7 Meals in 1 Hour Slow Cooker Crockpot Freezer Meals. Save money by prepping, bagging and freezing 7 delicious slow cooker meals in 1 hour.
7 Meals in 1 Hour Slow Cooker Crockpot Freezer Meals
Get your slow cookers ready ladies & gentlemen, as we present our latest journey into freezer meals. Introducing: 7 Meals in 1 Hour Slow Cooker Crockpot Freezer Meals! Yup, we’re at it again!
You might be familiar with our previous 2 posts: “40 Meals in 4 Hours” and “20 Meals in 2 Hours“, both of these have been tried around the world and viewed by millions! Everyone loves the ease of prepping/bagging/freezing/slow cooking a variety of meals.This go around I took the plunge! I was somewhat intimidated even though I know first hand how this process has helped friends of mine. Helped them how? Saved them money by not eating out, grabbing a pizza, ordering carry-out.
We’ve all had those days where you just look at the calendar & cringe, so the beauty of dumping the contents of a freezer bag into the slow cooker in the morning & being done…there’s definitely an appeal to it. So what intimidated me?
I have a small work area in my kitchen and a small amount of freezer space. I knew there was absolutely no way I could tackle one of the larger 40 Meal or 20 Meal preps, let alone find freezer space for all those meals.
This past January in Michigan the weather forecasters started predicting a little weather episode approaching us called a Polar Vortex. Basically, they were alerting us that arctic temperatures were coming & would be hovering for a week or so bringing us wind chills in the -30 degree range.
That’s when I decided to try my own “mini” version! There was no way I wanted to be out unnecessarily during this bitter cold snap. I could prep/bag/freeze/slow cook my way through the week & stay warm in toasty in my house! And it worked awesomely!
I will say I’m fairly organized, I don’t like a messy kitchen while I’m working away and had all of my ducks in a row so to speak before I began. But with that said, it took me 52 MINUTES…yes you read that correctly 52 MINUTES to prep and bag 7 meals for my family!
I was lucky enough that morning to have zero distractions, my children were out with my husband and I had my game face on. Didn’t answer the phone, return texts, check Facebook…nope I worked away until I had accomplished my goal!
7 Meals in 1 Hour!!!
What I will not specifically outline is how much these “7 Meals in 1 Hour” cost me to prepare. I will roughly say $10 a bag.
Costs will vary from person to person, region to region and will depend heavily on the products you choose, your pantry supply and sales you may encounter. I was thrilled with the results and encourage you to give it a try if you want to start small, have limited space or are on a tight budget. Below are the recipes I used, click the link above each one to go directly to that post.
Click HERE to see the complete SHOPPING LIST!
Slow Cooker Mexican-Style Shredded Beef
Rustic Chicken Slow Cooker Stew
General Tso’s Slow Cooker Chicken
Slow Cooker BBQ Cranberry Chicken
Slow Cooker Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce
Sausage & White Bean Slow Cooker Soup
Simple Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
These are some great ideas. I do this all the time with a whole chicken. I will fix two in the slow cooker and then shred the chicken and use it for stews, taco meat, casseroles, etc. Shredded chicken can make so many meals in a short amount of time.
You cook 2 whole chickens skin and all in slow cooker and then shred chicken?? Do you freeze the chicken after cooking it for future slow cooker recipes?
What a cool idea! I love the thought of having entire meals bagged up and ready to go. I’ll have to try and think of some vegetarian alternatives because I’d love to try this 🙂 thanks!
Becca you should try coconut curry with chick peas! I usually use onions, carrots, celery and then either cauliflower or broccoli etc- canned coconut milk, and then a japanese curry cube product i like. I’ve used thai red curry paste also. It’s a family favourite over here!!
You’re so organized! I love this. Pinning and trying.
These are wonderful and much needed right now with my children’s schedule. Just to let you knew, the link to the rustic chicken stew is not working.
Thank you Heidi, we fixed the link! 🙂
Great idea. I’ve done a weekly freezer cook a few times. I really should get better about it. Thanks for the pointers. #foodelicious
I made the General Tso’s this weekend and it was more than delicious! Thank you!!!
DEFINITELY trying this next week — SO excited! I’m like you, the posts I would see about 20-40 meals was very overwhelming. I think I can handle 7 🙂
You know, I need to consider this! There is just two of us here and sometimes it is really easy on a weeknight to just give in and eat something unhealthy because we are both too tired!
I have never done this. My other half hates chicken in the crockpot so full meals in a bag would send him straight to the first fast food joint LOL!
Try some of our Beef in the crock pot dishes 😉
My friend’s husband is the same- unile she “flash” broiled the chicken before putting it in the crock pot. She said it helped the texture a lot and now he’ll eat it lol. Maybe give that a try? 🙂
My problem with freezer cooking is that I’m not sure we will like the food. Once I invested a weekend doing freezer cooking and when we ate the meals no one seemed to care for them. How does anyone else do this? The recipes look great but don’t want to waste time or money on something that we don’t enjoy. Help???
I definitely understand this concern, I have a household full of fussy eaters. You have to know what your families tastes are, plain & simple. If one of the recipes doesn’t sound like it will work for your family, omit it, double another recipe that does sound like your family will enjoy. Just make sure to update the shopping list with revisions/omissions.
I attempted your 20 meals in two hours and ran out of freezer space but love the meals! We too live in Michigan, and I must admit it has been a huge cost savings and time saver! I love it on a blustery cold night. I have introduced a few friends to your site. Thanks for adding more. 🙂
How does one navigate to the recipes? I’ve clicked around for 10 mins to no avail.
Jane, not sure why you are unable to click each link above the photo. I just personally went through and was able to click each one. You can also go the long route though & type each recipe name into the search bar.
Is there an environmentally friendly way to store these meals? Throwing out the plastic bags is wasteful and using plastic containers takes up so much space in the freezer. Suggestions would be appreciated.
If you don’t want to use plastic the other way I would suggest is using pyrex or something like it. But like you said – it takes up a lot of room. not sure how else you would store food.
Why not try washing out the bags in a sinkful of hot soapy water, rinsing well and letting them dry? I would think that heavy duty freezer bags should be sturdy enough to handle this.
You will probably reject this solution, but I wash my plastic bags and reuse them endlessly. Just my small contribution to reducing the amount of discarded plastic bags in Planet Earth. “Throw away?” There is no “away.” “Away” is EARTH.
where can I find nutritional information for these recipes at?
All of our recipes are also found on a site named My Recipe Magic, which gives you the nutritional calculations. Here is the link, just search by recipe name:http://myrecipemagic.com/home/recipes
What a great way to cook, I have my shopping list in my hot little hand and am off to shop for these recipes at once.
So often one would not be interested in half the recipes for bulk freezing but all of these dishes look really great
Thanks for taking all the hard work out of bulk cooking
Thank you so much for this! I am totally inept in the kitchen and these are the first meals I have cooked that my husband has said ,”yum!” Bahaha. I would suggest the addition of potatoes to the white bean soup and stroganoff. Or to serve the stroganoff over potatoes. Also, is there a way to thicken up the stroganoff???
You could possibly thicken with flour or cornstarch as you would gravy. We liked serving it over rice though with a bit of liquid. Glad your husband is enjoying.
I was really skeptical when a friend posted this on FB but quite frankly, I figured I had nothing to lose by giving this a try. I am SO happy that I did! And you know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life!” My hubby is also enjoying our stress free evenings resulting from “Honey, I’m home and dinner’s ready!” Your suggestion of using a light timer ensures perfect timing even when I have to work late. And have I mentioned the crock pot liners? Even better than sliced bread! Thank you! Thank you! I can’t wait to prep for another week, or two, or three…! (PS – when I read this to my husband he said, “It really is a phenomenal concept. So phenomenal in fact – is there more out there for seconds?”)
Jennifer, thank you so much for the comments! Happy wife…happy life is oh so true! 🙂
Thank you for posting these! I wanted to leave a review for others considering making these. I bought most of the items on the list, excluding the pantry items. It cost me the same as my usual grocery trips, if not a bit under. It took me and my husband together 1 hour to make all of these. We worked at a quick pace. I’ve eaten all but 3 of the meals and they have been delicious. They are also easy to adapt and add to. I would highly recommend these as cost effective, quick, delicious and worth the time. Thanks again!
**Oh and for my family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers we had plenty of left overs.
Thank you for sharing your experience Christina! 🙂
A friend of mine from church spoke about doing this over the weekend, (20 meals in 2 hours). I must admit I was a little skepitcal, but after looking at this site I think it is do-able. And with recipes that my picky family will actually eat and enjoy!! My question is this, my husband is a hunter, can I use venison in place of beef or pork in those recipes?
Amanda, So glad you found us, this is totally DO-ABLE…you can do this! I cannot speak personally since I have not tried venison, but I do have a friend that used it in place of beef/pork/chicken in recipes and she seems pleased. I’ve heard slow cooking venison is a great way to prepare the meat. Let us know how it works for you! 🙂
Okay a few more questions that I have thought of since the first one… Can I use the already bagged frozen chicken breasts? If the meats are already frozen, do I need to partially thaw in order to cut then refreeze in the bags?
Place the frozen breasts into the new freezer bags that you are preparing for each recipe. Don’t thaw and re-freeze.
I’m late to the party, but I love this. I used your shopping list last weekend and purchased all the ingredients for my freezer meals. We’ve eaten the cranberry chicken, beef stroganoff and the white bean soup so far and all three were a hit. I also added 3 meals of my own so I had 10 in the freezer. I’ve tweeted and shared your link on FB a few times.
Thanks. I’m looking forward to pushing it up to 20 meals at some point.
Thanks for stopping over Rhonda and spreading the word 🙂 much appreciated!
I am doing this! I have all of the ingredients in my kitchen right now…I feel nervous. I have a question: Most of the recipes say cook on low for 6 hours. We are both away from the house for 9 hours. Any suggestions? My crockpot does not have a timer.
Hi Julie, Some readers have suggested using a plug-in timer. The type that you set for turning lamps on & off in your home. I have not tried personally, so I cannot say for sure though. Hope you enjoy!
I’m trying this idea this week, and noticed for all seven I had to click around to each page, while also trying to mess with raw chicken and beef.
I’d love it if the food prep for all seven was included on one page to minimize clicking around! As it is, you may as well pick any seven recipes, so this 7 meals in 1 hour thing is just suggesting which recipes.
Also, I noticed a number of the dishes are supposed to be served with rice. How can I make rice convenient? The slow-cooker recipes seem to think it should be done for 2 hours on high, which isn’t conducive to a 9-11 hour day away from home.
Thank you for the suggestion! There are many quick serve healthy rices out there that only take a couple minutes. Perhaps one of those might work for you?
Angela, you might also try just fixing a large batch of rice ahead of time, maybe just shy of the “done” stage and then portion it out for each meal and put it in the freezer. I see no reason why that wouldn’t work. I means, they have frozen stir fry rice now so if “they” can freeze it why not you?
BTW, I’m going to give the 7 Meals a shot…it’s just myself and a fairly picky 13yo daughter at home so I’m thinking these 7 meals will like give us closer to 14. I will have to compare recipes to shopping list though to make sure the shopping list is in sync with the number of meals.
I agree with Bevin – quick serve rices are the way to go. I personally buy frozen already cooked steam in bag rice. It makes rice in 5 minutes (and it’s not expensive)
also – when I put the meals together I print them all off and go one by one 😉 that way i’m not touching screens and all that!
Use brown rice, which requires a longer cooking time, plus it’s healthier and better for you. It contains all the natural vitamins and minerals and fiber that white rice doesn’t have. Processing removes all the good natural components of rice, and then adds a few synthetic vitamins and minerals and has the audacity to call it “enriched”. It’s like stealing dollars and substituting pennies.
Love the recipes. Just left out the ones I knew my family would not eat. The only complaint here is that the meals do NOT defrost overnight (in my fridge at least.) I had to soak the bag in water to defrost as much as possible since I was in a hurry to get to work. It was still pretty frozen when I put it in the crock pot. I think I’ll try putting the bag in my fridge 2 days in advance…
Hi Julissa, In my experience with slow cooker/freezer meals I’ve only ever partially thawed overnight in the refrigerator and they slow cooked just fine the next day. Thanks for stopping over!
I crockpot often and the meals I put in my crockpot are never completely thawed. They are usually just thawed enough to dump in the crockpot and put the lid on. It extends the cooking time a little also if you need more than 8 hours on low.
This sounds like a god send to me, Going to try, Thank you.
I’m going back to work in 2 weeks and am looking forward to trying these recipes! I cook extra rice and keep it in the fridge for a couple days or put it into the freezer. I put the desired amount in a casserole with a couple tablespoons of water, cover and microwave until hot. It saves a lot of time. For recipes that require cooked ground beef, I cook 5 pounds in a huge pot, drain and rinse to get most of the fat off, then put in 5 containers or bags in the freezer. When I need it, I can just pull out 1 pound of cooked burger and it saves a ton of time. I can’t wait to pull out my crockpot!
I can’t find your recipes for 7 meals in one hour.
Hi Angela, Click the red text above each photo it will take you to each recipe.
Love the dishes new to this the first set I found was the 40 recipes and I found another set of slow cooker recipes and plunged in making a total of about 70 in one weekend it was hard but my family loves them. We have a family of five and if I add sides there is enough to go around.This is a great idea and helps me out alot with us going in five different directions everyday.
Glad you are enjoying Vicki! So nice to know you have less chaos at dinnertime!
I really love this I’m definitely going to do this when I saw a friend of mine post this on Facebook it’s the first time I’ve heard of this I love my cock. But I never knew that these things could be done with it but I do have a question do you have a recipe for chili beans?
Currently we do not have a recipe for chili beans, maybe in the future! Hope you enjoy the 7 Meals, it really helps out on busy nights!
Mexican beef and general chicken links aren’t working 🙁 I just spent around $200 using the whole shopping list link last night and now I can’t access some of the recipes… Please help!!
Sorry our site got overloaded! Try again!
Is there a master groceries list for this?
Yes it is linked in the post!
Can I substitute other recipes from 20,30,40 meals I’m hour for one of these in 7 in hour ?
Of course!
I tried this. Because I have a large family and wanted leftovers, I doubled the recipes. I spent around $170 all-in. It would have been more, but I already had most of the pantry items. I probably could have saved some money by shopping around sales, but that would have taken more time. As it was, I spent most of yesterday printing the list and recipes, purchasing ingredients, and prepping 4 of the dishes. I finished the other 3 this morning. I am having trouble imagining getting all of it prepped in less than an hour even if I had all the ingredients on hand. I spent over 2 1/2 hours on prep. I could drop that some now that I have a better idea of what is involved, but I doubt I could get it under 1 hour. Then again, doubling the recipes probably had a little to do with that. It certainly doesn’t double the prep time.
All I can find are the links to the recipes separately, and the shopping list.
Have you posted instructions on your procedure for getting all prepped in under an hour?
I am currently taking care of my two elderly parents, not to mention hubby and three high school kids at home too, so these will work great for me. I am going to make them up and freeze them, then I can lay a bag in the fridge before I go home and they can pop them into the crock pot in the morning. It will be ready and hot by the time I come back after work. Plus there is just two of them, so that means leftovers for lunch the next day for them too. Thank you! If this works out, going to tackle your bigger freezer meals posts.