Freezer Meals - Take One

When I got home last night, I had great plans to get a HUGE list of recipes prepped, and ready to go. However, I quickly discovered that the big stockpile of meat I thought I had in my freezer was non-existent. There was a fair amount of chicken (mostly because I bought 3 big packages at Kroger in the past few days because they were on sale), 4 lbs of stew beef, 1 lb of country style pork ribs, 1 package of pork chops, 2 pork tenderloins, and 4 steaks. Don't get me wrong, that's still quite a bit of meat, but I thought I had a bunch of ground beef too, and more pork. And I thought I had at least 1 beef roast downstairs. I adjusted the quantities I thought I'd be preparing, and we went ahead and got "phase one" completed. I have my grocery list filled out to get the meat and couple missing ingredients I still need for the remaining recipes. I went ahead and diced up a bunch of onion (while I was banned to the couch with my feet up right after I got home, since I was contracting again), so that is set to go, and tomorrow morning I'll throw the last unopened package of chicken into the crock pot for shredded BBQ chicken meat - there wasn't really time to do any crock pot cooking tonight, plus that's probably what we're having for lunch tomorrow so it works well. :) I still have enough chicken for 1 more freezer recipe, and 2 pork tenderloins to prepare and put in the freezer but the rest will have to wait until I can go grocery shopping.

The method of using a large 4-cup measuring cup to place the Ziploc bag in while you fill it with ingredients (after making sure to label the bag with the title of the dish and cooking instructions first) works BEAUTIFULLY. No mess, no fuss!

I ended up with 5 meals worth of food prepped and in my freezer tonight without too much effort - it was a little bit of a learning experience and I had a grumpy helper, combined with my evening pregnancy third trimester grumpiness, so I'm sure it took a little longer than it should have! That said, it took us less than an hour to get all of these prepped and ready for the freezer. It felt good to put something in the freezer that will require no real thought process to prepare - most just need 1 or 2 side dishes and dinner is ready to go!

These are all new recipes for us, except for the steak marinade (YUMM!!) so as we get the chance to try these out I'll have to re-post them and share our thoughts on how they turned out!

Chicken with Honey Sauce from Planning for Little Baby Legg (I doubled to make 2 servings)

Ingredients
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in freezer bags
2. Toss and knead bag so chicken gets covered evenly in sauce
3. Flatten bag and freeze
4. To serve: Cook in crock-pot on low for 6-8 hours or on high 3-4 hours. Serve over rice.

Slow Cooker BBQ Spareribs from Six Sister's Stuff (I made 1 serving)

  

Ingredients 

1 lbs of country-style pork ribs

3/4 cup ketchup

3/4 TBS seasoned salt

1/4 tsp liquid smoke

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white vinegar

Directions 

1. Place sauce ingredients in resealable gallon-sized freezer bag, combine. Add in pork chops, rotate to coat chops, squeeze out air and seal bag. 
2. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH in crock pot for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.

Slow Cooker Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes from DIY Danielle (I made 1 serving)

Ingredients
2 large pork chops
3 large potatoes, chopped into large pieces (3-4 pieces per potato)
1 (10.75 oz each) can cream of chicken soup
1 (1 oz each) package dry Ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup milk
Dried parsley to sprinkle on top for serving (optional)

Directions

1. In a large freezer bag add the soup, milk, and ranch dressing mix and combine. Add in pork chops and potatoes - coat with sauce, squeeze out air, and seal. Freeze.
2. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours in your slow cooker.
3. Use the extra sauce in the slow cooker as a gravy for the potatoes and the pork chops. Sprinkle with dried parsley before serving, if desired.

Simple Steak Marinade from MLALAK on AllRecipes (I made 1 serving)

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced, or more to taste
3-4 medium steaks

Directions

1. Combine the vegetable oil, soy sauce, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic in a resealable plastic bag.
2. Place the meat in the bag, coat with the marinade, squeeze out excess air, and seal the bag. Lay flat and freeze.
3. To serve, thaw 24 hours prior to cooking - prepare as desired.