we have some easy to go recipes to share
today Aaron chase none other than Aaron
chase with $5 dinners is here today and
what are we you have all used such great
tips and it's just wonderful getting all
these ideas from you so what are we
making today well thanks for having me
back today we are making a freezer to
slow cooker meal and these are really
popular and really helpful for the
really busy family so for kiddos
soon-to-be kiddo here this is perfect
for right after you have a baby to when
you're so busy anyway yes and all you're
doing is taking care of baby you just
can't cook well this is like no thought
cooking right but it's still helpful and
it's still really easy and so the idea
is to load up ten meals at a time so I
do five recipes so two meals worth so
you know five times ten meals and
they're super easy to prepare and my
hope is that you can do this in less
than an hour all ten meals in less than
an hour and then they go into the
freezer do a lot of them use similar
spices and everything's yeah just kind
of go okay very easy to mix and match
and you're not I'm not gonna tell you to
go buy some crazy like saffron that
you're gonna use you know for one meal
and you end up spending too much money
no this is very basic very simple kind
of mix and match with healthful and easy
ingredients that your kids are gonna
love too because I mean shredded chicken
tacos alright so how do we how do we get
started here so how we get started you
could certainly load this directly into
your slow cooker but I'm going to show
you how you could do it into a freezer
meal as well so we're gonna open one can
four ounce can of green chilies if you
want to measure out a half a cup of red
salsa and liquid and everything in here
everything goes in everything you can
see how easy it is you might want to
take that out if it falls in and they
folks they're gonna add a touch of
sweetness this is a little bit of brown
sugar and we're just adding that into
cut this spice especially if you have a
little mouse that you're feeding this so
you don't have to do this or you could
use in a hole in it yep
dump that in and then we want to add a
little smokiness with the ground cumin
so we're gonna add a tablespoon of the
ground cumin and that goes in there just
like that you could absolutely mix that
into a bowl but I don't think it's
necessary to dirty the bowl when you're
just dumping it in here
then you can seal that up at the freezer
that's it okay this is going into the
freezer and then it'll look like this
here and once you are you ready to cook
it let's say like Thursday's are a
really busy day for us I'm at the office
all day I come home we need to eat
really fast before basketball practice
starts at 6:30 so you're gonna take this
out just like this it's frozen that is
solid frozen right that may be the
toughest part about this is just getting
the bag off and you take it in a bowl of
warm water for two or three minutes just
to loosen it up it does it's open I do
that while I'm making lunches and then
you drop that solid ball of the
delicious is what I call it the frozen
ball of delicious and you put that right
into your slow cooker and then as long
as you're cooking it for if you're
cooking it from frozen you need to cook
it at least eight hours also leave it on
eight hours ten hours is fine I wouldn't
do high for four hours if it's coming
from frozen you want to give it that
extra time just to be safe so everything
nicely and we don't need really much
extra liquid but this particular meal
because chicken releases a lot of liquid
but if you're making something like this
the flank steak or a roast you might add
a little bit 1/2 a cup or so of beef
stock or even water just to help keep
keep the sauce nice nice and you're so
cooker yeah and then this is what you
end up with this is the shredded chicken
and you just smell of that it's
absolutely you can put it on everything
right yeah I can put it on flour
tortillas corn tortillas if you want to
do the street taco thing you can top it
with anything you want to have pico de
gallo you could do guacamole you could
do you know coleslaw even like whatever
you want to put with it is gonna be
super easy if you're doing the low carb
whole thirty thing you could serve it
with cauliflower rice there you go so do
you line these things up basically
assembly line like if you're gonna do
and the recipes there on your website
right so you can get all these because a
lot of times you've run out of ideas
gonna okay well how many times gonna
serve chicken during the week and you
know different varieties but right just
line them up and go okay I need pepper
pepper pepper and just right knock it
out like that you say to do all the
ingredient preps so get out all the
ingredients that you need if you need to
chop up anything chop that up if you
need to mix up a sauce you can mix up a
sauce and then you assembly-line we line
up our bags so I'll put chicken in these
bags beef roast in these bags flanks
taking that back and just go dumping it
down and that's how you can do it in an
hour
because it's all very kind of dump and
go friendly I and Ted was just showing
the label on here slow cooker Baja
shredded tacos and that comes from your
website again rights right Wow so you
can just print it out and slap a little
label on there pull out of the freezer
and you're all set and I think we just
saw a picture of your family is always
good right okay tell us a little bit
about five dollar dinners so five dollar
dinners com is a website we have tons of
free recipes and tips and tricks and
hacks and then of course we have all of
our meal plans like this available there
as well
and other services you provide oh my
goodness we have if you need help
learning how to cook with your instant
pot if it's still in the box that you
just got for Christmas I will help you
with that we do have an online course
related to that we have a grocery
savings course as well so we do have a
number of different resources to help
you with your meal planning and spending
less money on my pot roast or not like
more information on five dollar dinners
head over to sa live.com and click on
the as seen on si live to have any
errands gonna be coming back a little
bit later on in the show with more
fantastic ideas
all these folks are waiting for some of
the good food that we are cooking hey
welcome back to ants a live everyone and
we are back with Aaron chase from five
dollar dinners and more fantastic
recipes it was that you know freezer to
crock-pot earlier now what are we making
sweet potatoes obviously and what else
are doing a quick 20 minutes to the
table skillet dinner with sweet potatoes
bell peppers a couple of real common
easy spices you priority have in your
pantry mm-hmm and some precooked sausage
and that's what I love about weeknight
meals like this is you don't have to
cook any meat because I feel like that
can like stress you out like you're like
oh I want to make this but then I have
to go cook the chicken or I don't have
any cooked chicken or it's rotisserie
chicken I can't fit it in my budget to
speak or whatever the that one struggle
is that overwhelm is like having
something that's precooked like this
chicken sausage is so nice you can just
toss it into the skillet with these
other ingredients I hear potatoes and
especially sweet potatoes thinking cook
in 20 minutes yes they'll cook in that
they will cook in 20 minutes these have
been only going for a couple minutes
here and they're already pretty soft and
that's because you're cutting them small
if you can get them down to about a half
an inch you saute them for a couple of
minutes to kind of jumpstart the cooking
and then what I like to do is like I
call it maybe steam sauteing where you
just pour in a little bit of water and
that water shock with the heat in there
is gonna really kind of get that steam
going right in and then you can cover it
and they'll cook so here's the other
thing about this recipe is you and I
think about cooking in general as well
and why it gets to be a little bit
overwhelming during the busy week is
that if you don't know what orders
should do things in then it takes you
two or three times as long as you need
to so that's why we start with the sweet
potatoes on this one get them cooking
then we move on to the bell peppers and
then we toss in the sausage at the very
end and literally start to finish it'll
be 20 minutes right because you don't
put the bell peppers in when those
things going because the bell peppers
are just gonna be melt in too much and
you don't want to do that so we get
these guys softened going then we get
the bell peppers off and going and then
we will toss in the sausage at the very
end with the spices and then it just
comes together beautifully in just a
matter literally less than 20 minutes
now would you want to maybe pre brown
the sausage of all if you wanted that
little crispy coating on it or not I
mean you want to do it if you want
the heat up and just shock it as you
throw it in there almost like a wok and
just toss it maybe add a little extra
oil to heat it up but the other thing
you can do with this make-ahead is you
can cut these sweet potatoes say in the
morning if you're doing lunch prep but
lunch boxes or breakfasts you can come
or even the night before and put them in
a bowl of water in your fridge and that
will keep them nice and fresh and almost
crisp if you will and then just strain
them in the colander Pat them dry and
toss them right in there you don't have
to that'll cut your time down you're
serving a couple of good stuff so
exactly speaking of saving time one more
time show us the trick with cutting a
bell pepper so you come out clean nice
pristine sections like this I know I'm
such a culinary nerd here you want to go
not just a notch so you look for the
little notches that are here on the bell
pepper and you line your knife up right
there like that and so then you slice
down and what ends up happening I would
say like 99% of the time is you get a
clean cut of the bell pepper that you're
gonna then dice up or chop up and then
you keep going around the bell pepper
and once you can see inside of it it's a
little bit easier you go from like white
rib to white rib and then you have like
no mess and then you just drop this guy
in your compost or your trash and then
you feel like you're winning a dinner
just because you could look it up and no
seeds it's like yeah
perfect segments if you want to put them
on the grill as well exactly you can use
those for kabobs or grilling and easily
treating fantastic tips and recipes on
her website as well and for more
information on $5 dinners head or you
can even print out neat little labels
for all those