Step 3, the most time consuming part out of all of it!

So step 3 has finally arrived! The daunting task of browning the chop meat, the roast, cutting all the vegetables, opening up an endless stack of cans, and dumping everything into your freezer bags! I am going to break it down to make it go the quickest for you (all people are different, I find this the easiest because it gets all the tedious and time consuming tasks done first). 

First things first, if you have a helper. this goes much faster.  This past day I am on crutches, non-weight bearing on my foot, so my husband had to go out and do the grocery shopping, and my mother had to help with the stuffing of the freezer bags.  Normally all the prep is done by me (including the grocery shopping).

If you don't have a helper, grab a glass of wine because this is going to take a while! But make it a spritzer, because if you have a glass of straight wine, followed by another, followed by another, people get pissed when you hope they don't mind that you have the 5 second rule as you're dropping food all over the place.  I myself had a glass of wine, because it was the better alternative to the pain medication I didn't take to accomplish this feat. 

First thing I did was prep the meatballs.  I do this simply because it is easier to mix up all those ingredients, roll the balls, then toss them in the oven for an hour while I complete the task of browning the remaining chop meat, roasts, and chopping all the vegetables.  By the time I am done browning, chopping, rinsing, and draining everything, an hour has passed, and the meatballs are done!  Baking meatballs is not always for everybody, I cook them at 350* for 30 minutes then flip them.  They still get brown and crispy on the outside just like you were frying them, just without all that extra grease. I use a ice cream scoop to make them relatively uniform in size so their cooking time will be the same.

 I find that tossing all the ingredients in before the chop meat helps me mix it better.  Note to self: remember to pull the awesome mixer we got for our wedding out of storage! Would definitely be better then hand kneading!

If you do decide to bake them, make sure they're not touching (they do shrink a little when you cook them, but they may shrink into each other).

And while all your meatballs are baking, start browning your meat away!

 Make sure when you choose your veggies, that you choose the best (I always choose organic - but that is just personal preference). Try to avoid bruised vegetables and potatoes.  If you must, just make sure you cut out any bruised or darkened spots on your vegetables completely. 

When you are done chopping all of the ingredients.  Set them out in bowls in front of you,  Once the meat has cooled completely, but all the meat in bowls too (or directly into the bags).  Remember, you do NOT need to cook the chicken.

Now, take the time to give yourself a bit of a breather.  The next part is really tedious.  Take a big sip of that wine and get ready to get to business! My recommendation for this part, is do one bag at a time.  Pull out all the ingredients that you need (for garlic, we used the minced garlic in a jar, tastes just as good and cuts out a ton of time!).  When I started doing freezer crockpot meals, I did 7 meals at a time.   So pace yourselves!

I prefer to open up all the cans at once.  Note to self: Buy electric can opener before hand falls off!

That way all you literally have to do is DUMP EVERYTHING IN! Its nice.  Since I am going recipe for recipe now, I don't tend to cross off the ingredients as they go in, since as soon as they are done, I yell to the husband and he runs then outside to our spare freezer (I will get to your freezer technique in just a minute). 

Once everything is said and done, the counter looks less and less messy, and then you begin to realize that you have slowly brought your kitchen back from the brink of madness. 

 Once you complete all your meals, you celebrate with a celebratory full glass of wine!  But don't get too sloshed! Now comes the ever awesome art of freezer stacking.  We have a spare fridge and freezer in our garage (an old fridge that we got rid of to update to a newer one that still worked).  We use this for my husbands beer stash, and my freezer and refrigerated coupon loot, and now more recently the freezer has been overtaken with my whole month's worth of freezer meals. 

The trick to stacking you meals is patience.  Remember, these freezer bags are not factory sealed, they can burst, rupture, or even split under the pressure.  I have a rule that the heaviest meals go on the bottom (normally the taco soups, roast, beef stew, and tortilla soup).  I then don't stack more then 3 unfrozen meals on top of each other.  As you can see this doesn't leave me with a lot of room.  I normally refrigerate all the remaining meals that I couldn't shove into here till the next morning (when I know everything in the freezer is frozen solid).  In the morning I go out and put the remainder of the meals in.  Once all the meals (like the soups and such) are frozen solid, you can stand them on end.  

I honestly feel my uncanny ability to beat Tetris each and every time made me able to stock my freezer.

Now enjoy each of the meals.  You DO NOT need to defrost any of the meals before you put them in the crock pot.  However getting them out of their bag may be a trick.  I tend to run them under hot water for a minute, and it unsticks all the insides from the bag.  I then just dump it into the crockpot.  Based on the size of your crockpot, you may not be able to fit the whole rectangular shape in so you will have no choice but to defrost to make it fit.  If you want to defrost, set it out the night before, and toss it in the crockpot first thing in the morning.

As for the 2 beef roast recipes, if you are not going to eat them within the first 20 days, the cream of mushroom soup wont hold well in the freezer.  If you want, like I did, leave the cream of mushroom soup out and add it the day of cooking.  

Ok guys!  Enjoy! Tonight's meal in the crockpot is going to be the Roast Chicken.  Photos and taste blog later.  As always, please feel free to send me a message with any questions you may have, and submit photos to the Facebook group.  Once we reach 1,000 likes, we give away a free Crockpot!