6 Slow Cooker Meals I plan to Make This Week
My first rule about meal planning is that you need to look at your schedule, then determine your meals. Understanding how much time you have each night for prep and cooking. This is going to determine what you can make.
Following my own rules I looked ahead and saw I’ll need to make slow cooker meals six nights next week. Some nights could warrant a twenty minute dinner, but I know myself and I knew that there’s nothing quite like having a slow cooker meal plan for those busy weeknights.
Super Hero?
I feel a bit like a super hero when dinner is in the slow cooker before 10 AM any night of the week and I’m sure busy families feel the same. Lazy weekends are also a perfect time to take advantage of an easy crockpot meal too! In fact, I think I’ll start doing slow cooker meals on Sundays to help aid in us all relaxing. I’d probably like them Friday’s too. That may be too many crock pot meals but if I can make recipes that are super tasty, I’m sure my whole family won’t mind.
The Tools
I got this new slow cooker over Christmas and absolutely love it. While my last slow cooker was amazing, I didn’t love the non-stick interior that was flaking off. It was time for something non-toxic and I love the clean look of this one as well. So far it’s worked well and I even got some skillets made by the same company.
On with the Slow Cooker Recipes
I won’t be sharing all the recipes here now but I will share with you what our meal plan looks like. I need hearty meals to feed growing boys and something that will be on the healthier side for me. Once I make these I’ll report back, sharing full recipes with you for whatever I consider to be a keeper.
Truth is, I’d love to do a slow cooker bundle maybe later this year. I’ve lived on slow cooker meals for a long time but some of them just aren’t awesome. Making really delicious meals with simple ingredients should be something we’re all capable of!
Meal One: Slow Cooker Meatballs
This one may not count, but it also may not be one you think of. Throw some frozen meatballs in the slow cooker, cover in your favorite sauce and either serve with noodles or subs. Dinner, done.
Meal Two: Slow Cooker French Onion Soup
The plan is to get this in before we head to church, have it cook all day with different steps being added later in the afternoon. Do I think having onions caramelize in a saucepan is superior? Yes. Will I try this anyways because my kids love french onion soup? Also yes.
Meal Three: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
There are a lot of recipes out there for this one. It’s simple and filling and healthy. I love that you can add toppings like cilantro and avocado and in doubling it we may just have leftovers.
Meal Four: Slow Cooker Chicken Gumbo
This is a new family favorite. I never grew up making or having any sort of gumbo but having married someone from the South, here we are. I have some chicken thighs and also andouille sausage for this one. Some of my kids find that sausage too spicy while others think it’s fine so I really like that between the sausage and chicken there’s a protein everyone can like.
Meal Five: Slow Cooker Carne Asada for Tacos
This is one I’m probably the most skeptical about. Can it really cook down so well that we’ll all love it? We get half a cow so I have some cuts of beef perfect for this and I love that it’s hopefully even more simple than tacos.
Meal Six: Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas
What can I say? We could eat tacos every night. I’m excited to try this one, wonder if it’ll be simple dinner that we make on repeat and overall, can’t wait to try it.
So there you go. I’ll share recipes and report back with how things go. Likely in substack, but also here I’ll post any popular recipes that turned out to be worth repeating.
I hope this post helped you to think of some recipes you can make this week. I’ll post the winner recipes in their own individual post soon!
