BORROWED from Six Sisters' Blog :)

Personally, I am having knee replacement surgery in a few weeks and I was searching for easy to do menus and recipes for my family to deal with while I was out of commission for several weeks. I ran across this and loved the ideas! ~ Phyllis

8 Slow Cooker Freezer Meals that can be made in 1 Hour!

(Bonus: They actually taste good and are approved by my family!)

Slow Cooker BBQ Spareribs

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs of country-style pork ribs

1 1/2 cups ketchup

1 1/2 Tablespoons seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

Directions:

Place pork in resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix remaining ingredients together in a bowl and pour over pork. Mix together in bag and zip closed.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours. 

Serve with Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole  (which can also be made in advance and frozen) and a bag of frozen corn.

Black Bean Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef (or ground turkey works too!)

1 medium onion, chopped
1 package mild taco seasoning mix
1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn
1 (16 oz) can black beans drained and rinsed (you could use kidney beans or pinto beans)
2 (14 oz) cans stewed tomatoes
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilis

Directions:
Brown meat and onion, drain. Let meat cool for a minute, then dump into a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag.

Dump the remaining ingredients into the bag, mix together, and zip bag closed.
When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on HIGH for 1-2 hours or LOW for 2-3 1/2 hours.

Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds chicken breasts

1 (16 oz) bag frozen broccoli florets

2 (16 oz) jars Alfredo sauce (I use light)

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag and mix together.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours. 

Serve with cooked fettuccine noodles, green salad, and Easy Parmesan Knots.

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breasts

1 (26 oz) jar of chunky vegetable-style spaghetti sauce

1 zucchini, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 sweet onion, chopped

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag and mix together.

Garnish: chopped black olives, shredded Parm cheese

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. 

Serve with cooked spaghetti noodles and garnish with olives and cheese. Also would be delicious withCheesy Garlic Sticks.

French Dip Sandwiches

Ingredients:

2-3 lb beef chuck roast

2 cans (14.5 oz each) beef consomme (it is right next to the soups and beef broth)

6-8 hoagie buns

Directions:

Place roast in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag and pour beef consomme on top.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 8-11 hours (or HIGH for 5-7 hours). Remove roast from slow cooker and save extra juice for dipping! With 2 forks, shred roast and serve meat on buns. We also love to melt Provolone or Swiss cheese on top.

Serve with Baked Potato Wedges and fresh fruit. 

Hearty Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1 pound beef stew cubes
4 carrots, sliced
4 red potatoes, cut into large cubes
1 package dry onion soup mix
2 cans 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (10 oz) package frozen green peas
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 7-10 hours (or HIGH for 5-6 hours).
Serve with 3 Ingredient Parmesan Rolls.
(I double-bagged this stew because it stuffed the freezer bag to the brim! Better safe than sorry!)

Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
1 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). Sprinkle with fresh or dried rosemary for serving.
Serve with Oven Roasted Vegetables. 

Cilantro Lime Chicken w/ Corn and Black Beans

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
Juice from 2 limes
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn 
2 minced garlic cloves 
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed 
1 tsp cumin 

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed.

When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). 

Serve with tortillas and toppings such as with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and cheese.

Recipe adapted from Over the Big Moon. 

Putting the meals together is actually pretty fun.

The first thing that I did was label all my bags with what was going inside and how long to cook them in the slow cooker.

I then placed all the meat inside each bag (I don't really like handling raw meat, so I figured that I would just get it over with).

I then printed off the recipes and just added the ingredients called for to each bag.

You might find it easier to chop and prepare all your produce and other items, but I like doing it one recipe at a time. Just do what works best for you!

And less than 1 hour later, I had 8 freezer meals all ready to go!

Other tips and suggestions:
-Don't forget to add Ziploc gallon-sized freezer bags to your shopping list!
-All of these recipes can lay pretty flat, making them easy to stack in your freezer (they really won't take up much room).
-They seem to work best in the slow cooker if you can let them thaw in the fridge for about 24 hours before serving them. If you are not able to thaw them beforehand, plan on them cooking for a lot longer in the slow cooker.
-Each of my recipes feeds my family of four (2 adults and 2 kids) for dinner and then we usually have two leftover lunches for the next day. If you are only making food for 2, you could easily split these meals in half.
-Slow Cooker Liners will make clean up a breeze!

Today's breakfast & supper

Breakfast: Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal w/ blueberries

 Marinating tilapia in EVOO, paprika, white vinegar, & a chipoltle spice

Squash & Zucchini (peeled because of damage to skins) cooked in EVOO, seasalt, black pepper and minced garlic... Red Quinoa with garlic salt & oregano... the marinated tilapia oven baked with oregano sprinkled in the last few minutes. YUMMERS!

Top 10 most unhealthy, cancer-causing foods - never eat these again!

Top 10 most unhealthy, cancer-causing foods - never eat these again!
Thursday, April 18, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) The statement "everything causes cancer" has become a popular hyperbole, and one that some people use as rhetorical fodder to excuse their own dietary and lifestyle failures, particularly as they pertain to cancer risk. But the truth of the matter is that many common food items have, indeed, been scientifically shown to increase cancer risk, and some of them substantially. Here are 10 of the most unhealthy, cancer-causing foods that you should never eat again:

1) Genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). It goes without saying that GMOs have no legitimate place in any cancer-free diet, especially now that both GMOs and the chemicals used to grow them have been shown to cause rapid tumor growth. But GMOs are everywhere, including in most food derivatives made from conventional corn, soybeans, and canola. However, you can avoid them by sticking with certified organic, certified non-GMO verified, and locally-grown foods that are produced naturally without biotechnology (http://www.naturalnews.com).

2) Processed meats. Most processed meat products, including lunch meats, bacon, sausage, and hot dogs, contain chemical preservatives that make them appear fresh and appealing, but that can also cause cancer. Both sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate have been linked to significantly increasing the risk of colon and other forms of cancer, so be sure to choose only uncured meat products made without nitrates, and preferably from grass-fed sources (http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/processedmeat050305.cfm).

3) Microwave popcorn. They might be convenient, but those bags of microwave popcorn are lined with chemicals that are linked to causing not only infertility but also liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes the perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in microwave popcorn bag linings as "likely" carcinogenic, and several independent studies have linked the chemical to causing tumors. Similarly, the diacetyl chemical used in the popcorn itself is linked to causing both lung damage and cancer (http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400701/Microwave-Popcorn-Threat.html).

4) Soda pop. Like processed meats, soda pop has been shown to cause cancer as well. Loaded with sugar, food chemicals, and colorings, soda pop acidifies the body and literally feeds cancer cells. Common soda pop chemicals like caramel color and its derivative 4-methylimidazole (4-MI) have also specifically been linked to causing cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/031383_caramel_coloring_cola.html).

5) 'Diet' foods, beverages. Even worse than conventional sugar-sweetened soda pop, though, is "diet" soda pop and various other diet beverages and foods. A recent scientific review issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of more than 20 separate research studies found that aspartame, one of the most common artificial sweeteners, causes a range of illnesses including birth defects and cancer. Sucralose (Splenda), saccharin and various other artificial sweeteners have also been linked to causing cancer (http://www.dailymail.co.uk).

6) Refined 'white' flours. Refined flour is a common ingredient in processed foods, but its excess carbohydrate content is a serious cause for concern. A study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Mile Markers, and Prevention found that regular consumption of refined carbohydrates was linked to a 220 percent increase in breast cancer among women. High-glycemic foods in general have also been shown to rapidly raise blood sugar levels in the body, which directly feeds cancer cell growth and spread (http://www.naturalnews.com/001812_cancer_prevention.html).

7) Refined sugars. The same goes for refined sugars, which tend to rapidly spike insulin levels and feed the growth of cancer cells. Fructose-rich sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are particularly offensive, as cancer cells have been shown to quickly and easily metabolize them in order to proliferate. And since cookies, cakes, pies, sodas, juices, sauces, cereals, and many other popular, mostly processed, food items are loaded with HFCS and other refined sugars, this helps explain why cancer rates are on the rise these days (http://www.naturalnews.com/038071_cancer_sugar_sweets.html).

8) Conventional apples, grapes, and other 'dirty' fruits. Many people think they are eating healthy when they buy apples, grapes, or strawberries from the store. But unless these fruits are organic or verified to be pesticide-free, they could be a major cancer risk. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that up to 98 percent of all conventional produce, and particularly the type found on its "dirty" fruits list, is contaminated with cancer-causing pesticides (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/).

9) Farmed salmon. Farmed salmon is another high-risk cancer food, according to Dr. David Carpenter, Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany. According to his assessment, farmed salmon not only lacks vitamin D, but it is often contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), flame retardants, pesticides, and antibiotics (http://www.albany.edu/ihe/salmonstudy/pressrelease.html).

10) Hydrogenated oils. They are commonly used to preserve processed foods and keep them shelf-stable. But hydrogenated oils alter the structure and flexibility of cell membranes throughout the body, which can lead to a host of debilitating diseases such as cancer. Some manufacturers are phasing out the use of hydrogenated oils and replacing them with palm oil and other safer alternatives, but trans fats are still widely used in processed foods (http://www.naturalnews.com/010095_hydrogenated_oils_unhealthy.html).