It's Crockpot Week here! I decided to try out a couple of new crockpot recipes and fix a couple of oldies this week so I can have some extra time to do some outdoor work and freezer cooking. I'm planning on doing 1 or 2 freezer-cooking half-sessions where I'm going to double 8 main dish recipes, for a grand total of 16 meals!I checked out the book Frozen Assets Readers' Favorites: Cook for a Day: Eat for a Month
from the library this week and it's really gotten me motivated and helped me in my actual planning as it has worksheets. Since I wouldn't be able to do a whole day session, I love how the author talks about breaking freezer cooking up into mini-sessions. She also claims that freezer cooking can save you lots of money (she saved $400 per month) and time! Since I am interested in saving both of those, I'm looking forward to trying this out!I am also trying a recipe out of Frozen Assets called "Noodle Heaven" and it looks like it has lots of other good recipes that don't use lots of convenience items like chemical-laden cream soups and such.
I was going to order it from Amazon, but I-guy, my 4-yr.-old, found it for me at the used bookstore/coffee shop yesterday! It was so sweet! I was sitting there drinking my coffee and he comes up with the book saying "I found this book for you. It's the same as your library one." I was so surprised! What a thoughtful and observant boy he is.
So here's the menu and freezer plan! Go to I'm an Organizing Junkie's site for more good stuff!
Sunday: Sandwiches, Chips, Carrots and Celery Sticks, Fruit
Monday: Crockpot Italian Beef, High-Enzyme Salad
Tuesday: Pepper Rice, Tray of Health
Wednesday: Portobello Mushroom and Almond Pesto Lasagne (make double and freeze 1)
Thursday: Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore, Steamed Broccoli
Friday: Crockpot Meatball Soup, Sourdough Bread, Kiwi-Smoothies
Saturday: Crockpot 40-Clove Chicken, 7-Grain Bread
***Dessert of the Week*** Hot Fudge Sundae Cake (I-guy picked out a couple of recipe booklets to purchase from the used bookstore. One of them was all desserts, so he selected the dessert of the week and is excited about the fact that he is responsible for preparing it. (I told him I'd only help!) He's so excited!
For the Freezer:
Garlic Lime Chicken (double)
Cashew Chicken (double)
Chicken Supreme (double)
Chicken Burgers (double)
Noodle Heaven (double)
Mexicalli Pie (double)
Cabbage Roll Casserole (make 1 recipe and split in 2)
Meat Sauce for Spaghetti (double)
For my next freezer session I need to make crepes, soups, and baked items. I also want to try a mashed potato recipe from Frozen Assets and assemble some pizza kits. I think 2 more sessions will be in order.
Last week I made double of the Phyllo-Wrapped Tilipia and froze them. I also made double of the Honey Rosemary Chicken and Swirled Herb Bread and froze those as well. The chicken turned out so unique and tasty! I loved it!
I also got the kids to help me make the bread and that was a huge success. Em and I-guy kneaded their dough for the whole 8 minutes and made the cutest little mini-loaves that turned out really well. I wish I would have remembered to take pictures. Hopefully next time!
Have a great week!
13 comments:
I am all over that Hot Fudge Sundae Cake. Yum! Of course, the rest of your menu looks good, too :)!!
Great menu! I rteally need to use my slow cooker more often, thanks for the push :-)
Have a blessed week!
Tiany
http://homeschoolblogger.com/Tiany/
great idea to make double and freeze. I just made lasagne last week and froze half of it and think it tastes better after frozen and the flavors mellow. great menu!!
I love to make double and freeze one too! I'll have to try some of those crockpot recipes. They look really good. A crock pot in the summer is great to cook with because it doesn't heat up the house! Thanks for sharing.
Great ideal about doubling recipes for mini sessions of freezer cooking. Thanks for sharing.
I got a new freezer last week, and was telling my hub just this morning that I wanted to start making and freezing meals. I'm headed to my online library now to see about the book you mentioned, thanks. I made my gyros for tonight, last night because they have to marinate overnight and put another batch in the freezer. It just feels good to have things prepared.
Your menu looks delicious.
blessings to you this week!
♥~annie
My Life as Annie!
That freezer stuff sounds really interesting, I'll have to look for the book.
Your menu look great, I did the crockpot beef one a few weeks ago and loved it, I need to try out that garil chicken everyone seems to be trying that one and loving it.
Great Menu Plan
Wow, thanks for all the links to recipes! That is awesome!
And garlic lime chicken is one of my fav foods in the world!
Sherry
OK, perfect timing here!
I'm in a season of needing to use that bad boy (the crock pot) more, AND freeze some more stuff, so thanks for the great recipes!
Hi Anne- you're right! We do have a lot in common! I just did a quick glance at your site but will be back soon! Please keep us updated on your freezer cooking; I've been trying to do some myself by making one mini session (one recipe tripled) per week to stock in the freezer. I have swiped a lot of your freezer recipes (Thanks for posting them!) to try out! Have a great weekend.
Renee'
I love the story of I-guy finding that book--it sounds like a great book to have, too!
Hi Anne! Glad to see you moved back to Blogger. :-) I have a kind of random question... Have you purposefully turned off the RSS feed on your blog, or was that an accident? I use the RSS feeds for blogs so I can read all my blogs in Google Reader (saves me a lot of time! and I can make sure I don't miss any posts from my favorite blogs). However, it seems like the RSS feed for this blog is turned off. If that was accidental, you can turn it back on by going to "Settings" (from your Dashboard), and clicking "Site Feed". Then where it says "Allow Blog Feed", you can select "Full" and that will turn it on. It isn't a security hazard or anything to allow blog feeds. And I'd be appreciative if you're comfortable with it. :-)
Ashley: Thanks for the tips! No I didn't realize that my feed was off. I will go about turning it on here. Then I need to get on over to your blog and say "howdy!"
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