Learning to Cook: Freezer Friendly Crockpot Meals

Yes I have hopped on the crockpot meal planning band wagon! And let me tell you it is the best band wagon I have jumped on in a very long time!! Clearly you can see the gaps in posts here. I was ambitious in those first few years of marriage and as time went on and my husband was deployed, I was only cooking for me and a small infant/toddler. So my cooking turned into a whatever we had that was quick and easy to feed me and little man.

Now, life is much different. We moved again, Hubby does not deploy anymore, in fact he's a full-time student in college, our little man is almost 4 yrs old and we are expecting another little man in a few months. I am working part-time and life is just more fulfilling, which leaves little time to think about and plan for dinner. A few weeks ago, we were living at my dad's eating take-out nearly every night, and our first few weeks in our new place, the never-ending question of "What's for dinner?" was presented around 4-6pm when we were already starving... With our new routine unfolding, I decided it was time to do some Pinterest research and hop on the crockpot trend quickly.

Starting the crockpot meal planning can be overwhelming, but if you are good at reading recipes and doing inventory of your kitchen cabinets, you can get through it. I have been making the news with my Facebook friends about my crockpot cooking and I recently in a post, explained to them that it isn't hard, it is time consuming. Finding and deciding which recipes you want to make is the easiest part. Compiling a "Master Grocery List" takes time and you will need a calculator and Google unit converter (for when some recipes call for ounces but other use cups, stores do not sell items by the cup measurement so you will need to know how many ounces in total you need).

Once you have make your shopping list based on the items in each recipe (remember to cross out things you already have on hand, milk, salt, pepper, etc), you are ready to hit the store! The shopping trip will be long (depending on the number of recipes you are buying for) and could be expensive. But not to worry, these meals will feed 6-8 people and we have been eating leftovers for nearly a week now, so you are saving money in the long-run. I also recommend tackling the store with a partner, especially if you have younger children tagging along. Break the list up in two parts and divide & conquer!! And be prepared for that one store that never has that last item in stock, we had to go to two stores, an added pain. Now you are home, with more groceries than you are able to fit in the fridge/cabinets. Put away the cold items and (if possible) set the dry items on a counter or kitchen table, ready for your cooking session.

We did our shopping trip a day or two before my husband left for his reserve weekend and I did all the prep alone while he was gone. I believe he plans to help next time but again, its not hard, just time consuming, and you may have to breakdown and put the TV on for the kids while you prep everything. Most of the Pinterest pins rave about doing 20 meals in 1-2 hours. My advice to you, is do not plan on 1-2 hours, especially if this is your first time doing it. It takes practice and efficiency to master the prepping down to 1-2 hours. It took me 4.5 hours, granted some of the time was feeding my son, or selecting a new movie on Netflix for him to watch, etc. But the bottom line is be flexible and open to it taking half of your day. You don't want to start prepping and have a lunch date on the same day.
Again, the process is not hard, just time consuming and for me once it was done, I felt so accomplished and satisfied with my work, I could not wait to do it again! It was addicting!

A few things I learned along the way during prep that will be helpful is:

Make sure you have sturdy freezer ziploc bags (you do not want them busting on you when trying to remove the air before sealing.
I recommend adding the meat to the bottom of the bag (it will marinade in the juices/seasonings better)
Stay organized throughout the prep. Make sure you know which bag is what and work on 1 recipe on a time (at least for beginners)
Label all your freezer bags ahead of time with a sharpie, Name of Recipe AND Cook-Time and Heat (see above tip)
Read ALL recipes ahead of time before prep, some recipes require that you cook the meat prior to adding to the freezer bag, if you mess up, just bag the meat separately and remember to thaw both bags when planning to cook that meal and cook the meat prior to adding to the crockpot.
Some recipes will ask you to add ingredients AFTER cooking, so make sure you don't add them to the bag. And a personal preference, if it calls for lemon juice add it to the crockpot prior to cooking not in the freezer bag.

So far these are the tips I have from my first experience of prepping. We have a shopping list made up for our next round, just waiting for our days to line up so we have time for the shopping trip and to prep. Not to mention it helps to wait til we get paid before we go do a big shopping trip like this.

Below I have listed the recipes we prepped during round 1 and the recipes we have on our shopping list for round 2 (*some recipes are on both, those are family favorites that we had to make again).

Round 1

Round 2

Chicken Thigh Osso Buco

Italian Chicken with Wilted Baby Kale

Thai Chicken Thighs