Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Freezer to Slow Cooker Meals

Back in September I tried out some Slow Cooker Freezer Meals. We've recently finished them and I wanted to share the results!

Epic Fail. 

While the process and idea was GREAT, we weren't all that impressed with the recipes. =(  I really should have tried them out before making 2 meals of each and tossing them in the freezer. The flavors were not really a good mix but my hubby was very gracious and ate everything without complaining! I really love how much nutrition was packed into most of the recipes - but like I said, the flavors didn't quite mesh for us.

My hubby is working late and cutie-pie is in bed so I have Glee on (I'm way back on season 1 still...) and it's SO distracting... TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART... *sigh* we sang this a lot senior year of college. LOL good memories. 

OK, sorry, back to the blog! As it turns out there are TONS of recipes for the slow cooker (duh)... and essentially those recipes can all go to the freezer (another duh)... So I decided to step out of the box and stop looking for recipes labeled just for the freezer. Alright, so here are my most recent results, a few of these totally need to be made and put in our freezer, asap.

Apparently I didn't step very far out of the box for this one... oops... one step at a time right? =)
Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches - I think I needed to leave these to soak a little longer because even though the chicken was falling apart it was dry. I served these on the soft, this, sandwich buns - KINDA weird with a whole chicken breast inside... certainly shred your chicken and mix all the goodies together for this one.
Savory Pepper Steak - didn't put the steaks in flour before tossing them into the slow cooker. Great flavor, very moist, cutie-pie ate and ate and ate these.
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham - saaaaaaaalty. I used cream of mushroom soup, but I think broccoli would have been better and I didn't add any salt but did use ham and the salt from that was infused into EVERYTHING. I think I had an idea of how to change that, but I'm not recalling it right now... Essentially the first bite was amazing and then it was overwhelming.
Salsa Chicken - well, I substituted peas for corn, because that's what I had in the freezer. Please don't make this mistake. =) Also, unlike most recipes, this one did not have enough moisture. A full jar of salsa probably could have helped remedy this, or adding some water. I love these types of recipes though, because they can be eaten multiple ways.
Chicken Curry - this recipe was delightful... cream of chicken soup, sherry, butter... how could this not be good?! I saved the extra sauce but I can't decide how to enjoy it... probably more pasta... I'm salivating. =)
Six Sisters' Stuff also has a few great recipes;
BBQ Spareribs - these were delicious, but spareribs... not messing with those again.
Black Bean Taco Soup - delish! I accidentally added the whole bag of frozen corn (which is why I didn't have any for the salsa chicken)... I discovered my hubby isn't a huge soup fan this week, but this was easily drained and added to a tortilla, but it's still great as soup or on lettuce.
Chicken Broccoli Alfredo - it's Alfredo folks, the only thing that could be made better is if it'd didn't go straight to my hips =)
Chicken Cacciatore - I love the extra veggies in this, but the spaghetti sauce I used in this was not a good brand (but alas I don't remember what it was...)
French Dip Sandwiches - super easy, decently yummy, and great on those thin buns!
Hearty Beef Stew - I wasn't so sure about this, and mine didn't look like the photo but it was FANTASTIC! I forgot to add the peas (which is why I had them to add to the previous recipe) but hubby said it was better that way. I wasn't sure about mushroom and tomato soup together, but it was hearty and perfect for a cool Sunday afternoon.
Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken - this wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, possibly needed longer in the slow cooker to marinate in the flavors.
Cilantro Lime Chicken w/Corn and Black Beans - probably not on my list to make again... I've tried a couple other recipes with lime and wasn't impressed by them either.

So there ya'll have it! Happy Crockin' =)

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