Meal Planning Monday – Freezer Meal Day – Part 1

Hi there!

I always wanted to do a freezer meal day but when looking at Pinterest, there are SO MANY pins about freezer meal days and I came across a few issues: 1, I could never find a post with recipes where I liked them all, and 2, I could never find a post where there legitimately wasn’t a lot of work. I wanted recipes where I literally dumped stuff into a plastic bag. And 3, I don’t know how these chicks are making 15 meals for $150. They have GOT to be sneaking meat under their shirts on their way out of the grocery store. I have no other explanation.

Anyway, onward and upward. I did 6 meals of literally dumping things into a bag (there was a little slicing). I didn’t take individual pictures, because honestly, I am an idiot and did this all when I was about 38 weeks pregnant so I just wanted to get it done and get off of my feet. So, sorry about that.

My notes are in italics, bold and blue 🙂

The first few are from Our Jolly Life

Ranch chicken

6 chicken breasts2 cups carrots, sliced4 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed1/2 cup onion, diced1 cup greek yogurt or sour cream (I used sour cream)1 8oz package of cream cheese1 packet ranch seasoning1 cup powdered parmesan cheese
Cook on low for 6 hours. This one packed my ziploc bag FULL. I would suggest doing veggies in one bag and the rest in other – or splitting it up somehow.


BBQ Pineapple Meatballs

 
32 oz of meatballs I actually left the meat out and wrote on the bag “add meat” because this would be good with pork or chicken, too.1 cup fresh, cored pineapple chunks (I just threw in one can of pineapple)2 green peppers, diced1/2 cup onions2 cups bbq sauce 1 cup water (I did not put water in because I used a whole can of pineapple with the juice)
Cook on low for 6 hours.

The next is from Chaos and the Clutter

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 Tbsp. of olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. pepper

Cooking instructions:
Thaw. Bake at 350° for 45-55 minutes or in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.

The last three are from Saving You Dinero 

Hawaiian Chicken
(4-5 servings)

2-3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½  cup white sugar
½  cup vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
½   cup of pineapple juice (use what’s in the can) (we love pineapple so I just put in the whole can)
½  can of large pineapple chunks

Add all the ingredients to the bag. Cook 4-5 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low. Serve it over rice and enjoy. While I am cooking the rice I  like to shred the chicken and put it back in the juice before I serve it.

Beef Burritos
(6+ servings)
1 London Broil or top round roast (about 2 lbs)
1 diced onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce – Use just 1 pepper!! (It’s in a can.) (Omitted this step!)
1 ½ teaspoon chili powder (you can adjust this according to your taste) (Also did not do this step)

Add all the above ingredients into a freezer bag.
When you are ready to cook the meal, dump the contents of the bag into the Slow Cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-7 hours.
When the meat is cooked, you will need to strain the juices and add the juice back to the slow cooker. (You want to remove the peppercorns and onions.) Shred the meat and add back to the juice in the slow cooker for about 30 minutes. This is one of our favorite recipes. My kids eat it as long as we have leftovers.
Chicken Fajitas (I did beef because at Costco my top round roast that I used for the above recipe came in a pack of 2)
( 5-6 servings)

2 peppers (your favorite) (I used green from the fresh market – yum)
1 onion
1 1/2 pound chicken breast (again, I used about a 2 pound top round roast)
1/2 cup chicken broth
taco seasoning packet
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt

You will also need tortillas, cheese, cream, etc.

Directions

Put all the ingredients in a large freezer bag. (Make sure you label the bag with instructions.)
When it’s time to cook it, dump it all in your slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6 hours.
When it’s cooked, shred the meat (we sliced the meat because we did beef) and add it back to the pepper mixture and serve on warm tortillas and your favorite toppings.
(So far this is the only one we’ve tried and it is delicious – I will definitely be adding this to our rotation)

I also found a recipe for crock pot chicken parm sandwiches, but all it was was chicken breasts with marinara sauce in the crock pot. Then when it’s ready, you shred it and put it on rolls and add mozzarella cheese and broil it. So it actually would’ve been more work to put this together. So I just bought the ingredients for it (except the rolls and cheese – hubby can pick those up on his way home from work that day) and will dump it in the crock pot the morning I want to make it. 

So there you have it! Simple recipes. And you can cater these to your family if you need to. If you don’t like chicken, use pork and vice versa. The most difficult part was cutting the onions (I HATE cutting onions), carrots and peppers. I got my meat at CostCo and everything else at Ultra Foods. When I need to go big time grocery shopping I always go to Ultra Foods. I feel so money saving! 🙂

Part 2 will be next Monday and it will be the meals that I did that required a little more work. Meatballs (with hidden veggies), frozen alfredo sauce, taco pasta, meatloaf….yum!

Happy cooking!

 

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