Freezer Food: Act One

Last June, I made about 8 crock pot meals in one evening and put them in the freezer to be eaten over the course of the month. The Great Power Outage of 2012, thwarted that plan and I lost everything. Then we got orders to move to Arizona and I was trying to downsize food. Now we are settled in Arizona and we have a stand alone extra freezer. It is just wanting for my food prep.

Steps:
1. Pick out meals
2. Compile shopping list
3. Shop (ugh!)
4. Prep food and freezer bags.
5. Remember to thaw out bags and throw them in the crock pot for dinner!

The first time I made these 12 recipes, doubling one since I couldn't find a 2 pound cut of London broil. I found most of them on Pinterest, but would be happy to send them individually if you want to try some. Some are as simple as just throwing everything in the freezer bag. Some of them I just prepped the vegetables, because cheese and cream based products do not freeze well.

• Cheesy Vegetable Chowder (veggies only)
• Garlic Honey Chicken
• Dijon Chicken
• Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
• Chicken Fajitas
• Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Beef Burritos (this is the one I doubled, and I'm glad I did!)
• Beef Stroganoff
• Spaghetti Squash bake (veggies only)
• Breakfast Casserole (veggies only)

After buying quite a bit of food, and at least 10 pounds of chicken breasts, we assembled all the ingredients on the counters. Maggie was helping me, and she started assembling ingredients from the pantry while I started chopping. It took us about 2 hours, including clean up, and we had 13 meals ready. So far we've had 3 meals and they have all been wonderful!

*Note: I'm not entirely sure of the prices of each meal. I bought a lot of other staples while shopping. I will pay better attention next time, because I am very curious.