I’m so excited to share these six new freezer meals with you. I did all of the shopping at Aldi and based the recipes on great sales and organic produce. YUM. Here’s my grocery list and recipes so you can do the same, regardless of whether you live close to Aldi or not.
If you read my previous posts on crockpot freezer meals and make ahead meals, then you know that I am very organized and always go to the grocery store with meals planned and a grocery list in hand. Last week, I mixed things up a bit. I went to Aldi and looked for inspiration in their organic foods and good deals.
I focused on Aldi’s meat and produce sections and found these gems: Organic frozen green beans, organic baby carrots, canned organic diced tomatoes, organic tomato basil pasta sauce, cartons of organic free range chicken broth, cheap ground beef, and deeply-discounted chicken breasts.
Based on those ingredients from Aldi, I decided to make these six crockpot freezer meals…
- Two freezer bags of Crockpot Cranberry Chicken (inspired by my cranberry pork roast recipe)
- Two freezer bags of Crockpot Italian Chicken
- Two freezer bags of Crockpot Tomato Beef Veggie Soup (inspired by the sausage veggie soup in my No Cook Freezer Meals cookbook)
Overall, I spent $44.42 on my groceries. I had some of the sauces and spices on-hand and bought everything else at Aldi. All of the recipes are very simple, so you can make them even if you don’t shop at Aldi or use organic ingredients.
I froze all of my meals raw, so they were very easy and quick to make.
If you’re new to freezer cooking, here are some of the benefits…
- You can take advantage of sales and stock your freezer.
- You’ll have homemade meals ready for busy weeknights.
- When you freeze the ingredients raw, they won’t taste like leftovers at all. Wahoo!
Here’s how the process works…
- Print your recipes.
- Label your freezer bags. (I use these simple printable labels.)
- Prep all the vegetables.
- Open all the cans.
- Fill the bags in an assembly line. (I prefer these freezer bags. <affiliate link>) Add the meat to the bag last so it’s the first ingredient poured into the crockpot.
- Remove as much air as possible, seal, and freeze.
Most freezer meals will last in a standard freezer up to three months. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, cook in your crockpot, and enjoy!
If you’re looking for more freezer meal ideas, here are some of our favorites…
My No Cook Freezer Meals cookbook also walks you through the process step-by-step and gives specific strategies for fitting freezer cooking into a busy life.
Thoughts or questions? Leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
Just curious–do you have any trouble with grease from the ground beef floating on your soup? I’ve never done crockpot meals that had raw hamburger, unless it was a meat loaf where the fat is easily removed after cooking. And even when I buy lean ground beef, it still has more fat that I would like in a soup.
I can’t explain it, but I never have fat in my soup (and I’ve frozen a lot this way!). I always buy at least 80% lean beef.
Usually I cook ground meat and drain off the fat before I throw it in the slow cooker. Hopefully that helps.
Hi, Sarah….old trick my gram showed me. For grease on chilis or soups, float the unused heels of your bread on the top for a few seconds, then use a spoon to remove the bread. It sops up the majority of the grease. Also, you can avoid it altog. ether by browning the meat, then pouring boiling water over it instead of just draining it, THEN add it to the soup or crockpot for the last hour of cooking
If you have trouble with floating grease…take a slice of bread and lay on top of the soup for a few seconds…then toss the bread away..All the grease is mopped up by the bread.
Unless I’m using very lean ground beef I would brown, drain, and cool the ground beef before adding it to the bag. And I wouldn’t use very lean ground beef for soup. I try to use cheaper meat for soup since it’s not the main player. Thanks for the recipes and the list…wonderful!!
Thanks for the extra tips.
Thanks for the tip on how to get updates by email. My family is starting to eat healthier and having food easily accessible is so necessary to this endeavor. I’m excited to learn new things here.
Thank you, Marla. I’m happy to help however I can!
I updated the grocery list today! I accidentally forgot to include canned diced tomatoes on the first draft and a reader brought it to my attention. I apologize to anyone who might have used the list already!!
Can you freeze any slow cooker recipe? I just stumbled on your blog and am thinking about trying some of your recipes but, I also have several of my own slow cooker recipes and am thinking about freezing them.
Yes, for the most part. I have a crockpot chicken pot pie and I cook it’s creamy sauce before freezing (as opposed to freezing it raw). I’m also not a big fan of freezing raw potatoes. If you have questions about specific recipes, let me know!
I was curious as to why there were no potatoes in the Veggie Soup. Is it all that peeling and chopping or that they do not turn out well? If not, maybe frozen southern potatoes might do the trick? Thanks for posting these recipes, I love them!!
Thank you, June! I didn’t used to add potatoes to my freezer meals because I had a bad experience in the past with them turning black, but I think I’ve figured it out now. I shared two soup recipes with potatoes here: Make-Ahead Crockpot Meals (that only cost $4.40 each). Frozen southern potatoes sound like a great idea too!
When you freeze the potatoes is there anything special you need to do to them?
I add them to the bags last and freeze right away.
I am making all of these today for my family. I love crockpot cooking, and I love Aldi so thank you for combining them! With a family of 6 plus one on the way, I need more recipes like this. YAY
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Tabitha! Hope you love the recipes.