Sunday, January 8, 2012

Dinner: healthy, quick, a hit!

The first semester of living in Nashville, teaching middle school, and tackling grad school lead to neglected dinners at the Nelson home!  My poor husband suffered many nights of cereal, box mac & cheese, and frozen pizzas for the past 6 months.  


Among my many new 2012 beginnings, I added eating fresh dinners with my husband as frequently as possible. 


I found this great blog from Pinterest (I told you it has all things great!) 
http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com/2011/04/freezer-cooking-with-slow-cooker.html 
photo credit: mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com


The premise is bake ahead for the month.  Except you're not actually baking, you just combine and freeze!  The freezer bags are portioned and ready for the crock pot.  The slow cooker liner bags make clean up simple and quick.  The best part is everything is fresh.  It does take time on the front end, but it is so worth it!


My favorite meal so far is the BBQ chicken from the mama and baby love blog.  


Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken
3 medium unpeeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (I wasn't sure if this meant actual mustard or the spice so I did a little of both)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.




Tonight, I made a modified Teriyaki chicken: (By made I mean cut up, threw in a bag, and put in the freezer)


1 red onion
1 squash
1 zucchini
1 green pepper
minced garlic
5 chicken tenderloins
Dump in a freezer bag, label/date, pour Teriyaki sauce generously on top of everything at the end
Ta da! 


I plan on preparing meals ahead of time and using my crockpot often this year!  Let me know if you find any other successful freezer/crockpot meals to add to my recipe list. :) 



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