Crock Pot Recipes that save you thousands per year!

Published on July 10, 2019 by Lauren

Lauren Cobello » Meal Planning » Crock Pot Recipes that save you thousands per year!

Do you love Crock Pot Recipes as much as I do? I use my Crock Pot 4 or 5 nights a week. It is the perfect way to cook when you have a large family and are typically busy during the day. I typically make a few of these dump recipes at once, stick them in the freezer, and then take one out in the morning and throw it in the Crock pot before I start my day.

When I was learning how to budget back in 2006 I found that saving money on food was the easiest way to pay down debt. Using Crock Pot Recipes quickly became my absolute favorite way to feed my family. That is why even though I am a Budgeting Expert and founder of a Money Saving Budget Planner company, I still teach meal planning. Meal Planning is the easiest way to save money quickly!

Crock Pot Recipes

There are a lot of different sizes of Crock Pots. I prefer to use a 6 quart size, this is the one that I use almost every night. You can also convert slow cooker recipes into Instant Pot Recipes.

If you decide to use an Instant Pot instead, this is the one that I have and LOVE!

After 13 years of cooking primarily with my Crock Pot, I am going to share with you my tips on Crock Pot Recipes as well as some of my favorites, like these crockpot chicken recipes.

Benefits of using Crock Pot Recipes:

1.) Make once and freeze for later.

One of my favorite recipes to do this for are meatball recipes. I will get a big package of ground beef, make one batch of meatballs. We eat half on that day and I make a second one to freeze. This keeps my work down to a minimum and then I have dinner for another night.

When I want to eat my Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs, I already have them prepared in my freezer. I just take them out that morning and stick the frozen ingredients in a Crock Pot for 6-8 hours. I have a home cooked meal without any work!

You can do this with so many different types of slow cooker recipes like chili recipes, pulled pork recipes, and these other pasta sauce recipes.

2.) Make Cooking Easier for you!

There are so many easy crockpot recipes out there to make. I very rarely spend time cooking over a hot stove burner. I live a busy life with 6 kids and running a business full time, if I don’t cook with my slow cooker I often eat out at a restaurant. With 8 of us in the family, that can get VERY expensive.

If I do cook over the stove it is usually these kielbasa recipes. I can typically find Kielbasa on sale for really cheap and it’s super quick to cook in a frying pan. I also love to make these spaghetti sauce recipes on a cold winter day. It makes the entire house smell amazing and there is nothing better than a homemade sauce on a cold day.

3.) Save money by using Cheaper Cuts of Meat.

One way to make delicious Crockpot Recipes is to find clearance deals on cheaper cuts of meat and make Crock Pot Recipes Beef. My favorite cheap cups of meat to throw in my slow cooker are London Broil, Chicken Drumsticks (I like them in this Slow Cooker Paprika Chicken), stew beef, and ground beef.

You can easily make an inexpensive piece of meat taste amazing by cooking it in a Slow Cooker!

4.) Slow Cooker Cooking is easier for People with Food Allergies.

I eat gluten free and because of the way that slow cooker recipes are cooked and the ingredients used, there is little gluten in the recipes. There are so many gluten free dinner recipes that you can make in your crockpot. They taste great and you don’t have to slave over a hot stove to make them!

Some of my favorites are these slow cooker pulled pork recipes. I use a gluten free BBQ Sauce, most of the main types are. Easily dump a pork loin and a jar of BBQ sauce into the Crockpot and I have a delicious meal in only a few hours.

5.) You don’t to love to cook.

You don’t have to love to cook in order to make great Crock Pot Recipes. I honestly don’t love cooking, it is a chore for me that has to get done every day. I prefer Crock Pot Recipes over everything else because I don’t have to spend much time cooking. It is easy for me to throw a bunch of ingredients into a Crock Pot while I am cleaning up after breakfast.

I love Crock Pot Recipes so much that I developed meal plans around this method of cooking.

Here are the four meal plans that I currently sell in my shop. All of these plans take under 3 hours to assemble, cost you under $150, and make you 20 homemade dinners. I typically do an aldi meal plan every other month and cook a meal from the plan a few times per week.