Frozen Crock-pot Meals! Grocery List and Recipes.

I decided to try out some make-ahead crock-pot meals a few months ago. They seemed to be a great way to prep for the baby. Meals I only have to think about for the two minutes it takes to pull them out of the freezer and throw them into the crock-pot? Perfect.
This is the third round of them that I have done, but the first time I have had a blog to talk about it.

The prep is pretty simple. Grocery store, lots of cutting and chopping, throw it in a bag. So here are the recipes. There are 8 different recipes total (each meal making about 4 servings) and I doubled up on everything but the Chicken Divan. I spent around $75 on groceries, making each meal $5. (That is $1.25 per serving!) I only prepped one meals worth of the Chicken Divan since it is a new recipe, and I want to try it out first.

Recipes

I cook all of the recipes on low temp. You can throw the meals straight from the freezer into the crock-pot... no need to thaw them. If you need to add an hour or two to the cooking time so it fits with your work schedule, you shouldn't see any issues.
(Disclosure... I put garlic in everything. I used a jar full of minced garlic and dumped a good helping in each bag. I guess my family will always be safe from vampires. With the garlic, I'll label the amount if the recipe normally calls for it.)

Pineapple BBQ Meatballs
16 oz frozen meatballs
1/2 cup pineapple (cubed)
1 green pepper (sliced)
1/2 cup onions (diced)
1 cup BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
Garlic

Cook time: 5-6 hours.  I serve this with brown rice.

Meatball Stroganoff
16 oz meatballs
1 cup onions (diced)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup mushrooms (sliced)
1/2 pack cream cheese*
4 oz sour cream*
Garlic

*You can add these ingredients in the last hour or two, but I see no harm in freezing them

Cook time: 5-6 hours. I like to serve this over egg noodles.

Mediterranean Pork Chops
3-4 pork chops
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chicken stock*
Garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 large potato
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp basil
1/2 cup onions (diced)

*I add this the day I am making the recipe. 

Cook time: 6-8 hours.  I like to serve this one with couscous.

Sausage and Peppers
1 lb sausage (sliced)
2 peppers (sliced)
1 cup onions (sliced)
2 cups diced tomato
Garlic (2 cloves)
2 Tbsp onion powder

Cook time: 6-8 hours. This is great over quinoa.

Chicken Cacciatore
1.5 lbs chicken (cubed)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 pepper (diced)
1 cup onion
1 can diced tomato
2 tomatoes (chopped)
1 cup mushrooms
1 Tbsp italian seasoning
Garlic (2 cloves)
1 can tomato paste
Italian herbs to taste

Cook time: 6-8 hours. Serve with a pasta of some sort.

Chicken Taco Soup
(This bag gets pretty full)
1.5 lbs chicken 
1 cup onion
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
2 cups frozen corn
1 can diced tomato
1 can rotel
1 cup chicken broth*
1 package taco seasoning
Garlic

*I add this in the day I am making the recipe. The bag is pretty full on this one, so I don't think it would fit anyways.

Cook time: 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken an hour before serving. I normally serve this with some cubed avocado and tortilla strips.

Chicken Divan
1.5 lbs chicken (cubed) 
1 bag frozen broccoli
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cook time: 6-8 hours. I haven't made this one yet, so I will probably just serve it over brown rice.

Buffalo Chicken Sliders
1.5 lbs chicken
1 cup onions
1 bottle Franks Buffalo Hot Sauce
1 packet dry ranch mix
Buns*

*This is for the day of, so it doesn't go in the bag. 

Cook time: 6-8 hours. Shred the chicken about an hour before serving and let it sit in the sauce. Serve on buns with some celery and ranch.

Grocery List

As far as a grocery list, I have made one for if you double each recipe. This will actually make 16 meals total. I hope you have room in your freezer!

- 12 pounds boneless/skinless chicken
- 2 pounds italian sausage
- 6-8 pork chops
- 2 32oz bags frozen meatballs
- 1 bag of onions (I think my bag had 6 giant onions in it)
- 2 large or 4 small packs of mushrooms
- 4 tomatoes
- 6 green peppers
- 2 large potatoes
- Minced garlic
- 2 bags frozen broccoli
- 1 bag frozen corn
- 1 small jar mayo
- 1 package cream cheese
- 1 8oz sour cream
- 1 small bag grated cheddar

- 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
- 4 cans cream of chicken soup
- 2 cans chili beans
- 2 cans black beans
- 6 cans diced tomato
- 2 cans tomato paste
- 2 can rotel
- 1 large can cubed pineapple
- 2 bottles Franks Buffalo Hot Sauce
- 2 packets ranch dry mix
- 1 bottle BBQ sauce
- 2 pack taco seasoning
- 1 pack buns (Hawaiian rolls are awesome for this recipe)

This grocery list is assuming you have the following in your pantry:
- Olive oil
- Chicken stock
- Paprika
- Oregano
- Basil
- Italian seasoning
- Lemon juice

As far as staying in the <$75 budget, I always make sure and go grocery shopping on Wednesdays. I prefer to get all of my meats and produce from Sprouts, and Wednesday is their double ad days. (Chicken was around $1.49/lb this week.) My best advice is to plan ahead and look at local ads. I don't coupon the way I should, but I do stick to the Wednesday shopping trips.

Food Prep

For food prep, I didn't take too many pictures... It's pretty self-explanatory.

Always label your bags before you fill them. I normally put the recipe name, date, and any ingredients that need to be added the day of (like chicken stock). You might want to add cooking time as well.

The whole prep for all 15 recipes took me about 2 hours. It's lots of chopping and cutting, measuring and pouring.

For ingredients that go in many recipes (like onions or peppers) I cut them all at once. Then I use something (like my awesome measuring scoop here) to measure out what goes into each bag.

I'm really not exact with my measurements. Here you can see 2 "cups" of mushrooms. I actually just cup up the rest of the mushrooms I had, divided it in two, and added it to the two remaining stroganoff bags.

Once all of the ingredients are in the bag, seal it up and give it a good shake. This will make sure everything is nice and mixed and is getting a good marinade.

Here is a look at the back of my freezer. As I finish a meal, I fold it up and throw it in the freezer. Speaking of folding bags, I try to make sure they freeze in a position that will fit in my crock-pot. If you have a large, family-sized crock-pot I imagine this isn't a worry for you, but I just have the basic small version since it is just Mike and me.

There you go. 15 (or 16) meals worth of food, 2 hours, and around $75 bucks. Keep an eye out for my next round of crock-pot freezer meals!

Make Ahead! Frozen Smoothie Packs

I love smoothies in morning... they're so refreshing and filling! I like to drink them on the back porch while I read a book, but my husband likes them because he can whip one up quickly before he heads to work. Unfortunately, I don't always have fresh fruit and yogurt on hand, so these make ahead packs are perfect.
For these packs we are going to use frozen fruit, so there are plenty of varieties that you can mix up.

Ingredients:

• Frozen Fruit (I used Mixed Berry and Strawberry)
• Bananas (1 small per pack or half a large per pack)
• Yogurt (Greek or regular)
• Flax Seed (Optional)
• Baby Spinach (Optional)
• 1 cup of Juice or Milk (This will not be frozen, but added when you make the smoothie)

 The first thing we need to do is freeze the yogurt. I use Greek yogurt because there are always some leftover cubes and I can utilize them in other recipes, but feel free to use any flavor/type that would go well with your fruit. Spoon the yogurt into ice cube trays and throw them in the freezer. It takes a couple of hours for them to really set up, so I normally do this step early in the morning. When you can pop them out from the back of the tray, you know they are ready.

For each pack we are going to use about 1 cup of frozen fruit, 1 small banana, and 2-3 frozen yogurt cubes. I put bananas in all of my smoothie packs. Not only are they my favorite fruit, but they make the smoothies extra creamy and delicious. I've found that the bags of fruit from Sprouts yield about 2.5 packs, so buy accordingly.

Throw all of these ingredients into a freezer storage bag. I like to label them with the type of smoothie and date (But make sure you write on the bag before you put all of your gubs in it).

At this point you could be finished, but I always add flax seed or spinach if I have them on hand. They beef up the smoothie and add some great nutritional value. Today I only had flax seed in my pantry, so 1 Tbs went into each bag.

When the time comes to make the smoothie, throw the contents of one bag into the blender and add 1 cup of juice. I love apple juice or coconut water, but again these are so versatile you can use anything.

And there we go! Once the yogurt is frozen, the total prep time is around a minute per pack. Get creative with this one. Pineapple and Mango with coconut water is great for a hot summer morning!

DIY - Tissue Paper Pom-poms

It's less than 12 weeks until Miles will be here! Naturally I have been in full-on nesting mode. The nursery is painted (and beautiful thanks to my husband and daddy) but it is still needing some pops of color.
Today's DIY is a really easy one. These are going to hang from the ceiling, but can easily be used as an inexpensive party decoration.

Materials:

•  4-6 pieces of tissue paper
• Breadties (I used two to make sure everything was really secure)
• Scissors

Start with 4-6 sheets of tissue paper. The more pieces you use, the thicker your pom-pom will be. I used 6 for this one.

 Cut your tissue paper into fourths and lay the pieces on top of each other. There is no need to measure and make sure they are perfectly even... they will still turn out great!

 Accordion fold the pieces together. I should take this time to note that I am in no way a photographer...

 Once everything is all folded, use the breadties to secure the tissue paper in the middle. It should look like a giant piece of farfalle at this point.

 Trim the edges so they are mostly even. I like to round them out, but you can just as easily trim it straight or make it come to a point to slightly change the way the pom-pom looks.

 Now for the fun part. Carefully separate each individual piece of tissue paper. Make sure the tissue paper does not tear... it's hard to hide tears in the final product.

 Halfway there!

Once you finish both sides, pull and crunch the tissue paper until it is round and puffy.

That's it! The whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes, and is a great, cheap little decoration.

The Start of a New Adventure

I've tossed around the idea of starting a blog when I stopped working. I am always making crafts and cooking, so why not share what I have done?  Since I'm expecting a little boy in August, I hope to use this blog to keep my sanity while also showing you some awesome things I've done!

My goal for this whole thing is to create a space where all of my projects and random thoughts can go. Each week, I'll do my best to have at least 3 posts. Something crafty, something delicious, and probably a few smatterings of baby posts.  I'm slightly obsessed with doing projects I've found on Pinterest, so once a week I will be testing pins. From here, they will be labeled as either "Win" or "Don't Pin". This way you can share in my victories, and hopefully save time from the failures.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my blog!