Slow Cooker Freezer Meal: Fall Chili

Recognize that bowl?  It is the Tommee Tippee Explora bowl and easi--mat bowl that I gave away on the MBL Facebook page last week.  I hope to do some more exclusive giveaways just for my Facebook "likers" so if you are not there yet, get thyself to Facebook!


Tommee Tippee also has a cool new digital storybook feature on their site called The Day Baby Was Born, I can't wait to try out for baby number 2.


I liked these bowls for when Penelope eats soup, or in this case chili, since it keeps the bowl in place via a suction cup type thing. She still makes a mess, because she wants to do everything herself, but this eliminates the possibility of the bowl being flung across the table and chili ending up on my curtains.  

I have been making chili since college.  It was one of the very first things I learned how to make.  I did not grow up cooking, so when I got to college I had no idea how to feed myself anything other than pre-made, packaged foods.  


To remedy that, I hired Jill Welch, a personal chef (aka the Kitchen Goddess and also a home birth midwife) and she gave me a few private cooking lessons.   


I have changed her recipe over the years and it has morphed into what is below.  I usually only make it once a year on Halloween.

1 medium onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 large garlic cloves
2 lbs ground beef
4 cups of kidney beans
4 cups of pinto beans
2 cans crushed tomatoes
3 bay leaves
salt
chili powder 
cilantro


Soak beans overnight.  Chop all veggies.  Add meat, then veggies on top, into slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  


*This makes a ton of chili.  As you can see, it fills my 6 quart slow cooker up, which is great, because that means lots of chili to put in the deep freezer!


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Flank Steak Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes

After I organized my deep freezer, I thought it might be a good idea to bunch recipes together based on what cut is nearest/easiest to pull out.


So these are both recipes for flank steaks.  If you wanted to, you could use a chuck roast or other type of cut.


Since I bought 1/8 of cow, all my meat is already frozen.  So this time all I did was chop the veggies, add the ingredients and put them in a bag by themselves.  For those of you who were worried about putting raw meat (read the comment section) in a bag with veggies, this eliminates that.  On cook day, you dump in the meat first and then your bag of veggies and seasoning.  Or another reader suggested bagging the meat in a small bag and then putting it in the larger bag with the veggies.  


I don't think there is any problem putting meat and veggies together, because you immediately put it the freezer and when you take it out you immediately cook it.




Peanut Stew:

Flank Steak, enough for 4 to 6 servings (1-2 pounds, depending on your family)
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons of minced fresh ginger
1/2 of a head of cabbage chopped
4 sweet potatoes chopped
1 can of tomatos with liquid
1 cup chicken broth
salt
cayenne pepper


Add day of:
a bag of frozen peas
1 cup peanut butter


Chop all vegetables and assemble all ingredients into plastic freezer bag, except peas and peanut butter. Day of cooking, dump everything in the main bag into crock pot/slow cooker, and set to cook on low for 8 hours.  Add the bag of frozen peas and peanut butter the last thirty minutes of cooking.


Flank Steak Fajitas:

Flank Steak, enough for 4 to 6 servings (1-2 pds, depending on your family)


1 large onion, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can chopped tomatoes
chili powder
cumin
coriander
salt
lime juice


Chop all vegetables and assemble all ingredients into plastic freezer bags. Day of cooking, dump everything in the main bag into crock pot, and set to cook on low for 8 hours.  Serve with tortillas, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.


Check out my other Slow Cooker Freezer Meals and other recipes here.


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Deep Freezer Organization Tips

A couple of weeks ago, we bought a 1/8 of a cow.  It was a big ass cow.  Our 1/8 was 99 pounds of meat.
We split the cow with several other people and my friend did all the organizing and picked the meat up from the butcher, which was so helpful.


We paid $324 for 99 pounds of beef.  That includes all the butchers fees.  So it came out to be $3.27 a pound.  And if you buy grass fed, organic beef from the grocery store, you know that is an AMAZING price.


We mostly got ground beef and chuck roasts, but we did get several steaks and ribs.   I am very curious to see how long this much meat lasts us.


When we got the meat home, my deep freezer looked like this:

NOT OK, in my organized OCD home.  Something had to be done, not only because it makes my skin crawl, but when you have organized home and know where everything is, you save time, eliminate stress and have more time for fun stuff.  


Organizing things happens to be fun for me, but I digress.


I decided to organize my deep freezer like it was organized when it was full of breast milk (at the peak, the deep freezer and our inside fridge freezer were full to the MAX).  


My husband, the Engineer (also a bit OCD), had the genius idea of putting the bags of breast milk into plastic containers and sorting them by month.  Then placing them in the deep freezer oldest at top (to be used first).


So I did the same thing this time, but organized it by cut.  So all my ground beef is one container, all my roasts in another etc.  I labeled all the containers and made an inventory list.  I will be able to glance at the list and know when I am getting low.


I have all my bags of slow cooker freezer meals in there as well, and I just lay them flat where I can.  Then I have odds and ends (salmon, pastry dough from Miami to make empanadas, etc).  I also put all those small odds and ends  into a container, so I don't have to pull out 50 million things looking for what I need.

We also have a fridge in the garage, with a freezer.  It houses all my homemade stock.  And our freezer in the house, stores all my frozen fruit to make Penelope's smoothies, her smoothie jars themselves and the random pint of ice cream for my husband (I am a cookie girl).


What is your best freezer organizational tip?  I am always looking for ways to take my organization to the next level! 





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Orange-Beef Stew, Chicken n' Cherries, French Beef Dip Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

My new recipes are finally here!  It has been such a joy having an increase in readership these last couple of weeks and meeting all you wonderful new readers that found me because of my original post on slow cooker freezer meals.  I love that you all have stuck around and started to read my posts on other topics.

Last week, I put together three new recipes and I think you will really like them.   Before I give you the recipes I wanted to take a moment to address some of the questions that you had about the other recipes.

• Several people had concerns about mixing raw meat and the veggies in one bag.  I am no expert, but I think because you are putting the ingredients in the bag and immediately putting it in the freezer and then the day you cook it, straight from freezer to slow cooker, that it is not a problem.  I prep all my veggies the night before and make labels.  Then the day of, I assemble all my dry ingredients into sections, then put all veggies, sauces, dry ingredients into the bags. The very last thing I do is put the meat in.  So there is very little time that the meat is out, before I put it in the freezer. 

• Texture.  Several people said the texture was soupy.  Pretty much all my recipes are a form of a stew.  I always serve my recipes with rice or cous-cous, or make a sandwich with it (usually for lunch).  I like it that way, but I realize that is not for everyone.

• Adding in last minute ingredients.  If a recipe calls for broth, I add it the day of and do not put it in the bag with the other ingredients.  I will do a better job of describing which items go in the bag to freeze and what items you toss in the day of cooking.

• Doubling. The recipes below have already been doubled, but if you have a large family, you might want to double them again.  Each recipe below, yields me two bags of food.  So if it says 2 cans of pitted cherries, that would be one can per bag.  Each bag, usually yields us two dinners and a lunch.  We are a small family of two adults and one toddler.  

• I use gallon size bags.  I hand write a label with name of recipe, date I freeze it and any thing I need to add the day of like, broth.  Then I double bag it.  I am working on getting some super cute labels made so you can print out your own labels (my gift to you!) to go along with each recipe, so stay tuned for those!

After I assemble the ingredients, I lay the bags flat and get all the air out.  As I am getting the air out, I mix everything up in the bag, so all the veggies and meat are coated in the sauce/spice mix.  Then I place them in my freezer flat, so they freeze like bricks, just like I do with breast milk storage bags.

So, without further adieu, the  September Mama and Baby Love Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes!!  And remember, if you sign up for my newsletter, you will get a sneak peak of recipes before anyone else does.  

Chicken n' Cherries

5 pounds of chicken breast ( I used chicken strips, it saved me time on cutting up the breasts)
2 cans of pitted cherries (glass jars are better, even organic cans have BPA in them)
Chili Sauce ( I used a couple of tablespoons in each bag, because the sauce I bought was super spicy, so add as much or as little as you want in accordance with your families taste)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Assemble all ingredients into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4.  You can shred chicken if you want, or leave in chunks.  Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.

French Beef Dip

5 pounds of rump roast or bottom round beef (cut into smaller sections, not tiny, just enough to fit into the bag, you can cut them up more after they are cooked)
4 packages of portobello mushrooms, leave them whole.
2 14 ounces of beef broth (add day of)
2 onions chopped

Assemble all ingredients(except broth) into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker and add broth.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4.  You can shred chicken if you want, or leave in chunks.  Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.  This recipe makes extra liquid, for dipping if you make sandwiches.


Orange-Beef Stew

4-5 pounds of flank steak (cut into smaller sections, not tiny, just enough to fit into the bag, you can cut them up more after they are cooked)
2 cups orange juice
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
8 green onions chopped

Add day of cooking:
2 packages of frozen spinach
1 8 ounce can of water chesnuts
2 teaspoons of beef bouillion 

Assemble all ingredients (except spinach, water chesnuts and beef bouillion) into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker and add spinach, water chesnuts and beef bouillion.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4. Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.

So there you have it.  I love all the feedback from the other recipes, so please tell me if you have any ideas and how you like the flavor when you make it.

By Best Kids Health Blog

Moroccan Lamb, Italian Beef and Cranberry Chicken Freezer Meals

The menu I did recently was Moroccan Lamb Stew, Italian Beef Stew and Cranberry Chicken.

A trick that I have learned, for an even speedier assembly of meals, is to group all ingredients first.  Sometimes you have items that overlap, like chopped onions, that go into to different recipes. Just separate them out as much as you can, and then go down the line.

First, I assemble all dry ingredients and vegetables in the gallon bags.  Then I add the raw meat last.  This time I bought my meat already cubed, so that save me a bunch of time.

Doing my big cooking day this way (with only slow cooker meals), I do this about every two weeks.  I do three different recipes and double each recipe for a total 6 bags of food.  Each bag, is two dinners and lunch, so that leaves several days that we can use to eat out, or if I get inspired to cook something not in our freezer meal rotation, like a roast chicken.


Not including grocery shopping time, it takes me less than two hours to chop all the veggies, assemble the bags and clean up.  

Pretty awesome, right?!

Here are the recipes, and remember we always buy all organic ingredients.

Cranberry Chicken:
2 medium apples, cut into wedges
1 medium onion, chopped
2 pounds chicken breasts or thighs
2 lemons cut into wedges
2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
2 tablespoons honey
1 can of cranberry sauce (or you can use fresh cranberries if they are in season)

Dump everything into gallon freezer bag and label.  When ready to cook, dump into slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours.  Serve with rice or couscous.

Moroccan Lamb Stew:
2 pounds boneless lamb
2 large onions chopped
1 can/1 cup chopped tomato
2 cups carrots
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of red pepper
.5 cup of raisins

Dump everything into gallon freezer bag and label (except broth, just add that the day you cook it).  When ready to cook, dump into slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours.  Serve with couscous.

Italian Beef:
4 pounds of beef sirloin or rump roast, cubed
1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 red peppers, thinly sliced.

Dump everything into gallon freezer bag and label (except broth, just add that the day you cook it.) When ready to cook, dump into slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours.  Serve with couscous, or on rolls to make a sandwich or even on a pizza and add some cheese.

Enjoy!!