Are you ready for a fresh new start to the year?  Meal planning and preparation can help you achieve many healthy eating or healthy living goals that you may have set.  I love to make large batches of freezer meals to include in our meal planning.  Most often I use our crockpot to cook easy weekday dinners in.  Be sure to follow along on Instagram or Facebook for real-time recipes, inspiration and tips.  Today I am sharing a ton of my go-to meal planning recipes and tips…

How to start meal planning:

I start by determining what ingredients I might already have at home and that I want to use up.  For example, I knew that we had about 10 pounds of ground beef in the freezer so I planned around that.  Then I cooked all of the meat the night before and stored it in the fridge so that it would be ready the next day.  I like to drain the hamburger meat and rinse it as well to reduce the fat content.

Then I select which recipes that I want to make, create a shopping list and purchase groceries.  Next I chop up ALL of the vegetables that I will need for all of the recipes.  I try to choose recipes with similar ingredients so that I don’t have a ton of different bowls and vegetables to chop.  This often takes the most time for me.  A food processor is my next investment for sure!

For quick clean up in the kitchen I simply tuck a garbage bag around a drawer to act as a catch all.

When I am making recipes I love to know what each ingredient looks like.  So here is our selection of goods from the pantry ready to be added to each meal.

For freezer meals that can be baked in the oven I use these large tin casserole pans found at the dollar store.

Baked sausage pesto pasta and lasagna get built right in the pan with all of the ingredients including pasta and cheese.

Then I wrap them in tin foil and label each meal before storing it in the freezer.  Each of our freezer meals is eaten within 30 days of preparing.  Now for a few of our crockpot freezer meal recipes!  This Sausage Pesto Bake is the same as the recipe listed below only I cooked and added the pasta to our casserole before freezing whereas for the crockpot recipe, I add the pasta at the end.  Be sure to check out our other Crockpot Freezer Meals for even more meal planning recipes and tips.

Some of my favorite crockpot recipes:

Crockpot Lasagna Recipe

Yield: 5 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
• 8 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 5 1/2oz can tomato paste
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 cup carrots, diced
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1/2 cup green pepper, diced
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. Parsley
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a crockpot.
   
2. Stir at the half way point to ensure that all of the noodles are covered in sauce.
   
3. Cook 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.
   

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 5 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 781 Total Fat: 37g Saturated Fat: 16g Trans Fat: 1g Unsaturated Fat: 16g Cholesterol: 164mg Sodium: 1360mg Carbohydrates: 50g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 7g Sugar: 14g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 60g

Crockpot Coconut Curry Recipe

Yield: 5 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours

Total Time: 6 hours 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1-2 Tbsp of red curry paste
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup red peper, diced
• 1 cup zucchini, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, quartered
• 1/2 cup carrots and celery, diced

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients into a crockpot.
   
2. Cook 8 hours on low or 6 hours on medium.
   
3. Serve over rice {optional}.
   

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 5 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 428 Total Fat: 24g Saturated Fat: 17g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 6g Cholesterol: 102mg Sodium: 541mg Carbohydrates: 13g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 5g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 41g

Crockpot Sausage Pesto Pasta

Yield: 5 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours

Total Time: 6 hours 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 250g pkg ground sausage, cooked
• 10 oz container of pesto
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 16 oz pkg pasta, cooked

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients {except pasta} into a crockpot.
   
2. Cook 6 hours on low.
   
3. Serve over pasta.
   

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 5 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 784 Total Fat: 54g Saturated Fat: 15g Trans Fat: 1g Unsaturated Fat: 34g Cholesterol: 68mg Sodium: 1181mg Carbohydrates: 49g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 7g Sugar: 9g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 29g

Crockpot Taco Meat Recipe

Yield: 5 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup bell peppers, diced
• 1 cup carrots and celery, diced
• 1 pkg taco seasoning mix

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a crockpot.
   
2. Cook 4 hours on low.

This taco meat is great because it can be used as a starter for a variety of meals!  Keep it as is for Taco Night with the family or add pasta sauce for easy spaghetti.

Do you have more meal planning recipes and tips?  Please share!