Meal Planning, made super simple by utilizing your Slow Cooker

Published: Mon, 07/28/25

Updated: Mon, 07/28/25

Hello and HAPPY MONDAY Slow Cookerers!!

We have most certainly enjoyed our summertime weeks -- and I've only got about 2 left before I go back to working outside of the house. :-(

and I want to soak up every last bitty bit of it.

I stumbled across a blog post I wrote way back in 2009 -- I'm going to re-share it with you today because I used to be so smart.

;-)

I've not been the best meal-planner lately, because I have time during the day to wander to the grocery store, and it just hasn't been the biggest deal to think about dinner in the 10 or 11 o'clock AM hour.

BUT.

the more I hear from you guys, the more I can see that a lot of you don't think about dinner until 4 or 5 PM!!

dude!

that is why you are stressed!!

don't think about dinner when you are ALREADY at dinner time and are hungry and cranky!!

Think about dinner time when you are calm, cool, collect, and in control.

Otherwise you're going to end up last-minuting it, and might not be super crazy happy with the choices you end up making when you are over-tired and over-cranky.

(geesh, Steph. you sounded kind of mean and bossy there...)

I'm sorry!

;-)

#itsbecauseIcare

[ copied and pasted -- written originally in fall of 2009
(when I was pregnant with baby girl #3!) ]

;-)

I've been thinking a lot about meal planning lately. Last year took on a life of it's own with the brand-new-recipe-every-single-day-because-I-am-absolutely-bonkers challenge.

But it's 2009. And 2009 seems to be the year that we (global along with personal 'we' here) go back to basics. Basics are good.

I fell in love with the slow cooker because of how I could stretch meals, and make-do with pantry staples. I've slow-cooked and re-purposed with the cooker this past week or so, and would like to share.

Last Saturday, my mom hosted a breakfast to celebrate a visit from our Scottish relatives (not these ones; different ones, yet still related!) I made the Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole, but mixed it up a bit. Mom didn't want meat. So I cut the meat, added mushrooms and another bell pepper, and upped the seasoning to make up for flavor since there wasn't any sausage. It turned out great.

On Sunday, I made Tilapia in Foil Packets, served with quinoa and broccoli. Instead of using cheddar cheese, I used shredded Parmesan--it was fantastic, and the kids each ate two servings.

Yesterday (Monday), I made Taco Soup. Taco soup is still the hands-down go-to meal when I want to ensure the kids eat a hearty meal. Adam took leftovers for lunch today, and we still have 1 quart left for a planned leftover night.

Today I've got lasag na bubbling away in the cooker. It's raining BUCKETS, and I have no interest in going to the store, so I made due with stuff we had in the cabinets and freezer.

For pasta sauce, I'm using Trader Joe's Vodka sauce. For meat, I've cut up 3 frozen chicken and apple sausages (Aidells) and 5 gluten-free Italian Meatballs (Coleman Natural, purchased at Costco).

We didn't have any ricotta in the house, so I left it out, and used leftover mushrooms from the Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole, some spinach, and chopped broccoli from Sunday night's Tilapia dinner.

For cheese, I used shredded Mexican blend (not Italian, oh no!) I bought on sale to go with the Taco Soup. I also used 2 string cheeses.

And for the pasta: I only had 3 Tinkyada lasagna noodles in the house, so a few of the layers are with brown rice penne from Trader Joe's. I didn't follow my own recipe AT ALL. But this will be a good dinner, I can already tell---and it was "free."

Wednesday is leftover night. I always throw in a leftover night (lots of times 2!)----we clean out the fridge and make-do with stuff already in the house. Sometimes I re-purpose leftovers and make fried rice. If I make anything "fried" tomorrow, it will be fried quinoa, because I still have 2 cups leftover from Sunday.

On Thursday I'm going to make Cheeseburger Soup, and try to figure out why the cheese is separating on people. It may mean I'm going to try just stirring in the cheese cubes at the end. I'll let you know.

updated: okay, I tried it with adding the Velveeta and milk at the very end, and it works just fine that way. There is plenty of moisture in the pot from the broth and browned meat to cook the potatoes. The milk and cheese melted almost instantly, and by the time the table was set, it was good to go. I tried blending a bit with a stick blender to thicken the broth. it worked.

also, I made the Not-Too-Spicy Bean Dip for an afternoon snack. I didn't have taco sauce in the house, but I did have buffalo wing sauce (I kind of always have buffalo wing sauce. it's probably not normal), so I added 2 capfulls into the bean blob. I also stirred in about 1 tablespoon of sour cream for some added moisture, and a handful of shredded cheese (still left from Taco Soup night). The kids loved it, and ate a lot. The buffalo wing sauce provided a slight tang and kick without being spicy.

Friday is the school's pasta feed (I will bring pre-cooked brown rice penne in a tupperware) that I somehow agreed to oversee. hmm.

Saturday is Brown Sugar Chicken--- always a big hit in our house

and on Sunday, I'm going re-make the Fish Chowder. This is my older daughter's most-requested meal, but I got a hilarious email about how it stunk up Sherri's house--I'm so sorry Sherri! So I'm going to try adding the seafood at the very end to keep sensitive noses happy. :-)

We will probably start the next week with a leftover night and will eat additional leftovers for lunch.

The crockpot is your friend, use it!

If you don't WANT to think, that's okay! :-) (thinking is overrated, anyhow. ;-) Here are 14 Already-Done-For You Slow Cooker Meal Plans.
5 recipes for your work week
Complete grocery list
Each recipe is only $1
Everything available gluten free
The slow cooker lends itself to meal planning — in order to plug in the pot in the morning, you need to be sure that the food is already in your kitchen.

These packets take the guess work out of meal planning.
Each packet has 5 complete recipes with a grocery list for you. Simply print out the packets, and take the grocery list to the store.
You now have 5 ready-to-go dinners to slow cook during your busy week.
Because slow cooking lends itself to leftovers, you may find that you can stretch the meals to last longer than 5 days.

Due to a family allergy, all of the included recipes have been made with completely gluten-free ingredients. If you are not gluten-free, simply ignore my notes.

All of the recipes chosen were well-reviewed and tested on my A Year of Slow Cooking site and were featured in my cookbooks.

Curious to see which recipes are included in each packet? Here you go!

enjoy your day!! happy slow cooking!

xoxo steph

thank you!!

Stephanie O'Dea

1534 Plaza Lane #256, Burlingame California, 94010-3204

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