Has anyone done Slow Cooker Freezer 'dump meals'?

WantToBeSE

I see it done quite often online (blogs etc), people making SC Freezer 'dump meals' and am wondering if anyone here has done it, and could share the pros and cons?

It's basically where you bulk assemble a variety of SC meals in freezer bags (say 2 weeks worth or more) and then just 'dump' them in the SC when you want to use them.

Living_proof

I think the idea might be more appealing if they were re-named!

WantToBeSE

Haha, i thought the same! Not a very food friendly name is it! Obviously it's an American idea and 'Dump' doesn't have the same meaning :rotfl:

d0nna

Do they put the contents of the bag straight into the slow cooker frozen or do they defrost the bags first?

PasturesNew

I'd not have the inclination to do it, nor the space to store this mythical "food I'll fancy eating next week". I don't even know what I'll fancy later today.

Of course it works, if you know what you'll want to eat and if you can be bothered to do it and if you have enough spare freezer capacity to be able to chuck all that food into the freezer until it'll be used.... alongside everything else one's supposed to magically fit in there.

If I prepared all that it'd be a chore to eat my way through it, I'd not enjoy my meals.

I guess families are likely to eat a whole bags-worth all in one go. It's just me here, so cooking anything in the SC is then 5 meals' worth. So, overall, it's just not practical. Packing up, say, 14 bags of food = 90 meals.... with little variation.

WantToBeSE

d0nna wrote: »

Do they put the contents of the bag straight into the slow cooker frozen or do they defrost the bags first?

They put it straight into the SC from frozen. I have thought about giving it a go, as it would save loads of time during the week, but not sure about doing 2 or 4 weeks worth, maybe just 5 days to start with.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd not have the inclination to do it, nor the space to store this mythical "food I'll fancy eating next week". I don't even know what I'll fancy later today.

Of course it works, if you know what you'll want to eat and if you can be bothered to do it and if you have enough spare freezer capacity to be able to chuck all that food into the freezer until it'll be used.... alongside everything else one's supposed to magically fit in there.

If I prepared all that it'd be a chore to eat my way through it, I'd not enjoy my meals.

I guess families are likely to eat a whole bags-worth all in one go. It's just me here, so cooking anything in the SC is then 5 meals' worth. So, overall, it's just not practical. Packing up, say, 14 bags of food = 90 meals.... with little variation.

We almost always meal plan, so knowing what i am eating in advance isn't a problem for us. I like not having to decide what to make/eat for dinner every night.
Yes, we are a family of 3, so maybe it's more family-friendly idea than for a single person.

d0nna

WantToBeSE wrote: »

They put it straight into the SC from frozen. I have thought about giving it a go, as it would save loads of time during the week, but not sure about doing 2 or 4 weeks worth, maybe just 5 days to start with.




We almost always meal plan, so knowing what i am eating in advance isn't a problem for us. I like not having to decide what to make/eat for dinner every night.
Yes, we are a family of 3, so maybe it's more family-friendly idea than for a single person.

I also think it's a good idea to just start doing a few days worth rather than a few weeks of meals. I meal plan as well and it is something I would be interested in trying out. I found this YouTube video quite helpful https://youtu.be/oPBFZiKuXZo . Are there any particular videos or blogs that you can recommend? Let me know if you try any meals out?

WantToBeSE

d0nna wrote: »

I also think it's a good idea to just start doing a few days worth rather than a few weeks of meals. I meal plan as well and it is something I would be interested in trying out. I found this YouTube video quite helpful https://youtu.be/oPBFZiKuXZo . Are there any particular videos or blogs that you can recommend? Let me know if you try any meals out?

I love that Youtube Channel, i subscribed to her months ago! She is doing another load of freezer meals, so i look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

I found this blog post via Pinterest: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html

d0nna

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I love that Youtube Channel, i subscribed to her months ago! She is doing another load of freezer meals, so i look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

I found this blog post via Pinterest: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html

She's great isn't she, I subscribed to her a while back too. She has some great ideas and I'm also looking forward to her next lot of freezer meals.

Thank you for the link. There are some great ideas on there.

georgia1

Has anyone found a UK version of these slow cooker freezer pack recipes?