Ok so you’ve read up on our guide to creating Slow Cooked Freezer Meals (aka Dump Bags)
If not please do start by reading that first 🙂
Now you are looking for the recipes to get started.
Look no further – here are 14 days of recipes for you to start with!
We’ve got 14 family friendly meals to hopefully suit all tastes, organised for you with full instructions on how to prepare each of them and full pantry/shopping lists included to make it extra easy for you.
Often the longest process in slow cooking (even as short as it may be) is the preparation time. The dicing, peeling, measuring and prepping of your ingredients.
Dump bags take the work out of this for you 🙂
Each bag contains all the ingredients of the recipes already prepared and in the bag and any you don’t want to add in advance you simply mark on the outside of the bag with a permanent marker to add on the day when you cook.
If you clearly label your Dump Bags then you just browse your selection, pick the bag you want the day before, pop it in the fridge to defrost overnight then hey presto the next day you dump and run!
Note: Dump bags are NOT intended to be cooked from frozen. Defrost first 🙂
Ok so where do you begin in creating your bags?
Basic Tips to Remember:
# Use the best quality zip seal bags you can afford for the best seal and least chance of any tears or rips.
# Store meals as flat as you can to save space and for a more even defrosting time.
# When packing foods in to the bag for freezing remove most if not all the air. The air in the bags will cause freezer burn. This is why it is a good idea to use good quality freezer bags so you can also add liquids (tinned tomatoes, stock, soup mix) to fill the gaps between your ingredients. Vacuum sealing the bag is great too if you have that option.
Once you have your bags ready then you need to organise all your ingredients.
First step is to take our shopping/pantry list below and check off what you have in your pantry already and won’t need to buy.
Then go shopping for the rest with our simple list that’s divided into shopping categories for you to make it even easier.
Note: We have compiled our list using recipes from www.slowcookercentral.com
While I tried to keep to a 4 serve average some do make 6 serves, so on these days just store your leftovers safely to enjoy another day, perhaps as a work lunch etc, or use it as an excuse to ask someone over to dinner with you! 🙂
Also note that you can always double this whole shopping list and make double of everything and have 28 freezer meals if you wish!
On average the freezer meals/dump bags will store up to 3 months in your freezer.
Prepare these dump bags with fresh ingredients (ie not meat you’ve already frozen before), then you can always freeze your COOKED meal safely once more to defrost at a later date for leftovers.
Ok … let’s get to the recipes!!
**14 SLOW COOKER RECIPES FOR FREEZING**
1. Lamb Obsession (4 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/lamb-obsession/
2. Apricot Chicken (4 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/apricot-chicken/
3. Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce (6 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/spaghetti-bolognaise-sauce/
4. Smoky BBQ Bacon Sausages (6 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/smoky-bacon-bbq-sausages/
5. Sweet Lamb Curry (6 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/sweet-lamb-curry/
6. Chunky Steak Pie (4+ serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/chunky-steak-pie/
7. Saucy Pulled Pork (4+ serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/saucy-pulled-pork/
8. Roast Beef in Red Wine & Garlic (4+ serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/red-wine-garlic-beef-roast/
9. Thai Peanut Chicken (6 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/thai-peanut-chicken/
10. **RECIPE REMOVED**
Will have a replacement recipe added soon for you 🙂
11. Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs (4 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/slow-cooker-bbq-ribs/
12. Deep Down Sausages (6 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/deep-down-sausages/
13. Jam Gravy Beef (4 serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/jam-gravy-beef/
14. Savoury Mince (4+ serves)
– http://www.slowcookercentral.com/recipe/savoury-mince/
**Recipe Preparation Notes**
Recipe #1 – Lamb Obsession
– Place lamb in freezer bag.
– Add onion
– Combine all other ingredients and pour over chops and onion
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze
Recipe #2 – Apricot Chicken
– Place chicken in freezer bag.
– Add onion
– Combine all other ingredients and pour over chicken and onion
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze
Recipe #3 – Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce
– Place raw mince and all other ingredients (except mushrooms) in freezer bag.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
– Also note on the outside of your bag to add 8 mushroom chopped roughly to the ingredients on cooking day
Recipe #4 – Smoky BBQ Bacon Sausages
– Place raw sausages in freezer bag, whole or sectioned
– Add onion and bacon to bag
– Combine other ingredients and pour over
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
Recipe #5 – Sweet Lamb Curry
– Place lamb and onions into freezer bag
– Combine all other ingredients (except cornflour and apple) and add to bag
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
– Also note on the outside of your bag to add the diced apple to the ingredients on cooking day and to thicken with cornflour prior to serving if required
Recipe #6 – Chunky Steak Pie
– Note we are removing the pre browning of the steak for the freezer version of this dish. Add steak and onion to freezer bag raw
– Combine all other ingredients and add to bag, include 1 tbsp flour combined to replace the flour that would have coated the meat for browning in original recipe
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
– Note on your bag to have puff pastry on hand on cooking day to make this into the pie at the end
Recipe #7 – Saucy Pulled Pork
– Place pork in freezer bag.
– Combine all other ingredients and add to bag.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
Recipe #8 – Roast Beef in Red Wine and Garlic
– Place beef and onion in freezer bag.
– Combine all other ingredients and add to bag.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and freeze.
Recipe #9 – Thai Peanut Chicken
– Place chicken in freezer bag
– Combine all other ingredients except nuts and fresh lime juice and add to bag
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and lay flat to freeze.
– Note on your bag to add fresh lime juice on cooking day and to have nuts on hand for adding prior to serving
Recipe #10 – Recipe Removed
Recipe #11 – Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs
– Trim off excess fat from ribs. De-bone as well if you prefer as per recipe suggestion.
– Place ribs in freezer bag and pour over the BBQ sauce.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and freeze.
Recipe #12 – Deep Down Sausages
– Place sausages into freezer bag
– Combine all other ingredients and add to bag.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and freeze.
Recipe #13 – Jam Gravy Beef
– Place beef, onion and carrots into freezer bag
– Combine other ingredients (excpet potato and pumpkin) and add to bag
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and freeze.
– Note on your bag to add fresh potato and pumpkin as per recipe on cooking day
Recipe #14 – Savoury Mince
– Combine all ingredients to raw mince and add to freezer bag.
– Seal bag well after removing excess air, note cooking time/temp on outside of bag with permanent marker and freeze.
SHOPPING/PANTRY CHECKLIST
(view conversion charts here if needed for international members needing to convert metric to imperial)
~Butcher~
4 lamb chops, the cut of your choice
2 x 1kg chicken thigh fillets (or breast if you prefer)
2 x 500g premium beef mince
12 thin beef sausages
6-8 thick beef sausages (or 12 more thin sausages)
1kg diced lamb
1kg chuck steak diced
1kg piece of pork (for pulled pork so can be chops instead if you prefer)
900g beef blade roast
1kg pork spare ribs
1kg beef blade steaks
~Produce~
10 onions
20 cloves of garlic (OR add minced jar garlic to your grocery items list below)
8 mushrooms
1 large carrot
1.5 tsp finely sliced fresh ginger (OR add minced jar ginger to your grocery items list below)
2 small green granny smith cooking apples
1 fresh lime for juicing
Fresh parsley
3 carrots
1 potato
¼ piece of pumpkin
~Grocery Items~
1 x 420g can Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 x 420g can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
2 x 420g of can Condensed Tomato Soup
2 x 40g Packets French Onion Soup Mix
Worcestershire Sauce (you will need approx 310ml total)
Barbecue Sauce: 1 cup smoky BBQ sauce + 750ml regular BBQ sauce
Tomato Sauce: approx 140ml
Hoisin Sauce: 1/4 cup/62.5ml
Soy Sauce: approx 90mls
Sweet Chili Sauce: 1/4 cup/62.5ml
Mint Sauce or Mint Jelly: 1 x Tablespoon
Dijon mustard: approx 50ml
1 x 425ml tin of apricot nectar (OR 1 jar apricot jam OR 1 tin apricot pieces in juice)
1 x 420g can of tomatoes
1 x 500g jar tomato based spaghetti sauce
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp of Italian Herbs
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp marjoram
All purpose seasoning
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp pepper
Additional salt and pepper to season
4 tsp mild curry powder
½ tsp mustard powder
Beef stock – ½ cup liquid stock (or made up with ½ a stock cube)+ 2 additional beef stock cubes
1/2 cup fruit chutney
1-2 tablespoons jam (raspberry or apricot)
Cornflour to thicken
Gravox style gravy powder: ¼ cup + 5 tbsp
100 ml red wine
100ml olive oil
3/4 cup jar salsa
1/3 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
1/3 cup rough chopped peanuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vinegar
~Chilled Items~
200g diced bacon
1 bag diced mixed frozen vegetable (avoid one with potato if possible)
~Other Needs~
Water for recipes
Permanent Marker/Freezer Marker Pen
Large GOOD QUALITY zip lock bags for freezer. Don’t scrimp on quality. You don’t want them to leak or tear easily as some cheaper brands will.
Measuring cups/spoons + scales
Utensils needed to prep/peal/cut ingredients
This is just the first of many freezer meal plans/shopping lists to come.
Be sure to check the other 14 day Freezer Meal plans in our series:
– Winner Winner Chicken Dinner – 14 Slow Cooked Chicken Dinner Freezer Meals!!
– *All New* 14 Day Slow Cooker Dump Bag Freezer Meals (Shopping Lists Included)
We hope to create more in future to keep giving you new dishes to try.
Hope you enjoy and find it helps you save time and money in your kitchen!
If you have any questions please do ask them in the comments section below this article and I’ll do my best to help 🙂
Cheers P
Love this Paulene..from start to finish. Not overwhelming anymore. Thankyou.
Awesome!
Silly question but do I seal the meat before I freeze or just put in raw? Thank you
My personal choice is not to do this … pre browning would only semi warm the meat (not up to full safe cooking temps) then cooling it, then adding it to raw ingredients, then freezing, then defrosting, then cooking …. just too many opportunities in my mind for potential issues with food safety there :/
I just don’t choose recipes that need pre browning/searing when I’m choosing freezer meal recipes, or if I do I leave out this step (which I do in most of my slow cooking – I hardly ever pre brown when I slow cook 🙂
But as I said other people do still do this step then add the browned meat to their freezer bags so I’ll leave that up to your call for what you feel comfortable doing 🙂
Thank you thank you! I’ve been meaning to try freezer dump bags for ages but kept getting overwhelmed or run out of time to prepare lists etc. I have two big weeks coming up so thanks again 🙂
I don’t own the cook book. Are the recipes also listed in the albums section?
These recipes in this blog are all from this website – not from the book 🙂
This makes life a lot more easier love it, thank u Paulene
Can I please ask could I freeze the left over meals after slow cooking? I’m hoping to get two meals out of each recipe but would like to cook in one lot. I did buy fresh meat & veg that has not been frozen yet. I think it’s ok to freeze once from fresh then once more from cooked?? Thanks 🙂
That’s right 🙂
As stated in the article above if using fresh ingredients then cooking, freezing, then defrosting/heating once is ok 🙂
Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I love the idea of dump bags but it always seems so overwhelming. This is not!
I’ll make more lists like this when I get a chance too 🙂
This is fantastic! Made this today and everything you have done on here made it super easy! Just starting uni again this week so these are going to help me find so much extra time as juggling home life, kids and uni I hardly ever find extra time! Again thank you ?
Love love love this. I work full time…5 people to feed every night….This is going to make my life so much easier.
Thank you for all that you do ?
You are most welcome 🙂
This is fantastic! Thank you so much for all your efforts, off to the supermarket, can’t wait to get started! X
I had no idea how to approach this beefro-now I’m locked and loaded.
First time I have made these and WOW!!! So impressed with everything, especially the shopping list. Hoping that you can do some different ones soon. Thank you Pauline, you’ve made cooking for my family of 7 (sometimes 8) sooooo much easier. 🙂
just wondering how much roughly this cost?
I just purchased all on the shopping list today except a few herbs and sauces I already had. It cost me $245. I’m in Queensland if thats any help 🙂
I dont want to appear an idiot but do you leave ingredient in the bag to cook or remove ingredients and put them into slow cooker
Nothing idiot about asking a question – that’s what we are here for 🙂
Yes you pour the defrosted bag contents out of the bag and into the slow cooker to cook
Hi. Do you need to pre-cook the veg or does it go in raw too? Sorry if its a daft question but I’m new to slow cooking as well as dump bags.
Thanks 🙂
Everything is raw 🙂
How long do you cook each recipe for ?
Each recipe has it’s cooking time on it 🙂
I’ve just stumbled across this – my husband is about to start working away for long periods and as a working mother of 3 this is going to come in handy to get me all organised! Easy enough to get the kids to help! Just wondering if you have a PDF of the shopping lists so I can just print and go? Thanks!
I don’t sorry
I would suggest copy and pasting it onto a word document and taking that printer or screen shot etc?
Hi there,
This is fantastic, thank you!
I’m looking to do this but I would like to know he approximate capacity of the zip lock bags you use. I’m looking to purchase the equivalent size in a reusable silicon zip lock bag so I don’t have to use plastic. So far I can only find 1.5lt silicone bags which I think will be too small.
Thanks again for this fantastic list.
Cheers,
Amy
The one’s I see most often used are 33cm x 38cm
Lovely, thank you Pauline ?
Hi I am from the UK and I was wondering what could I use instead of the onion soup packet as I can’t find it anywhere or if you could give me some ideas on where I can get it from thank you can’t wait to get started
Hi Sharon … you can make your own HERE
Hi just wondering if you defrost the dump bags before cooking or cook it frozen also do you cook in the bags
Hi Cheryl
Yes always fully defrost first ready to just tip in on cooking day