Time to Bust out the Crock Pot

We never really had room for a crock pot in our last house.  I have always wanted to get into crock pot cooking and when we bought our new house (which has lots more storage) one of the first things I went out and bought was a crock pot.  Now that we are moved in and relatively settled, I decided to add a crock pot recipe to the menu plan this week.

I chose a Pork Roast which was pretty straight forward and easy.  I didn't want to get too fancy on my first try.



Slow Cooker Pork Roast

It was super easy to prepare.  I had to marinate the roast over night but then I just threw it in the crock pot along with a bunch of vegetables and it was cooking.

It was nice not having to worry about cooking dinner later in the day when the girls were home from school.  The best part is that the recipe made so much that I was able to make them pork sandwiches for lunch today. 

Prepping Ahead for School lunch - Menu Planning

Now that I have a bigger freezer (YAY!)  I can start planning ahead for school lunches.  I've never been one to make multiple batches of anything because I never had the room to store it.  Not anymore! 

I was looking through Today's Parent special flyer for Picky Eaters with lots of great recipes and came across this recipe for Bake-Ahead mini-pizzas.  My girls love pizza and these don't need to be warm (no microwave at school).  The best thing about this recipe is that it makes 20 individual mini-pizzas and they can be frozen for up to 1 month.

The recipe can be found here.

I've put four of the mini-pizza in the fridge for Tuesday's lunch.  Yum!  I altered the recipe slightly to make the pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni (the girls' favourite toppings).

Mini-Pizza

The other 16 mini-pizzas were divided into four bags with the expiration date written on them.  This way, I can defrost one bag each week until they are gone.  That means that I have at least 1 lunch each week for the next 4 weeks covered.  Awesome!

Frozen Mini-Pizzas