10 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals in Less Than 90 Minutes!
- Posted on
- 36 Comments
Our first freezer meal post (8 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals in 1 Hour) was such a success and we have had so many requests for another post, so we wanted to share 10 more meals that you could make in about 90 minutes! We also gave you more side dish suggestions for an easy way to complete the meal.
We included another recipe sheet and shopping list that can be printed off (scroll down to the bottom and you will find them).
Slow Cooker Black Bean and Corn Salsa Chicken
Ingredients:
2 (14 oz) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Slow Cooker BBQ Cranberry Chicken
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breasts
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1 (16 oz) can whole cranberry sauce
1 cup barbecue sauce
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag and zip closed. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.
Side dish idea:
Baked potatoes and a side of stuffing
Slow Cooker Beef and Mushrooms
Ingredients:
3 lbs stew meat, cubed
1 (10.75 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
2 (4 oz each) cans mushrooms, with liquid
1/2 cup apple juice
1 (1 oz) packet dry onion soup mix
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Zip closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 6 hours or LOW for 10 hours.
Serve over rice.
Side dish idea:
Oven-Roasted Vegetables
Slow Cooker Pineapple Glazed Ham
Ingredients:
4 thick slices of boneless ham, fully cooked (I cut mine about 3/4″ thick)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (optional)
Directions:
Mix together brown sugar, pineapple, and mustard in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Place ham slices inside and zip bag closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 5-6 hours.
Side dish idea:
Cheesy Potatoes
Slow Cooker Sweet and Tangy Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 (12 oz) jar chili sauce
1 (16-18 oz) jar grape jelly
1 (2 lb) package frozen meatballs
Directions:
In a bowl, combine chili sauce and grape jelly until smooth. Place meatballs in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Pour in the chili sauce mixture and mix together in the bag until thoroughly combined. Zip bag closed.
Side dish idea:
Broccoli Salad
Mom’s Slow Cooker Chili
Ingredients:
Slow Cooker Sweet Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts
Directions:
Mix together soy sauce, sugar, garlic salt and chopped onion in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Place chicken breasts inside the bag and zip closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 7-8 hours.
Serve over rice.
Side Dish Idea:
Honey Roasted Carrots
Slow Cooker Italian Beef Sandwiches
Ingredients:
3 lb bottom round beef roast
2 (1 oz each) packages dry Italian salad dressing mix
1 cup water
1 (16 oz) jar pepperoncini peppers (can substitute milder, sweeter peppers if desired)
Directions:
Mix together salad dressing mixes, water, and peppers in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Add the roast and zip the bag closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 7 hours or LOW for 10-12 hours.
Serve on your favorite kind of buns.
Side dish idea:
Baked Potato Wedges
Slow Cooker Creamy Salsa Chicken
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts
1 (16 oz) jar chunky salsa
1 (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup
Directions:
Mix together salsa and chicken soup in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Add chicken breasts and zip closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.
When finished cooking, shred chicken and serve over rice, with tortilla chips, over a salad, in tortilla shells, or wrapped in a soft tortilla (this meat is so versatile). Garnish with cheese, sour cream, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and hot sauce.
Side dish idea:
Easy Guacamole or Skillet Queso Dip
Slow Cooker Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs pork chops, boneless (about 4-6 chops, thick sliced)
6-8 medium potatoes, chopped into large pieces
2 (10.75 oz each) cans cream of chicken soup
2 (1 oz each) packages dry Ranch dressing mix
1 cup milk
Dried parsley to sprinkle on top (optional)
Directions:
In a bowl, mix together the soups, milk, and ranch dressing mixes and pour into a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Combine all other ingredients together and zip closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.
Use the extra sauce in the slow cooker as a gravy for the potatoes and the pork chops. Sprinkle with dried parsley if you want.
Side dish idea:
5 Cup Creamy Fruit Salad
(This picture is actually from the first 8 Freezer Meals that I put together- you can find those recipes and shopping list HERE).
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Do you cook these meals before you freeze them?
The only thing that I cooked was the ground beef in the chili meal. Everything else was raw. I know that some people worry about using raw meat mixed with other ingredients, but I have never had a problem and I have been doing this for years.
2. How many people does each meal feed?
Each of these meals makes enough for my family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids), plus 2 more servings for myself and my husband the next day (so about 6 servings). However, my kid servings are smaller than my adult servings, so keep that in mind.
3. Do I need to blanch the vegetables to keep them from going soggy?
I have made these recipes many times and frozen them many times and have never had a problem with soggy or mushy vegetables.
Other tips and suggestions:
-Don’t forget to add Ziploc gallon-sized freezer bags to your shopping list!
-All of these recipes can lay pretty flat, making them easy to stack in your freezer (they really won’t take up much room).
-They seem to work best in the slow cooker if you can let them thaw in the fridge for about 24 hours before serving them. If you are not able to thaw them beforehand, plan on them cooking for a lot longer in the slow cooker.
-Slow Cooker Liners will make clean up a breeze!
the link to the 8 freezer meals is not going to the right post… i’d love to see it; could you fix it? thanks!
These look wonderful! I can’t wait to try them(as well as the original 8 meals in an hour) when I move into my new apartment! Thanks for making good homecooked meals so easy to do!
http://foodie-on-foot.blogspot.com
I love my crock pot and am always looking for new recipes! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for your visit to my chocolate blog, Once Upon a Chocolate Life! The Joy the Baker brownies are fabulous!
I wish I had been able to attend the blog conference, will you be doing an ebook with the information from the conference for thos of us who were unable to make it?
I am fascinated by your growth and look forward to learning more about it!
We have audio recordings and some classes videotaped. We will be offering it soon. We are still getting it all together. Should be ready in the next week or so. -The Six Sisters
I’ll be watching for it, too!
Because it is just my husband and I, I split my freezer meals in half so I have twice as many. I also do this with casserole (to be baked in the oven), making them in two foil lined square dishes and freezing them. Then I can pop them out, wrap them in the foil and place in freezer bags. Thanks for sharing these!
I’ve made the original 8 meals several times already and can’t wait to try these, too. BTW, it’s even better when you have a prep party with a friend or two and a bottle of wine!
Here is the link to the original 8 meals if any one else is looking!
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/09/slow-cooker-freezer-meals-make-8-meals.html
Would already frozen chicken work, provided I didn’t let it defrost?
Yes, frozen would work great!! In fact, that is what I used for all my chicken recipes.
I used frozen chicken too. It’s way cheaper than buying fresh. I loved your recipes BTW. I tried to blog about it, but blogger wasnt working
oh well, I will get it up soon! Im cooking the Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes tonight!
I saw a couple of different pins about freezer meals, and have been wanting to dust of the ole’crock pot and give it a try. thank you for sharing your ideas!
Lisa
http://wholesouljewelry.blogspot.com/
This has become my favorite way to meal plan/ grocery shop/ and cook. Making slow cooker-freezer meals in advance saves me time and momey! Thank you so much for these new recipes!!
Awesome….im always looking for great slow cooker recipes. Can’t wait to try a few of these!
We just made the original 8 meals and are so excited to have our freezer stocked for baby #5! I’m excited to try these next! Thanks!!!!!!!!
This is amazing – thank you!
Thanks for all of the slow cooker ideas! Sometimes I feel like I make the same things in the slow cooker…it will be nice to switch the recipes up a bit! Thanks for sharing:)
Shannon
http://www.cozycountryliving.com
Just what I needed! Trying the pork chops this week
Love that I can print them all together, I have 80lbs of chicken coming in April so this will be a great way to use some of it!
What wonderful ideas you have here! We use our crockpot *reasonably* often, but I want to teach our kids more crockpot recipes…. I’ve just found my perfect answer, right here!
Off to write my shopping list
Thank you so much for doing this!! Love it
Thanks for the great recipes and organized list! I made these this morning and followed everything to the letter. I can’t wait to eat these now! I hope you don’t mind, but I blogged about my experience
http://thisbountifulbackyard.com/2013/02/23/slow-cooker-freezer-meals-10-in-90/
This is a fantastic idea – and would be so easy/compatible with my lifestyle as a student!
Sheree
The Hartungs Blog
thehartungs.blogspot.ca
This is a great idea, too bad that most recipes have so much processed canned goods.. or lots of sugar
Will try a few of your recipes with substitutes, thanks for the great post however!
Thanks for the recipes. I am new to freezer cooking and a fairly poor cook, in general.
I made the Beef and Mushrooms. The flavor of the beef was great, but the sauce was a thin liquid with a lot of floating particles. My 18-month-old loved the meal over rice. She hardly eats anything, so I’ll make it again.
Do you have any suggestions for the sauce? Did I do something wrong?
I just made all 10 and stocked my freezer! Thank you for the shopping list – that was awesome! With kids activities, these will be awesome. I can not wait to eat.
For the beef and mushrooms how did it come out so dark? I made mine exact and it was very watery and light brown lol but it was delish!
Preparing meals for my daughter who is due to deliver her second baby in a few weeks. I am so appreciative for this web site. I do have a question about freezing the potatoes, do they turn black when frozen? Again, thank you for this site.
We have not had a problem with potatoes going black.
Most make-aheads I’ve seen involve a lot of chopping fresh produce, so that makes sense to do all the chopping in one day. But these are mostly dump recipes, using prepared, mostly shelf-stable items, not worth freezer space IMO, use the valuable freezer space just for the meats. It’s not like dump recipes take that much time to prepare individually.
ya but these are awesome for when your husband is working late and u can’t eat as a family. i just put stuff in the slow cooker then when i come home it’s already done then when he comes home at like 11 or 12 at night he can still have a hot dinner waiting for him. i love it and thanks so much for posting these on here. i look forward to seeing more.
What do you think about slicing up fresh mushrooms for the beef and mushrooms recipe? I’ve never frozen fresh mushrooms and then cooked them, but I prefer fresh over canned. Good or bad idea? Love all your recipes btw! I’ve made the 8 freezer meals before and it is just the most fabulous thing to pull a home-prepared meal out of the freezer!
Fresh mushrooms should work fine. Best of luck to you!
Just made most of the recipes from the first post. It was so easy and they look great, I can’t wait to try them! Thanks for the great post.
Out of desperation last month, I quickly scanned a few websites for freezer meals and found this one. I printed off the grocery list, sprinted to the store and later that night…had a freezer full of meals!! Bulk meat prices were good, so I stocked up. I had enough ingredients to make FIFTEEN meals for my family of 5. One evening: 15 meals. I love you, sisters. I really, really love you. Oh…my family does too!
I am gone from home 9+ hours a day. If I put these into my crock frozen, and cook on low, would that work? I tried out this method using recipes from another site last year, and while I liked the process I didn’t much care for the food. These look more like foods we would actually eat!
We have only made them as the recipe directs. Putting them in the crock pot frozen and on the low setting will definitely buy you some more time. Let us know how it works.