I saw
this on
pinterest recently and it made me pause and wonder why I hadn’t thought of this myself. Some people are just so brilliant. Thankfully for the rest of us Pinterest exists.
A freezer slow cooker meal is one that has not been cooked yet but is completely prepped and ready for the slow cooker. Simply pull it out of the freezer, thaw for about 30 mins and then cook in the slow cooker. I love the idea of having slow cooker meals ready to go; no prep, no clean-up and a meal that cooks itself. Could anything be better than that? However the thought of spending hours in the kitchen prepping these freezer meals; cutting veggies, assembling the freezer bags, labeling them, etc. felt rather overwhelming to this already over worked mama.
At first I thought recruiting a friend to do it with would work. We could spilt the cost of food and the effort to assemble the meals. Plus we’d be spending time together so it would be more fun. Then I just decided to try doing one at a time, instead of several in one go.
So I planned three slow cooker meals for the week, did my shopping and made sure I had everything I needed. Then this week I
made my three planned slow cooker meals for us to eat (1 every other day), while I was putting all the ingredients in the slow cooker I put the same amount into a zip lock freezer bag for the freezer slow cooker meal. Easy as pie! Three freezer slow cooker meals with no real extra work or hassle, done.
I even had left-overs from the meal in the slow cooker - enough for another full meal (for my family; 2 adults & a pre-schooler). So I now know the zip lock bags hold enough for 2 meals. It was so easy to just throw some in the slow cooker and some in the bag. And it feels great to know that I have all those easy meals in the freezer. I made a beef stew, a chicken dish and a chorizo/black bean dish.
Here are the recipes;
Each recipe gave me 2 meals (one for the slow cooker & one for the zip lock freezer bag), no need to double the ingredients.
Beef Stew:
4lb cubed stewing beef
4 cups baby carrots cut in half
2 cups yam, chopped
2 cups potato
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 -796 ml cans diced tomatoes
2/4 chilli flakes
2 beef bouillon sachets
Bay leafs
1 tbs oregano
Split everything into a gallon freezer bag and the slow cooker. Shake up the freezer bag, seal, label and put in the freezer. Don’t forget to add Instructions on the bag. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours.
Chorizo & Black Bean Chilli Casserole:
250g Mild Spanish-Style Chorizo chopped
3 -540 ml cans Black Beans drained and rinsed
1 large brown onion
2 red pepper
2 green pepper
1 - 398ml can crushed pineapple with juice
4 cups salsa
3 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp chili powder
Split everything into a gallon freezer bag and the slow cooker. Shake up the freezer bag, seal, label and put in the freezer. Don’t forget to add Instructions on the bag. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours.
You can serve as is, over rice, with garlic bread or we found sourdough to be a great pairing. Or serve with garnishes such as shredded cheese, avocado slices or sour cream.
How do you make your life a bit easier? Please share your tips here.
I was rather excited this weekend when I found this ring BPA free Popsicle tray at the dollar store. It is the perfect size for making breast milk Popsicles for my teething baby girl.
of mamma's frozen breast milk?
so made a couple orange juice Popsicles for my 3 year old. You know just to keep the peace.
