Crockpot Freezer Cooking Day (how I'm surviving the summer!)

My husband works late into the evening and typically gets home between 7:30-9 pm.  Therefore, when he mentioned last week that he felt a bit slighted on dinners, I took a look at what we had eaten the days prior.

Mac & Cheese.
PB&J.
Chicken Nuggets.

Ugh - nothing adult friendly, and quite frankly, nothing healthy, homemade or even yummy for my children.

After about five minutes of feeling like the worst wife of the year, I decided to get my booty in gear and make dinner happen.

We are a family of four with no allergies or special dietary needs.  We like to eat lean meats such as chicken and turkey. I really don't like cooking (I'd much rather be sewing!) and had let meals just completely fall off my radar screen during the month of May.

But June was on the horizon and I was determined to get our family out of this funk!

Thanks to Pinterest, menu planning is fairly simple.  I created a June 2015 board and started pinning things that were easy, looked delicious, fairly cheap, crockpot and freezer friendly.  In less than half an hour, I had a menu.  Fifteen minutes later I had a grocery list.  An hour later I was on my way to Aldi.

Here's the recipes I made and our family's thoughts on each meal:

Slow Cooker Potato Soup from Once A Month Meals- my seven-year-old said this was the best thing I'd ever made!  :)  It's a bit time consuming to chop all the potatoes, but it's yummy!  I left the skin on the potatoes and used 1/3 less fat cream cheese.

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls from Number 2 Pencil - this is so yummy!  It makes a LOT of food, so it's perfect if you're feeding a crowd.  We have a good size container of leftovers in our fridge right now.  There is also a one-pot recipe here if you prefer to make this on the stovetop.

Chicken and Wild Rice Freezer Meal from Joyful Momma's Kitchen - this is a great comfort food!  It was a bit greasier than I like, but I think that was because I used chicken thighs.  I usually use chicken breasts (boneless skinless from Aldi) for everything, but for some reason, grabbed a bag of thighs on my shopping trip.  I am pretty clueless sometimes in the kitchen and didn't know that thighs were dark meat!  Oh well... live and learn.  I'll definitely be trying this again with breasts and think it will be a winner.

Slow Cooker Beef Roast and Carrots from New Leaf Wellness - we had this on Sunday after church.  The roast has a great flavor with the taco seasoning (I couldn't find the chipotle or mesquite seasoning mentioned in the recipe) and the carrots are amazing!  Definitely will be making this again!

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry from New Leaf Wellness - I loved this!  It was certainly something different from our family's normal palate, but what great flavor it had!  One of my children loved it, one did not.  Hubby said it was a win!

Crockpot Tomato Turkey Vegetable Soup from New Leaf Wellness - we have yet to eat this, but it looks amazing!

Pesto Ranch Crockpot Chicken Thighs from Picky Palate - also yet to eat this one, but I can't wait to dig in!

Chicken Italiano from Mom Advice- another one that's still in the freezer, but this recipe is from my sister, who says this is a family favorite!

Salsa Chicken from Chef Mommy - this is a long-time family favorite of ours, also from the recommendation of my sister.  It's easy and packed full of flavor!

I prepared each of these twice, so we had 18 meals total.  I spent $144 at Aldi, and $60 at Publix, so approximately $200 total, or $11.11 per meal for a family of 4 (some meals with leftovers).  I live and shop in the Orlando, Florida area - so prices will vary according to your region of the country.  Not bad at all, and certainly more delicious than mac & cheese or PB&J.

Can I just also say how easy my afternoons have been this week?  Mid-morning, I pull a freezer meal from our garage freezer, and pop it in the crockpot.  It has revolutionized everything!  Try it- I promise it will change your afternoons!

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