An AIP-Friendly Freezer Cooking Plan
In the last couple months, I’ve transitioned to an Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet. I feel a lot better, but it’s a pain in the neck. There is so much that’s forbidden on this diet…and what makes it hardest for me is that almost all of the sauces and seasonings I would typically use are off-limits. So when I most need food — it’s hardest to get it!
I’ve finally managed to pull together nine meals’ worth of freezable options that are AIP-friendly — and not all nearly identical. There are several benefits to this plan:
- All of these are freezer-to-crockpot (or, sometimes, optionally the oven) meals that don’t require anything but assembly up front. That means that for those of us struggling with energy, we can get nine meals ready with a minimum of physical effort.
- It’s a whole plan! That means for those who have people who are willing to help, but don’t know how, you could hand this off and someone else could prepare the meals for you.
- These are all pretty “normal” foods, so they’ll work for feeding the whole family (even if the family isn’t AIP), for sharing with company, or for delivering to a friend who has had a baby or surgery, is ill, etc.
If you want to really bless a chronically ill friend, make up all these meals and stock her freezer! You just might make her month. (Check for any unusual food allergies first, but this should definitely cover most of them. The AIP diet is inherently free of all the major allergens.)
If you want a whole month’s worth of meals, you could triple these, but I recommend not tripling anything you haven’t tried once yet. You’d hate to triple something and then find out you hate it. 😉
200 Gallon Size 10-9/16×11
Crock-Pot SCV700SS 7-Quart Oval Manual Slow Cooker, Stainless SteelSharpie Permanent Marker, Fine Point, Black, Pack of 3
What I Did
I gathered the recipes I’ll list in a moment and made them up over the weekend. We have not eaten these yet. I’ll check in again when we have, but I wanted to go ahead and share now because if you’re stuck struggling to figure out what to eat, you might not want to wait a month! The one I’m least confident of is the chicken stew. I completely replaced the seasoning, so I’m not 100% sure the seasonings will be good/enough. If you try it (or any of these) please come back and leave us a comment and let us know what you thought! [Update: We have since eaten all of these, most of them multiple times. One or two are not family favorites, although all were fine — just some more to our personal preferences than others — and most of them have been pretty popular. The stew was actually a favorite, overall, although my family isn’t crazy about the parsnips so they prefer I just leave them out.]
The recipes I found to use/adapt were:
- Lemon-Garlic Dump Chicken (omit pepper)
- Lemon Marinade Dump Chicken
- Teriyaki Dump Chicken (sub coconut aminos for the soy sauce & coconut sugar for brown sugar — is wine okay?)
(All of the above came from here, but I can’t figure out where they truly originated. The page she links to is no longer there, but all the same recipes are at about a zillion different websites, so I’m not sure who copied whom.) - Greek-Inspired Slow Cooker Chicken (omit pepper)
- Rustic Chicken Slow Cooker Stew (sub arrowroot for cornstarch, and coconut milk for milk; parsnips or turnips for potatoes – can freeze; sub seasoned salt & elim. pepper)
- Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli (sub coconut aminos & sugar for the soy sauce & brown sugar)
- Slow Cooker Hot Roast Beef Sandwich (This will not be the same: omit gravy, pepperoncinis, and black pepper. Serve others’ on bread w/ cheese, and mine on bed of lettuce or over cooked root veggies.)
- Balsamic Glazed Drumsticks (sub coconut aminos for tamari/soy sauce)
- Braised Crockpot Balsamic Steak (sub coconut aminos for worc. sauce; also, skip the pasta & sauce)
A Few Notes
I made the adaptations shown above, which are necessary to making the recipes AIP-legal. However, I also made a few other substitutions, either because I didn’t have/couldn’t find something, or to make the recipes a little more consistent since I was making them all together. The PDF I’ll share in a moment includes the updated recipes.
A few of these contain honey or coconut/palm sugar. If you’re super-strict or FODMAP, you’ll need to use your judgment on these. Both of these sweeteners are considered acceptable for the Autoimmune Paleo diet in general, though, on occasion. Since they’re small amounts used as just a part of the overall flavoring of whole recipes here, I think they should be fine for most of us.
I made all of the recipes shown here with just one bottle of coconut aminos. If you’re doubling or tripling, you’ll want more.
The plan includes an option for additional chicken and ground beef that’s cooked and prepped for the freezer, just to have on hand. I did this at the same time as I prepared the meals, because the rest of my family needs them for the rest of the month’s meals. If you don’t need them, just skip them. (They’re clearly marked.)
Each recipe should comfortably serve 4-6.
The Process
Of course, you’ll first want to shop (or have someone else shop for you). Then I like to take things one type of meat at a time. You can either prep your veggies all ahead of time (I’ve separated that part in the printable instructions in case you want to do that), or you can prep them as you get to the recipes that need them. (There’s not that much veggie prep.)
For each one, you’ll want to label your freezer bags, then line them up on your workspace. Fold the top down. (If you fold it down really well, you won’t have to worry much about getting raw meat yuckies anywhere, because you can hold onto the top of the bag and still be holding the inside.) And kind of “flatten out” the bottom of the bag. You should be able to get them to stand up.
Then divvy the meat up among the bags as appropriate. (I love doing it this way because then all the icky raw meat mess is confined to the one day. I can wash up really well after this “divvying up” step each time and then take out the trash and all the yuckiness is out of the kitchen!)
Add the remaining ingredients to the bags.
Then seal the bags up really well and shake them around to mix everything. (If you prefer, you could put all the liquid/seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix them up, then pour them over the meat — and veggies, where appropriate — but I like doing it this way because it doesn’t dirty any extra dishes.)
Lay them more-or-less flat to freeze. Because I don’t have a flat space available in my freezer right now, I stacked mine on a baking sheet. Once the meals are frozen solid I can remove the baking sheet, and the bags will be able to either lie flat or stand up on end in the freezer.
Then move on to the next meat type and repeat the process. Except for the part where I had to do half my grocery shopping mid-process (didn’t plan far enough in advance), this only took a couple of hours, and that includes browning and bagging 5 lbs. of ground beef and cooking an extra 6 lbs. of chicken breasts to cut up and freeze.
The Plan
Get a downloadable PDF of the whole plan.
(If you notice any goofs, please let me know!) It includes the adapted/updated recipes, a shopping list, and prep instructions. I suggest labeling each bag with not only the name of the recipe and the date, but also the cooking instructions so you don’t have to pull the recipes back out on cooking day. You may need additional items for serving alongside some of these. For instance, many are meat dishes that don’t include veggies, so extra vegetables to steam may be necessary at serving time.
And if you need a different picture to Pin/share, here are a few more options:
Looking forward to trying these! Thanks!
Where do you get coconut aminos? (I actually HAVE all the other ingredients!) And about how many do these serve? Are they family size or designed for one AIP eater per meal?
I’m sorry! Someone pointed out to me already that I neglected to indicate how many these feed, and I still forgot to update the post. I’ll go do that as soon as I finish here.
Each meal should comfortably serve 4-6 (although, obviously, some require veggies or the like on the side and some have those included). I get my coconut aminos at VitaCost.
This is fantastic! There are a few freezer meals out there that are AIP but they often don’t look like something the rest of my family would eat and I’m sick of cooking separate meals. These look like we’d all eat them!
I’m so glad it’s helpful! I agree — lots of the AIP recipes I’ve seen are just not something we’d really eat.
So have you tried all these by now? All came out good? I am doing AIP alone in my family of 5, so I might try doing some of these in smaller versions. When my husband makes hamburgers on the grill, or chicken, he makes extra for me to freeze individually for myself. Getting boring, although I greatly appreciate his efforts. He’s also cut up a whole pork loin into halves and stuck it into our crockpot around dinnertime – then it is ready in the morning. I shred it and portion it out for myself, leaving some for the family too.
I was just going through these older comments and wanted to update that I’ve done the chicken recipes and others like them in single-serving sizes as well, now. I put them in quart-size bags and then either cook them in a mini slow cooker or, more often, in a glass bread pan, covered, in the oven at 350. I put them in frozen and usually allow an hour, although some take a little longer and some don’t take quite that long.
Another question – you mention ground beef, but I don’t see any of the recipes use ground beef? I see steak and beef chunks… Help?
None of the recipes use ground beef. (I think that should be indicated as optional?) I just browned some beef to have on hand in the freezer at the same time I was prepping everything else; that should be spelled out a lot more clearly in the actual instructions.
We have tried all of these by now, yes. The one with wine isn’t our family’s favorite (we’re not big wine fans and aren’t crazy about its flavor in recipes, either), but others have enjoyed it. Everything else has been pretty well-accepted around here.
I think it would work great to divide one of these meals up among smaller containers and then have single serving-size packages. If you do that, you might experiment with putting them in the oven. I can’t be as specific on timing with the oven, but most of these can be done at 350 in a covered dish in the oven, and take anywhere from an hour-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours if I put them in frozen. It depends on the cut of meat you’re using, and how big it is. (Some of the chicken breasts I’ve used have been gargantuan, so they take “forever” to cook!)
My Parents and I just made most of these meals, one batch for each of our families!
They were so easy to assemble and look delicious! Thank you so much for these plans; such a blessing!
Oh, good! I hope you enjoy them!
Thank you so much for sharing this!!! The biggest struggle I have is the organization and prep time for this dietary lifestyle. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time, energy and effort!!! Much appreciated!!!!!!!!
You are so welcome!
Thank you for this! I’m getting ready to get 40# of chicken and this is perfect!!! I get a little consumed in the hunt for recipes 😉
hahaha I know what you mean! Enjoy!
I am just beginning to study the AIP diet! This will be a great start for me! Thanks so much!
Wow! This was a great find! Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this post. My diet has been very close to AIP, but now I am going to take it all the way. I am excited to have things that I can easily make during this busy season of life!
I’m so glad it’s helpful!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is such a gift because I am new to this and so overwhelmed! God bless!
Im really excited about these but I’m also really confused about the amount of liquid in these recipes. My slow cooker instructions require that the liquid covers the solids in the bowl, but some of the recipes only have about a cup of liquid which wouldn’t even cover the base. Should I be supplementing with stock or I’ll that destroy the intended flavour of the dish. Thanks.
The liquid amounts are correct. Slow cooking retains a lot of moisture, so most slow cooker recipes call for considerably less liquid than conventional recipes (unless, obviously, they’re soups, stews, etc.). This is the first I’ve ever heard of a slow cooker calling for the liquid to cover the solid ingredients, so I’m not sure if there’s something unusual about your cooker or if they’re just being overly cautious so people don’t complain about burning, or what.
From what I know, liquids only need to be substantial in a pressure cooker. Slow cookers can be used to even cook breads!
Thank you very much for putting this together. I’ve really struggled to find batch recipes that sound appealing but these all look great. I’m definitely going to print off the pdf and give them all a try.
Thank you so much. I’m about 3 weeks into the AIP. I love my crockpot, but have had trouble finding suitable recipes, mostly due to the nightshade/spice restrictions. With two small kids at home, I’m so tired of cooking every. single. meal. So this is a lifesaver! I will be doing this my husband’s next day off!
This is an amazing resource. Many thanks and may God Bless you for sharing so freely!
Thank you so much for breaking everything down in the printable. It saves me so much time to be able to follow the list and just go down each prep step. I usually have to break it down myself so this is a huge blessing!!!
Hi Rachel,
This Saturday, I will be using the above recipes for the second time and tripling each recipe! Thank you so much! I’m also adding extra frozen veggies to each dish and using the rectangular glass pyrexes with lids (11 cups) that I’ve accumulated over the last several years. I have about a months worth. After taking the dishes out of the freezer, I let them sit uncovered at room temp for about 20 minutes. Then, I can put it in a cold oven, covered with foil, and heat the meals up to 350 without the glass breaking.
Question: Have you tried the recipes from the book 85 Amazing AIP Breakfasts by Eileen Laird? I really, really need to figure out an easy way to batch cook kid-friendly breakfast recipes to save time for homeschool in the morning. Your dinner recipes have taken a lot of overwhelm out of meal prep for me. If you developed kid-friendly aip breakfast recipes that can be frozen ahead of time, I would be happy to pay for them. The blog NotConsumed has a breakfast station idea which I would really like to apply to our food allergen needs. Thanks again
I have not. I looked over the table of contents for it and, honestly, most of the recipes didn’t look like the kinds of things we’d eat. I hear you on the challenge of breakfast, though! I have to admit that I’m simply not as good about eating breakfast since going AIP, because I no longer have a go-to.
The best recommendations I can make at this point (and I will see what I can do about looking for some more!) are homemade sausage (the sage sausage I have here on the site works fine without the pepper; I use coconut sugar, or you can leave that out, too) and/or smoothies (with added collagen protein if you want it more protein-heavy). I have made up the sausage as patties and frozen them before, but they still need to be cooked when you pull them out. I don’t know how well they’d do if you precooked them and just heated them back up. (That might work fine; I’ve just never tried it.) And smoothies can be pretty quick if you keep all the solid ingredients together in the freezer. But you’re right; it would definitely be helpful to have more options!
https://titus2homemaker.com/2009/10/make-your-own-sausage-recipe-super-foods-carnival/
Thanks!
Will definitely take a look at the sausage recipe.
Do you jus put the frozen food in the slow cooker? or does it need to defrost first ?
I personally just dump it in frozen. Some people aren’t comfortable with that, and you could defrost it in the fridge first if you like. I’m not that good at planning ahead. 😛 It makes me feel a little more comfortable — since I’m home and can — to put it on high for the first hour or so to make sure the crock fairly quickly heats up, and then turn it down. But that’s not essential.
Hi Do you defrost the freezer bags before adding it to the crockpot?
Theoretically, one should. I’ve heard some people say that for the sake of food safety, frozen food shouldn’t be put in a slow cooker. I’m kind of paranoid about food safety, though, and I usually put mine in frozen (and we’ve never had a problem). I usually just turn it on high for the first little while to help the cooker come up to temperature faster, and then turn it back down after an hour or so.
Hi there! I’m so excited to have found this post! I recently found that my son has a severe nightshade allergy so my family is on an AIP diet for a little while to hopefully clear symptoms and reintroduce foods as needed later. I just wanted to point out that black table pepper comes from pepper corns, not in the actual pepper family and is not a nightshade. It does not contain the toxic compound solanine. So black pepper is safe and doesn’t have to be omitted! Thanks again for the round up of these great recipes! <3
Correct, black pepper is not related to bell/hot peppers and is not a nightshade. However, it is also omitted from a strict AIP diet. If you can eat it, by all means use it!
Thank you for a clear and concise PDF.
I was so excited to find this! Thank you for the PDF, makes it so much easier to tackle. It does seem that there is a mistake on the grocery list — it calls for 2.5 C of rice vinegar (which I thought sounded like a lot) and when I look through the recipes it seems like I should only need 4 Tbsp?
Yikes. Definitely sounds like an error on my part! Thank you for bringing that to my attention; I’ll take a look at it.
You’re right; it should have been 4 Tbsp. I’ve corrected it and uploaded a new PDF. I have no idea, though, where such a bizarrely-wrong amount came from, though, so I’m a little nervous that maybe I accidentally omitted something from the list. No one has told me anything’s missing, but if you find anything else wrong with it, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
We put a bunch of these together and I think everything else on the list was accurate. Thanks again!!
This meal plan dramatically changed my life! I’m not even exaggerating. And it’s delicious! I made it for the first time while I was working full-time and in school full-time for my masters, whilst also running all over the state for travel soccer and caring for my husband who couldn’t walk because he had surgery. Did I mention I have a toddler? Anywho, I didn’t have time to cook and felt horrible all the time because I was constantly eating fast food a.k.a. trigger foods. I could barely function, had brain fog all the time, was crabby, and everything in me constantly ached. This meal plan helped me turn myself around. My energy skyrocketed, my brain cleared, moods improved, anxiety decreased, and I stopped hurting. My non-AIP family loved every meal, too. I am so thankful for the time and energy you put into this. When I started feeling better it changed my attitude and set a whole new tone for our home. This plan is awesome and I am eternally grateful! Keep up the great work. You’re making a difference!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m so glad it was helpful for you!