Slow Cooking Weekly Prep - will this work?

Brighid

Hi

I am currently working very long hours, and by the time I get home have no desire to cook. It means we usually eat rubbish or take out. Which is bad because we are trying to save money, and I am following the slimming world diet.

So, we have bought a slow cooker after reading so many posts on here about how useful they are. The problem still remains though that i have no energy to prepare food on a night. i was thinking of buying five large food boxes and preparing all out meals on a saturday, freezing, and then every night putting it the cooker to defrost and setting the timer to come on in the morning.

I was thinking that in each box would be meat, potatoes, herbs/spices, chopped veggies, and the sauce/gravy.

Would this work? Will chopped raw veg freeze ok?

I'm not sure how I will maintain interest day in day out, but thats a worry for next week!

Brighid

happy35

a friend at work buys bags of ready chopped veg and bungs these in the slow cooker with a packet of ready diced beef/chicken and some stock.

I know this costs a few pence more than chopping it all yourself but would be loads cheaper than a takeaway.

Aarons_mummy

Fresh veg frozen raw freezes/cooks fine yep.

I think it should be fine, no reason why it shouldn't

cat_smith

I often do a batch cook/brown of meat/veg at the weekend and freeze. Then add liquid when defrosting overnight - tomatoes/condensed soup and water etc. If you pre-brown it looks and I think tastes much better out of the slow cooker.

Brighid

Thanks everyone.

It was the bags of chopped veg in the supermarket that gave me the idea! I tried a couple of recipes using these the last couple of days, and was hoping to take it to the next level of money savingness!

Thanks for confirming the veg will freeze. I am going to give it a go, and the worst that can happen is a soggy mess I guess. (Which I will then tell DH is soup....)

Brighid

mlz1413

if your low on time then try slicing 2 med potatos into 1cm slices putting on the bottom of the slow cooker put 4 or 5 chicken legs on top and empty a jar to chicken tonight sauce (other varieties are available!) over the top and stick on medium.

this takes me 5 mins in the morning and means that I just boil some peas whilst getting out plates and cutlery before serving up dinner.

quintwins

i keep chopped beef, and frozen fresh carrots and celery on my freezer aswell as frozen peas and sweetcorn, so all i really have to do for a casarole is slice and onion

patchwork_cat

Another popular thing to do is batch cook - so load of mince and tomato in the slow cooker at the weekend then portion up and freeze, 1 lot shepherds pie, 1 chilli, 1 bolognaise, get the idea. Also making double quantities and freezing half, so make double coq au vin, eat half freeze half for next week.

cat_g_83

This is a really good idea. I see no reason why it wouldn't work and I think I will be joining you. Let us know how you get on. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. X