Crockpot Freezer Meals

I had this idea that it would be nice to put together a couple of crockpot meals ahead of time in the freezer. How nice it would be to take a meal ready to cook out of the freezer and put it into the crockpot and not have to think about dinner until dinner time rolls around and then add a salad (and in the case of the first recipe some brown rice pilaf).

Here are the meals that I assembled tonight after grocery shopping today. I bought a large package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 lbs) from Costco and wanted to get them in the freezer as soon as possible. This was fresh chicken, not the frozen type. You can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I used the thighs because they were less expensive, and lately grocery prices in my part of the world have seemed to really sky rocket in price and every little bit of savings helps.

I feed basically 5 adults and 2 teens so these meals are on the larger size. If your family does not need this much food for a meal these meals can be split up so you would end up with more meals.

I have not actually tested these recipes (just created them :). But I feel confident that they will be good as they have ingredients that my family enjoys. I plan on putting both recipes on next week’s menu plan and will give you a review of them at that time.

The night before I plan to cook these meals I will take the meal out of the freezer before bedtime and put it in the fridge to defrost. In the morning I will dump the contents of the bag into my crockpot and cook.


Crockpot Honey & Dijon Mustard Chicken
3 lbs chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
1 onion, sliced
1 cup honey
½ cup Dijon mustard
Salt, pepper to taste
Cut up chicken in bite size pieces. Put chicken and all remaining ingredients into a gallon size zip lock bag. Seal the bag closed tightly and squish the ingredients around to mix them up. Label the bag and freeze.
On cooking day dump contents of bag into crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. I plan to serve this with brown rice pilaf ( http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/brownricepilaf.htm  )

Here it is in pics..

Cut up chicken, slice onion and measure out honey and mustard…..



Add chicken to the bag..




Add onions..



Add honey & mustard ….



Seal the bag closed and squish it around to mix it up (can it get any more simple? :)…



Freeze..



Crockpot Mexican Chicken
***This recipe will make 2 meals. I divided the ingredients listed below into 2 gallon size zip type freezer bags.

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 onion, sliced
2 cups salsa
2 cans (14oz) diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn
4 cups cooked beans (pinto beans, red beans, black beans, your choice), I used 1 quart of my canned pinto beans
2 t chili powder
1 t cumin
Salt & pepper to taste

Cut your chicken into bite size pieces. Divide chicken between 2 gallon size freezer bags. Divide remaining ingredients between freezer bags. Seal the bag closed tightly and squish the ingredients around to mix them up. Label bag and freeze.

On cooking day, dump the contents of the whole bag into the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream and a little cheddar cheese grated on top.

Here it is in pics..

Cut up chicken, slice onion and gather together ingredients. I used my own home canned salsa and my own canned beans. You can use store bought salsa and cook your beans up (or used canned)…



Divide chicken between 2 gallon size bags…



Add 1 cup of salsa to each bag and 1 can diced tomatoes…



Add 1 cup corn and the sliced onion to each bag…



And 2 cups of cooked beans (and spices.. I forgot to add the spices, blame it on a long day and tired brain!! But I will add them on the day I cook the meal)…



Seal bag and squish all ingredients together and freeze.

BBQ Chicken Legs

I made this dish the other night. It is one of my family’s favorite meals. It is easy to make. I used a home canned jar of zucchini pineapple that I canned last summer (http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2011/09/zucchini-pineapple-for-canning.html ). However I’ve made this dish for years and typically I used homemade jam or jelly (you can use store bought jam or jelly as well). I have used my own peach jam or grape jelly ( http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/makejam.htm  ) and have even made it with beet jelly ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2010/09/pickled-beets-and-beet-jelly.html ).

Here is how I make it…

Lay the chicken legs in a 11x15 pan that has been sprayed with non stick spray. I used about 4lbs of chicken legs for this meal…



Put the chicken legs in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. While the chicken is baking make your sauce. Measure out 1 ½ cups of bbq sauce. This can be homemade sauce (http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/texasbbqsauce.htm ).


Add an equal amount of jam or jelly. In the pics below I added the whole pint jar of zucchini pineapple and mixed together. If you are using jam or jelly it will be slightly lumpy and that is ok…







After the chicken has cooked for 30 minutes pull it out of the oven. ..



Pour sauce over chicken (it was a little tricky to pour the sauce and take a pic at the same time :) so it came out a little blurry)…



Bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is nicely glazed with the sauce and is completely cooked…


Enjoy!!

The night I made this I was going to serve macaroni and cheese with the meal until I discovered I had run out of macaroni!! :) It happens… so instead I made cheesy brown rice pilaf to go with the meal. I will be posting that recipe soon..
 
 

Homestead Moments

This morning I woke up to a chilly house and got a fire going to warm the house. When it was light enough to see outside I noticed snow on the top of the hills across the way. Soon I heard my daughter Emily get up. And she came and joined me in the living room. We enjoyed a wonderful cup of coffee together and some awesome chat time. My daughter Leanne then joined us as well.

I find these times with my daughters such a treat. Emily is 21 and Leanne is 20 and both have busy lives working and socializing, coming and going. So when we do have a moment where our schedules meet together it is a time to discuss so many things; issues in life, work, friends, family and more. As my children are growing up and moving on with their own lives these moments we spend together are special indeed.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The day of hearts, flowers and love.. The day everyone is supposed to be romantic and all that jazz. Not that I have a problem with being romantic but I’ve always bristled at having a day were I’m told I’m supposed to be that way.. just my independent streak coming through I guess.. :) ..


Love, to me, is something that is shown all year long, every day. Love is giving selflessly to the ones that the Lord has put in my life, those that are nearest and dearest to my heart, my family. Love is serving. As my husband has said to me many times, “Love is an action”. It’s a verb.. it’s what we do each day to care, support, and provide for those we love.


When we love and serve and give to our families we show the love of God to them, the love that we have for our Savior comes through our actions to those He has entrusted to our care. 



Matt. 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, ”Assuredly, I say to you inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me”.

John 13: 34 & 35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”


Just so you know I’m not being a big downer on this holiday, I do plan to make my family a pan of yummy fudge brownies ( http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/fudgebrownies.htm ) and serve them hot out of the oven smothered in some vanilla ice cream :) .. a treat I know they will enjoy!

This Week's Menu

Monday
Beef & Veggie Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad (we were supposed to have this meal last week but I had enough leftovers to serve that night instead)

 

Tuesday
Pizza (I think.. we may be doing something for my FIL’s birthday)

 

Wednesday
Nacho’s for a Crowd, Spanish rice, salad

 

Thursday
Leftovers

 

Friday
White Bean Chicken Chili, tortilla chips & salsa, salad

 

Saturday
Hamburger veggie soup, sweet corn muffins, salad

 

Sunday
Hamburger stroganoff over egg noodles, salad

 

Homemade Ranch Dressing

We eat a lot of salads at our house. You may have noticed that on my weekly menus. I serve salad just about every night. I think fresh veggies are sooo good for you! So many vitamins and minerals are packed into a salad. But a salad is just not that great without some really good salad dressing. Hands down the most favored salad dressing in my house is ranch dressing. I practiced and tweaked and came up with a homemade ranch dressing recipe a few years ago and it has been a constant at our dinner table ever since.

I use to make a batch of it every few days, now I make a quadruple batch about once every two weeks. It is a nice way to stream line the process. Since I’m making it anyway I might as well make a huge batch and be done with it for awhile! :)

You can find the basic single batch recipe here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ranchdressing.htm

Here is how I make a quadruple batch. I make it in my Bosch (you can also make it in a Kitchen Aid). First I measure and put in the mayonnaise and sour cream. I use the wire whisks and stir well…





Then I slowly add in the milk. I find if I do it slowly I can avoid having lumps. After the milk is added I add the lemon juice..





Then I add spices..



And mix well..



This will fill 2 quart jars. ..



As I said, this will last us about 2 weeks. I am not sure how much longer than 2 weeks it will keep as it has never lasted that long before. 

Friday in the Kitchen

I had a very productive day in the kitchen today. I began this morning by putting a pot of veggie broth on to simmer. I had a gallon size bag of vegetable scraps in the freezer, plus a gallon size bag of zucchini pieces and another gallon size bag of beet greens, and a few carrots, these last three items were from last summer’s garden. I had frozen them just for this purpose. I put all these veggies in my 14 quart stock pot and added 3 gallons of water….

In the afternoon it was time to start doing a little baking and cooking. I made 2 dozen pumpkin muffins. My family loves these muffins and usually eats them up pretty quickly…

Dinner tonight was salmon patties and garlic roasted potatoes. This was supposed to be Wednesday night’s dinner but we ended up having leftover tacos on Wednesday instead so I moved it to Friday’s menu. I also made a big tossed green salad.

I ended letting my veggie stock simmer for about 7 hours. It is a beautiful dark color (most likely due to the beet greens)…

After I get this posted I will strain it and bag it up in quart size ziplock bags for the freezer.

You can find the recipes for all these dishes here:

Pumpkin Muffins: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/pumpkinmuffins.htm 
Garlic Roasted Potatoes: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/garlicroastedpotatoes.htm 
Salmon Patties: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/salmonpatties.htm 
Veggie Stock: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ttbveggiebroth.htm