Oh my gosh, I have so many exciting things to tell you:
- I bought a DSLR camera and lens.
- I bought these amazing baggy clips to use when I’m making freezer meals. (affiliate link)
- I made eight crockpot freezer meals from Whole Foods.
Ever since I made a bunch of crockpot freezer meals from Costco, I’ve been dying to try making them from Whole Foods. I don’t shop there regularly, so I asked my friend Heather (who goes often) what I should buy. She said she knows everything sold at Whole Foods is quality stuff so she buys whatever meat and produce are on sale and often buys their organic generic products called “365.”
When I went to Whole Foods, I followed her advice and bought chicken breasts and pork sirloins (because both looked awesome and cost less than $5 per pound) and red peppers (because they were on sale). I also found a lot of inspiration in the freezer aisle where the 365 organic veggies were only $2-3 per bag.
I ended up making these eight crockpot freezer meals:
- Two freezer bags of chicken teriyaki
- Two freezer bags of chicken chili
- Honey dijon pork and green beans
- Hot pepper pork and butternut squash
- Beef fajitas
- Pepperoncini shredded beef (based on a recipe in my 15-Min Freezer Recipes cookbook and shared for free below)
The beef roasts for the last two meals weren’t on sale, but their price was comparable to what I pay at my regular grocery store and my husband said he was hungry for those recipes. I ended up spending a total of $92 and I think that’s pretty darn good for eight dinners, especially since they include so many organic ingredients and vegetables.
And can we talk about those baggie clips?!? There’s been quite a few times when I was making freezer meals and ended up spilling the contents on the floor. I wanted to invent a solution myself, but then I found these Jokari baggy clips on Amazon. They even store flat in your kitchen drawer. I’m hooked and can’t wait to buy more.
All of my crockpot freezer meals were super easy to make. I added the ingredients to freezer bags, squeezed out the air, and stacked them in my freezer. The whole process only took me 35 minutes (including clean-up). That’s pretty amazing for eight dinners, isn’t it? Now I don’t have to worry about dinner on eight busy weeknights.
We already ate the pepperonicini shredded beef and beef fajitas (delicious!), and we’re going to eat some of the chicken chili, chicken teriyaki, and honey dijon pork this week.
I serve my freezer meals with simple side dishes like microwave organic quinoa and brown rice (from Costco) and side salads. It’s really such an easy way to eat healthy.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll respond as soon as I can. My freezer cookbooks also include a ton of recipes and tips.
Do you know how I can save and download the recipe and lost pdf on my kindle?
I’m not sure – I don’t have a Kindle. If there is a way to download and save pdfs to it, then I’m sure it will work with my files too. I’d try a google search for instructions. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Try saving the pdf and then emailing it to your Kindle email.
I have a kindle hd. The file will stay in my “downloads” until I delete it. “Downloads” are found if you tap the three horizontal lines next to your open tabs. I hope that helps
LL,
It’s easy to download PDF files to your Kindle. First go to Amazon and get a PDF reader (free) and then simply download them. The downloaded file will be in ‘docs’. I hope this helps!!
If using safari you should see an option at the top of the screen to click “open in” for IBooks, Kindle, etc. , and you can also use the icon at bottom of your screen (looks like a square with arrow) to choose where to open and/or save it.
Hope this helps ?
I have been using Mobipocket Creator for years (it’s great free software) to convert pdf’s into Kindle ready files. http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/DownloadCreator.asp
How would I make these recipes w/ 2 servings?
I would cut the recipes in half. If you make all 8 meals, that means you’d end up with 16 instead. 🙂 Just make sure to use a smaller crockpot, so they’re not overcooked. A 2qt or 4qt (at most) would be good.
We don’t eat any pork products, have you tried your recipes with chicken with any results? Thanks!
Yes, I think chicken would be delicious in these pork recipes.
thanks for your hard work compiling the grocery list. I’ve been checking out your recipes for some time and enjoy them! i always use a liquid measure to support my bags as i fill them, but i can see how the clips come in handy with an assembly line. do you feel its worth the amt of money invested?
Thank you for the encouragement, Jackie. I’m obsessed with the clips, but I make a lot of freezer meals so they might be more important to me than someone else.
I’m trying several of your recipes this week :-). The Honey-Dijon pork and Green Beans calls for “1 pound pork sirloins”. Is that sirloin chops? Thick or thin? I feel like I really should know the answer :-(.
I’m not an expert on cuts of meat, but I can tell you that they were sliced (almost like a boneless pork chop), not a roast. I think thick would be better than thin because they’d be less likely to dry out while cooking.
Thank you!
Are most of yourrecipes (and your cookbooks) for 4 servings?
I would say 4-6 is the average serving size.
Awesome ,thank-you this was the answer I was looking for 🙂