There is nothing easier than combining some ingredients in the Crock Pot and coming home from work to a prepared meal ready for the family. Except, unless, you have all the ingredients already prepped and all you need to do is dump a bag into your slow cooker. Below you will find 10 recipes that can be prepped ahead of time, frozen, and literally dumped into your Crock Pot to cook, all with little to no effort on your part! I bought all the ingredients for less than $80 and it took me only 90 minutes to prepare and assemble all the meals. Now, I have 10 easy meals stockpiled in my freezer ready for those hectic weeknights where a homemade meal would otherwise be close to impossible. Hopefully you will find these meals helpful in your menu-planning as well.
*I’ve put together another post with 10 MORE crock pot freezer meals!*
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 1 pound ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
- 1 onion
- 2 green pepper, chopped
- 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
- 1 can (12 oz.) chili beans, drained
- 1 can (12 oz.) black beans, drained
- 1 can (12 oz.) pinto beans, drained
- 1 can (12 oz.) kidney beans, drained
- 1 can (12 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 tbsp. chili powder
Ingredients
|
|
- Brown ground turkey in nonstick skillet. Drain off excess liquid. Combine browned ground turkey, onion, green bell peppers, and tomato paste in slow cooker. Add chili powder, beans, and tomatoes. Mix to combine all ingredients.
- Place in a ziplock bag and freeze.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 bag (16 oz.) frozen stir fry vegetables
Ingredients
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|
- Combine ingredients in a ziplock bag and freeze.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve over cooked rice.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 2 pounds potatoes, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bag (16 oz.) frozen broccoli
- 1 cup ham, diced
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
Ingredients
|
|
- Bring water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook for 4 minutes. Let cool.
- Combine all ingredients in a ziplock bag and freeze.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6 hours. During last 30 minutes, puree/mash some of the potatoes and broccoli. Add 2 cups Half & Half and 1 cup cheddar cheese and cook 30 minutes.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 1.5 pounds round steak, cubed
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered
- 3/4 cup pearl barley
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. thyme
- 1/2. tsp. basil
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups beef broth
Ingredients
|
|
- Combine all ingredients, place in a ziplock bag, and freeze. (If there is not enough room in your ziplock bag, you can omit the beef broth prior to freezing, and just add the 4 cups into your crock pot when ready to cook.)
Write on bag: Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
| Servings |
4 servings
|
- 1 pound ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 can (14 oz.) pizza sauce
- 1 jar (14 oz.) spaghetti sauce
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 1.5 cups dry macaroni noodles
Ingredients
|
|
- Brown ground meat, onions, and green peppers in a skillet until cooked through.
- Boil water and cook macaroni for four minutes. Let cool.
- Combine all ingredients and place in a ziplock bag.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6 hours.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 pound baby carrots
- 1 onion, cut into wedges
- 1 can (20 oz.) unsweetened pineapple chunks
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 cube chicken bouillon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 3 tbsp. cornstarch (not needed until day of cooking)
- 1/4 cup water (not needed until day of cooking)
Ingredients
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|
- Drain pineapple chunks, reserving the juice. Place carrots, onions, pineapples and chicken in a ziplock bag.
- Combine pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, chicken bouillon, salt, ginger, and garlic powder. Pour mixture into the ziplock bag and freeze.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6 hours. Combine 3 tbsp. corn starch with 1/4 cup water and stir. Add to slow cooker. Cook 30 minutes until the sauce thickens. Serve over cooked rice.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 4 pork loin chops
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp. cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. chili powder
- 1/2 tsp. paprika
Ingredients
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- Place pork chops in ziplock bag. Combine all the other ingredients and add to the bag.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
| Servings |
4 servings
|
- 1.5 pounds beef stew meat
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1 pound mushrooms
- 1 14.5 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (not needed until ready to cook)
- 1 package egg noodles (not needed until ready to cook)
Ingredients
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- Mix water and cream of mushroom soup in a bowl.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl except sour cream and egg noodles. Freeze in a ziplock bag.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 6 hours. Stir in Greek yogurt and cook on high for 5-10 minutes. Serve over cooked egg noodles.
| Servings |
4 people
|
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 can (10.75 oz.) of cream of chicken soup
- 16 ounces frozen broccoli
- 1 cup grains (rice, couscous, etc.)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup milk (not needed until day of cooking)
- 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt (not needed until day of cooking)
Ingredients
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- Combine all ingredients except Greek yogurt and milk. Place in a ziplock back and freeze.
Write on bag: Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Add 1 cup milk and 6 oz. Greek yogurt and cook 1 hour longer.
| Servings |
|
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 can (16 oz.) of refried beans
- 1 can (15 oz.) black beans
- 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1/2 cup salsa
Ingredients
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|
- Combine all ingredients in a ziplock back and freeze. When ready, cook on low for 8 hours.
- Just before serving, remove chicken breasts and slice/shred into bite-sized pieces. Stir back into the soup.
- To serve, garnish with crushed chips, cheese, and green onions.
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These recipes would each serve 4?
Thanks!
Yes, all of these have fed four adults (although we usually don’t have leftovers). I usually cut my chicken breasts in half, so although some of the recipes only have 3 breasts, it’s actually 6 halves, which works to feed 4 for us.
Stumbled on your website by accident and so glad I did! If I understand it correctly, I add the bag of ingredients to the crock pot frozen, no need to thaw. Is that right? Thanks!
Thanks, Deb! I’m glad you did as well! Yes, you can put everything into the crockpot as one large frozen block, and set it to start cooking! 🙂
The Chicken Tortilla Soup only lists 1 cup of liquid. Is this correct? Seems like it would be awfully thick-more stew than soup-LOL.
I just bought everything and about to make it! ????
How long will these last in the freezer? I am working on prepping to stock the freezer before baby #2 arrives end of March/ early April. Thanks- so glad I found your site!
Congratulations on baby #2! Great idea to prep ahead. They’re good for 6 months in the freezer, so you should be fine making them now. 🙂
I have 6 to feed. If I used both bags in the crock pot would i need to up the cooking time?
Hi Chris! Honestly, I really don’t think you’d need to increase cooking time too much, but that’s just based on my own personal experience. You’d probably just need to cook for the high end of the time frame.
Hi..I notice the recipe for 4 Bean Chili only lists 3 kinds of beans..is a can of kidney beans the 4th bean that needs added? I noticed kidney beans on the shopping list. If you could please respond/correct the recipe I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Hi Jane. I am SO glad you mentioned this to me. I actually just rewrote all the recipes into an easier format to read, and I bet I left that one out. I’m going to go check it out right now, and then revise as needed. Thanks again!
For the ham and potato soup recipe, do you add the chicken broth prior to freezing? Thanks!
Hi Allie. Thanks for the question. Yes, you can definitely add it before freezing, or adding it to the crock pot when it’s time to cook is fine too. I think in the picture I didn’t add the chicken broth before freezing, because then it just takes up less room in the freezer.
I’m left over with a can of cream of mushroom soup and I don’t see which recipe that went with, help! Oh and for the BBQ Poek Chops I see 1/2 chili powder listed twice. Do you need one teaspoon or should that be something different! I’m so excited to have 10 meals in my freezer!
Hi Kila. I’m so sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner! BBQ Pork Chops should be 1/2 tsp. chili powder (although 1 tsp will just give it more heat, so if you like it that way, add it!). The can of mushroom soup should go into the Beef Stroganoff. YIKES! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I recently reformatted the recipes and missed those. You can just add the mushroom soup to your crockpot when you go to cook it, and it will be just fine. Thanks again!! I’m off to change those right now!
what size zip lock bags do you use?
I use gallon bags.
ok this may sound dumb but you dont put the whole bag with the food in the crockpot do you?
I assume you thaw it out then scoop it all into the crockpot?
So sorry for the delayed reply. You’re right, let it thaw a bit and then dump it in the crockpot. I usually put the bag in my fridge the night before, and then by the morning it’s thawed enough to scoop out. Enjoy!
Hi Jenny, just came across your 10 meals for the freezer. Question on the following recipes there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid. Are these correct?
Sweet and Sour Chicken , Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry
Hi! I did follow those recipes exactly and it was enough liquid for me. For the sweet and sour chicken, I did put the whole can of pineapples in with the liquid. For the Teriyaki Chicken, I think the frozen veggies also end up releasing quite a bit of liquid, so the sauce and chicken broth was enough. I also always look on low which seems to help not let the crock pot get too hot and scorch anything. I hope that helps!