Say hello to slow cooker freezer packs, the easiest way to make dinner that doesn’t involve slathering peanut butter and jelly on bread. (Snack AND lose weight with this box of Prevention-approved treats from Bestowed.) Great! Sandwiches for dinner are so depressing, you think. So what the heck are these things and how will they make all your mealtime prep fantasies come true? Basically, slow cooker freezer packs are uncooked meals that are assembled and frozen ahead of time, then effortlessly dumped into your slow cooker whenever you’re ready to eat them. MORE: 4 Foods That Burn Belly Fat Making one goes something like this: Sure, making freezer packs isn’t actually any less work than making a regular slow cooker meal. The difference is, you can assemble them anytime you want. And like your favorite Netflix show, they’re ready to roll whenever you are. You can take an hour on Sunday afternoon to assemble freezer packs for the whole week. Take a little more time, and you could put together freezer packs for an entire month. There’s just one catch. Not every slow cooker recipe can work as a freezer pack. The ones that do best are those where A) the protein doesn’t need to be browned ahead of time and B) all of the ingredients can be added to the slow cooker at the same time. So skip the freezer pack route for meals that want you to add in quick-cooking or delicate ingredients (like pasta) during the last few minutes of cooking. The Magical Slow Cooker’s Lemon Pesto Chicken and Oh My Veggies’ Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Chili with Porter are two delicious places to start.
