Friday, May 18, 2012

Dump Meals

Since my life has been blessed with my two amazing children, I have exactly ZERO minutes to do anything.  Cooking supper in my house either happens during nap time, leftovers being reheated or consists of Dane picking something up on his way home.

One day last week while searching the Internet for easy recipes, I came across a Pin on Pinterest for Freezer Crock Pot meals. While I was reading the recipes I had some pros/cons about the whole situation.


Here is a picture of some of the Dump Meals I made
 
Cons -
1 - I have never been comfortable with freezing meals.
2 - The thought of having to make a couple different meals in a day freaked me out.
3 - Going through all the trouble to make these meals and the end result being that they taste terrible!

Pros -
1 - If I can open a Ziploc bag and pour in the ingredients I have a meal in a minute!
2- The only thing I have to do is pour it in the crock pot!
3- Easy clean up after supper!

Noticing that my Pros were all related to EASY, I figured what the heck. I found these recipes through Pinterest:

Bacon Meatballs


I doubled all the recipes because Mother's Day was coming up and I figured I could make my mom each meal for her gift. I ended up spending a little over $100* for all ingredients, for 14 meals. Some recipes had enough to make 3 bags instead of 2. (*Some of the ingredients I already had at home.)


I came home, chopped the veggies according to each meal, labeled the bags, and tossed the ingredients together. I called it Chop, Shake, Seal and Freeze. I made 14 meals in less than 1 hour. The only ones that took a little while was the Beef Stew and the Bacon Meatballs.


I froze all the meals laying down, to save room in the freezer!
 We have tried the Beef Stew and the Teriyaki Chicken, both were great and even both of my kids ate it!

Note: I tried them both ways. I didn't thaw the Beef Stew out, I just cut the Ziploc bag and threw the frozen chunk in the Crock Pot. The Teriyaki Chicken I thawed out in the fridge over night. Both turned out perfect.



4 comments:

  1. That's a pretty cool idea. I do the majority of the cooking for us and am always looking for quick/easy/good meals to cook. Did you serve them all directly from the croc pot? What sides or additions have you done with the ones you've ate so far?

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  2. These really are supper easy and affordable! With the Beef Stew we had corn on the cob and roasted french onion potatoes. We had enough for left overs the next night so we had grilled cheese with it! We had teriyaki rice (the ready to go microwavable rice) with the teriyaki chicken. I served them straight from the crock pot. Next time I make them, I might add more meat to them. My husband loves meat, and I think we could have stretched them out even further if I would had added more. This week we are going to try the Bacon Meatballs on hoagies, and the sweet and sour meatballs with yellow rice.

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  3. Thanks for sharing my link! :) Glad you liked the recipes!
    JoDee
    www.atozformomslikeme.blogspot.com

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  4. Thank you for pulling these together! I was looking for ideas for a friend having surgery. These will be great to take her and to double up for our freezer.

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