10 Crock-pot Freezer Meals for $5.64 a Meal

10 Crock-pot Freezer Meals for $5.64 a Meal

Have you ever had a chunk of time where you went to town in the kitchen and made a whole bunch of freezer meals?  Typically I don’t make 10 meals at a time, but I have often made two meals at a time since I am going through the effort to make a meal anyway.  In any case making multiple meals in one setting is a time-saver (spending less time preparing and cleaning up the kitchen), and you’re more likely to eat at home (reducing the temptation to eat out) which is a money-saver.

 

Making crock-pot freezer meals is great to do if you have purchased large quantities of boneless chicken breasts or thighs.  I was intending to buy chicken thighs because dark meat is more moist, and I thought it would be cheaper.  But I ended up buying chicken breasts at $1.99/pound because they ended up being cheaper than the thighs.

All of this food came from WinCo, and in total I spent $56.40.  Since WinCo has an extensive bulk foods section, I was able to guesstimate the amount of items like cornstarch, honey, and natural peanut butter that I needed so I didn’t have to buy extra.  After I prepared the 10 meals, I had some soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, onions, pineapple, celery and carrots left over.  Maybe the price of the leftover food I had covered the cost of the rice or noodles I would serve with these dishes.

One of the reasons I wanted to challenge myself to make 10 crock-pot freezer meals is because I wanted to see how frugally I could put some meals together to help transition to whole-foods-living.  These meals are not organic, but a step in the right direction if you are used to eating processed foods.

I decided to take 5 crock-pot recipes and double them, to make 10 total crock-pot freezer meals.  At the end of this post I include a truncated version of the recipes so you would only have to go to this one page to get all the information you need to make the 10 freezer meals, but you can read more about each specific recipe by clicking on each of the individual links.  Some of the recipes have been modified from the originals for ease of preparation.

Each of these meals feeds a family of 5 which includes 3 kids, ages 8,6, and 4 with lunch leftovers the next day.  You could serve more people these meals with a salad and rice or noodles on the side depending what the meal is.

My 5 Crock-pot Dinners to Double

1. Crock-pot Chicken w/Thai Peanut Sauce
2. Crock-pot Barbecue Chicken
3. Crock-pot Orange Ginger Chicken
4. Crock-pot Sweet & Sour Chicken
5. Crock-Pot Chicken Taco Salad

Below I have shared my grocery list.  I have included the quantities of items you’ll need like peanut butter, so you can decide if you need to buy more or not, or if you have enough in your pantry already.

The 10 Crock-pot Freezer Meal Grocery List

• 10 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 cups soy sauce, 1 standard bottle
• 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar, 1 standard bottle
• 1 piece of ginger
• 4 bell pepper (colors of choice-I like to buy multi-colors)
• 2 cups salsa, 1 standard bottle
• 2 cups or more barbecue sauce, 1 standard bottle
• 2 cups pineapple (can use canned, but use it with its own natural juices)
• 2 medium oranges
• 5-6 onions
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 2 ribs celery
• 8 carrot sticks
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 4 cups of broccoli
• 4 T (1/4 cup) corn starch
• 1 cup of organic sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• red pepper flakes

The General Instructions for Putting Together 10 Crock-pot Freezer Meals

1. Label all gallon-sized bags with the meal names.
2. Wash all vegetables.
3. Cut vegetables.
4. (Refer below to recipes for sauces) Put sauces in gallon bags, seal the bags, and mixing them with your hands if needed.
5. If you are cutting your chicken, do that now.  Or you can leave the chicken breasts/thighs whole and cut them up after cooking.  Cutting your chicken will greatly increase your time making the meals, but the smaller the chicken is cut, the faster it will cook, so you decide.
6. Place chicken in the bags with the sauce, and massage the sauce into the chicken.
7. Freeze.
8. The day before you want to serve, thaw meal for 24 hours in the refrigerator in a bowl to catch condensation.  I have taken a meal out of the freezer a couple of times the day I wanted the meal, ran the freezer bag under water (or submerged it in water for a few minutes), and cooked the meal if you are in a real pinch.  Cooking time will be just a little longer, but it still works.
9. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

My 5 Crock-pot Dinners to Double:

1. Crock-Pot Chicken Taco Salad

1. Place 1 lb. of chicken and 1 cup of salsa in a gallon freezer bag.
2. Seal bag, and massage salsa into the chicken.
3. Freeze.
4. The day before serving, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours.
5. Day of cook for 4-6 hours on low depending how hot your crock-pot cooks.
6. Serve on rice, or on a salad.

2. Crock-pot Barbecue Chicken

1. Place 1 lb. of chicken and 1 cup of barbecue sauce in a gallon freezer bag.
2. Seal bag, and massage barbecue sauce into the chicken.
3. Freeze.
4. The day before serving, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours.
5. Day of cook for 4-6 hours on low depending how hot your crock-pot cooks.

3. Crock-pot Orange Ginger Chicken

1. Place 1 sliced orange, 1 sliced onion, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/8 cup honey, 1 T fresh minced ginger, and 1 T minced garlic in a gallon freezer bag.
2. Seal bag, and massage sauce.
3. Add 1 lb. of chicken to the bag, seal, and massage sauce into the chicken.
4. Freeze.
5. The day before serving, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours.
6. Day of cook for 4-6 hours on low depending how hot your crock-pot cooks.
7. Carefully remove orange peels, and enjoy!

4. Crock-pot Sweet & Sour Chicken

1. Place 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup organic evaporated cane juice (sugar or honey), 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 3 minced garlic cloves, & 1 inch of minced ginger into a gallon freezer bag and massage bag to mix.
2. Add 1 pound of chicken, 2 ribs of diced celery, 2 diced carrots, 1/2-1 diced onion, seal, and massage bag.
3. Place 1 cup of diced pineapple and 1 diced bell pepper in a quart-sized freezer bag, and seal.
4. Freeze.
5. Thaw for 24 hours the day before you serve the meal.
6. Day of, cook everything except the pineapple mixture for 4-6 hours on low.
7. In the last 20 minutes of cooking, mix 2 T cornstarch and 2 T of water together in a small bowl until smooth.   Stir cornstarch mixture into the crock-pot.  Add the pineapple and bell pepper at this time.
8. When your bell pepper has reached the desired tenderness (for us approximately 20 minutes), your dish is ready.
9. Serve on noodles or on a bed of organic brown rice-we crock-pot our rice.

5. Crock-pot Chicken w/Thai Peanut Sauce

1. Place 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup water or broth, 2-5 minced garlic cloves, 1 onion, 1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled & grated, 1/4 t red pepper flakes to taste in a gallon freezer bag.
2. Seal bag, and massage sauce.
3. Add 1 lb. of chicken to the bag.
4. Seal bag, and massage sauce into the chicken.
5. Place 2 cups broccoli, and 1 bell pepper in a quart-sized freezer bag, and seal.
6. Freeze.
7. The day before serving, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours.
8. Day of cook for 4-6 hours on low depending how hot your crock-pot cooks.
9. Add broccoli mixture in the last 20 minutes of cooking.
10. Serve on noodles or on a bed of organic brown rice-we crock-pot our rice.

When I know I am going to have a crazy week or a crazy couple of days, I love knowing I have a few meals ready in the freezer to throw into the crock-pot.  And like I said above, I have even taken a meal out of the freezer the morning of the day I want to serve it and started cooking it while it was still a bit frozen, so these meals are ultra convenient for me.

I chose to cut the chicken, and it took me just over 1 1/2 hours total.  If I would have just put 1 pound of chicken breast in each bag without cutting, it would have taken me about 1 hour to prepare the 10 crock-pot freezer meals.  If you cut the chicken into strips or as desired while it’s raw, the chicken cooks faster, so take that into consideration when preparing the freezer bags.  You have to decide what’ more important to you.

Hope you enjoy!

Go here for the complete list of recipes.

Have you made some crazy crock-pot recipes?

 

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