Crockpot Freezer Cooking

I set a goal to prep 20 freezer meals that cook well in the crockpot.

When I found this blog post I looked through the list of meals. I thought they sounded different enough and interesting enough that we wouldn't feel like we were eating the same thing every time I popped one in the crockpot.  We eat a lot of chicken already, so this plan works well for us.  Mixing in different meats and vegetarian dishes would make a decent amount of meals for our family.  So many of these types of meal planning posts seem very repetitive.  They take 5 meals and double them and you have 10, which should great...until you realize they all use the same ingredients!

I took an hour and a half to grocery shop and spent $167. $147 of which was at Aldi, our local, least expensive store and $20 at Pick 'n Save, our local average priced store.  Aldi doesn't carry every single item you would ever need or want, which is why I had to make a second trip for a handful of items.

I bought everything on this list (click or see below) that I didn't already have. I had some of the spices, the cider and balsamic vinegar, all of the "pantry supplies" (although I was low on EVOO, salt and pepper so I stocked up on those while I was at it).

As you can see in the blog post the author linked up all of the meals separately, so I went to each one, copied the recipe and pasted it into a word doc. I also printed the shopping list and was ready to start.

How did I do?  Well.....after three hours of cooking I finished 13 meals.  I would say that's pretty good for having a toddler who loves to help (and who eats all my green peppers)!

Why didn't I make all 20? I ran out of chicken!!!  I didn't buy all 12 pounds of chicken breasts because Aldi didn't have enough of their "all natural" chicken.  I figured I would start and see how far I got with what I bought. Part of the reason I ran out is probably because I didn't use the whole chickens.  I put one in the oven and by the time it was done, I was done.  I was tired and I didn't feel like cutting it all up. It didn't go to waste, we had it for dinner tonight. I also didn't read far enough in to see that three meals required foil pans. I didn't buy any, so I couldn't make those.

What DID I accomplish?  Glad you asked, here's a list:
Crock Meatloaf
    disclaimer: if you know me, you know I do not like meatloaf, but this was easy and I'm going to give it a         try.  I also think my kids are going to like it.  I may plan to have salad on hand for myself if I decide that I       still dislike meatloaf!
Crockpot Cranberry Orange Chicken
Crockpot Honey Rosemary Chicken
Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken
Cheesy Rigatoni
Mexican Chicken
Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
Crockpot Chicken with Apple and Sweet Potato
    disclaimer: I usually don't LOVE meals with apples, but this is just apple flavor from applesauce, I think         it will be good
Crockpot French Dip Sandwiches
Crockpot Veggies in a Bag
Taco Soup
Butternut Squash

What are my overall thoughts?  Looking back, this whole "project" didn't take that long.  Grocery shopping takes long no matter what you need to buy.  Cooking, prepping and cleaning takes time.  This cut back on a lot of time in the future for me so it was well worth it!  I can't tell you how the meals taste, but I will update as we go. I will also finish up those other meals this weekend so I will post an update on those.  I actually haven't made any pan type dishes to freeze so that will be a new thing for me.

If you make any of these, please post below and let me know what you think! Happy crocking!

Monthly Meal Plan #1

Well, it's February 11th and I am just getting around to share how our first ever monthly meal planning is going.  As you may (or may not) remember, I mentioned how I wanted to try out monthly meal planning after I tried weekly planning for a bit and see how it goes.  Well, if you consider two weeks long enough to test something out, then you'll know why we are here!  Weekly planning was easy, almost TOO easy, so I'm testing myself and taking up the monthly meal plan process.  So far, so good!  It works out great for my husband and I.  We had a ton of the food needed on hand and we should be staying out of the grocery store for a while.  Here's my process:

While you do this, think of my mantra!!

source

First, I looked in our freezer and our deep freezer and made a list of all the meat we had on hand and all of the vegetables.  The list I ended up with was amazing, kind of embarrassing, but mostly amazing.  We had enough meat to get through the first three weeks of the month.  To think that we have been going grocery shopping the last couple weeks is a little crazy!  Oops!  I'm vowing to use up most of what we have on hand and by the end of this month I think we will have a lot more room in our freezer...that means I'll be making a BUNCH of frozen meals.  Can't wait for that...

My mom's husband got a few deer last hunting season so we had quite a bit of venison.  Venison is not something I really enjoyed eating at first, but when cooked right, I can't tell the difference.  My husband has found a few great ways to disguise the flavor for me and lets just say that bacon is now my BFF!  I know, eating venison because it's healthy is a great way to go, adding bacon may make it less healthy, but we use it more for flavor, not necessarily to eat WITH the venison.  Make sense?  I hope so.

Anyway, after I finished my list I started by finding a free, cute calendar that I could edit with our meal plan. Here is the one I used.

Here is a copy of my calendar:

Most nights are pretty easy meals.  Some require a recipe, which you can find if you follow me on Pinterest and check out my "let's eat" board.

If you would like a recipe for something and you can't find it, send me a message or comment below and I'll be happy to get it for you.  I am loving this monthly meal plan so far!