Crock Pot Preparations

So I think this turned out to be an hour and a half or two hours of prep for five eventual meals:

Chicken, chicken curry, pork roast, chili, and beef stew, now frozen blocks in the freezer, to eventually become crock pot meals.

The chili was probably the easiest to assemble - a pound of precubed stew beef, a can of kidney beans, a can of tomatoes, a package of prediced onions, and all the requisite spices, thrown in a gallon bag.

The meat portions of the rest were similarly easy - stew beef, a pork loin roast, and four skinless/boneless chicken breasts split between the two chicken ones, cut into pieces.  I think I used about a pound to a pound and a quarter of potatoes for each of the non-chili ones; based on the options at the grocery at the time we went, I ended up getting a ten pound bag of russets, so I peeled them before quartering.  (Red potatoes I'd leave the skin on.)  Those four also got a yellow onion in eighths, except the curry, for which I sliced it.  The chicken, pork, and beef three also got about six carrots' worth of carrots each, and a stick of celery.  The curry got a can of pineapple instead.

I added miscellaneous spices - pepper, tarragon, dry mustard, parsley, etc. - based on the meat.  The beef, pork, and plain chicken then got four cups of broth; the curry got a 14.5 ounce can of broth and a jar of curry sauce (with coconut mixed in or I'd have added a can of coconut milk).

Thawing overnight in the fridge will probably be preferred so that it heats more evenly, but I could probably put them in the crock pot frozen before I leave for work and have them turn out okay by the time I get home ten hours later.

These were just the initial five test flavors, so if they turn out okay there will probably be more.  I'm only aiming to feed two with these, with not a huge amount of leftovers - this was a quarter of the recipe for chili on Ball's site, for example, that I've done in the past that made six pints or whatnot.  A pint is a lot of chili, even if the meat is amazingly tender.

Freezing doesn't have the same advantages as canning does - it requires freezer space, and doesn't take advantage of the gazillion quart jars I have (although maybe it could in the future?).  On the other hand, canning in a home canner has limitations on some food types, although not the ones here.  Pasta, for example, and dairy products tend to be discouraged in home canning, presumably for food safety reasons.  Batch sizes can also be an issues with canning, and the process is much longer.  Canned food is a lot faster on the reheating end, though, since it's already cooked. All in all I think the crock pot is winning on the active time savings for dinner options.