Fisher - Not Your Mothers Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook

Students, single parents, stay-at-home moms, work-at-home parents, working professionals, retired folksall are looking for delicious meals that are easy and affordable. They crave tasty meals, but due to lack of planning, lack of knowledge, or simply a lack of cooking mojo, they settle for less than the best. Deep down, lots of folks feel there must be a better and easier way to eat well. Many of our mothers practiced cook-and-freeze methods. Whether they engaged in a once-a-month marathon kitchen session or spent a harvest season preserving the surplus vegetables and fruits on hand, the cooks who came before us were known to stash meals and meal components away in the deep freeze. Unfortunately, many of those dishes were forgotten in deep storage and developed a serious case of frostbite.

Or, worse, they werent all that tasty to begin with. If you remember the heavy, starch-laden casseroles of yesteryear, you might think you want to pass on homemade frozen entres. But times, technology, and tastes have all changed. And a freezer packed with ready-to-go breakfasts, lunches, and dinners can be a boon to any home cook. Taking a different approach to food preparation and storage could change your kitchen, your mealtimes, and your life. Many of todays home cooks either are intimidated by the prospect of cooking many meals at once or simply dont know where to start in freezing foods for later enjoyment.

Some have never even heard of freezer cooking. Others may enjoy cooking but lack the time and energy to spend hours in the kitchen, especially after a full day of work. But freezer cooking can provide a handy solution to dinner dilemmas. Imagine enjoying inexpensive, healthy, tasty meals any night of the week. Picture your freezer stocked with several weeks worth of easy, versatile dinners that please any palate, young or old. Consider preparing a multitude of meals in just a few hours without breaking a sweat.

Or the bank. I started my cook-and-freeze adventure the traditional way, spending 8 to 24 hours shopping, chopping, and hopping about my kitchen, trying to get 30 meals ready to freeze at once. Twenty-one years ago, I was in the final stages of pregnancy, awaiting my first child and preparing to quit my job as a high-school teacher. My friend Jessika and I had read Once a Month Cooking, the grandmother of all freezer cookbooks, and we decided to give it a go. My pregnant, swollen feet werent too sure about the project, but it all seemed worth it when I ended up with 40 meals stashed in the freezer for the coming month and beyond.

Over the years, as my family has grown from one little baby to six active children, I have needed the convenience of premade meals all the more. But, Im not as spry as I once was. Ive been pressed to find the time and energy it takes to cook massive amounts of food in just a day or two. Ive needed to find ways to fill my freezer without spending an inordinate amount of time doing it. Typical shortcuts like canned soups and sauces cant compete with my desire to feed my family less-processed, healthier foods. I want it all.

Ive sought simpler ways to fill the freezer, like doing triple-batch cooking to make three lasagnas instead of one on a weeknight and mini cooking sessions wherein I create a range of meals built around one main ingredient. Ive challenged myself to find the most efficient methods for cooking ahead of time. After years of freezer cooking the traditional way, Ive realized that it can be more streamlined, that I can have home-cooked meals ready and waiting, and that I dont have to spend days in the effort to pull it offunless I want to. Instead, I have found ways to condense my cooking tasks and develop bulk cooking plans that I can pull off in about five hours, sometimes an afternoon when I putter in the kitchen, sipping wine and watching BBC miniseries with my daughters. We live in an age of instant gratification. While hard work is still important, ours is a fast-paced society.

But good home cooking still has a place in it. Through careful planning and making use of modern technologies, Im now able to prepare 20 to 30 breakfasts, lunches, or dinners in a matter of hours. Donna Reed, its time to meet Jane Jetson. While we may not have home vending machines producing food to order the way the Jetsons did, we can have tasty, healthy meals at the ready without an inordinate amount of work. Efficient freezer cooking is the wave of the futureand its definitely not your mothers frozen dinner.