Freezer Meals - Take 2

I am so excited about this post. Mainly because I am a huge dork, and this kind of stuff makes me happy but seriously, if you cook - this is cool. If not, just stop reading here because you will be sorely underwhelmed. You've been warned.

The hubs has been working like crazy on our monthly budget. We want to do a bunch of stuff around here, and there has to be a plan for that to happen. Our "go live" date for the budget is Feb. 1, so if I don't leave my house after that, you'll know why. I am only kidding. I am taking this as a challenge to see how much we can save.

I posted before about freezer meals. I love them! I saw a post on Pinterest a while back about crockpot freezer meals where you basically throw everything in a bag, freeze, then thaw to cook  in the crockpot. There was no pre-cooking. Well, sign me up. I looked over a bunch of the recipes today, and I had so many of the ingredients. I decided to go for it. I figured if I were going to spend a bunch of money, I might as well do it before the budget kicked in. Well, I was wrong because I just made 17 meals in 1 1/2 hours for less than $150 PLUS I had 4 bags of leftover chicken for other recipes!!!!!  How cool is that?

We started with this:

And we ended with this:

I doubled all the recipes except for the pork stew. I had 4 chicken breasts leftover and 21 chicken thighs (I split those into 3 bags). I promise to review these recipes later as we try them. We have had the chicken caccitore because it is a WW recipe, and it was yummy. Some of the recipes don't include instructions for freezing or cooking in the crockpot, but I was able to figure it out. I plan to thaw each bag in the fridge overnight before cooking in the crockpot the next morning. The only one I am not cooking in the crockpot is the maple dijon chicken. Click on the links below to get the recipes:

Mongolian Beef
Green Chile Pork Stew
Teriyaki Chicken
Sweet & Spicy Meatballs
Honey Garlic Chicken
Chicken Caccitore
Island Chicken
Maple Dijon Chicken
Pesto Chicken (you are only doing the chicken from this recipe, not the pasta)

I should say that for my money, I also bought a box of rice, several bags of frozen veggies, and some pasta to go with these meals. Still, it ain't too shabby. The hubs will be pleased. When the Jakeman saw the camera, he said, "Mommy, take Jake picture." So, here he is.