Sanity Saving Crock-Pot Ready Meals

How a trip to Essex has given me back an hour everyday and saved me some sanity?

A late summer trip to see a very dear friend of mine, who had recently moved back home, led me to a huge time saving practice for the kitchen. She introduced me to the art of pre-prepared freezer meals that you pop straight into your crock-pot ready to give you warming nutritious meals at the end of a busy day.

 

Her actual words were "I thought you would have known all about crock-pot ready meals". I let the annoyance, that she had discovered this wonderful kitchen art before me, slide and then raided her Pinterest boards when I got home.

 

And so after 4 hours (that includes the shopping time) I have 44 meals sitting waiting to be devoured, and all I have got to do is pop them in the crock-pot and maybe do some extra fresh veggies on the day, if I'm feeling all righteous and Super Mum.
 

We in England call them slow-cookers, but I have adopted the Americanism 'Crock-pot' because 'crock-pot' actually sounds quicker and as this has probably bought me an extra hour each working day, I think it's appropriate.

 

So that's the time saving, lets look at the cost saving. Total ingredients for 44 meals cost approximately £39, giving me a portion cost of just short of 90p, throw in some rice and veggies and stuff and you are probably looking at £1 per portion. Now in this day and age, I don't think that is bad, I used to budget for a £1 a portion fifteen years ago when I first moved in with my boyfriend (He hadn't earned his promotion of husband at that point). So time and money saving, together with trying some new recipes means, I think this experiment is going to be a winner.

 

So what did we cook?
 

Sweet Teriyaki Chicken
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1tsp garlic salt
1/2 an onion
1 1/2lb chicken breasts

 

Chicken Curry (which I can't wait to try, loads of Mangoes and sweet potatoes)
3tbls flour
4tbls Curry powder
2lbs Chicken
2 cups set potatoes
2 cups baby carrots
2 cans Mango
1 Cup of Onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 cups good chicken stock
 

Orange Chicken
2 cups carrots
2cups bell peppers
1lb chicken
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2tsp pepper
8oz orange juice
 

Beef Stroganoff
2lbs stewing beef
2cans of condensed mushroom soup
1cup onions
2tbls Worcestershire sauce
1/2cup water
2 cloves minced garlic
1cup chopped mushrooms
 

And a spicy chicken thing I forgot to note the name of (sorry)
2lb chicken breast diced
1/8tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp paprika
1/2tsp ground ginger
3 sweet potatoes
1 onion chopped
1 cup apricot preserve
3tbls cider vinegar
1tbls soy sauce
1 cup chicken stock
2tbls cornflour
 

 

There are loads of great sites with crock-pot ready meals but the ones I have use so far are can be found on my Pinterest board slow Cooker.

So thanks to my dear friend from Essex, for giving me the extra hour in the day I have been looking for!