27 Crock Pot Meals to Freeze

        Ok, so I am sure many of you have seen the many bloggers on pinterest that make up anywhere from 2 weeks to a month's worth of meals and freeze them. Then, after one afternoon, you have meals you can pop in the crock pot and let cook all day and dinner is done when you come home. With school and work getting hectic and soccer 4 days a week... I was finding it harder to get meals on the table. I was determined not to become a fast food family. It isn't healthy, it's expensive, and quite frankly most of it is nasty. Especially compared to a good home cooked meal. SO, my husband and I decided to go all in and do 27 meals and see if this would be a way to have a home cooked dinner on those tired and hectic nights.

          Here is how we did it. It was super easy to come up with the recipes with there being so many on pinterest and online recipe sites. I just made a "crock pot meals" board on Pinterest and pinned away any that looked good and started there. Once I had 27 meals picked out, with some repeats, I made a template on my laptop to organize them. Recipe name at the top, ingredients with measurements, then what prep needed to be done, then the remaining recipe instructions. Now I had the entire recipe, prep instructions, and the menu planned all in one place. This is what one page looked like-

Notice I also added a note at the bottom if I wanted to add a side or use a substitution for something.

Now, once I had this down I wrote out a list of what I needed, like chicken breasts, and counted how many I would need. And went on down the list. Once I had how many of each ingredient I needed I wrote out a grocery list. Then I sat down with a box full of gallon size freezer bags and wrote on the outside of them the recipe name, the day number, and cooking instructions or anything that needed to be added.. Example- Day 10- Beef Stroganoff- Cook on low 8 hours, add sour cream before serving, prepare egg noodles and pour over top of noodles. I repeated until I had a bag for each recipe. Then we shopped. I found some good deals on some produce and shredded cheddar. If you are a couponer you could do this for even cheaper probably. So after shopping, we came home and I put the frozen chicken breast (it is so cheap at Sam's and really good chicken) in the sink to thaw while we prepped. I started off by separating the groceries out. Produce on one counter, cans on another, meat on another, spices out on another, and so on. Then, we cut up onion, potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic... everything we needed. As we got one thing all chopped and into a large bowl we set it aside and went on to the next until it was allll ready to go. Then, we got the meat out and prepped what needed prepped. In some recipes I used beef roast as a substitute, just because I knew I could get it cheaper at Sam's than using stew meat, things like that.

     Once everything was prepped and ready to go, we started with the first recipe and grabbed that bag. We put all the ingredients in the bag, closed it up, and sat it aside. Once we had all the bags filled and had used all our ingredients up we were done. We put them in the freezer (in order so I don't have to dig for one later), then we wiped all the counter tops down and ran the dishwasher a couple of times and we were done. All in all this took us about 5 hours from start to finish (not counting shopping) and that is with our 4 year old "helping" and we were dead tired after getting started way later than we had planned and a busy morning at soccer. If we had set aside a day to do just this, it would have went much faster I think. Plus it was our first time doing it. I think next time it will go faster too.

    These are the recipes I picked for us, all of which are online- most at Pinterest- and some from my blog. A couple are recipes that weren't initially meant for the crock pot but have been modified to be one. I may sit down and type these all up some day, but for now you may have to Google and Pinterest search for these on your own. :-)

Breakfast Casserole (making this one twice)
Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice (making this one twice)
Beef Stroganoff
BBQ Chicken and Vegetables (making this one twice)
Beef Stew
Chicken Fajitas (making this one twice)
Mac and Cheese with Smoked Sausage
Garlic Chicken
Beef Roast
Sloppy Joes
Tomato Artichoke Chicken Pasta
Beef Broccoli and Rice
Chicken and Mushroom Gravy
Un-stuffed Cabbage
Marlboro Man Sandwiches (Pioneer Woman Recipe)
Chicken Noodle Soup
Steak Dinner (Pinterest idea where you can use foil to separate steaks, potatoes, corn and cook it all in the crock pot... not sure how I will like the steak this way but wanted to try it)
Chicken Enchiladas
Meatloaf and veggies
Tangy Chicken and Veggies
Smoked Sausage and Potatoes
Chili

         As I made the initial template I noted at the bottom any sides I wanted to serve, like frozen corn and bought that too. I also made a note of anything like buns or tortillas that I would want to buy the week I'm planning on serving those meals so all I have to do is grab a package of buns for sloppy joes and throw some frozen corn in the microwave for a few minutes and I'm done.

The detailed list of what I bought is at the bottom if you would like to read it. I bought most of the meat at Sam's Club because that is the cheapest place to get good meat. I don't use Minute Rice so I cooked all my rice and added it to the bag. I use real brown Basmati rice that cooks for an hour. I just let it cook while we were prepping, then scooped out what I needed for each bag. I have frozen beef and rice many times so I know this rice freezes beautifully and the difference in taste is incredible. Totally worth the extra effort. But if you like you can grab a box of Minute Rice and throw it on just before dinner while you make a side, if you are making one.

     Of the blogs I read, about half of them said do not cook and freeze the pasta and do not add things like eggs and cheese before freezing. Half of them said dump it all and you are good to go. I did add the cheese and pre-cooked the rice and froze it. However, I do not like pasta that has been frozen so I left it out. I will throw it on to cook while I am giving Zach a bath or something and I am fine with that. I didn't add the eggs to the breakfast casserole just because I didn't feel comfortable with that idea. If you try it and it works out well, let me know.

   The total amount I spent on these dinners came to $348.75 for 27 meals that comes to about $13 per dinner. Plus, I am sure Mom and I will have plenty of leftovers each day for our lunches out of these, too. I think that is pretty good for a dinner every day of the week for 4 weeks. When I started making the list, I was going to leave off Saturdays and just make dinners for Sunday- Friday. On the 3rd week I decided to add one for the last 2 Saturdays. So technically it is 7 meals a week for 4 weeks, minus 2 meals.

   Planning well for what you need is key. I ended up with exactly enough of everything. I did have a beef roast left over because I bought them 2 to a package at Sam's and used less than I thought I would. So, I even have a beef roast left over out of that I can throw on sometime when these run out, or use next time. I think I had 2 onions we didn't need, but that's it. Not bad! And we weren't short anything so that is good- obviously.

Here is the list of groceries we bought and prices we paid. I am sure some could scout out cheaper prices or better deals or use coupons, but for me- one fight at a time, haha. Remember, this includes sides such as Brussels sprouts, frozen corn, broccoli, green beans, etc.

Chicken Breast. I bought 3 big bags, frozen at Sam's for $12 a bag, total $36

Artichoke hearts, canned- $3

Sweet Potatoes- $2.50

Ribeye Steaks- $28

Beef Roast $47 for 4 (Used 3 and had 1 left)

Ground Beef- $16 for 2 large packages at SAMs (about 12 pounds total) divided into 3 pounds x 4

Round Steak- $18 for 6 in a package (really could use 3 or 4)

Broccoli, frozen- $6 at SAMs, you get several bags. Had enough for recipes and sides later.

Baby Carrots- $4.00

Mushrooms- 3 packages, $3 each- $9.00

Shredded Cheddar- $14 for 10 bags.

Onions- $0.89 a bag x 2 bags= $1.80

Celery- $1.40 (only used half)

Cabbage- $0.69 each x2= $1.40

Green Bell Peppers- $8 for 16

Red Potatoes- 20 lb bag- $4

Breakfast Sausage- $2 each x2= $4

Chicken Thighs, fresh- $4 per package, 2 packages= $8

Green Beans, canned- $0.39 ea x8= $3.12

Tomato sauce- $1 each x9= $9

Chicken Broth- $2.38 x3= $7.14

Pasta- $2 a box x3= $6

Cheddar Cheese Soup, canned, condensed- $1.77 each x2= $3.54

Diced Tomatoes, canned- $1.39 x3= $3.00

Black Beans- $0.89

Kidney Beans- $0.89

Red Kidney Beans- $0.89

Pinto Beans- $0.89

Enchilada Sauce- $1.89 x2= $3.78

Soy Sauce- $2

Sesame Oil- $6

Steak Sauce- $4

Sour Cream- $3

Chicken Gravy Mix- $1 per packet x 2= $2

Fajita Seasoning- $1 x2= $2

Taco Seasoning- $0.79

Beef Broth- $2 x 2= $4

Egg Noodles- $1.50

Hashbrowns, frozen- $2

Cream of Chicken Soup- $1 each x9= $9

Golden Mushroom Soup- $1.66 x2= $3.32

Fritos- $2 (a medium-sized bag)

Brussels Sprouts- $2

Tortilla Shells- $2

Smoked Sausage- $2 x 2= $4

V-8 juice- $2

Tomato Juice- $2

Worcestershire Sauce- $1

Catalina Dressing- $2

Mustard- $1

Evaporated Milk- $1.69 x2= $3.38

Corn, frozen- $1.50 x7= $10.50

Okra, frozen- $2.50

Fresh Tomatoes- $2.50

Brown Sugar- $1.50

Cube Steak- $6 for 6

Red Bell Peppers- $3

Eggs- $6 for 3 dozen

Zucchini, fresh- $2.73

Green Onion- $0.79

Garlic, fresh- $1.00

Total- $348.75

Divided into 27 meals that is $12.92 per meal.  

Baked Potato Soup

  This is one that I found on pinterest and have seen posted to facebook a lot lately. It sounded good and since it is FREEZING outside it was the perfect time to try this one. Everyone LOVED it. It is the best potato soup I have ever had! It was even better because we had leftover hog jowl from new years day so instead of frying bacon, I just chopped up some of the leftover jowl and used it instead. As a matter of fact as soon as I post this I am going to reheat me a bowl of this for my lunch. Be jealous. :-) 

Baked Potato Soup

2 ½ pounds baby red potatoes, sliced into bite size pieces

1 package bacon

1 onion, diced

¼ bunch celery, diced

8 cups milk

4 cups chicken stock or broth

1 tsp salt

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup salted butter

1 cup flour

½ bunch fresh parsley

1 cup whipping cream

shredded cheddar

fried bacon bits

green onion, diced

Boil potatoes in water, 10 minutes, drain and set aside.

In saute' pan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain bacon fat and place on paper towel to drain more.

Add onion and celery to bacon pan over medium-high heat until celery is tender, about 5 minutes.

To the large pan you boiled potatoes in, add milk, broth, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture is very hot, about 8 minutes, stirring often, Do not let boil.

In small saucepan heat butter. Add flour and mix well. Cook over medium-low heat until mixture bubbles, stirring 2 to 3 minutes to make a roux.

While constantly stirring soup, add roux slowly until soup is thick and creamy, about 4 minutes. Let simmer for about 30 minutes or until flavors incorporate.

Stir in parsley, reserved potatoes, bacon (reserve some for garnish if desired), celery, onions, and cream.

Garnish with cheese, bacon bits, green onions, or all 3. Serve hot.

James' Chili

  This past weekend my brother came to visit and made his chili for us one night. It was the best chili I think I have EVER had. Knowing that Mom and I don't like spicy much, and our young kids would be eating it, he made it without the cayenne and less chili powder than he usually makes it with, but it was so good. It was a good, thick, hearty chili. I immediately had him give me the recipe so I could make it and post it here. Until now I didn't have a good chili recipe because I am addicted to my Mom's Chili Soup  so whenever we are in the mood for chili, I usually make that. Because it is amazing and full of veggies and well, it's delicious. So now I have a great chili recipe too! I'm so excited. Anyway- it is cold outside and perfect for a nice bowl of chili. Make this and curl up by the fire and enjoy! James said it is even better if you throw all of this in the slow cooker and let it sit all day while you're at work. I may have to try that! Love a good slow cooker recipe! 

James' chili

1 large tomato sauce
1 regular tomato sauce
1 can green beans
1 can corn
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 bell pepper, diced
3-4 cloves garlic
2 T flour
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tap cumin
1 tsp basil
2 lbs ground beef

If you want it spicy- do 4 tsp chili powder and 1 T cayenne

Mix seasonings and flour together, set aside.

Brown meat, and drain.

Saute pepper and garlic and add to pot,

Add all canned ingredients, stir.

Add seasonings and bring to a boil, lower temp and let simmer for a couple of hours.

Serve hot with crackers, diced onions, shredded cheese, sour cream... whatever your family likes.

Chicken, Bacon, and Sage Fettuccine Alfredo

  I saw someone make this last week on Food Network and decided I wanted to try it. I already know I LOVE fried sage so of course that is what caught my eye. Just a nice way to change up your normal Fettuccine Alfredo, even if you want to leave out the sage- the bacon wrapped chicken would be delicious. But I suggest trying the fried sage. It takes 2 seconds and it is really delicious.

4 Chicken Breast
several leaves of fresh sage
Butter
1 Package of bacon


    Start by putting a few tablespoons of butter in olive oil and melting the butter. Once the oil is good and hot drop in your leaves of fresh sage and fry it for just a second. It will burn quickly, so be careful. You just want to crisp it up a bit. Then pound out your chicken breast to thin them out a bit, place a pad of butter in the middle, along with a 2 or 3 pieces of fried sage. Fold the chicken back over itself and wrap with bacon. Place it seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Once they are all wrapped and in the pan bake it at 425 for 40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer says the chicken is done. Then place the chicken under the broiler for a minute or 2 to crisp up the bacon. Now, if your chicken is swimming in a lot of bacon drippings and butter- you may want to drain that off first, otherwise the bottom side will never crisp up. Once the chicken is completely done, slice it into large slices and place it over a plate of Fettuccine Alfredo. Talk about delicious!! I mean.. it is bacon. 

Hipper Chippers Cookie Recipe

  This is a recipe that my nephew brought home from school and made. Then last night my SIL decided to try them and made a double batch for everyone.. they were gone pretty fast. So now I am posting the recipe here to share! These are really good and the batter is the kind where you can add anything you like to change them up. The original calls for mini M&M's, which is what we used. But you could use any candies like Reese's Pieces, or nuts, or whatever you like. I think these would be great with some chopped walnuts or pecans in them myself. :-) 

   Hipper Chippers

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup mini M&M's 

Preheat oven to 375°
Cut the butter or margarine with a table knife. Put butter in mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer on medium speed about 30 seconds or until butter is softened. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and baking soda. Beat on medium speed until combined, stopped the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. 
Add the egg and the vanilla and beat of medium speed until combines. Add half the flour and beat on medium until combined and then stir in the remaining flour. Then fold in the M&M's. 
Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. 

NOTE* the recipe says that it makes approximately 32 cookies. We made a double batch and came out with maybe 24...?? 

Herb Roasted Chicken

I have never really roasted a chicken before, I have no idea why. So when I realized I had a whole chicken in my freezer that I needed to cook I decided to look up a recipe to roast it that didn't include lemons. I love lemons but I use them on my fish a lot and Hubby was getting tired of lemon pepper. Plus my little brother was coming over and I knew he wasn't a fan of lemons on anything. SO I found this one by Anne Burrell and even though I think she is a great chef and somewhat like her show (when she isn't being obnoxious...) I have never tried one of her recipes, it didn't have lemons.. so I went for it. It turned out delicious. It was super easy and everyone loved it. Going in the "keeper" box for sure. I made a few modifications to the recipe so I will post how I made it and link to her original recipe below. Enjoy! 

Herb Roasted Chicken

By: Anne Burrell 

1 whole chicken
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, picked and finely chopped
5-6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
dash of red pepper flaskes
1 T onion powder
2 tsp fresh chives, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp bay leaves, chopped (not whole leaf) 
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
4 cups chicken stock or broth (large box) 
4 T olive oil plus more for drizzling


Preheat oven to 450°

    In a small bowl combine all seasonings with olive oil and set aside.  Using your fingertips carefully work your way under the skin of the chicken to separate the skin from the breast to make a pocket. Now push handfulls of your seasoning mix into the pocket and rub all over to coat the inside of the chicken, using all the seasoning mix. Now drizzle the outside of the chicken generously with olive oil and massage it into the skin all over. Basically think of tanning oil and rub it all over. Sprinkle with salt and any little bits of herb stuck to your hands from stuffing it under the skin is fine. 
   
    Using a large roasting pan with a rack place the chicken on the rack and pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Then take the foil off and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the skin is nice and crispy with a nice dark color to it. 

     Remove from the oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before carving. While chicken is resting pour the stock from the pan (and all the drippings that have fallen into it from the chicken) into a sauce pot over medium heat. In a small bowl to the side mix warm water with corn starch to dissolve the corn starch. When the drippings and stock start to boil add the corn starch mixture to the stock slowly until it starts to thicken to your desired consistency. This is a fantastic sauce to pour over your chicken or sides. Carve your chicken and serve while hot! 

Roasted Sunchokes with Salsa Verde

Another recipe from my favorite cooking show, Extra Virgin. I have made several recipes from the show and every one has came out delicious, not to mention they are easy and fresh. I have never tasted sun chokes before, or anchovies or capers for the matter,  but when they made them on the show they looked delicious, so I just had to try them. The salsa Verde is delicious and would be fantastic to put on lots of things. Potatoes, fish, pasta... anything you want to add a little kick of flavor to. Surprisingly, I can see myself making sun chokes again in the future,and most definitely trying the salsa verde with some other dishes as well! Don't be skeered. Just try it and you will like it!

Roasted Sun chokes with Salsa Verde

From: Extra Virgin

Sun chokes, washed and chunked into bite size pieces
Generous bunch of fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
Olive Oil
1 T capers, rinsed
salt and pepper
4-5 anchovies
squeeze of fresh lemon

Preheat oven to 400

Sun chokes:
   Place chunked sun chokes on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Salsa Verde:
    In food processor place parsley, garlic, capers, anchovies, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Blend well while adding olive oil until you get a smooth consistency.

When sun chokes are done baking dress with Salsa Verde and serve.

White Sandwich Bread

I have always wanted to make my own bread, but seeing as how I am not a baker, it never turned out very well. When we started eating "cleaner" the hardest part has been finding bread that Hubby and Little Man would eat. So I made it my mission to find a good bread recipe and make my own sandwich bread. This one did the trick! The first time I made it, it turned out good and every time I make it, it comes out better than the last. This recipe will make 3 loaves. Enjoy! 

Sandwich Bread

2 T yeast 

2 cups warm water

1/4 cup honey or sugar

1 T salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil or soft butter

6 1/2 to 7 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water to activate. Add honey, salt, eggs, oil, and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in additional flour, 1/2 a cup or less at a time, until a soft dough forms and the dough is pulling away from the bowl. 

Turn dough onto an oiled surface and knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. (If your mixer has a kneading hook just leave the dough in the mixing bowl and put the dough hook on, let knead for at least 5 minutes) Place dough in a greased bowl (you can leave it in the mixing bowl, just take the dough out and form a small ball and place it back in the bowl) Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and divide and shape into 3 loaves. Place in loaf pans and let rise until doubled once again. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool. 

If you wish, brush some butter on top while still warm.

*NOTE* I didn't want to knead the bread by hand so I used my dough hook on the stand mixer. The first time I let it knead for 5 minutes and I used a fast rising yeast. It came out a tad on the crumbly side. The last time I made it I used a regular active dry yeast, and I let it knead for 7-8 minutes in the mixer with the dough hook and it came out much better. I am not sure if it is the extra kneading time or the different yeast that made it come out better? 

Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta

Once again, I found this recipe (and a great blog by the way) while searching recipes on pinterest. This one was easy to make and had a great, lighter flavor. I will definitely be making it again and again!!! 

Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta

By: Tracy's Culinary Adventures

1 (28 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups water
1 - 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
12 oz pasta (I used shells) 
2 oz (about 1 cup) grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz (about 1 cup) shredded mozzarella cheese 
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 475 F.

Add the tomatoes to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, about 10 pulses. Set an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt and cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, the water, 1 cup of the chicken broth, and the pasta to the pan, stirring to combine. Bring the mixture to a vigorous simmer, then cover the pan and continue simmering (you may need to reduce the heat slightly) until the pasta is tender, about 16-18 minutes. Stir the pasta frequently as it cooks.

Once tender, remove the cover and stir in 3/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, the pepper, and the chicken. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if necessary. If the mixture seems dry, mix in as much of the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth as needed to loosen it up (I didn't add any of it). {Note: if you don't have an oven-safe skillet, transfer the mixture to a baking dish at this point.} Sprinkle the top evenly with the mozzarella cheese and the remaining Parmesan cheese. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and bubbles around the edges. Garnish with the basil then serve.