Easy Dinner Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

Chicken with Campbell's Cheesy Broccoli Oven Sauce

Since having my third child, dinner is usually the farthest thing from my mind at the end of the day. Between working from home, dropping off and picking up the older kids, and entertaining my baby throughout the day, It’s just not as important as my kids or my work (unless making dinner is work!).

Over the past few months I’ve become a little pro-active in making sure that I don’t have to worry about anything once dinner time arrives by doing a lot of meal prep on the weekends! I’ve been stocking up on various oven and crock pot sauces to help me out and make dinnertime a breeze. All I have to do is remember to grab the right protein, veggie and sauce and I’m on my way to making a delicious meal for the family.

Our current favorite? Cheesy chicken and broccoli. So easy to make in a snap! Almost as easy as our favorite slow cooker freezer meals.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli with Campbell's Cheesy Broccoli Oven Sauce

Easy Dinner Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauces There are quite a few sauces that you can easily incorporate into your freezer meal plan. With these pantry staples you really can make dinner a quick and painless part of the day. And don’t get me started on the delicious oven sauces like the cheesy broccoli chicken featured above.

Today I’m sharing one of my favorites: Tavern Style Pot Roast! Not only is this slowcooker sauce amazingly delicious, it’s something I can keep in my pantry until I need it.

Easy Dinner Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - meat and veggies

Easy Dinner Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

How To Prep Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

To create this simple slow cooker freezer meal all you have to do is gather up a few ingredients. I included a beef roast, chopped carrots, chopped potatoes, and one onion, cut into large chunks.

Then I simply labeled a gallon size freezer bag with the name of the meal and the date I’ve prepared it to freeze. That way I know exactly what meal to grab when I’m looking to start dinner. Once everything is ready to go I add all of the ingredients to the bag and pop it in the freezer for later. Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - label gallon bagSlow Cooker Freezer Meals - pot roast For other dishes that are just as simple I do a similar meal prep. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Hawaiian Pork – Add pork roast, green beans (fresh or frozen), and pineapple chunks to the bag. Stock up on frozen rice and serve pork and green beans over rice.  

Beef Stew – Add beef, diced potatoes, carrots and, onions (fresh or frozen) to the bag. Serve with a nice salad. 

Shredded Beef Tacos – Add beef roast, onions, peppers, kidney and/or black beans and corn to the bag. Use with taco shells or as a filling for burritos or enchiladas.

Easy Dinner Slow Cooker Freezer Meals - slow cooker sauces

What’s your favorite freezer meal to prepare?

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Recipe featured on Someday I’ll Learn

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan recipe

Last week was hot here in San Diego. Cooking was far from my mind. As was turning on the stove. But since my kids still depend on my to feed them (yeah… the husband does too) I got smart and busted out the slow cooker.

Grabbing ingredients from our freezer and pantry I found that I could make a simple slow cooker chicken parmesan recipe in little to no time. The only extra thing I had to do was boil water for noodles closer to dinner time. Easy peasy! This slow cooker meal is not only easy, it takes only 5 ingredients! And 3 of those 5 ingredients go in the slow cooker to work their magic.

You can find the full recipe featured today on Someday I’ll Learn.

What’s your favorite meal to make when the temperature is rising?

Pinterest Inspiration

5 Tips for Slow Cooker Success

Campbell's Slow Cooker Success

I have had quite a few successes and failures when it comes to slow cookers. So much so that I realize I haven’t even shared a lot of my slow cooker recipes on this blog.

Well… that also may be because most of my slow cooker meals do NOT look pretty when plated. And I usually make them during the winter when I have zero light in the evenings when we eat them.

But I’ve come to realize that there’s an art to slow cooking. And when you get that down, most meals turn out amazingly well. Yes… most. [Read more…]

Easy Weeknight Dinner: Leftover Pot Roast Pot Pies

I created my Pot Roast Pot Pies using Campbell’s Slow Cooker Sauce as part of a sponsored post for Socialstars. #CampbellsSkilledSaucers

Pot Roast Pot Pies #CampbellsSkilledSaucers

I have a love-hate relationship with my slow cooker. Because sometimes I have these amazing, awesome creations that everyone raves about. And other times I’m calling the pizza guy before my husband gets home because what’s in the slow cooker is definitely inedible. Luckily since I’ve found Campbell’s Slow Cooker sauce I can create an easy weeknight dinner AND create a second dinner for another night in the week with the leftovers.

Each time I’ve used these sauces I’m left with an absolutely delicious meal that the whole family loves. Lucky for me I’m stocked up on all of my favorite flavors. I love the Tavern Style Pot Roast: roasted garlic, mushrooms, cooked in it’s own gravy. Delicious. And the leftovers? They make these awesome leftover pot roast pot pies!

Creating a simply amazing weeknight dinner that can be turned into two meals is simple and easy! First you grab one of your favorite Campbell’s Slow Cooker Sauces. Then grab the meat you want to use. Feel free to add veggies as well but I prefer the texture of roasted veggies with my crock pot meals. In as little as 5 minutes your whole dinner will be prepped with the help of Campbell’s Slow Cooker Sauces.

In order to get a great texture on my roasts, if I’m cooking beef or pork I like to sear the sides of the meat first before placing it into the crock pot. 2-3 minutes per side in some olive oil should be more than enough time. But if you don’t have the time, or simply want to keep things as easy as possible, this step is not required.

Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauces tavern style pot roast and veggies #CampbellsSkilledSaucers

When my slow cooker meal is about an hour away from being done I prep the sides. Small potatoes, carrots, and parsnips go great with the Tavern Style Pot Roast. I left the potatoes whole and cut the veggies into sticks.

Then coated everything in olive oil and tossed with some salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and roasted garlic. Throw the veggies and potatoes in the oven to roast about 30-40 minutes on 375 degrees or until slightly golden and tender.

Pot Roast Pot Pies ingredients #CampbellsSkilledSaucersIf there are any leftovers from this quick and easy slow cooker recipe (and there were for my small family) save them! Because this is where the magic happens. Two dinners from one slow cooker meal! Pot roast turns into pot roast pot pies for a meal a few nights later.

Pot Roast Pot Pies without Crust #CampbellsSkilledSaucers

The only difficult thing about this second meal is the fact that I made the dough from scratch. But guess what? My food processor did all of the work!

Homemade dough takes less than 5 minutes to put together if you do have a food processor. I’m pretty sure it’s cheaper than store-bought dough too but I won’t judge if you opt to use that! Crescent roll dough would be tasty on these as well.

Grab our delicious savory dough recipe here

Pot Roast Pot Pies baked #CampbellsSkilledSaucers

Leftover Pot Roast Pot Pies

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 servings leftover pot roast
  • 2 servings leftover potatoes & veggies
  • salt & pepper to taste if needed
  • pot pie crust
  1. Heat butter on medium in a small sauce pan until melted. While whisking butter, add flour. Make sure to break up any lumps.
  2. Cook until butter and flour mixture starts to smell nutty and is a golden brown color.
  3. Slowly add stock while whisking continuously until everything is combined. Let cook another 2-3 minutes or until sauce is thickened. A good way to check this is to dip a spoon into the sauce and put a line down the spoon. If the line fills up, it’s not thick enough!
  4. Once sauce is thickened, add diced meat, potatoes, and veggies. Let cook until heated thoroughly. Add salt and pepper if needed.
  5. Grab pie dough from the fridge and roll out to about 1/4″ thick. Trace a circle in the dough with a butter knife using the dishes you’re baking the pot pies in as a guide.
  6. Fill each dish with equal amounts of pot pie filling and cover with pie dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top of pie dough is golden brown.

Pot Roast Pot Pies inside pie #CampbellsSkilledSaucers
There are a total of 5 different Campbell’s Slow Cooker sauces available on store shelves including Tavern Style Pot Roast, Sweet Korean BBQ, Hawaiian Luau, Moroccan Spiced Stew, and Mexican Red Chile Taco.

I’m definitely trying the Sweet Korean BBQ next. How amazing would that taste over rice? And maybe Korean BBQ tacos later on in the week! Yum. What would you try?

What’s your favorite slow cooker meal?

Slow Cooker Ratatouille Recipe

slow cooker ratatouille recipe

We’ve been growing eggplant in our garden this year for the first time and I cannot believe how well it’s doing! So much so that I’m starting to exhaust my resources with what to do with eggplant. I mean you can only make so much eggplant parm. So this week I went to my favorite slow cooker ratatouille recipe. Easy, simple, and tastes amazing!

I gotta say though, the one reason why I hadn’t shared this recipe on the blog yet was because I can never get a good photo of this ratatouille. Seriously. I can’t. So if the photos don’t look as appetizing as some of my other dishes, don’t be scared away! This truly is a delicious vegetarian dish that I love.

And if you have any other eggplant recipes to suggest please send them my way! I’ll be needing them. [Read more…]

Root Beer Pulled Pork Slow Cooker Recipe

My absolute favorite way to make pulled pork is in the crock pot. With a can of rootbeer.

Yup! You heard that right. I absolutely love that I can realize that I forgot to pull meat out of the freezer the night before, grab a pork loin, put it in the crock pot with a can of root beer and just let it simmer all day for a delicious and tasty meal in the evening.

What makes them even better? Some amazingly fresh and yeasty homemade hamburger buns!

If you haven’t already tried this way of cooking your pulled pork then you need to! It’s the perfect dish for the coming summer months.

Root Beer Pulled Pork

Root Beer Pulled Pork

[Read more…]

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork with Coke Recipe

slow cooker pulled pork with coke

Using the slow cooker during the week not only saves me time in the evening but can also be a cost savings to us as well!

I can stock up on our favorite meats and veggies and throw them in the slow cooker in the morning without having to thaw them. What I’m left with is a tasty dinner to serve to my family.

One of our favorite slow cooker meals is pulled pork. Not only can we enjoy the pork on a pulled pork sandwich, but we can also use the meat for enchiladas, casseroles, and more!

The best part is that all you put in the crock pot are two ingredients.

[Read more…]

“Roasted” Whole Chicken {Slow Cooker Dinner Recipe}

With the heat of the summer upon us the last thing I want to do in the afternoon is prepare for dinner. I don’t want to go anywhere near a stove or oven and have been quite bad about forgoing a traditional meal for one my husband can pick up on the way home more than once.

Since I am over being lazy about my health I decided to cook a whole chicken in the crock pot this week so that I could not only enjoy delicious, slow roasted goodness, but also have leftover chicken for meals later on in the week (as well including a great topping for salads for lunch)!

Not only is this chicken super easy to make, it’s tasty as well! And can be made in 3-4 hours. So if you forget to set the slow cooker in the morning and are home in the afternoon, there’s still hope for dinner!

“Roasted” Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 2 teaspoons red curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, whole

Chop up the onion and place 3/4 of the onion on the bottom of your slow cooker. Set 1/4 aside.

Remove all giblets and neck from chicken (set aside if you want to use it to make chicken stock afterwards). Pat chicken dry.

Combine all herbs and spices in a bowl. Rub spice mixture onto skin of chicken making sure to get every inch covered.

Stuff chicken cavity (you know… were the giblets were?) with onion you set aside and garlic cloves. Place chicken breast side up on top of onions in slow cooker.

Set slow cooker on low and let cook 3-4 hours or until tender.

What do you do with leftover chicken?

 

Crockpot Salsa Chicken {Dinner Recipe}

Crockpot Salsa Chicken 1

I absolutely LOVE easy crock pot recipes that can be turn into multiple meals throughout the week. And this crock pot salsa chicken is just that.

Simple ingredients, simple instructions, simple meals… but you don’t have to keep the meals simple. Shred this chicken and use it in multiple dishes: enchilada casserole, chicken (tortilla) soup, quesadillas, rolled tacos, chicken ropa vieja (my favorite) and more!

And with a fridge full of yumy salsa from Wholly salsa how could I not make this? I used their mild salsa for this dish but am excited to try changing up the flavors with the pineapple or red pepper mango flavors too.  [Read more…]



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