First attempt: 14 meals in 1 hour and 22 minutes :)

I have been talking about doing bulk freezer meals for months and I finally made myself start when I realized two things...how tired I am & how much our schedule is going to change when Landon gets here! Both motivated me to go for it. I have been following several freezer meal blogs for a while and I have made 3-4 at a time here and there but I had never tried to do it in bulk! So here it goes...

I decided to go with a few crockpot recipes that are favorites in our house already and just convert them to freezer meals & I also added several recipes I have not personally tried, so I can't comment on how good those are quite yet. I'll update this after we get through trying them all though :) 

So I picked my recipes and made my list. I tried to go with just a couple different meats for the sake of cost, I stuck mostly with chicken and pork. I also chose recipes for things we already have in bulk (ex: creamed soups, etc) 

This is all the ingredients I used for the 14 meals: 

Here's my meal list and I made 2 freezer bags of each meal totaling 14 meals: 

Taco chicken bowls

Ranch chicken 

Meatball subs

Creamy ranch pork chops

BBQ chicken sandwiches

Mushroom pork chops 

Chicken spaghetti 

Taco Chicken Bowls

1.5lb Chicken breasts 

1 (16 oz) jar salsa

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained (I used pinto bc hubby doesn't like black beans!)

8 oz frozen corn

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 Tbsp Cumin

1/2 Tbsp Minced garlic

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Pepper (to taste) 

2 cups rice 

8 oz shredded cheese 

1/2 bunch cilantro 

Add everything to the bag except the rice, cheese, and cilantro. Label and freeze flat. Put in fridge the night before to thaw. Dump ingredients in the crockpot with 1/4 cup of water and cook on low for 8 hours. Near the end of cook time, stir the chicken to shred and cook the 2 cups of rice. Assemble with rice on bottom, chicken mixture, shredded cheese, and cilantro.

Recipe from: 

http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com

Ranch Chicken

4 Chicken breasts

1 Packet Ranch Dressing Mix (the dry kind)

Mix the chicken with the ranch mix. Label and freeze flat. Put it in the fridge the night before to thaw. Dump ingredients in the crockpot with 1 cup water or broth. Cook on low 3-4 hours or high 4-5 hours. Serve with veggies!

Recipe from: 

http://lookslikehomemade.com

Meatball Subs

1 package of frozen turkey meatballs (or if you're ambitious you could make your own!)

1 jar of pasta sauce 

Mix the meatballs and frozen meatballs. Label and freeze flat. Put it in the fridge the night before to thaw. Dump ingredients in the crockpot and cook in low for 2 hours, stir frequently. Serve on wheat sub buns! 

*My personal recipe

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops

4 pork chops
6 medium potatoes, chopped into large pieces
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 packages dry ranch dressing mix
1 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together in gallon ziplock bag. Label and freeze. Put in the fridge to thaw the night before. Dump ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4 hours. 

Recipe from: 

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches 

3-4 chicken breasts 

1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp worcestershire

Mix all ingredients together in gallon ziplock bag. Label and freeze. Put in the fridge to thaw the night before. Dump all ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low 8 hours. Stir the chicken to shred as the cook time nears the end. Serve on wheat buns! 

*My personal recipe 

Mushroom Pork Chops

4 pork chops

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp worcestershire 

1/2 package of mushrooms (fresh or canned) 

Mix all ingredients together in gallon ziplock bag. Label and freeze. Put in the fridge to thaw the night before. Dump all ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with salad! 

*My personal recipe 

Chicken Spaghetti 

2lbs chicken breast, cubed

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2lbs 2% Velveeta, cubed (this was WAY too much cheese for me so I did 1/2)

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of celery

1 (7oz) can diced green chiles

1/2 cup milk

2 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper to taste 

Noodles to serve over 

Mix all ingredients in gallon ziplock bag. Label and freeze. Put in fridge to the thaw the night before. Dump all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low 6-8 hours. Cook noodles and combine with chicken mixture. If it comes out too runny, add a creamed soup to thicken. 

Recipe from: 

www.crockingirls.com

So here they are! 14 meals prepped, bagged, and ready to go! I am so excited about how much time/stress this is going to save us over the next couple of months of pregnancy as I get more and more exhausted and have less desire to cook :) My goal is to do about 14 meals one day at the beginning of each month. That way between meals that we grill (steak, fish, etc) and eat out about once per week and we should be set for the month! I also think it will save us a lot on our grocery budget because we aren't letting food go bad. As soon as I go grocery shopping everything gets prepped and frozen! I hope some of these recipes make life a bit easier on your family too <3