Here are 17 freezer meal prep sessions that will help you stock your freezer with healthy and delicious dinners. During the “prep session,” all you need to do is combine the meats, vegetables, sauces and spices, and freeze (That’s right – there’s no cooking required ahead of time!). Every prep session includes free printable recipes and a grocery list, so the process couldn’t be easier.
Update 8/18/15: I have now shared 31 freezer meal prep sessions and have an updated post with all 31 freezer meal prep sessions here.
I’ve made hundreds of freezer meals and I’m excited to share my favorite freezer prep sessions with you. If you’ve never frozen a meal for your crockpot before, prepare to be amazed. All you need to do is combine the ingredients in gallon-sized plastic bags and freeze.
Since the meals are so easy to prepare, I like to spend an hour on the weekend making 6-8 at once. That way my freezer is stocked with meals for the week and I don’t have to do any extra cooking. In the morning all I have to do is dump a freezer meal into my crockpot and dinner is done. (And, boy, does my house smell amazing!)
I’ve done all of these freezer prep sessions myself so I can tell you that the recipes are delicious, budget-friendly, and 100x healthier than the drive-thru. Preparing meals like this has changed my life so much that I wrote multiple cookbooks about it. Once you see how easy it is to make freezer meals for your crockpot, I know you’ll be hooked too.
17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life
Eight Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals in 75 Minutes: This session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, chicken fajitas, Mexican chicken soup, and garden veggie soup with ground beef. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each.
Eight Crockpot Freezer Meals from Whole Foods in 35 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken teriyaki, chicken chili, honey dijon pork and green beans, hot pepper pork and butternut squash, beef fajitas, and pepperoncini shredded beef. I only spent $92 total on ingredients, which is awesome because these meals are packed with healthy and organic ingredients.
Eight Crockpot Freezer Meals in 35 Minutes: This session includes recipes for cranberry pork roast and green beans, Italian chicken, Mexican chili with cornbread topping, and honey dijon pork. To save time and money, you make two of each recipe, but you can vary the meat to make the meals different (For example, making one freezer bag of cranberry pork roast and one freezer bag of cranberry chicken.) I spent a total of $60 on ingredients. The chili with cornbread topping is to die for.
12 Crockpot Freezer Meals from Costco in 75 minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for red pepper chicken, honey sesame chicken, tomato turkey and veggie soup, and turkey and black bean chili. To save time and money, you make three bags of each recipe. I spent $87 on ingredients and was so glad I made three of each. These recipes are awesome!
Six Freezer Crockpot Meals from ALDI in 40 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for cranberry chicken, Italian chicken, and tomato beef veggie soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $44 on ingredients. The tomato beef veggie soup is so good even my toddlers inhaled it.
Six Budget-Friendly Make-Ahead Crockpot Meals in One Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for white chicken chili, ham and potato soup, and hamburger vegetable soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I only spent $26 on ingredients – such a great deal!
Six Healthy Crockpot “Comfort Foods” in 40 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, pot roast and green beans, and beef barley stew. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. These are my favorite recipes to make when boneless beef chuck roasts are on sale at the grocery store. They are seriously, seriously delicious. I spent $50 on ingredients during this session.
Six Cheap Freezer Crockpot Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for shredded BBQ chicken, beef lime chili, and Mexican chicken chili with cornbread topping. (We love all three of these recipes.) To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $30 on ingredients.
Six Freezer Crockpot Meals in 30 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for Mexican chicken chili with cornbread topping, balsamic chicken and pears, and Hawaiian chicken. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the balsamic chicken and pear recipe. It’s the only recipe I’ve made from Once a Month Meals that I didn’t like.
Six Ground Beef Crockpot Freezer Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for beef vegetable soup, Mexican beef chili with cornbread topping, and beef black bean chili. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $56 on ingredients. These are the best recipes to make when ground beef is on sale. They are so yummy.
Six Crockpot Soup Freezer Meals in One Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for sausage spinach tomato soup, meatball veggie soup, and chicken soup with Mexican seasonings. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $46 on ingredients and peeled more carrots than ever before, but it was worth it because the soups were delicious.
Six Chicken Freezer Crockpot Meals in 30 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for red pepper chicken, orange-ginger chicken, and lemon pepper chicken. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $20 on ingredients. These recipes are super healthy and don’t include any processed foods.
Seven Slow Cooker Freezer Meals in an Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for beef roast and carrots, chicken fajitas, spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork, and chicken pot pie with tater tots. The chicken pot pie sauce requires some cooking before freezing. We really loved all of these recipes.
Six Make-Ahead Meals from Costco in 40 Minutes: This freezer session focuses on frozen meatballs from Costco and includes recipes for meatball veggie soup, sweet n sour meatballs, and spaghetti and meatballs. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $45 on ingredients. These are probably the easiest freezer meals I’ve ever made and the spaghetti and meatballs were extra delicious.
Five Freezer Slow Cooker Meals in an Hour: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken curry, mini meatball soup, and beef roast with carrots. I need to make that curry again sometime soon – it was so good!
Six Healthy Freezer Crockpot Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for chicken teriyaki, balsamic beef roast, and lime shredded pork. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $73 on ingredients. The lime shredded pork recipe is one of our favorites.
Six Make-Ahead Freezer Meals in 50 Minutes: This freezer session includes recipes for honey sesame chicken, brown sugar meatloaf, and turkey white bean kale soup. To save time and money, you double each recipe and make two of each. I spent $60 on ingredients. I love that the meatloaf recipe can be frozen without any cooking ahead of time and cooks in the oven. Perfect for nights when we need a break from the crockpot.
So there you have it, 17 different ways you can spend about an hour stocking your freezer with homemade meals. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I’ll reply as soon as I can.
[…] Kelly from New Leaf Wellness shared 17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life. […]
I love this idea! Do you have any recipes for vegetarians?
I just prepped a bunch of vegetarian freezer meals this weekend! 🙂 It will take me about a week to write up the recipes and tips, so check back next week.
Oh I can’t wait for the vegetarian freezer ideas!!!
Here you go, Tori: 5 Vegetarian Crockpot Freezer Meals in 50 Minutes
I was looking for the vegetarian recipes as well.
Dee, How about these recipes? https://thefamilyfreezer.com/2015/03/16/5-vegetarian-freezer-crockpot-meals-in-50-minutes/
I have a question about using fresh vegetables. Don’t you have to blanch fresh vegetabkes to maintain texture before freezing? This has always been what I thought.
Nope! 🙂
The only veggie I’ve had a problem with is fresh broccoli.
I depends on how long you leave them in the freezer. I’ve had carrots turn black…
I have froze carrots raw and never had them turn from their wonderful orange color.
Depends on the vegetable. Fresh corn and rhubarb need no preprep, Berries don’t need blanching either, nor do peaches, pineapple and the like, but apples need to be treated with Citric acid to maintain color and texture before freezing. Squash, pumpkin, asparagus, and zuchinni, and most other veges all need some prep in varying degrees and methods. I always do a freeze test with a small quantity of any fruit and Vege when I am unsure, Food preservation books usually have sections on freezing that are very helpful. The “Ball Blue Book”.guide is a good one that is inexpensive, and… Read more »
Hello! I just wanted to thank you for sharing all these great recipes! I have already tried about 10 and they have all been great! I love that they are easily adaptable to my family and you included all the instructions grocery lists where to buy it, everything someone who works full time and wants to avoid the drive thru could ask for!!! I am already planning to do a bigger session and make multiples of a bunch of the recipes we have already tried and loved! I have seen a bunch of “freeze ahead” crockpot meal websites and I’m… Read more »
Thank you so much for your encouragement and support, Mich. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.
Every one of these sounds amazing. I agree with Mich. These are the best freezer meals I have found. The only thing is Im having a problem trying to pull up the grocery list and recipes. When I click on the link it kicks me off? I would love to give these a try.
Thanks for your hard work. I read through a lot of comments but not all of them looking to see if anyone requested low carb meals but I didn’t see any. Would you consider putting together a low carb meal plan?
Thanks
Yes, absolutely. A bunch of these recipes might work for you too: https://thefamilyfreezer.com/2015/10/19/31-gluten-free-dairy-free-crockpot-freezer-meals/
Will you do low carb freezer cooking?
This may be a silly question but for the amount of ingredients already listed for the recipes, is that already doubled to make two? or if i want to make two freezer bags of the one meal i still need to double?
For example, the crockpot beef and chili lime recipe calls for 1 lb of ground beef. Is this 1 lb meant for just one freezer bag or is that for two, so each freezer bag comes with 1/2 lb of ground beef.
Thank you so much!
The recipes are written so that you know how much to add to each bag. Since the chili recipe calls for 1lb of beef, that is how much to add to each bag. The grocery lists are written to help you buy all of the ingredients needed for each prep session (even if recipes are doubled).
I guess it doesn’t matter that it’s all in plastic bags which will polute the enviroment. If you want to eat healthy, you should start by paying attention to your enviroment because those plastic bags will eventually be in your meal…just saying
And what greenwashing are you doing to “help”? As an environmental scientist i assure you that using fresh and non processed foods and storing them in re-useable (gasp, yes gallon freezer bags can be washed and reused) to feed my family is much better for the planet than the full of packaging alternatives that are equally fast but have zero nutritional value. Ok back to cleaning the planet and doing something that actually helps, not making busy wives and mothers feel bad about their choices for me. Have fun trolling the Internet.
Awesome response. Thank you!
Awesome reply thank you for all your hard work! !
You can actually wash and reuse most plastic bags (ziplock) as long as you don’t “cook” the bag in the microwave or anything. It will be safe to use is you use hot water and dish soap.
would you please tell me what type bags you use for freezing>?
I like name-brand freezer bags, like Hefty and Ziplock.
I love the recipes and can’t wait to try them just have a few questions.
Can you please tell me when you are writing bell peppers and red or green peppers are you referring to capsicum?
When you are saying ground turkey or pork is this what we call mince?
Also what size bags are you using as in Australia we don’t have gallon bags
The peppers are fresh vegetables. I’m not sure about the “mince” – the ground meat is pure meat (no added spices).
Yes the peppers are capsicum and ground meat is what we call minced meat. 🙂
Oh and you can get the gallon sized ziplocks at Costco
How many serving is each meal?
What size crock pot should be used?
They should all work in a 4-7 quart slow cooker.
The average is 4-6, but you’ll need to look at the individual recipes to see for sure. The number of servings is included in the free printable pdf.
I have problems with the freezer bags sticking together even though they are dry and laying flat. Ideas?
I wonder if it could be the temperature of your freezer. A work-around could be placing pieces of cardboard between the layers.
i put a good quality of paper towel in the middle of each meal, always let everything cool off before freezing. if u use the aluminum foil like for burritos roll in plastic wrap then in foil. no freezer burn . the bigger the foil containers are if u put them inside the bags will help. question what is ur method of taking the food out to put in the crock pot. thank u for doing the hard part. its not easy but sure better than going out all the time. l love it.
I love this site and the recipes you have in here. My girlfriends and I were talking about the hassle of cooking dinner every night. It leave little time to spend with my family, which is my priority (as I’m sure it is for many parents). After that conversation I found this website and the free recipes (thank you for letting me try this first before committing to a cookbook!). I sent this to 7 of my girlfriends and we all use these now. I LOVE, LOVE the idea of this and saving money as well by buying in bulk.… Read more »
Thank you for the encouragement and feedback, Lori. I will definitely consider more beef and pork recipes.
I went to look at the email with the recipes but it says no longer available, is there a way to obtain this back again? It was purchased November 2015
Yes, no problem. I just looked up your order and emailed you new copies. Thank you for your purchase!
I hate being rude but I tried a handful of these recipes and they were all pretty gross. I’m not even a picky eater but a couple were almost Inedible. I have tomato turkey veggie soup in the slow cooker now. I tasted it and am dumping it.
Hilary, I’m very sorry to hear this. Can you tell me what recipes you tried and what was wrong with them? What kind of crockpot are you using? We test all of our meals until we feel that they are perfect. Please let me know how I can help you.
This is a really good post I am a truck driver spending many weeks on the road and it’s nice to be able to fix meals on a Sunday afternoon and have meals for a whole week keeping me healthy and saving a lot of money, thank you
Is there a place that we can download your stickers on the front of the bags? Those are fantastic! Thank you
Ok I can not wait to try these! Thank you so much!!!!
Thank you for your encouragement and enthusiasm, Jody. 🙂
Great Blog/Site!
These are things I do on a regular basis, just not so organized.
Great way to share. Very informative and easy.
Nice work.
Thank you for this.
Approximately how many people will each freezer meal feed? We have 3 adults ad 2 teenagers to feed so I would like to be able to make adjustments prior to fixing them. Thank you so much for sharing!
It varies per recipe, but the average is 4-6. If you find a particular session that you like, look at its printable recipe/grocery list. Each recipe lists its number of servings. Hope that helps. 🙂
[…] Kelly from New Leaf Wellness shared 17 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Will Change Your Life. […]
how many adult portions will these recipes make?
It depends on the recipe, but most are 4-6. If you click on the post that you’re interested in, open its grocery list/recipe pdf and look at the recipes. All of them should have the number of servings listed there.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I cannot wait to try everything. You just took the guessing from all of this for me. The biggest thing that takes so much time for me is deciding what to cook, grocery list and then starting the process. THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Question – When it comes to veggies in in the crock pot, do you put those in right when you get home? Or do you let cook throughout the whole day? I did a meal before (not yours) and I totally spaced and put broccoli inside the crock pot. Needless to say, the… Read more »
I cook most of my vegetables in the crockpot with the meat. Fresh broccoli can get a bit mushy though.