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!!

Freezer Cooking with Slow Cooker Recipes

Welcome, Pinners!  Please be sure to check out my Real Food tab at the top to find more slow cooker freezer meals!


Like I mentioned in my post the other week, the last time I did a big cooking day, I had big ah-ha moment.


Although, I had a blast with Lauren, it was logistically very difficult to accomplish, between the juggling of cooking and childcare, the prep work, organization and scheduling, it can be overwhelming.


So this latest big cooking day, I did it by myself and only did slow cooker recipes.  Basically, all I was did was chop vegetables and assemble ingredients.



Even with doing it this way, it was still a 3 hour affair, but during this time I was able to finish all the cooking AND the cleaning.  Most importantly my feet didn't ache at the end like they normally do.  I also didn't have any sort of panic or anxiety leading up to the big cooking day like I normally do. HUGE.

I chopped all the vegetables with Penelope in her Learning Tower before nap (which was really fun, I went through all the colors of the vegetables with her and talked about rainbows and made it a fun learning experience).


Then I assembled everything during her nap (thank you Jesus, I can now skip a pump session here and there and can do other things at nap time than sit in front of a computer) and finished cleaning up after nap, again with her in her Learning Tower.  


This time she played independently with a bowl of soapy water, she made a huge mess,  but the rags I used to clean up her mess where the same rags I used to clean up my mess so it wasn't that bad.

I just dumped the veggies into the gallon ziploc bags, then added the meat, then added the spices.


Once I was done and cleaned everything up, I felt like I had invented electricity!  I thought I was such a genius for finally (it took me over a year, people) getting once a month cooking down to an efficient and easy art form.

I am telling you it will change your life! Give it a try and tell me how it went!

Here are my recipes.  I use a ton of vegetables in each meal, because I don't tend to eat a lot of veggies through out the day, so I try and get them all in at dinner.  And Peter is more apt to eat veggies if they taste like barbecue or curry than as a plain side dish.


 
Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (I wasn't sure if this meant actual mustard or the spice so I did a little of both)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


Stephanie's Goulash
3 cups chopped onions
2.5 cups coarsely chopped green sweet peppers
4 large beets, peeled and diced
2 cups of carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one inch cubes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika or regular paprika (I used regular)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups hot cooked noodles
1/2 dairy sour cream


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. EXCEPT the sour cream, that is for garnish after the meal is cooked.


Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5 pounds chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes
2.5 cups baby carrots
2 cup coarsely chopped mango
1 cup chopped onion
1 zucchini chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken bouillon
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

Or on Facebook!

January Freezer Meals

I swear, one of the best parts of cooking a ton of food in one day, is the satisfaction of laying it all out and surveying all of your hard work.

This Once A Month Cooking round, I did it at my friend Lauren's house.  She has an awesome kitchen and tons of toys and her husband works from home, so he was able to step in and pitch hit, when needed.  Although, in true husband form, he wasn't that helpful, but it was a nice idea.  She also has a learning tower.  I had been wanting one for awhile, but after spending all day in the kitchen and using hers it sealed the deal for me and we got one shortly after.

We made 6 recipes and doubled them, so we each got two containers of each recipe.  Two of the recipes, the Beef Stew and Apple Pie Porkchops, were big ah-ha moments for me. They were the only two recipes that were slow cooker meals.  So all you do is compile the ingredients, freeze it and then later dump it in the slow cooker.  How awesome is that?

Here are the links to the recipes we used:

Chicken Nuggets


Meatloaf (the recipe is in Nourishing Traditions, and its amazing).  Lauren had a great idea of smooshing the mixture into finger size portions instead of a big loaf, so that you can defrost them individually and serve to little ones for lunch.


Buffalo Shrimp


Broccoli Cheddar Soup


Beef Stew

Apple Pie Pork chops 

Has anyone else adopted freezer cooking as their main style of cooking family meals?

-Stephanie ;)

Recent Freezer Meals

This week I am going to cook it up with my friend Lauren and build up my freezer meal stash, and I remembered that I hadn't posted some of my freezer meals from November.

I made Chicken Enchiladas from Nourishing Traditions, Beef Empanadas and homemade tortilla chips and everything came out ah-mazing. 

Here's the Chicken Enchiladas recipe:

Meat from 1 whole chickens (save bones to make stock!)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 green peppers, seeded and diced
2-4 jalapeno peppers( I actually omitted this, Peter doesn't like spicy foods)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or lard
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
.5 teaspoon red chile flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed

Saute the onions and peppers. Then add tomato paste, stock, oregano, cumin, red chile flakes, salt and garlic. Cut up chicken and stir meat in. Simmer for 15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Serve up with the usual garnish sides, like avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.

Then I fried up my own tortilla chips and they were the bomb.com.  I bought sprouted tortillas and then sauted them in bacon grease. I have since also tried it coconut oil and it tastes almost as tasty as the bacon grease, but come on, its bacon grease, so nothing really can possibly taste better.   I am going to try and do it in lard next.  Yes, lard!  Lard is good for you! Isn't it awesome?  Check out this post to learn more about the awesomeness of lard and how to fry  tortilla chips in it.

Then, I made up some empanadas. These are such a BITCH to make, but they are so tasty.
Cooking up the inside is not such a big deal, it's the rolling every little empanada that takes forever. This is the recipe I use, but I tweak it a bit and add a couple of chopped up boiled eggs, because that is the way Peter's mom makes them.  Also, that recipe calls for cutting out circles from pie crust pastry, whoever thought that was a good idea was nuts.  So I have Peter's mom bring me loads of pre-cut empanada pastry from Miami every time she comes to visit and I keep them in our beloved deep freezer. 

Empanada freezer warning.... do not smooch them all into a container like I did. They will not pull apart. They will still cook up tasty, but you will have a one big glob of empanada. So next time, I am going to wrap the each with freezer paper or freeze them on a cookie sheet for a few hours first (kinda like blueberries) and then add them to a container already frozen.

Wish me luck for Wednesday! We are only doing 6 different recipes, but it's still gonna be a handful!

Cranberry Pork Roast

This is a such a yummy way to do a pork roast in the slow cooker. And such an easy freezer meal.


Here is a picture of the final product all lined up, labeled and ready to go in freezer!


Here is the recipe I modified.  I went the fresh cranberries route.

This is a picture of the roast I made right away. You just dump the pork roast in the slow cooker and the cranberry sauce on top. That is it!

For the freezer bags you do the same thing, dump it all in and seal it up!


This is a really yummy meal that freezes well, the only thing I would do different next time is double the amount of cranberry relish.