28 Meals in 3 Hours - Freezer to Crockpot Monthly Cooking

8:45 AM


Crockpot meals have always been an easy go-to solution for me. I am not in love with the idea of cooking, so anything that means I get to spend less time in the kitchen is a win for me. In the past, I have posted a how to on freezer to crockpot monthly cooking where it took me 4 1/2 hours to put up 25 meals. I have also posted a month of Paleo friendly freezer to crockpot meals. Well, I must be getting better at this, because this month it only took me 3 hours to put away 28 meals for the month. These meals make it easy to just pop them in the slow cooker in the morning or afternoon and have dinner ready in the evening.

A few notes first:

1. If your meat is coming out dry and chewy, try these tips on how to keep meat moist.
2. I am including the links to the recipes I used, but I adapted some to fit out needs, and some were not specifically freezer meals, but I did turn them into them, so you may need to make changes too.
3. These recipes create main dishes for your meal, you may still need to spend five minutes making veggies, rice or noodles to go with your meal. Five minutes beats an hour in the kitchen any day.
4. You can freezer cook for a month if you have a small freezer. I do it all the time!
5. Freezer to crockpot meals can be really yummy, and aren't all about cream of this or that soups.
6. I like to see how crockpot meals look before I make them, so I will be uploading photo of our finished meals as I make them, so you can check back for those.
7. I use boneless skinless thighs instead of breasts where possible because they don't dry out as easily.

Okay, now that all that is out of the way you have to prep! I like to copy all the ingredients and instructions for each recipe into a Word document along with the link to the recipe and a link to any side dishes I want to make for each meal. I print that out and then make my grocery list from there, and keep it handy when filling and labeling bags.


Get all your ingredients out including meat and leave them on the counter for easy access. Open cans and chop veggies first, then you can start filling bags.


After that, it is just a matter of labeling bags and filling them up. I make two of each recipe, some people like to make four of each, and then you only need 7 recipes, but we like a more varied menu. I also like to fill the bags for one recipe at a time, but some people like to line up all the bags and do them all at once. It all comes down to personal preference.

Recipes:

Spinach Stuffed Cubed Steaks I did not use the toothpicks in these, just rolled them up good.
Mongolian Beef This is one that was not made as a freezer meal. I rolled the meat in cornstarch first, then placed it in the bag with the other ingredients. 
Chicken Spaghetti
Bacon Meatloaf I made my usual meatloaf with this and just added in cheese and bacon.
Peking Chicken
Chicken Taco Soup
Balsamic Glazed Drumsticks
Beef Tips with Gravy
Salsa Chicken
Root Beer Pulled Pork Yes, you can freeze the root beer.
Asian Pot Roast

smothered crockpot burritos


If you try any of these recipes or have one of your own to share, please leave it in the comment section below, I would love to hear it!

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42 comments

  1. Yum! These look delicious! I want to hear if you like that Asian pot roast.

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  2. I love freezer cooking. Just a few hours of work can eliminate stress during the week. I'm hoping to have 30 meals frozen before Brynlee arrives so I'm definitely going to check out these recipes. Thanks for the tips!

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  3. I am hoping it turns out good Marybeth, because the roasts were $13 each LOL. Will definitely update the post with any we didn't like once we try them.

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  4. I go in spurts where I will do freezer meals and then not do them again for 6 months It just makes so much more sense and will save you money in the long run too!

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  5. Oh Root Beer Pulled pork...I'm going to try that, I was going to buy root beer today anyway!

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  6. I've only done freezer cooking during pregnancies. I need to do it all the time!

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  7. You go girl! I need to get on the ball and get 28 meals made in 3 hours. What a time saver.

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  8. Okay, I've never made up freezer meals to make in the crockpot, but I AM doing this! How smart! Thank you so much for sharing this!

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  9. I love Crockpot meals. Though I never thought to freeze them!

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  10. This list is amazing! Saving for when I travel so my husband and daughter aren't eating out every night.

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  11. Ok seriously, I love this. I would be so happy to have those frozen meals, but girl, I am so stinkin' lazy that I don't know if I could force myself to do all that in one fell swoop. I might die!

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    1. Omgosh I think you read my thoughts exactly lol...but I'm gonna try...for real :)

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  12. I really need to try this once a month freezer thing. We resort to chicken nuggets and macaroni way more often than I would like to admit.

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  13. I need to really figure out how to make time to make all this cause in the end all that time will save me LOADS of time. I feel like my freezer burns things though :( (freezer burn) quickly.

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  14. I didn't really use my slow cooker much in the summer, but I'm hoping to get more usage out of it soon!

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  15. This is awesome! I love how you stacked up all of the freezer bags! =) Thanks for including my post.

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  16. I always use chicken thighs for our crockpot meals too.... they are just AMAZING and so much better than a chicken breast in the slow cooker!

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  17. I love how you did this!!I wish I had a bigger freezer but we are planning to get a chest freezer.Thanks for sharing!

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  18. Few questions as I have never done this before. What kind of bags do you use? Do you double bag? When you put the meat in is it cooked??? I am obviously not a cooker...lol. Thank you for your wonderful recipes!!!

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  19. I use the best quality freezer zip locks that I can find. Make sure they are the good name brand ones and that they specifically say "freezer" on them. Most recipes do not have the meat cooked before it goes in. Things like roasts I will usually just brown on the outside to give it pretty coloring, but you don't have to.

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    1. Stupid question...when you do this do you put the liquid in also like the beef broth...then freeze?

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  20. i would love to do this. it would help me out alot

    freebiel0ve@yahoo.com

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  21. WOW you rock!!!! That is beyond awesome I so need to do this. Those smothered burrito's look heavenly!!

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  22. Do you get these out of the freezer the night before cooking them? Or put them in frozen? I haven't looked at the recipes yet but this is great!

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  23. Juli, I do take them out the night before to let it thaw a bit in the fridge before putting it in the next day. You can put them in if they are still a little frozen, it won't hurt anything.

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  24. Thanks for the post. I can't wait to try these. Any suggestions for modifying cook times? Most recipes call for 4-5 hrs in the slow cooker. I work outside the home and I'm gone about 7 hrs.

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  25. Can I ask where you purchase the beef products? Will the ones from Wal-Mart get tender in a crockpot? Chicken is chicken, but beef is another story and I'm not keen on the kind that turns out like shoe leather. I just see myself needing to try that option to be able to afford the first initial large food purchase. I'm really looking forward to trying this out, too. I'm tired of hot dogs and chicken nuggets when pressed for time.

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  26. Temesia I buy all my meat at Publix, but I would say Walmart meat would probably get tender as well. My suggestion is to just buy the best quality meat you can comfortably afford. :)

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  27. Steel Magnolia, when a recipe calls for 4-5 hours, it is generally on a high setting, you could swap it out for 7-8 hours on low instead, or you could invest in a crockpot that has a delayed start timer on it.

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  28. Sooooo really dumb question. Do you put the bag and all in the crockpot? Or dump the bag. Thanks.

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  29. There are no dumb questions. :) Just dumb the contents of the bag into the crockpot and then toss the bag in the trash. Or, if you're my mom you can wash the bag and reuse it. :)

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  30. Is there any item that is better off not freezing and adding to cooker once cooking?

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    1. If I make any meals with potatoes, I like to wait and add those the day of. Some people prefer to do that for almost all of their vegetables, but I have not see the need for others. Any milk or cream based items I like to add the day off too, with the exception of cream of whatever soups, those I just freeze. Cheese is another thing I like to add the day of cooking as well.

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  31. Okay, never done these before so this may be a stupid question but do u cook your meat first before u put in the zip lock bags? Or does everything go in the bags raw?

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    1. Not a dumb question at all. It really is a matter of preference with most people. There is absolutely no need to cook the meat before freezing it, but some people like too. If you are making ground beef and want it to look browned then you may want to cook it ahead and just shorten the cook time a bit of move it to low instead of high. Some people also like to quickly sear meats like roasts to add some color to them as well, but it is not necessary.

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  32. Kathleen - do you have your word docs and grocery lists available to share?

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  33. Unfortunately I don't Rachel. I have had several computers crash and burn since I initially posted this, and the files were lost. However, it has definitely given me something to think about for future roundup monthly posts. I could include the file in the post so others could access.

    By the way, look for a new post with all new recipes coming within the next month, and new recipes will be going up throughout November as well!

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  34. I really LOVE the idea! of your posts like this However, I keep noticing that you often post recipes in these 3-4 hour freezer/crock pot prep guides that you yourself haven't tried yet. That's kind of confusing for this setting. While it's fine to list ones you haven't yet tried but perhaps identify those separately or something. I personally would be more interested in the recipes you have tried and you and your family have loved and ESPECIALLY a compilation of all of your tried and true freezer2crockpot favorites. :)

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    1. Hi Mindy, thanks so much for stopping by. I put up these overall posts right after I do a big freezer to crockpot meal stock up. I do this so I do not lose or forget any of the information. However, we have tried all of the meals in these posts. You will find if you go back through the different posts, that if we did not care for a certain meal, I have gone back and edited to add that information. If I waited until we had tried one of each of the meals to put up the post, it likely would never go up because I would forget about it. This way, it gets up and then I go back in and edit to add details as we try the meals.

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