Freezer Bags are Our Friends! Meals/Crockpot Cooking

I might have an unhealthy love for freezer bags! I have always been a huge fan of my crockpot but add a freezer bag meal to the crockpot and you are spending very little time preparing a home cooked meal for the family! Now that it is fall and a little cooler outside I will cook in the crockpot most days. I have seen a few ladies do 20 freezer meals in one day. I myself do not have a day open with that much time to be in the kitchen, nor do I want to spend 5 hours straight in the kitchen. So instead I like to double a recipe and put half into the crockpot and half into a freezer bag. Most of my meals are pretty quick to get into the crockpot but I do spend about 10-15 minutes on sides and additions to make an entire meal before we sit down at the table. We do have a family of 6 so these recipes feed 2 adults and 4 children. Some evenings a few of the children eat like birds and other evenings they want seconds. We always have enough but rarely have leftovers unless it's soup. I do use a lot of recipes that I find on pinterest but make my own changes to best fit how our family eats. I am new at this and didn't think to take a picture of the finished product, next time. I like to keep my freezer meals for only up to 60 days. Other ladies say they can last a lot longer but I myself put a date and use before 60 days. I include notes with a sharpie with time to cook, date, and anything else that I need to know about adding additional ingredients or what to cook with it. Beware of visitors! My mom came over earlier this week and stole a freezer meal for her crockpot. I am far far far from anything close to a good cook and cooked mostly hamburger helper and meals from a box the first half of our marriage and when the oldest kids were little so I am not saying that what I cook belongs in a restaurant or that your families will love my cooking at all. Just sharing how I save time and money with my cooking. Here are the meals I made for us yesterday and today. I have 2 whole meals now in the freezer for busy days with the kids or lazy days. 

 

 

Curry Chicken
8 hours on low, 4 hours on high                                            4 green onions chopped
2 tablespoons butter before chicken                                      2 teaspoons curry powder
3/4 Boneless skinless chicken breasts                                   1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup dry cooking sherry                                                       salt/pepper to taste

Add butter to the crockpot first, then add everything else. 15 minutes before we sit down I do tend to add a dab of a little bit more curry powder. I serve over brown minute rice. The serving of rice I make takes 12 minutes in the microwave. I remove the chicken from the crockpot and add a little bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce a little bit. I also serve with small pieces of a thicker tortilla or pita bread with an easy side salad.

Freezer bag- Everything that went into the crockpot except the butter. Add the butter first before adding the freezer bag and cook it the same way you cooked the original.

Chicken Noodle Soup
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts                               1 onion diced
4 carrots peeled and sliced, I myself never have carrots in the fridge, I do always have mini carrots for the kids lunches so I slice 20 of them instead.
4 stalks of celery sliced                                                  1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper                                                    1/2 teaspoon basil
Do not include these in the freezer bag-Add at the end- 12oz extra wide egg noodles                 64 oz chicken broth

Add all but noodles and broth into the crockpot, cook on high for 6 hours. 15 min before sit down strain liquid from the crockpot into a pot. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil. Shred chicken add to soup with veggies that are in the strainer and cook on medium for 5 minutes. I serve with crackers or bread and butter.