Freezer prep today

[SalH]

So today I am prepping 7 slow cooker meals for the freezer. I've only done this once before. It was pretty successful. I still have one of the last lot I did left to cook.

The recipes are from a book and so it's a 7 meal plan rather than 7 recipes of my own choice. I'd say of the last lot, one I won't repeat but we had good / average reviews of that one at the table. I was average - ok but I won't cook it again.

It's supposed to take an hour. It might but I don't have a lot of space and I do have 6 children in the house. Also I should have soaked black beans and chickpeas last night so I will soak them now and throw those in tonight. Same difference.


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[Singingmom]

That's great!

The last time I did that I spent an entire day...too much chopping.

Let us know about the ones you like?

[bananacake]

I made 13 meals today. Some were duplicate.


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[2sunshines]

Definitely give us recipes and reviews as you go along!

[hollybells]

[sunflowermom]

That's great, eager to hear how it goes!

[SalH]

Thanks all!

I really want to get in to this.

This is the second week I've done a week's worth of slow cooker meals. My thoughts so far:

To do the plans in my book means that each week there are a good number of recipes (most) that are new for the family! So our success rate so far is pretty good, for introducing different ideas / cuisine to 6 kids.

I think the estimate for time in the book is unrealistic. It says an hour to prep 7 slow cooker freezer meals. I don't think that's possible. I've tried it both ways, chopping the onion and garlic in my power blender, or chopping on a board. Not sure either is very much quicker / slower. I think it took me more like 2 hrs to prep 7 bags (but I worked tidy). Dh v kindly without asking helped me by clearing up a few things as I had done with them and helping me keep the space clear.

Last nights dinner was a new one and an odd concept for me. Mexican chicken and beans and corn. There was no liquid in the recipe. I was worried about it drying out so I added tinned tomatoes and a bit of stock. I served it with home made wraps but I just drained it to serve. I did email the authors and they said it's supposed to be no liquid but liquid would make it go further. The trouble was also, that the spices had congregated on one chicken breast and I don't know how they would have spread throughout. Anyway. Nice dinner, only 1 disliked it, and I would still do it again for familiarity. None of the flavours were new, just the combination of black beans corn and chicken.

So:

Tell me about your own freezer / bulk cooking adventures. I want to do this more. I'm a bit worried about a mass cook-up unless I do it with friends, MamaBake style.

Bananacake: what did you do? How did you plan it?

Following a book is not my style. Planning it myself and doing it myself is my style. But I'm new to this idea and a friend gave me the book. I don't think there's much mystery to it. I could plan my own shopping list and ingredients, but for now I'm trying their stuff.

I pinned a few interesting things yesterday morning of recipes that would be good to do.

How does this work in summer? Do you cook differently in bulk for summer?





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---------- Post added at 12:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 PM ----------

Added point to note is I am out of practice with slow cooking. I've not done it for years because I hate the prep in the morning , my cooking time for casseroles is perfect at 2 pm. I can get a better casserole in the oven. But now my time is worth more all over, and I have discovered the world doesn't stop if you don't do the browning and sautéing first.

Also: new slow cooker, way more awesome than the others ive owned.


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