10 Freezer-Friendly Slow Cooker Dinners (Bag Them Now, Dump Them Later)

It is 5pm, you have just walked in, and tonight’s dinner is still a solid block in the freezer, because past-you meant well and then forgot to move it anywhere. This post is past-you, organised properly: ten slow cooker dinners assembled raw into gallon freezer bags on one calm afternoon, labelled, frozen flat, and then, after a full thaw in the fridge, dumped into the slow cooker and left to become soup, stew, curry, chilli and pulled pork with almost no work left on the day. There is chicken tortilla soup, Mongolian beef, apple BBQ pulled pork, creamy Swedish meatballs, peanut chicken, a sausage and lentil stew, chicken and wild rice, a red lentil curry, beef goulash and a turkey chilli. Every dinner feeds four, costs about $1.60 to $3.10 a serving in October 2026, and states its real timeline plainly: bagging today, thawing the day before, and a long, low cook after that — never, ever cooked from frozen.

Quick Facts

• Prep time: About 15 to 25 minutes of bagging per dinner — chopping, measuring the sauce or spice mix, and filling the bag; one bag or a whole afternoon’s batch of ten, your choice
• Cook time: On Low only, exactly as each recipe states — from 4 to 5 hours for the meatballs up to 8 to 9 hours for the pulled pork
• Total time: Bagging (15 to 25 minutes) plus a full thaw in the fridge (24 hours before cooking, 24 to 36 hours for the pork shoulder) plus the stated Low cook — every recipe states its own honest timeline under its heading, and no part of that timeline can be skipped
• Servings: Each dinner feeds 4
• Cost per serving: About $1.60–$3.10 depending on the recipe — based on standard supermarket prices, October 2026; yours will vary
• Equipment: Gallon freezer bags — the one equipment angle for the whole post: one sturdy gallon bag per dinner, pressed flat so it freezes thin, thaws evenly and stacks like a file. A 6-quart slow cooker is stated here as an assumed basic, not the angle; a marker for labelling, a tray for thawing and a food thermometer are also assumed basics
• Best for: Busy weeks you can see coming — one calm bagging session now, and ten dinners that only need a thaw and a dump later

Why This Works on a Weeknight

• The work moves to a calm day. All the chopping, measuring and decision-making happens when you bag, not at 5pm. On the cooking day the job is: move the bag, thaw it, dump it, switch on.
• Frozen flat, stacked like files. A gallon bag pressed flat takes up almost no freezer space, ten of them stack in a shoebox-sized corner, and a flat bag thaws far more evenly than a solid lump in a tub.
• The dump-day additions keep the finish fresh. Stock goes in at dump time so the bag stays compact, and anything dairy, thickening or bright — the cornflour slurry, the sour cream, the lime — goes in at the end, exactly as each recipe states, so it never sits frozen in the sauce.
• Honest about the thaw. These dinners are not cooked from frozen, and this post will not pretend otherwise. The thaw is part of the recipe, it is written into every single method, and it is the reason the meat cooks evenly and safely.

This post is the make-ahead sibling of our 13 Dump-and-Go Slow Cooker Recipes — those are the same-day version, bagged by nobody, dumped straight from the chopping board, while everything here is bagged days or weeks ahead and frozen for the nights you know are coming. If the freezer is the plan but five ingredients is the rule, our 12 Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Dinners That Actually Feed a Family are the other half of that plan. Two of these dinners have close family on the blog: the Mongolian beef and the goulash sit alongside our 8 Slow Cooker Beef Dinners That Cook While You’re Out, the fresh, never-frozen beef set, and the apple BBQ pulled pork belongs with our 7 Dump-and-Go Crockpot Pork Dinners, the pork set that cooks the same day it is assembled.

The 10 Freezer-Friendly Slow Cooker Dinners

1. Chicken Tortilla Soup — Low 6 to 7 hours · about $2.40 per serving
2. Mongolian Beef with Carrots — Low 7 to 8 hours · about $3.10 per serving
3. Apple BBQ Pulled Pork — Low 8 to 9 hours · about $2.30 per serving
4. Creamy Swedish Meatballs — Low 4 to 5 hours · about $2.65 per serving
5. Peanut Chicken with Bell Peppers — Low 6 hours · about $2.70 per serving
6. Sausage & Lentil Stew — Low 7 to 8 hours · about $1.90 per serving
7. Chicken & Wild Rice with Mushrooms — Low 6 to 7 hours · about $2.55 per serving
8. Red Lentil & Sweet Potato Curry — Low 6 to 7 hours · about $1.60 per serving
9. Beef Goulash with Peppers & Potatoes — Low 7 to 8 hours · about $2.95 per serving
10. Turkey, Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili — Low 6 to 7 hours · about $2.20 per serving

The freezer rules that apply to every dinner below: every recipe is written for one gallon freezer bag and a 6-quart slow cooker. Fill the bag exactly as the recipe states, press out as much air as you can, seal it, and label it before it goes in the freezer — dinner name, the date you bagged it, the Low cook time, and what still has to be added at dump or finish time. Lay the bag flat to freeze and use it within 3 months. Move the bag to the fridge, on a tray or in a shallow dish to catch drips, a full 24 hours before cooking — 24 to 36 hours for the pork shoulder in recipe 3 — and cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre left. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker, and never thaw a bag out on the counter. Stock and other dump-time liquids go in when the bag is emptied, and dairy and fresh finishes go in at the end, exactly as each recipe states. Keep the lid on while it cooks — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time. Pantry staples for every recipe: salt, black pepper, cooking oil and water, declared here and under every recipe, and never counted or charged in the costs.

1. Chicken Tortilla Soup

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours · About $2.40 per serving · Feeds 4

The soup that starts the freezer file in most houses, and the easiest bag of the ten: chicken, beans, corn, tomatoes and spices, with the stock held back to dump day so the bag stays slim. The lime and coriander go on fresh at the end, which is what keeps a soup that waited weeks in the freezer tasting like it was made today.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts (chicken thighs work at the same weight)
• 1 can (14½ oz / 400 g) diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup (165 g) frozen sweetcorn
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 1 red bell pepper (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 4 cups (960 ml) chicken stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): the juice of 1 lime and a small handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the chicken in a gallon freezer bag first, then add the tomatoes with their juice, the beans, sweetcorn, onion, pepper, garlic, chilli powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Season with salt and black pepper, seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, then seal it fully and squish the bag gently so the spices coat everything.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Chicken Tortilla Soup — add 4 cups chicken stock at dump time; lime and coriander at the end. Low 6–7 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker and pour in the 4 cups (960 ml) of chicken stock — the stock goes in now, at dump time, not in the freezer bag. Stir once so the chicken sits down in the liquid.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: lift the chicken onto a board, shred it with two forks, and stir it back into the soup. Stir in the lime juice, scatter the coriander over, taste, and add salt and black pepper if it needs it. Serve steaming hot.

Food safety: Cook the chicken until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F (74°C) in the thickest piece, checked with a food thermometer before you shred it — colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Keep the lid on while it cooks, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

2. Mongolian Beef with Carrots

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours · About $3.10 per serving · Feeds 4

The takeaway-style bag: beef and carrots in a dark, sweet-savoury soy and brown sugar sauce that goes into the bag with the meat, so the flavour is already there on dump day. The one thing that never goes in the bag is the cornflour slurry — it is stirred in for the last 30 minutes of cooking, because a slurry frozen into the sauce would never thicken properly at the end. Serve it over plain rice, with the spring onions scattered on top.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) beef stew meat (chuck), cut into about 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces
• 3 medium carrots (about 2 cups / 260 g), sliced into coins about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• ½ cup (120 ml) soy sauce
• ⅓ cup (65 g) brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (leave out for a mild batch)

Add at dump time (not in the bag): ½ cup (120 ml) beef stock.

Add at finish time (never in the bag): 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch) stirred into 2 tablespoons cold water, plus 2 spring onions, sliced, to serve.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the beef, carrots, onion, garlic and ginger in a gallon freezer bag. Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and chilli flakes together in a jug, pour the sauce over the beef, then seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, seal it fully and turn the bag over a few times so everything is coated.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Mongolian Beef — add ½ cup beef stock at dump time; cornflour slurry in for the last 30 mins, NOT in the bag. Low 7–8 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, pour in the ½ cup (120 ml) of beef stock, and stir once so the beef sits in the sauce.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours, until the beef is tender. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: stir the cornflour and cold water together in a small bowl, stir the slurry into the cooker, put the lid back on and cook for the last 30 minutes, until the sauce turns glossy and coats the beef. Rest the beef for a few minutes off the heat, scatter the spring onions over, and serve.

Food safety: Beef stew meat is a whole cut: cook it until the internal temperature reaches at least 145°F (63°C), then rest it — and a stew like this is in practice cooked far beyond that, until the meat is tender. Use a food thermometer; colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

3. Apple BBQ Pulled Pork

Bag in about 15 minutes · Thaw 24 to 36 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 8 to 9 hours · About $2.30 per serving · Feeds 4

The big, patient bag — and the one dinner in the post with a longer thaw, stated every time it comes up: a whole pork shoulder needs 24 to 36 hours in the fridge, not 24. The apple cider in the bag is the drink, cloudy and sweet, never apple cider vinegar; the vinegar here is a single tablespoon for sharpness. A quarter of the BBQ sauce is held back fresh from the bottle for the shred, so the finished pork gets one clean, bright layer of sauce that never went into the freezer.

Ingredients:

• 2½ lb (1.1 kg) boneless pork shoulder, any hard outer fat trimmed off
• 1 large onion (about 1½ cups / 225 g), sliced
• 1 cup (240 ml) BBQ sauce, divided — ¾ cup (180 ml) for the bag, ¼ cup (60 ml) held back fresh for serving
• ½ cup (120 ml) apple cider (the drink, not vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon (12 g) brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: scatter the sliced onion in the bottom of a gallon freezer bag and set the whole pork shoulder on top of it. Stir ¾ cup (180 ml) of the BBQ sauce with the apple cider, vinegar, brown sugar, smoked paprika and garlic powder, season with salt and black pepper, and pour it over the pork. Seal the bag most of the way, press out the air around the joint as best you can, then seal it fully.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Apple BBQ Pulled Pork — thaw 24–36 hrs; nothing to add at dump time; ¼ cup fresh BBQ sauce at the shred. Low 8–9 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer as far as the joint allows and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 to 36 hours before cooking — this joint is thick, and it needs the longer thaw. Cook only once it has thawed completely, all the way to the centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, onions first so the pork sits on them, pork fat-side up. No stock is added to this one — the cider and the pork’s own juices are the cooking liquid.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 8 to 9 hours, until the pork pulls apart under a fork with no resistance. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time, and this is the longest cook in the post.
6. Finish: lift the pork onto a board, check its temperature, and rest it for 10 minutes. Pull it into shreds with two forks, discarding any large pieces of fat. Skim the fat from the cooking juices if you like, stir the shredded pork back through the juices with the reserved ¼ cup (60 ml) of fresh BBQ sauce, and serve.

Food safety: A pork shoulder is a whole cut: cook it until the internal temperature reaches at least 145°F (63°C), then rest it for at least 3 minutes — and pulled pork is in practice cooked far beyond that, until it is tender enough to shred. Use a food thermometer in the thickest part; colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

4. Creamy Swedish Meatballs

Bag in about 15 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 4 to 5 hours · About $2.65 per serving · Feeds 4

The shortest cook in the post, because this bag starts with shop-bought meatballs that are already fully cooked — read the pack and buy the ones that say fully cooked, because this recipe is a reheating recipe and it follows the pack directions for those meatballs. The meatballs go into the bag still frozen and the bag goes straight back into the freezer; there is no thawing and refreezing step on bagging day. The sour cream, as always with dairy here, is stirred in after cooking and never goes in the bag.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) shop-bought fully-cooked frozen meatballs (about 24 meatballs) — the pack must say fully cooked
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 2 cups (480 ml) beef stock.

Fresh finish (never in the bag): ¾ cup (180 ml) sour cream and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: work quickly, straight from the freezer: put the still-frozen meatballs in a gallon freezer bag with the onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and allspice, season with salt and black pepper, press out the air and seal. Get the bag back into the freezer promptly — the meatballs should stay frozen while you bag.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Swedish Meatballs — fully-cooked meatballs; add 2 cups beef stock at dump time; sour cream in AFTER cooking, NOT in the bag. Low 4–5 hrs. Follow pack directions.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker — that rule applies to a reheating bag just as much as to a raw one.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker and pour in the 2 cups (480 ml) of beef stock — the stock goes in now, at dump time, not in the freezer bag. Stir once so the meatballs sit in the stock.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 4 to 5 hours, following the pack directions for the meatballs if they state a longer time. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: switch the cooker off. Put the sour cream in a small bowl, stir a spoonful of the hot cooking liquid into it to warm it through, then stir it all back into the pot so the sauce turns creamy without splitting. Scatter the parsley over and serve — over mashed potatoes or egg noodles if that is the plan.

Food safety: These meatballs are a fully-cooked reheating item: heat them until they are steaming hot throughout and reach at least 165°F (74°C), checked with a food thermometer, and follow the pack directions if they state anything longer or hotter. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and reheat them only once.

5. Peanut Chicken with Bell Peppers

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 6 hours · About $2.70 per serving · Feeds 4

The peanut sauce bags beautifully — peanut butter, soy and ginger freeze in the bag around the chicken and melt back into a proper sauce in the cooker, helped by the stock that goes in at dump time and loosens it. Peppers are cut in thick slices on purpose: thin ones would vanish over six hours, thick ones come out soft but still themselves. Lime juice and chopped peanuts are the fresh finish, added after cooking, never frozen.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs (breasts work at the same weight)
• 2 bell peppers (about 2 cups / 300 g — one red, one yellow is the pretty version), cut into thick slices
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), sliced
• ⅓ cup (85 g) smooth peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon (12 g) brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (leave out for a mild batch)

Add at dump time (not in the bag): ¾ cup (180 ml) chicken stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): the juice of 1 lime, 2 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts and a small handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) or sliced spring onions.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the chicken, peppers and onion in a gallon freezer bag. Spoon the peanut butter in in blobs, add the soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and chilli flakes, season with salt and black pepper, then seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, seal it fully and squish the bag until the peanut butter has smeared over everything.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Peanut Chicken — add ¾ cup chicken stock at dump time; lime and peanuts at the end. Low 6 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, pour in the ¾ cup (180 ml) of chicken stock, and stir well — the stock loosens the peanut sauce so it coats the chicken instead of sitting in one lump.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 6 hours. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: stir the sauce well — it thickens as it stands for a few minutes. Stir in the lime juice, scatter the chopped peanuts and coriander or spring onions over, and serve.

Food safety: Cook the chicken until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F (74°C) in the thickest piece, checked with a food thermometer — colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Keep the lid on while it cooks, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

6. Sausage & Lentil Stew

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours · About $1.90 per serving · Feeds 4

The cheapest hearty bag in the post, built on two things that love a freezer and a long cook: whole raw Italian sausage links, which go in whole and are sliced after cooking so their juices stay in the meat instead of leaking into the bag, and dried brown lentils, which go in dry, need no soaking, and drink up the stock that is added at dump time. Nothing about this stew is delicate, which is exactly its job in the file.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb (450 g) whole raw Italian sausage links (4 to 5 links), kept whole
• 1½ cups (300 g) dried brown lentils, rinsed and checked over
• 1 can (14½ oz / 400 g) diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 2 medium carrots (about 1½ cups / 200 g), diced
• 2 celery sticks (about 1 cup / 100 g), diced
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or Italian seasoning)

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 4 cups (960 ml) chicken or vegetable stock.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the lentils, tomatoes with their juice, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, smoked paprika and thyme in a gallon freezer bag and season with salt and black pepper. Lay the whole raw sausage links on top of the vegetables, so they are easy to lift out whole at the end. Seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, then seal it fully.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Sausage & Lentil Stew — sausages whole; add 4 cups stock at dump time; slice sausages after cooking. Low 7–8 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, pour in the 4 cups (960 ml) of stock — the stock goes in now, at dump time, not in the freezer bag — and stir once so the lentils are down in the liquid and the sausages sit on top.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours, until the lentils are completely tender. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: lift the sausages onto a board, check the temperature in the centre of the thickest link, rest them for a few minutes, then slice them into thick coins and stir them back through the stew. Taste, adjust the salt and black pepper, and serve.

Food safety: Sausage filling is ground meat: cook it until the centre of the thickest link reaches at least 160°F (71°C), checked with a food thermometer — the skin can look done long before the centre is. Keep the lid on while it cooks, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

7. Chicken & Wild Rice with Mushrooms

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours · About $2.55 per serving · Feeds 4

The bag that comes out tasting like the soup somebody’s grandmother would send over: chicken, mushrooms and a wild rice blend that goes into the bag dry and cooks in the pot. Use a wild rice blend, not pure wild rice — the blend is what cooks tender in the stated time. And note the line that is written on this bag in marker, because it matters: the stock is added at dump time, the full four cups of it, since the rice will drink most of it as it cooks.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs (breasts work at the same weight)
• ¾ cup (135 g) wild rice blend, rinsed — a blend, not pure wild rice
• 8 oz (225 g) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 2 medium carrots (about 1½ cups / 200 g), diced
• 2 celery sticks (about 1 cup / 100 g), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 4 cups (960 ml) chicken stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the chicken in a gallon freezer bag, then add the rinsed rice blend, mushrooms, onion, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme. Season with salt and black pepper, seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, then seal it fully and shake the bag so the rice settles down among the vegetables.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Chicken & Wild Rice — add 4 cups chicken stock at dump time. Low 6–7 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker and pour in the full 4 cups (960 ml) of chicken stock — the stock is added at dump time, exactly as this recipe states, and the rice needs all of it. Stir once, well, so no rice is left sitting dry on top.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours, until the rice is tender and the chicken is cooked through. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time, and rice feels a lifted lid more than most things in this post.
6. Finish: lift the chicken out, shred it or cut it into chunks, and stir it back in. Leave the pot to stand, lid off, for about 10 minutes so the rice settles and absorbs the last of the stock, then stir in the parsley and serve.

Food safety: Cook the chicken until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F (74°C) in the thickest piece, checked with a food thermometer — colour alone isn’t a reliable guide — and serve the rice steaming hot. Keep the lid on while it cooks, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

8. Red Lentil & Sweet Potato Curry

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours · About $1.60 per serving · Feeds 4

The meat-free bag, and the cheapest dinner in the post: red lentils that collapse into the sauce as they cook, sweet potato cut in honest chunks, and a curry spice base that freezes in the bag with the vegetables. The coconut milk is a dump-time addition, poured in with the stock when the bag is emptied, so it cooks into the curry fresh rather than spending months frozen in it. The red lentils need no soaking and no pre-cooking — bag them dry.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups (300 g) dried red lentils, rinsed and checked over
• 1½ lb (675 g) sweet potatoes (about 2 medium), peeled and cut into about ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 can (14½ oz / 400 g) diced tomatoes, with their juice

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 1 can (14 oz / 400 ml) coconut milk and 2 cups (480 ml) vegetable stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): the juice of 1 lime and a small handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the red lentils, sweet potato, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, cumin, turmeric and tomatoes with their juice in a gallon freezer bag. Season with salt and black pepper, seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, then seal it fully and squish the bag so the spices coat the sweet potato.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Red Lentil Curry — add coconut milk + 2 cups vegetable stock at dump time; lime and coriander at the end. Low 6–7 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker — a thawed bag empties evenly and cooks evenly, and that is the rule for the meat-free bags too.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, then pour in the coconut milk and the 2 cups (480 ml) of vegetable stock — both liquids go in now, at dump time, not in the freezer bag. Stir once, well.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours, until the sweet potato is tender and the lentils have collapsed and thickened the curry. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: stir the curry well, stir in the lime juice, taste, and add salt if it needs it — lentils take more salt than you expect. Scatter the coriander over and serve steaming hot.

Serve & store: This is the one meat-free dinner in the post, so it carries a serve-hot and storage note instead of a meat temperature line: serve it steaming hot, refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, keep them for up to 3 days in the fridge, and reheat until steaming hot throughout before serving again.

9. Beef Goulash with Peppers & Potatoes

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours · About $2.95 per serving · Feeds 4

A paprika-heavy bag with one deliberate exception, and it is written on the bag so nobody improvises it later: the potatoes do not go in the freezer bag. Raw potato turns grainy and grey in a freezer, so the potatoes are cut fresh and added at dump time with the stock, while the beef, peppers and the whole paprika sauce base freeze together. Everything else about this bag is the usual drill — flat, labelled, thawed in the fridge, dumped, lid on.

Ingredients — in the bag:

• 1½ lb (675 g) beef stew meat (chuck), cut into about 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces
• 2 bell peppers (about 2 cups / 300 g — red and yellow), cut into chunky pieces
• 1 large onion (about 1½ cups / 225 g), diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds (the classic goulash note — leave out if the jar is empty)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 can (14½ oz / 400 g) diced tomatoes, with their juice

Add at dump time (never in the bag): 1½ lb (675 g) waxy potatoes, cut into large chunks, and 1½ cups (360 ml) beef stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the beef, peppers, onion and garlic in a gallon freezer bag. Add the sweet paprika, smoked paprika, caraway, tomato paste and tomatoes with their juice, season with salt and black pepper, then seal the bag most of the way, press out the air, seal it fully and squish the bag until the paprika paste coats the beef. The potatoes are not in this bag — they are a dump-time addition, and the next step says so on the label.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Beef Goulash — potatoes are NOT in the bag: add fresh potatoes + 1½ cups beef stock at dump time. Low 7–8 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker. Add the fresh potato chunks and pour in the 1½ cups (360 ml) of beef stock, then stir once so the potatoes sit down in the sauce where they will cook through.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 7 to 8 hours, until the beef is tender and the potatoes are cooked through. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: rest the goulash for a few minutes off the heat, taste, adjust the salt, scatter the parsley over, and serve.

Food safety: Beef stew meat is a whole cut: cook it until the internal temperature reaches at least 145°F (63°C), then rest it — and a goulash like this is in practice cooked far beyond that, until the meat is tender. Use a food thermometer; colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

10. Turkey, Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

Bag in about 20 minutes · Thaw 24 hours in the fridge · Then cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours · About $2.20 per serving · Feeds 4

The chilli that closes the file: raw ground turkey crumbled into the bag in rough chunks over sweet potato, beans and tomatoes, so it freezes as a flat slab and cooks down into a proper chilli once it has thawed. Two things are worth saying plainly here, because this is the bag people ask about: yes, raw ground turkey freezes in the bag with the vegetables perfectly well, as long as the bag goes straight into the freezer; and no, it is never cooked from frozen — this bag thaws for a full 24 hours in the fridge like every other bag in the post, and at the end it is broken up with a spoon and checked to the poultry temperature, not the ground beef one.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb (675 g) ground turkey, raw, crumbled into rough chunks
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 12 oz / 340 g), peeled and cut into about ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes
• 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (14½ oz / 400 g) diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 1 medium onion (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 1 green bell pepper (about 1 cup / 150 g), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Add at dump time (not in the bag): 1½ cups (360 ml) chicken or turkey stock.

Fresh finish (not in the bag): the juice of 1 lime, or lime wedges at the table.

Pantry staples you probably have (not counted): salt, black pepper, cooking oil, water.

Method:

1. Bag it: put the sweet potato, beans, tomatoes with their juice, onion, pepper, garlic, chilli powder, cumin and smoked paprika in a gallon freezer bag and season with salt and black pepper. Crumble the raw ground turkey in on top in rough chunks, then seal the bag most of the way, press out the air and press the bag flat, and get it straight into the freezer — a raw ground meat bag does not sit around on the counter while you bag the next one.
2. Label and freeze: write on the bag: “Turkey Chilli — ground turkey: thaw fully, cook to 165°F. Add 1½ cups stock at dump time. Low 6–7 hrs.” Add the date you bagged it. Lay the bag flat in the freezer and use it within 3 months.
3. Thaw fully: move the bag to the fridge on a tray a full 24 hours before cooking. Cook only once it has thawed completely, with no frozen centre. Never dump a frozen bag into the slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker — with ground meat in the bag, this rule matters most of all.
4. Dump it: empty the thawed bag into a 6-quart slow cooker, pour in the 1½ cups (360 ml) of stock — the stock goes in now, at dump time, not in the freezer bag — and stir once, breaking the turkey into smaller crumbles as you go.
5. Cook: put the lid on and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours. Keep the lid on — lifting it adds 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.
6. Finish: stir the chilli well, breaking up any last large pieces of turkey with the spoon, and check the temperature. Stir in the lime juice, taste, adjust the salt, and serve.

Food safety: Ground turkey is poultry, not a ground red meat: cook it until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F (74°C), checked with a food thermometer in the centre of the pot and in any large crumble — colour alone isn’t a reliable guide. Keep the lid on while it cooks, and refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.

What It Costs

Every dinner here starts as one bag, so the maths stays simple. The full batch costs, feeding four each time, are: chicken tortilla soup about $9.60, Mongolian beef about $12.40, apple BBQ pulled pork about $9.20, creamy Swedish meatballs about $10.60, peanut chicken about $10.80, sausage and lentil stew about $7.60, chicken and wild rice about $10.20, red lentil and sweet potato curry about $6.40, beef goulash about $11.80, and the turkey chilli about $8.80 — which is where the per-serving figures under each heading come from: about $1.60 to $3.10 a serving, with the two lentil dinners at the bottom of the range and the beef dinners at the top. Bagging all ten in one session costs about $97.40 in counted ingredients at October 2026 prices and fills the freezer with forty servings. Based on prices checked in October 2026 at a large US supermarket. Your cost will vary by store and season — the point is the ballpark, not the penny. Pantry staples — salt, black pepper, cooking oil and water — and the gallon freezer bags themselves are not charged in these costs, the same rule this blog uses everywhere, stated here so you can add them yourself if your cupboard is bare. The one honest extra: the dump-day stocks and the fresh finishes are counted in each dinner’s cost, because they are part of the dinner, just not part of the bag.

Storage & Reheating

• The uncooked freezer bags: freeze flat and use within 3 months, labelled with the name, the date bagged, the Low cook time and the dump-day additions. Freeze a bag promptly once it is filled — a raw meat bag especially does not wait on the counter while you fill the next one. Thaw a bag fully in the fridge, on a tray, for 24 hours before cooking (24 to 36 hours for the pork shoulder in recipe 3), and never thaw it on the counter. Once a raw bag has thawed, cook it that day; do not refreeze a thawed raw bag. A bag of a cooked dinner, cooled first, is a different thing and freezes by the leftover rules below.
• Fridge (cooked leftovers): cooked dinners keep for up to 3 days in a sealed container in the fridge — the soups, the chilli, the curry and the stews (recipes 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) hold up best; the pulled pork keeps in its juices; the Swedish meatball sauce can thicken and split slightly, which a spoonful of water and a gentle reheat mostly fixes, stated plainly rather than discovered at lunch.
• Freezer (cooked leftovers): cooked leftovers freeze for up to 2 months in portions. The tortilla soup, chilli, curry, lentil stew and goulash freeze best. The pulled pork freezes well in its juices. The sour cream sauce on the meatballs and the peppers in the peanut chicken soften on freezing — both are still a good lunch, just not the equal of the first night. Thaw cooked leftovers overnight in the fridge, never on the counter.
• Reheating: reheat leftovers on the stovetop over medium heat, or in the microwave, until steaming hot throughout (165°F / 74°C for leftovers) — add a splash of water or stock to the rice, lentil and sauce dishes as they reheat, because they thicken in the fridge. Do not reheat leftovers in the slow cooker: it warms too slowly to be the safe tool for the job. Reheat meat dishes only once.

Easy Swaps & Variations

• Chicken thighs for breasts, and back: recipes 1, 5 and 7 are written for either cut at the same weight — thighs stay juicier over the long Low cook, breasts shred more neatly in the soup. Whichever you bag, the poultry temperature is the same: 165°F (74°C).
• Swap the protein in the frame: the Mongolian sauce (recipe 2) works with chicken thighs at Low for 6 hours, cooked to 165°F (74°C); the goulash frame (recipe 9) works with pork shoulder at Low for 8 hours, thawed 24 to 36 hours, cooked to 145°F (63°C) and rested, then taken on to tender. Keep each swap’s own thaw and temperature — the frame travels, the safety numbers stay with the meat.
• Beans, lentils and vegetables: kidney beans stand in for black beans in recipes 1 and 10 at the same can size; green or brown lentils stand in for red in recipe 8 but hold their shape instead of collapsing, so the curry stays a stew rather than a sauce; butternut squash stands in for sweet potato in recipes 8 and 10 at the same weight and cube size.
• Make it milder, make it hotter: leave the chilli flakes out of recipes 2 and 5 and halve the chilli powder in recipes 1 and 10 for a mild file; add a diced fresh chilli to the bag in recipes 1, 5 and 10, or a teaspoon of chilli flakes to recipe 8, for a hotter one. The label is where you write which is which — write “MILD” or “HOT” on the bag in the same marker, because in three weeks you will not remember.
• Half and double batches: every bag halves cleanly for two (use a smaller bag, keep the same Low time, and check the temperature as usual), and most double into two bags rather than one giant one — two flat bags freeze and thaw evenly, one overstuffed bag does neither. A doubled cook still fits a 6-quart slow cooker only if the pot is no more than two-thirds full; if it is fuller, cook the bags on different days.

FAQs

Can I cook it straight from frozen?

No — and this is the most important answer on the page. Never dump a frozen bag into a slow cooker, and never cook frozen meat from frozen in a slow cooker: a slow cooker warms too slowly, the centre of a frozen bag spends too long at unsafe temperatures, and the outside cooks while the middle is still raw. Every bag in this post thaws fully in the fridge first — 24 hours before cooking, 24 to 36 hours for the pork shoulder in recipe 3 — on a tray, and only goes into the pot once there is no frozen centre left. If you forgot the thaw, tonight is a different dinner, and the bag keeps for another night: that is the honest price of the freezer method, and it is worth paying.

How long do the bags keep, and how should I freeze them?

Use a bag within 3 months. Fill one sturdy gallon freezer bag per dinner, press out as much air as you can before you seal it, write the name, the bagging date, the Low cook time and the dump-day additions on the bag itself, and lay it flat to freeze — flat bags stack like files, take up a fraction of the space of a tub, and thaw evenly. Once frozen flat, the bags can stand upright in a row or a box to save more space. If a bag tears or the seal fails, cook that dinner first, within a day or two of thawing.

Can I bag raw meat together with the vegetables?

Yes — that is the whole method of this post, and it is safe done the way the recipes state it: bag the meat and vegetables together, get the filled bag into the freezer promptly (never leave a raw meat bag standing on the counter while you assemble the rest), thaw the whole bag in the fridge for the full time, and cook it the day it has thawed. Two firm rules ride along: never refreeze a bag of raw meat once it has thawed — cook it, and freeze the cooked leftovers instead — and keep raw bags on a tray in the fridge while they thaw, so nothing drips onto other food.

Can I cook these on High instead of Low?

These recipes are written and timed for Low, and Low is the setting to use — the long, gentle cook is what makes stew meat and pork shoulder tender and keeps chicken from drying at the edges. As a rough guide only, High takes about half the Low time, but the finish is tougher, the peppers and lentils hold up worse, and the stated times in this post no longer apply, so you would be cooking by temperature and tenderness alone: poultry to 165°F (74°C), sausage filling to 160°F (71°C), whole cuts to 145°F (63°C) and rested, and everything cooked until actually tender. If the day only allows High, the meatball bag (recipe 4) is the safest candidate, following its pack directions — the big joints and stew meats are not.

Do the lentils and the rice really go in dry?

Yes. The brown lentils in recipe 6 and the red lentils in recipe 8 go into the bag dry, rinsed and checked over, with no soaking and no pre-cooking, and the wild rice blend in recipe 7 goes in dry and rinsed as well. All three cook in the pot, in the stock that is added at dump time — which is why the stock amounts in those recipes are generous and why none of the liquid can be left out. Two cautions: use a wild rice blend, not pure wild rice, which needs longer than the stated time; and stir the pot once at dump time so no rice or lentils are left sitting dry on top of the bag’s contents.

Made this? Pin it for later 📌 and leave a star rating on the recipe card — it genuinely helps Weeknight Foodie grow.

You might also like:

• 13 Dump-and-Go Slow Cooker Recipes — the same-day dump-and-go set this post is the make-ahead sibling of
• 12 Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Dinners That Actually Feed a Family — the five-ingredient freezer-friendly half of the plan
• 9 Easy Non-Alcoholic Mocktails That Taste Like the Real Thing — a cold glass alongside a dinner that cooked itself