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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Slow Cooker Freezer Meals



21 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals
 (assembled in about 5 hours)

I always like to have a good supply of freezer meals on hand for those days that I don't have time to cook. But that supply ran out during the summer. I've had to use up more than usual during this calendar year so far, as we've had some medical issues going on, and also we've been busy preparing a family home for sale - besides all our usual responsibilities of home, family, and Cru ministry. We've even had to grab fast food more often than we like in the past six months.

So in August, I decided to do something that I've been wanting to do for quite awhile ... try out some brand-new-to-me recipes for Slow Cooker Freezer Meals. This is a faster way of preparing freezer meals, as the ingredients are not precooked; just assembled and put into freezer bags. I also wanted to try out, and gather a collection of recipes for Slow Cooker Freezer Meals that will possibly be some that we may want to use in the future when my daughters and I have another Freezer Meal Day.

I had already been gathering slow cooker freezer meal recipes to try, and did some more searching online. I came up with 9 chicken/turkey recipes, and 5 beef/pork recipes to try. Some of the recipes made enough for 2 freezer meals, so I ended up with 21 freezer meals. All of these recipes are brand new to me.



Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - Chicken/Turkey (12)











First step, after shopping for the ingredients, was collecting them all on the kitchen counter ...



Next, I prepared the freezer bags with labels that I had printed ahead of time with instructions for cooking ...


All of the meals were put into freezer bags, with labels attached ...




Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - Beef/Pork (9)













21 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals
 (assembled in about 5 hours)

A few details - for my own records, and maybe they will be helpful to others who are wanting to prepare Slow Cooker Freezer Meals ...

I prepared these 21 meals on two different days in the same week: one day for the chicken/turkey recipes (3 hours), and one day for the beef/pork recipes (2 hours). The assembly time did not include the time it took to do the shopping, to gather all the ingredients in the kitchen for the recipes, and to clean-up afterwards. Also, as most all of the meat was frozen uncooked, the shopping needed to be done the day before or the day of assembly, keeping the meat fresh before time of assembling.

I'm so very thankful that I could take the time to prepare these meals for the freezer. If I use one each week ... I have enough Slow Cooker Freezer Meals for 21 weeks! Such a great help during the busy holiday season coming up. 

NOTE: As I prepare these recipes in the slow cooker during the fall/winter, I will try to come back here to record which ones we have used, and also if we liked them good enough to make again in the future or not. Probably the ones rated "Very Good" will make it to my recipe collection for future use:) 

Prepared in September:
Loaded Turkey Veggie Soup - Will not be making again (I did not care for the consistency of some of the veggies - the potatoes and the carrots).


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