in the correctly labeled bags.
This entire process (from unpacking the groceries to preparing the ingredients and finally sanitizing my kitchen afterwards) took me about 2 hours. Not my idea of a good time, but it sure is efficient considering the fact that I got 10 meals out of the effort!
Once all of my raw ingredients were prepared, I just laid the bags flat in my freezer…knowing that I will enjoy them at a later date!
Looking for other freezer-friendly meals? Check out these favorites:
Chicken and Stuffing Casserole
Enjoy this post? Join me on Facebook and on Pinterest to keep up with our adventures!
Joining the What’s Shakin’ Link Party!
Linking up to Totally Posted Tuesday!
Joining the Show Me What Ya Got link party!
Joining the Life Created Link Party!
Sharing on Live, Laugh, Linky Thursday!
Linking up to Family Fridays!
Sharing at the What’s Shakin’ Link Party!
I want to take this the 10 day crock pot challenge. This would be a great start! I’d love for you to add this to my link up party “Friday Follow Along Party” https://thecraftiestallie.blogspot.com/
Thanks for stopping by, Allie! I will definitely add it to the link up!
Neat! Never occurred to me you could do this. Those recipes look great too. Pinning too 🙂 Thanks for linking up to the Friday follow along!
Hi! I hope that you like the recipes. I’m so excited to have found another great link party!
Saw your post from the Life Created link party. Love your menu for freezer meals!
Thanks for stopping by, Mandy! I enjoyed checking out your blog, too. So many great crafts, recipes, and fitness tips. Fun reading!
I just love love love my Crockpot! I just bought a 3rd one yesterday off a friend for $8 in prep for my Crockpot Thanksgiving! I actually am posting about it next week. I like to prep ahead of time and make everything in crockpots! Gives me more time to relax! Glad I found you on live laugh linky! I will be pinning this for sure! I am sure my readers would just love this post…maybe you could stop by my Family Fridays Link-Up party today and share! Thanks!!!! https://livinthemomlife.com/family-friday-link-up-party-3/
Hi Blair,
Congratulations on the upcoming birth of your little one! You are really on top of things getting all these meals ready. Wow! I have to say, I’ve never prepared a crock pot freezer meal, but I’m going to now! Thank you for these great ideas. I love white chili so will try that one first.
Hi Jennifer! Thank you so much for stopping by! The white chili is definitely a family favorite, so I hope that you enjoy! Coming by to check out your blog now!
Question, I assume you need to unthaw each freezer meal before you put it in the crockpot?
Hi, Kellie! Yes, I would recommend that you thaw each meal in the refrigerator before you put it in the crockpot. I usually take my bag out of the freezer at least 1 day in advance (sometimes even 2 if I’m really organized) to give it plenty of time to thaw overnight. Good luck!