• About Me
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • PR & Advertising
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Disclosure
  • Frugal Living
    • Giveaways
    • Living a Frugal Life
    • Freebies
    • Homeschool Printables
    • Recycling
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration & Quotes
    • Charity

Castle View Academy

Curiosity + Creativity = Learning

  • Home
  • Learning
    • Home Education
    • Homeschool Art
    • Field Trips
    • Homeschool Geography
    • Health
    • Homeschool History
    • Homeschool Language Arts
      • Books
        • Book Activities
    • Life Skills
    • Homeschool Math
    • Music
    • Homeschool Science
    • Sports
  • Creativity
    • Book Activities
    • Craft
    • Culture
      • Africa
      • Asian Cultures
      • Europe
      • North America
      • South America
      • Oceania
    • Nature
    • Outdoors
    • Playtime
  • Holidays & Seasons
    • Holidays
      • Valentine’s Day
      • St. Patrick’s Day
      • Easter
      • Mother’s Day
      • Father’s Day
      • Canada Day
      • Thanksgiving
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
      • New Year
    • Seasons
      • Spring
      • Summer
      • Autumn
      • Winter
  • Recipes
    • Beverages
    • Breakfast Recipes
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Snacks
    • Fun Food
    • Fun Recipes for Play
  • Family
    • Family Life
    • Parenting
  • Reviews
Home » Family Life » Slow Cooker Meals – When & How To Plan Them

Slow Cooker Meals – When & How To Plan Them

January 27, 2021 by Crystal McClean Leave a Comment

How To Cook a Healthy Family Meal When You Are Not at Home
Slow Cooker Meals - When and how To Plan For Them
Easy way to make a meal plan for busy days

Slow cooker meals are amazing! I made them when I was single but working and taking university classes and time and energy were short. Now I find them even better with a husband and children in the mix. I want my family to have healthy homecooked meals, but I also don’t want to be a slave to the kitchen. Slow cookers make this happen.

Slow Cooker Meals - When To Plan For Them

This post may contain affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission.

At one time, slow cooker meals were thought of as a stew or chilli, but these days, there are so many more options and I’ll share my favourite go-to place for slow cooker meals with you.

Think of any one-pot dish, such as stew, chili, or a chicken casserole, and you can easily make it in a slow cooker. Simply throw the ingredients into your slow cooker in the morning, turn it on low, and continue along with your day – either at home or out and about. When you return home later in the day, all worn out, you’ll walk into a home that smells of a delicious dish – no having to slave over a hot stove now as it’s already done for you. Make some toast or a fresh roll and it’s ready to plate out for supper. What could be easier?

If you’re not a morning person (I never have been and am getting worse), there are ways of making things even easier. You can prep ahead the night before by chopping your veggies and refrigerating them over night, ready for the morning.

Slow cooker meals do take some prep and a little planning, and this is how I do it. Slow cooker meals have come a long way since the ’70s, and now there is so much variety in what you can cook. You can take almost any recipe and adjust it a little to make it slow cooker compatible. The meals with a minimum of prep work are the best when you really want to save time.

Meal Planner Grocery List and menu using Intentional Bites Planner at Castle View Academy

First, make a list of meals that your family enjoys. This Intentional Bites Planner is my go-to. If you’re new to slow cooking, may I suggest MyFreezEasy…this is my favourite site for recipes. I go through and choose the meals I want to make for the upcoming month and move them into my menu (ingredient amounts are adjusted automatically depending on if you choose 2, 4, 6, or 8 portions.

READ MORE:   My little Girl... A Father's Story

There are various ways you can print these recipes. Simply print the recipes as they are, or watch Erin’s videos to learn how she preps for the prep and can create 10 freezer meals in an hour by doing it in an organised fashion. Erin preps up 10 meals (5 recipes of 2 meals each) each month proving it can be done, and you can prep along with her, or watch to see her techniques and apply them to your prep.

Panning Slow Cooker Meals

You can further save time by using frozen sliced bell peppers, frozen sliced onions, etc., or have your kids help slice everything along with you so they can learn important kitchen skills.

Once you’ve decided on your meals, put any necessary items on your grocery list, and prepare to have your groceries delivered or shopped for the day before your meal prep so you aren’t too tired. Trust me, this definitely makes a difference in motivation. MyFreezEasy has these lists prepared for you, separated by meal, or all amalgamated into one list that contains every recipe in your meal plan of 5 or 10 recipes (definitely a great feature of this subscription).

Try the World’s Best Homeschool Planner for FREE!
freezer meals

After your freezer meals are prepped and bagged, simply freeze them and then when you have planned for a slow cooker meal, take it out of the freezer the night before to thaw in your fridge, or alternatively, take it out of the freezer in the morning and thaw in a bowl of cool water for 20 minutes. Then slide it out of the bag and into the slow cooker, turn it on, and you’re good to go for the day.

Once you have your meals prepped and in the freezer it’s very easy to plan ahead and slot these meals into your weekly/monthly menu.

Ham and pineapple in the slow cooker

I find that taking a morning or afternoon to prep our freezer meals, usually making about 20-30 meals at a time, makes daily life much more under control. I often do not take meals out of the freezer the night before, nor most of the time plan which meals to have on which days. With a freezer full of a variety of meals (ranging from flavoured pork chops to lasagne to chicken enchiladas to beef stir fry, and everything in between, we can decide on the day what we would like to eat. If we don’t use the slow cooker in the morning, we can cook our meals on the stove in a cast iron pan, or in the oven.

READ MORE:   Cute and Elegant Japanese Note Cards

We know we will always have a home-cooked meal, even on the busiest of days. Slow cooking and planning meals in advance is all about making it easy for you to get delicious home-cooked meals on the table with the minimum of effort.

What’s your favourite slow cooker meal?

Filed Under: Family Life, Recipes Tagged With: AF-MFE, Freezer meals, Meal Plan, Slow Cooker

About Crystal McClean

I am a Mom, Wife, Home Educator, and Virtual Assistant. We love to have fun together while learning and exploring our environment.

« Korean Homestyle Cooking Book Review
Bailey Jacobs Is Back – The Unconventional Female Detective: Episodes 5-8 »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 
LoveCrafts
Free Language Arts Lessons
Try the World’s Best Homeschool Planner for FREE!

Popular Posts

Evan-Moor flashcards and worbooks
TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100
”Top

Terms of Use

Please use our ideas in your home or school. If you wish to share a post, you may share one photo with a link to the original post; however, please do not share any photos of children, adults, or animals without prior written permission which may be obtained via an email to info@CastleViewAcademy.com

Please do not copy or duplicate a post’s instructions or recipe without written permission.

All content on this site is copyrighted and belongs to Castle View Academy/Crystal McClean 2011-2020.

· Copyright © 2015 · Castle View Academy · Site Design by: Fantastique Designs ·