My dinner took me all of about 45 seconds to prepare today.  That’s less time than it takes to pull the frozen dinner out of the box, and I get delicious homemade Thai braised peanut chicken.  I have a dozen more meals two-minute meals lined up that are homemade with fresh ingredients, chock full of vegetables and seasonings with no chemicals or Frankenfoods anywhere to be found.

What’s my secret?

The “secret” is organization and planning.  I’ll admit those two things have always come incredibly naturally to me and I know that’s not the norm.  When I shared a room with my messy (and older!) brother at age four, I would clean up the whole room, and then lock it shut.  Yes, I locked us both out, but it was organized and I planned to keep it that way, at least for a little while!

You don’t need to be an organizational neat-freak like me, though, to experience the benefits of a little advance planning.

In no way do I take credit for this idea, there are plenty of blogs floating around with recipes for a big session of shopping and chopping that will result in a dozen or so Freezer-to-Slow-Cooker meals.  But as I looked at them, I realized I liked some and didn’t like others.  So I’ll give you my recipes, but I’ll also tell you how to do it with your own favorites!

In the end, including planning, shopping, preparation and cleaning, this whole endeavor probably took four hours.  But I have three months of meals ready for that one night a week when I get home too late to get a proper meal together.  And I really like chopping veggies.

Step 1: Pick Your Recipes

• Pick 5-6 slow-cooker recipes you and your family will like.
• Be sure the recipes don’t require advanced cooking of any ingredients (like searing off the meat).
• Be sure the recipes contain primarily freezer-friendly ingredients.  Of course, you can always leave a non-freezer-friendly ingredient out of the bag and write on the bag what to add when you dump it into the cooker.
• Get a variety!  In my mix, I have three chicken recipes, two beef recipes and one pork recipe.  Also go for a mix of homey/comforting and zesty/light.  This will prevent your family from getting sick of the offerings.
• Optional, but will save a ton of time in preparation: Write or copy/paste them all into a single document that you can have printed, instead of flipping around from book to book to website while your hands are covered with raw chicken.

Step 2: Make a Shopping List

• Most slow cooker recipes will repeat the same ingredients, like chicken breasts or onions.  This is one of the keys to the success of this plan!  You’ll be amazed how few separate ingredients you need to make several batches of several different recipes!
• Get a sheet of paper and write down these categories: Meat, Produce, Canned/Dry, Frozen, and Other
• Decide how many batches of each recipes you are going to make, and start listing ingredients.  Use tally marks to keep track of how many pounds of chicken you’ll need, how many onions, peppers, or bags of frozen peas.

Step 3: Go Shopping!

• Because you’ll be buying a lot of ingredients, consider going to a warehouse store.
• Since most of the ingredients will be pretty basic, I hit Aldi and got everything for a dozen family meals for about a hundred bucks.  I don’t think that store is nationwide, so you might be out of luck.  But Aldi is awesome.  Since they only sell their own brand and don’t have fancy amenities like baggers, their stuff is really cheap compared to national brands, and I’ve never found anything that’s not as good.

Step 4: Label Your Freezer Bags

• Be sure to get zip-top freezer bags.  I’ve seen some pretty flimsy plastic bags these days (yeay eco-consciousness!) that are fine for most stuff but I wouldn’t trust them in the freezer.
• Using a permanent marker, label each bag with the name of the meal.
• Write out the cooking instructions, including time and heat setting as well as any other ingredients you need to add.
• Jot down serving suggestions, such as “serve over rice”.
• Revel in your cleverness that you labeled the bags before they were filled.

Step 5: Prep Bags

• Fold over the top 1/3 of the bag to help them stand up
• Set them up on the counter or stovetop in some logical way – you’ll be able to see the labels you made but it’s still easier to have them in order.

Step 6: Get Choppin!

• I started with meat first because I hate cutting up chicken.  I doubt it matters what order things go into the bag though.
• Consider the recipe you’re chopping for.  You may be cutting up a dozen onions, but you probably want them in squares for a stew and strips for a pepper steak, for example.
• Do all of each ingredient at the same time.  Start with chicken, then go to beef, then onions, then peppers.  Or whatever.  But you’ll move faster if you work it assembly-line style instead of each bag at a time.
• Top off the bags with whatever ingredients remain.

Step 7: Freeze

• Pick up and drop each bag gently a few times to try to get out air bubbles.
• Squish as much air out of each bag as you can while you zip it up.
• Freeze flat, preferably in a mixed up order so you can be sure of variety if you just always grab the bag on top.

Step 8: Clean

• …and think about how nice it is to clean up 12 meals’ worth of prep mess all at once!

Step 9: Cook

• Take the bag out of the freezer the night before you plan to cook it.  If you have a dedicated slow cooker day, this will be easier to remember.  This is also a good time to make sure you have any additional ingredients needed, like cheese or coconut milk.
• Dump it in the cooker, turn it on and go.
• Here’s a tip if you work all day.  Some slow cooker recipes only call for a 5-6 hour cook time, and if you’re away from home that can be tricky.  If you thawed the food only since the night before, chances are good that it’s still fairly frozen in the morning.  Break it up as much as you can and put into the cooker.  Plug the cooker into the wall with an old-school lamp timer set to turn on six hours before dinner time.  Since it’s still frozen, it won’t warm up enough to get to the danger zone, especially since the crock will help keep it cool.
• Be sure to plan time to make the rice, pasta, salad, or whatever other accompaniments you have planned to go with the meal!

Step 10: Eat

• Yum.

Wow, that looks like a lot of work.  I swear it’s really easy, but when you break something down into step-by-step it can seem like a lot.  It literally took me longer to write this post than it does to actually do it.  You can see from the stove clock it took just over two hours to do all the slicing, dicing, and bagging!  I didn’t mean for that to happen, but what a happy surprise to have the time documented.

Or, if you’d prefer, you can just use my recipes and avoid Steps 1-2!  Two of these are just recipes I’ve had forever, and the other four came from two different blogs about this.  The links will take you to their blog so you can see what other recipes they had in mind.

THE RECIPES

Beef Stew

Per bag:

• 2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1″ cubes and tossed with ¼ cup flour, salt and pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups baby carrots, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 ½ cups beef broth
• 3 potatoes, peeled and diced (see note)

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze.  Thaw, then cook on low for 10-12 hours, or high for 4-6 hours.
• Note: there’s some controversy over whether or not raw potatoes freeze well.  You can risk it and freeze them along with everything else – as I did – or leave them out and add to the slow cooker at the start of the cooking time!

Island Sausage

Per bag:

• 1 pound smoked sausage
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 can (14-½ ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 20-oz can unsweetened pineapple chunks
• ½ cup beef broth
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• pepper

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze. Thaw, then cook on low 4-6 hours.
• Just before serving, combine 1 tbsp cornstarch into 1/4 cup water and stir in to thicken.
• Serve with rice.

Savory Pepper Steak

Per bag:

• 1.5 pounds of round steak cut into ½ inch thick strips, tossed with 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced
• 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp beef bouillon
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp steak seasoning
• 1 tbsp steak sauce

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze. Thaw, then cook on low 8 hours.
• Serve with rice.

Salsa Chicken

Per bag:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 15 oz. can of black beans
• 1 pound bag frozen corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chilis (like Rotel)
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 packet of taco seasoning

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze. Thaw, then cook on low 8 hours.
• Serve with rice or on tortillas along with shredded cheddar and sour cream.

Braised Peanut Chicken

Per bag:

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cups baby carrots, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 t grated lime peel plus 2 T lime juice
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp peanut butter

Directions:

• Whisk together the last four ingredients.
• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze. Thaw, then cook on low 5-6 hours.
• A few minutes before serving, stir in 1 can of coconut milk and 1 bag of frozen peas.
• Add 1/2 tsp red curry paste before serving to make it spicy (optional).
• Serve over rice, garnished with chopped peanuts and cilantro.

Orange Chicken

Per bag:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 2 cups baby carrots, chopped
• 2 cups bell peppers, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 8 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in bag and freeze. Thaw, then cook on low 8 hours.
• Garnish with 1 can mandarin orange slices and 2 green onions, chopped.
• Serve over rice, along with sauteed veggies.

SHOPPING LIST (makes two batches of each recipe):

Meats

• Beef Stew Meat: 4 pounds
• Smoked sausage: 2 pounds
• Round steak: 3 pounds
• Chicken breasts: 8 pounds

Veggies

• Garlic: 2 heads
• Onions: 10
• Potatoes: 6
• Carrots: 4 pounds baby
• Celery: 1 bunch
• Green peppers: 5
• Red peppers: 5
• Zucchini: 4 small
• Limes: 2

Canned/Dry (You probably have some of this already!)

• Flour
• Brown sugar
• Worcestershire
• A1
• Beef Broth: 1 quart
• Chicken broth: 1 quart
• Canned diced tomatoes: 4 14-oz cans
• Rotel tomato/chili: 2 cans
• Black beans: 2 cans
• Salsa: large jar
• Coconut milk: 2 cans
• Red curry paste (optional)
• Canned pineapple chunks: 2 20-oz cans
• Bay leaves
• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Steak seasoning
• Taco seasoning
• Salt, pepper

Frozen

• Frozen corn: 2 pounds
• Frozen peas: 2 pounds
• OJ concentrate: 2 containers

Other (including items needed later for serving)

• Gallon-sized zip-top FREEZER bags, at least 12
• Cheddar
• Sour cream
• Rice
• Tortillas
• Mandarin oranges: 2 cans
• Peanuts
• Cilantro
• Green onions

The Best Part

I’m pretty much the only one in my house who eats leftovers, so consider that when calculating the time savings!  Three lunches ready to go!

I hope you enjoy!  Please leave me some comments to let me know how this worked for you!!