Food Junkie - From Freezer to Crockpot

I'm a food junkie...I love to cook & I love to eat!  I always try to make healthy meals and follow the motto: "if your great-grandmother wouldn't have eaten it, neither should you."  I don't buy processed foods - no frozen TV dinners here, no "light, low-fat, fat-free" (ok..with the exception of milk & cottage cheese) foods in this household.  We eat "real" food - fresh veggies, full-fat cheeses, meat, eggs, real sweet cream butter, whole grain breads, etc...you get the point!  And Y.E.S.- I read the labels on everything. They say the healthiest foods are found in the outside perimeter of the grocery store.

I wanted my lazy Sundays to be even lazier and still get a home cooked meal on the table. What could be easier than crock pot meals?  I scoured the internet for crock pot recipes that could be assembled and then frozen.  All I would need to do was remove from the freezer, dump it into the crock pot and walk away.  Easy peasy, right?

I made seven crock pot meals, total cost for all the food was around $112 dollars.  I'm pretty sure the cashier thought I was nuts for purchasing twenty-five (yes-25) chicken breasts.  That's about $16 per meal, since there is only two of us, we'll probably get three meals out of each crock pot - just a little over $5 per meal...love it!  It took me about three hours to make them all, but totally worth the time.

Here are the recipes for the meals that I made (with simplified instructions) - check out those fresh veggies! These recipes are not my own, so I'd like to give credit (thank you to those bloggers) where I got them from -- click on the title of the meal, it take you to the original recipe.

Fresh veggies - delicious!

 Chicken Fajitas

2 pepper, cut into strips

1 onion, sliced

3 chicken breasts, cut into strips

1/2 cup chicken broth

taco seasoning packet

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. salt

Cook on low 5-6 hours

 Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

3 chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 (16 oz) bag frozen broccoli (I used a head of fresh broccoli)

1 large green pepper, chopped (I used a red pepper)

2 (16 oz) jars alfredo sauce

Cook on low for 4-6 hours

Cilantro Lime Chicken

3 chicken breasts

juice from 2 limes

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 (16 oz) bag corn

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper

Cook on low for 8 hours

 Honey Rosemary Chicken

4 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup honey 

1/3 cup olive oil 

3 tbs rosemary, chopped

1 tsp salt

Cook on low for 6-8 hours

Creamy Italian Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 can cream of chicken

1 dry packet of italian seasoning

Cook on low for 4-6 hours

Teriyaki Chicken

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces 

1 cup teriyaki sauce 

1 cup water

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. ginger (or a few slices of fresh ginger)

Cook on low for 4-6 hours

BBQ Chicken

5 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

1 bottle of BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vinegar 

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

Cook on low for 4-6 hours

That's all!  There were so many recipes to chose from - I'm excited to try out the recipes for beef and pork that I found.  Having the BBQ chicken for dinner tonight, it smells delicious!  Happy Sunday to you all ~ enjoy your day!

Live. Laugh. Love.