It’s no secret I love freezer cooking. Especially when A was younger, it was often the only way dinner got on the table without making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches… which is probably what I’d eaten for both breakfast and lunch.
Even now, it’s a great way to take a little pressure off if I have a busy week ahead of me. Having dinner ready in the freezer to pull out the night before that I can then “set and forget” in the crock pot gives me more time during the day to play with the baby or get other chores done.
I try to plan to compile the meals when my husband has a day off, or even if I can just snag a few hours of help. Sometimes it’s a nap time event.
But either way, in under two hours, I can get 7-14 meals prepped and only have to clean up after myself once, instead of cleaning up after each one of those 7-14 meals. I don’t honestly know how I lived before I made use of my crock pot.
That being said, I’ve tried a lot of different recipes. Some we weren’t fans of, while others are now in a regular rotation around the Blues household. These are seven of our absolute favorites. Some I’ve had to adapt to our tastes/budget, and I’ve listed those changes in the recipes below.
Chicken Fajitas (adapted from Saving Your Dinero)
I loooove this one. It’s inexpensive, it comes together quickly, and the Hubs and I love it. The Squish sort of likes it, but he usually picks around the beans and peppers to get the chicken. Eh, whatever works! I changed up the original recipe a bit to include black beans, since the amount of chicken we use is typically on the lower end of the range. This ups the amount of servings without making it much more expensive! We also recently tried making this with just bell peppers by using 3-4 and lots of black beans to make it even cheaper. I prefer it with chicken, but to fit within a budget, the vegetarian version works just fine.
Ingredients:
-1-2 lbs chicken
-2 bell peppers, chopped (I usually use green)
-1 onion, chopped
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/2 c chicken broth
-Taco seasoning packet
Directions:
Cook on 4-6 hours on low, shred chicken, serve on tortillas with cheese and sour cream (or whatever else you’d like to add.)
Chicken Broccoli Alfredo (from Six Sisters Stuff)
This is one of the Hubs’s favorites. He’s always excited when I tell him it’s for dinner. Truth be told, this isn’t completely a “set it and forget it” recipe: you still have to make the fettuccine noodles. Still, most of the cook time for this recipe is hands-off!
Ingredients:
-1 lb chicken
-1 head broccoli, chopped (or use frozen, that’s fine too!)
-1 green pepper, chopped
-2 jars alfredo sauce
Directions:
Cook on low 4-6 hours; serve over noodles.
Pepperoncini Beef Roast (adapted from recipe at New Leaf Wellness)
This is a recipe we usually save for special occasions since beef roast is a little more expensive. When I first made it, the Hubs didn’t think he’d like it, since he’s not a fan of pepperoncinis. However, the crock pot seems to mellow out the flavor of them a little. This recipe makes a really moist, delicious roast that’s great cooked with potatoes in the crock pot, or served over mashed potatoes. The latter is my favorite, but my husband loves the pepperoncini-soaked potatoes so we typically do a little of both!
Ingredients
2-4 lb beef roast
1 jar pepperoncinis
Potatoes, chopped (optional, and do not freeze these: they’ll turn black and gross.)
Directions
Cook 8-10 hours on low, shred meat, serve.
Beef Lime Chili (recipe at New Leaf Wellness)
This chili is so good. It’s my personal favorite freezer meal. The other day, I tried to make it by putting all the ingredients in the crock pot the morning of. It wasn’t the same at all. I discovered this one has to be made as a freezer meal or the flavor doesn’t penetrate the beef correctly. I mean, you could try putting it together the night before to see if that makes a difference, too. But freezer meals are totally the way to go. My favorite part of this recipe is the fact you don’t have to cook the beef first: it goes in raw and cooks with the rest of the meal. You just break it apart at the end!
(You’ll have to click the link for this recipe!)
Salsa Chicken
This one is super easy to put together. I love this one for freezer meals, but also for those times I haven’t prepared anything else for the day and it’s still early enough to put in the crock pot. I have no idea where I originally found this idea, but I’ve added and changed things anyway so it hardly resembles the original I found, which I think was just chicken and salsa.
Ingredients:
-1-2 lbs chicken
-1 jar salsa
-1 can corn, drained
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1 T cumin
Directions:
Cook on low 4-6 hours, shred meat, serve on tortillas.
Cilantro Lime Chicken (from Six Sisters Stuff)
Can you tell we’re fans of Mexican food? I mean, when I say Mexican food I’m really saying “stuff you can eat from tortillas”, I’m not saying these are necessarily authentic recipes. Anyway, I love cilantro. I know a lot of people who don’t, so you may want to skip over this one. The only thing I’d like to try next time with this recipe is cooking on high for a shorter amount of time because the crock pot seems to mellow out the flavor of the cilantro a little more than I’d like. But that’s an experiment for another day. As it is, this is a delicious recipe!
Ingredients:
-1-2 lbs chicken
-Juice from two limes
-1 bunch of cilantro (chopped)
-1 can corn (drained)
-2 cloves garlic, minced (or use the jarred, pre-minced stuff like I do!)
-1/2 red onion, chopped
-1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
– 1 T cumin
-Salt and pepper
Directions:
Cook on low 4-6 hours on low, then shred the chicken and serve over tortillas.
Coconut Chicken Curry (adapted from New Leaf Wellness)
I love curry. It’s something we don’t make often enough! I wasn’t a big fan of this recipe the first time I tried it; something was missing. The next time I made it, I added more spices and it was excellent!
Ingredients
-1-2 lbs chicken, cut up (if on the low end, you might consider adding chickpeas.)
-1 6oz can tomato paste
-1 can coconut milk
-1 onion, chopped
-2 cups frozen peas
-1 can tomato sauce
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-3 T honey
-4 T curry powder
-1 T cumin
-1 t salt
Directions
Cook 8 hours on low. Serve over rice.
Share your favorite freezer meals in the comments below!
Lindsay @ the Notorious D.E.B.T. says
I just got into the world of freezer cooking. I made some meals last week but I haven’t cooked them up yet. I’m going to have to bookmark this page for future reference, thanks!
Leah says
You bet! Let me know how your meals turn out, too. Once you get in the habit it’s life-changing!