Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals with Beef

Healthy freezer meals are fantastic ways to get a healthy meal during busy weeknights without disrupting your schedule. But what is a freezer meal? Well, that depends on the recipe you choose to use. The best healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef start with a freezer bag and a crockpot.

There are plenty of recipes that can be considered healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef; try one of these delicious meals on a busy weeknight! Crockpots are designed to help us save time in the kitchen.

They do so by cooking food slowly, hence why we call it a slow cooker meal. How does cooking slowly save us time? Well, we don’t need to stand over the crockpot while it cooks like we do a stove.

Instead, we can run errands, go to work, go on an adventure, and come home with a meal ready to serve. Crockpot recipes are our favorite ways of making a freshly cooked meal without being in the kitchen the entire time.

It is the perfect easy dinner option for those who don’t have that time. However, like any of our favorite homemade meals, we still need to prepare the crockpot food. This step is unavoidable, especially when making healthy crockpot meals.

Meal prep is the best way to organize our time. Of course, there’s no way to save time when you are cooking at home, but we can organize our time to prepare a meal when we have free time.

One meal prep method is cooking, separating it into serving sizes, and freezing or refrigerating it. The other way is to prep the ingredients, place them in a freezer bag and freeze them.

Then, when we want to use that recipe, just dump the freezer bag into a crockpot, turn it on, and go about your day. So, which method provides us with easy freezer meals? Technically, the answer is both since they both utilize the freezer.

The contents of the bag will become a meal, and it comes from the freezer. We just need to find the right recipes to use to discover which freezer meal recipes we like the most.

Healthy Crockpot Freezer Meals with Beef

One way to make a freezer meal can essentially turn any recipe into a freezer meal. The first step is to find a delicious recipe like a delicious Swiss steak recipe. This recipe isn’t laid out to be a freezer meal, but we can quickly turn it into one.

We don’t even need to look at the directions for this one, just the ingredients list. The recipe calls for diced tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers. We want to do all that dicing and place it in a plastic bag, preferably a freezer bag.

We can even add the meat if we want. The additional ingredients can remain out since it’s just cornstarch and garlic. Once everything is in the freezer bag, place a freezer bag label on it and put it in the freezer. That’s it.

The meal is ready to dump into a crockpot when you want it, and enjoy a delicious meal another night. This method has us reorganizing our time by prepping the ingredients on a day when we have the extra time instead of doing the prepping and cooking all in one evening.

Of course, this isn’t the only freezer meal prep recipe we can make. We can make a delicious pepper steak this way or one of our favorite freezer meals, a beef and barley stew.

This isn’t the only way to make slow cooker freezer meals. There is another way, a way we are all more familiar with: leftovers. 

Healthy Freezer Crockpot Meals

Another way we can make healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef is to cook the entire meal ahead of time. This way, it doesn’t save much time in the beginning. However, it will give us a healthier alternative to fast food.

Unfortunately, this method won’t work with every meal; some things just won’t freeze well. Still, it is a good way to get a fresh meal one night and then have smaller meals we can use for work, travel, or busy weeknights.

The first step is to cook the meal. Take this fantastic ragu with veggies recipe as an example. We will cook the entire recipe as the directions dictate. Then, we will separate the leftovers and label gallon size Ziploc bags.

Freezer bags are the best containers for freezer meals because we can store more of them in the freezer. We can pull a bag out all week long and just heat it up to have a meal ready without the prep time.

This method won’t work with stuffed peppers because the peppers will be too soggy after reheating. But you can absolutely use it with a simple beef and broccoli dinner recipe or delicious slow cooker beef tips burgundy.

How Do You Freeze Meals in a Ziploc Bag?

The best healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef are also easy to make. However, prepping them may take some practice. You may think stuffing ingredients into a freezer bag is simple enough.

The easiest way to get the best results from the process is with the right tools. Did you know there are freezer bag stands you can use to hold up the freezer bag while you fill it with the ingredients for an easy beef fajitas recipe?

The stand will become your best friend when prepping freezer-safe Ziploc bags. The best part is that these stands work for even bigger freezer bags. Crock pot meals using these methods will drastically reduce the cooking session time.

The stands will cut down the prep time and make them easier for beginners. Imagine trying to fill a freezer bag with tomato sauce after filling it with ground beef; it’s not fun. 

How Long Do Crock-Pot Freezer Meals Last?

​All food has a shelf life, even if it hasn’t been cooked yet and has just been prepped. Freezer meals can save a lot of time, but freezer burn is real and can complicate the shelf life.

A delicious beef stroganoff recipe will taste great heated up a few days after cooking, but wait too long, and it won’t be as good. Luckily, we’re not talking days with frozen meat. Meat can last up to 4 months in the freezer and 6 months if cooked.

Of course, vegetation is a different story. Frozen veggies can last an entire year in the freezer, so long as they’re prepared correctly. This means our freezer meals will be safe for up to 6 months.

You can make a meal tonight and enjoy it the following month without losing any flavor. This makes healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef a great way to save time when we really need it.

No more turning down complicated recipes like healthy Mongolian beef when we can just turn it into a freezer meal.

What Food is Freezeable?

One way to know your healthy crockpot freezer meals with beef will last longer is to know what food to freeze. For example, the beans of an amazing Western casserole may not freeze well after it has been cooked.

But we can rest assured that anything we’ve seen in the freezer aisle will freeze well enough. Meat, pasta, veggies, and rice will freeze fantastically. But fried foods will never freeze well enough to make them viable options.

It is better to stick with an easy meal that you know will freeze well. Luckily, there are many great things that will freeze. You can use the freezer aisle at the grocery store for inspiration. Basically, if it’s in the freezer aisle, you can freeze it.

More Crockpot Recipes

Asparagus Crockpot Recipes | Asparagus is always a healthy choice, and there are so many ways to cook it in a crockpot. Each version has a different flavor. But each one is also amazing.

Crockpot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls | Cabbage rolls are another healthy option that can easily be made unstuffed in a crockpot without much effort at all.

Pork Chops with Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe | Pork chops are best served smothered in a cream of mushroom sauce and cooked in a crockpot.

Chicken Fajitas with Frozen Corn | Your fajitas don’t have to be sizzling to be delicious. They can be served on a regular plate and cooked slowly to perfection.

Slow Cooker Shrimp Scampi Recipe | Want to impress a date? Try making them shrimp scampi. We won’t tell them you made it in a crockpot. The best part is, they won’t be able to tell anyway.