Freezer Crockpot Meal Bags

Recently I came across the concept of FREEZER Crockpot Meal Bags. Basically it's where you prep the whole recipe, place it in a bag in the freezer, thaw it the night before, and then plop it in the crockpot the day of! I found out about it via a google image search for regular crockpot recipes, and then a site called: MamaAndBabyLove.com


I couldn't imagine being on my feet for as long as it would take to grocery shop, wash, and prep everything, especially at nine months pregnant; so, last Saturday my mom visited and helped me do this for 8 freezer meals. (Thank you Mama!)Below is basically how we did it, and what I learned. 

ADVICE/GUIDELINES: 
So, first, is recipe selection. Select your recipes wisely, or modify them. Don't even try to freeze sour cream, creams, cheeses and other dairy products, or delicate vegetables and fresh herbs such as green onions, parsley or cilantro. Stir those ingredients into the recipe at the end of the cooking time, or garnish on individual servings.

Planning/Timing: If you're gonna be making many meals with dried beans or beef/steak meals that require soaking the beans overnight or browning of the meat, you may want to do those tasks, plus washing your veggies the night before so everything's ready to go in the morning. (Otherwise, if you do everything all in the same day, the beans stay too firm (for my taste), the meat doesn't cool fast enough to put into bags, and the veggies take forever to wash!) Just a suggestion that I wish we would've thought of; but, it's your choice of course.

To start Prep Work: clean/sanitize your entire countertop. Pull all needed spices, condiments and sauces out so they're ready to go. Drain & rinse any canned beans. Start to wash, and cut all your veggies to their sizes. Then place them all assembly-line style down the counter. **Tip:   prep your potatoes and onions last so they don't brown too much, nor stink up the kitchen, respectively! 

Before Filling bags: Label each on a FLAT surface (Yes, I learned that the hard way! heehee) Recipe Name /Date, Cooking time/Setting, Anything that will need added in (water, broth, cilantro, etc)

Lastly, I did see 2 advisories somewhere online: 1) About Needing to THAW out the bag the night before to prevent your crock from cracking!  And 2) That you don't want to skimp on the quality of the freezer bags. I don't KNOW that either is mandatory, but you wouldn't want to learn the hard way, right!?  

MY RECIPES: 

The weird thing I found while researching...as usual, the measurement were given in typical 'cups', etc. BUT I needed to know HOW MANY of each veggie to buy. So, I changed the recipes I found to show the NUMBER of veggies I needed. Sorry if that's confusing for you; I wasn't planning on posting them. It's really a personal choice of proportion anyway - answering for yourself which veggies you want to dominate according to your tastes.  

With all that said, here are the 4 recipes I came up with: I'm gonna try cooking each for: 6Hrs on LOW and see how they turn out in my 3qt crockpot. Wish me luck cause the recipes I used CANNOT be called *TESTED* until I eat them in about a month from now when baby's born :-P

BEEF STEW:
3 carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 yellow squash, diced
3/4 cup green beans, fresh or frozen, diced
1 med onion, diced (or 1 tablespoon onion powder) 
1 1/2 potatoes, cubed
1 lb. Beef Stew Meat, cubed
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained


2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp. beef bouillon
1 tsp chopped garlic (chopped, diced, or pureed)
1/4 tsp pepper (white or black)
1 tsp salt 
2 T. A/P flour
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
**ADD:  2 cups water to crockpot


POT ROAST: 

6 carrots, large cut OR 1 bag  baby carrots

4 stalks celery, large cut

1 large onion (or 2 med.) large cut

5 med potatoes, large cut

2lb beef, large cut & browned/pan seared & cooled

2 tsp beef bouillon

2 tsp garlic puree

1/2 tsp pepper (white or black)

1 tsp salt

1tsp onion powder

2 bay leaves

**NO WATER ADDED

BEAN CHILI: 

1 zucchini, diced

1 med. green pepper, diced

1 med. onion, diced

2 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cans dark kidney beans, drained

1 can black beans, drained

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp garlic puree

1/4 tsp pepper (white or black) 

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp onion powder 

1 T. cumin powder

2 T chili powder

VEGGIE SOUP: 

1 carrot, diced/grated

1 stalk celery, diced

1 cup green beans, diced (fresh or frozen)

1/2 zucchini, diced

1/2 squash, diced 

1 med onions, diced

1/2 potato, diced  

1 cup Peas, frozen

1 cup Corn, frozen 

1/2 cup lima beans, frozen

2 can tomatoes, diced

1 can navy beans , drained 

1tsp garlic puree

1/2 onion powder

1/4 tsp pepper (white or black)

1tsp salt

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp paprika