20 Freezer Meals for $100 in my Dirty Kitchen!

I've seen all of you Pinning and sharing on Facebook those posts that claim they made a gazillion meals for their freezer for $5 in four minutes or whatever. I didn't pay too much attention to the titles. But they did appeal to me for several reasons:

1. I love freezer meals.
2. I love saving money.
3. I just might be a foodie blogger deep down in my soul.

So, I spent the week scouring over these blog posts that claimed to have made a bajillion meals for next to nothing in their nice and tidy kitchens. I loved the ready-made shopping lists and their "dump it" attitude for their crock-pot meals. But, none of the lists had a fool-proof menu for my very picky family.

So I did it myself.

That's right. I collected recipes (and made up some new ones) and then made my own shopping list. I spent $100 on a month's worth of crock-pot meal groceries and then came home and made twenty-meals for my freezer. Here's what I learned.

I didn't need to clean my kitchen before beginning the process.

This was my entire--ENTIRE--work space.

I needed a Sharpie that worked to write on the freezer bags. (Some of these meals will be pleasant surprises.)

I did twenty meals, two loads of laundry and cleaned the kitchen afterwards (without a dishwasher, even!) in under two hours.

And, I carried on a running commentary as if I were narrating my actions for a TV show, a la Rachael Ray.

So, while I'm not a food blogger, I'd like to offer to you, my valued readers, how I made twenty freezer meals in two hours for $100.

Please know that I precooked nothing. Nothing at all. I dumped all the ingredients into a freezer bag, labeled them (well, the first three, then the Sharpie dried out). I chopped the onions, peppers, carrots, cabbage, whatever, as I needed them.

Seriously, I did it without cleaning my kitchen, 

but it might have been nice to have some space while I was working

And, it's important to note that I totally made up some of these recipes based on what I had in my kitchen already.

It's also important to note that I had much of the meat already because I buy it then go out to eat. I can't explain it either.

It's also, also important to note that while I play a foodie on the blogosphere, I am not one it real life--my recipes may be lacking, but you are creative persons. I have faith you can make it work!

Dump these in the crockpot and cook em for about six hours. Let's all hope for the best.

~*~

    1. BBQ CHICKEN 

      4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

    ground pepper

    chunky applesauce (gross, I used regular ol' smooth applesauce)

    BBQ sauce (just squirt some in--however much you want)

    brown sugar

    cumin, 'cause everything's better with cumin

2. MAPLE CHICKEN                        

      Chicken thighs (or tenderloins)

    some Dijon Mustard or regular mustard with some Italian dressing because that's what you have

    Maple Syrup

    sliced oninos

 3. Pork Loin

     A pork loin that was in your freezer when you bought it on sale this summer

     one sliced onion

     Cumin

     Garlic

     onion powder

     parsley

     broth that you found in your freezer after making a roast last month

4. Chicken Tacos                

Taco seasoning packet (then fill the packet with water and

Ranch seasoning packet

chicken breasts

sliced onion

Rotel

olive oil

5. Orange Chicken                          

some chicken

some olive oil

2 oranges, sliced in half

orange juice--like count to six while you're pouring it

half a bottle of terriaki sauce that you thought was soy sauce in the fridge

           

6. Beef Bits                          

cubed beef (stew meat) or meatballs

Dry Onion Soup packet

1 can of whatever kind of cream of soup you like

broth--however much it takes to cover the meatballs or less than that

7. Meatloaf or sloppy joes (with meatballs)

2 pounds ground beef (or turkey) OR, meatballs (seeing a theme, here?)

chopped green bell pepper (not much, we like the flavor but not the taste)

garlic powder

mustard

ketchup

brown sugar

cabbage

black pepper

(eggs and oats for meatloaf)

PEPPERS for Stuffed Peppers (If I weren't using meatballs, I would have made this into stuffed peppers--yum! But we wouldn't have eaten the peppers; we'd have just enjoyed the taste.)

8. Lasagne

            Pasta

Cottage cheese

Marainara

Mozzarella

Meatballs

9. Hobo Meals

            Hamburger Patties

            Broth

            Gravy

            Onions & peppers, stirfry frozen (or not)

Carrots

Cabbage

10. Pork Chops

pork chops

mustard

garlic powder

EVOO

cream of chicken soup and some water or milk to clean out the can

11. Chicken Parmesan

Chicken

Marinara

Parmesan

12. Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

3 lbs potatoes - peeled, thinly sliced (This sounded good that the time)

shredded cheddar cheese

ham

2 cans cream of whatever soup

 milk to rinse the cans out

 garlic powder

pepper

13. Ham and Cheese casserole

Tator tots

4 eggs
 with  2 cups of milk, beaten together

 cheddar cheese, shredded


ham, chopped
 (or not)

 parsley


 salt


 pepper


 paprika


14. Swiss chicken

1 package stuffing mix

4 chicken breasts (boneless & skinless)

some swiss cheese

cream of whatever soup and milk to rinse the can out

15. Turkey and Tortellini

turkey Italian sausage

Marinara

Totellini

Onions and peppers

16. BBQ Pork - 

pork chops

15 ounce can of pineapples, undrained

BBQ sauce

17. Enchilada

Chicken tenderloins

Enchilada sauce

sliced onion

sliced pepper

black beans, drained and rinsed

Corn

Rotel 

           

18. PORK CHOPS 2-3 pounds of Pork Chops

 Romano (already grated) cheese

local honey (local is the best!)

soy sauce (except I used the rest of the teryaki sauce

 Basil

 garlic

EVOO

19. Bacon Wrapped Pork or chicken

            Ribs or chicken

            Bacon

            Brown sugar

            Pepper

20.  Cheeseburger casserole

            1 lb hamburger or ... leftover Taco meat that was in your freezer

            Diced tomatoes

            Ketchup

            Mustard

            Pickles

            Onions

            Tater tots

            Shredded cheese

Meat:

24 chicken breasts or 72 tenderloins

Pork roast

Meatballs (or stew meat or round steak), 3

Patties, 6

Pork Chops, 16

Ham (buy the spiral ham bits and pieces--OMG! YUM!)

Italian sausage

Ground beef (or meatballs) (I had a gob of meatballs--I used them all! D1 doesn't eat red meat, so this will make it easy for her to pick them out and easy for me to fork them off of her plate and into my mouth)

Fruits & Veggies:

Rotel, 2

Oranges

Green peppers-3 (I only used one ... not sure what happened here ...)

Shredded cabbage (or cabbage) (by the shredded, trust me)

Marinara, 3

Onions and peppers stir fry (or, you can forget to buy these and just slice up your own)

Carrots

Onions, 5

Potatoes, 3 lb (seriously? Not sure why I thought I'd slice these myself--do yourself a favor and buy some kind of frozen potatoes)

Crushed pineapples

Black beans

corn

can of tomatoes, 2 

Starch:

Pasta, 2

Tater tots, 2 (or one really large one)

Stuffing mix

Dairy:

eggs

Cottage Cheese

Parmesan cheese

Cheddar cheese, 4 c

Swiss cheese, 1 c

Milk

Romano Cheese (I couldn't find this--I used Parmesan instead. Same dif, right?)

Pantry:

Soy sauce

Honey

Enchilada sauce

Broth (do not buy stock--that's poison. Broth is real, yo.)

Brown gravy mix

Applesauce

BBQ sauce

Brown sugar

Mustard

Ketchup

pickles

Syrup

Mushrooms

Taco seasoning packet

Ranch Dressing

Orange Juice

Worcestershire

Dry onion soup

Cream of Mushroom, 3 (for some reason, I really needed 4)

Garlic Powder

Oats (unless you make meatloaf, you won't need these--I used meatballs because I had a weird collection of meatballs in my freezer)

EVOO

Spices:

Pepper

Basil

Mustard

Garlic powder

Salt

Onion powder

Coriander (this was $8! No way! I didn't use it)

Parsley

Chipotle

Cumin