Beef Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (browned)
1 medium onion (chopped
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bag frozen peas
1 cup chopped carrots
2 t. oregano
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
2 packages (24 oz each) mashed potatoes

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together except mashed potatoes.   Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.  Mix up mashed potatoes, the day you plan to serve the meal.  Put on top of the meat & veggie mixture and cook for 30 minutes, giving the mashed potatoes a chance to heat all the way through.   We topped ours with cheese….but that is totally optional!  Steps to Prep this for the Freezer: Brown ground beef, chop onion, and mince garlic. Mix all ingredients together except mashed potatoes.  Place in freezer safe bag, label, lay flat and freeze.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:
6 frozen chicken breasts
1 package taco seasoning
1.5 cups salsa
2 cans cream of chicken
1.5 cups of sour cream

Directions:
Mix all ingredients minus the chicken in a freezer safe bag.  You can add the chicken to the bag or leave it in it’s original packaging.  Label & Freeze .On cooking day:  Place all ingredients in the crockpot, making sure to cover the chicken with the mixture.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Once cooked, pull chicken out, shred it and mix back in, cooking for another 30 minutes.  Serve over baked potatoes, noodles or as a taco salad.

Mexican Beef Wraps

Ingredients:
1 T.  chili powder
2 t. cumin
1 t. salt
1 2.5-3 lb boneless beef chuck pot roast(cut into 4 pieces)
1 medium onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
½ cup salsa (plus extra for serving with)
12 tortillas, warmed

Directions:
Blend chili powder, cumin and salt.  Rub meat on all sides with spice mixture.  Put chopped onion and garlic on the bottom of your slow cooker.  Place meat on top.  Spoon ½ cup of salsa on top of meat.  Cook on low for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 3.5 to 4.5 hours. To Serve:  Remove meat from the slow cooker and place on a plate.  Use forks to shred the meat up.  Skim any fat from the cooking liquid and throw it away.  Return meat to juices and mix well.  Place meat on warm tortillas and top with cheese, tomato, cilantro, avocado and salsa. To Prep for Freezer:  Chop Onions and garlic.  Cut meat into quarters.  Rub meat with spices.  Place meat, onion and garlic into Gallon Size Freezer bag.  Label with marker and freeze.   Don’t forget to keep 1/2 cup of salsa on hand to put on top after you remove the contents of the bag and place in the slow cooker.

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:
3-6 chicken breast, or a bag

BBQ sauce
 

Directions:
Cook a bag of chicken breast in a bottle of BBQ sauce in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Once it is finished, shred with a fork and serve on buns.  This is so easy, you don’t even need to prep it for Freezer to Slow Cooker.

Italian Chicken

Ingredients:
3-6 chicken breast, or a bag of chicken
Bottle of Italian Chicken Marinade or dressing

Directions:
Pour a bag of chicken breast with a bottle of Italian Chicken Marinade into your slow cooker.  (I’ve heard that Italian Dressing will do, too).  Cook it on high for 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
½ cup of ketchup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 T. Soy Sauce
Hamburger buns.

Directions:
Brown ground beef with onions and garlic cloves (If you were following the freezer instructions, this is already done.)    Dump tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, brown sugar and soy sauce into slow cooker.  Mix it up.  Pour meat mixture in and mix it well.  Turn on low and cook 2-4 hours.

Roast, Potatoes, Carrots

Ingredients:
Roast
Potatoes (peeled and quartered)
Carrots (peeled and halved)
One packet of onion soup mix
water

Directions:
Put contents in slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  If you cook it on high, your meat will be done, but not quite as tender if you only cook it for 4 hours. If you’d like to prepare this for a freezer to slow cooker meal, you will do as follows: Dissolve onion soup mix in 2 cups of water. Pour into freezer safe bag with roast that was removed from it’s packaging. Freeze together. Peel and slice carrots and freeze in a separate bag. Remember to pull contents out the night before and let it begin thawing in the refrigerator.  If you happen to forget, just throw it all in the crock frozen, but you’ll want to give it about an hour of extra cooking time. On cooking day, peel potatoes that you need for your family size. Put roast in the water/soup mixture on the bottom and then stack the potatoes and carrots on top of that.  I prefer the meat to be in the juices so that it continues to get the flavor of the onion soup mix, but if you would rather have your veggies get that taste in them, put the vegetables on the bottom and the meat on top.