Tkacsik Lindsay - Fix, freeze, feast: prepare in bulk and enjoy by the serving: more than 125 recipes

TO OUR HUSBANDS AND CHILDREN.

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Margaret Sutherland

Art direction by Alethea Morrison

Cover and text design by Ph.D

Text production by Liseann Karandisecky

Illustrations by Ph.D

Indexed by Chris Lindemer

2007 by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkascik

Ebook version 1.1

July 23, 2013

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Neville, Kati.

Fix, freeze, feast / Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-58017-682-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Ready meals. I. Tkacsik, Lindsay. II. Title.

TX833.5.N48 2007

641.555dc22

2007033455

Even with all the recipe books, cooking classes, how-to manuals, and television programs devoted to the subject of meal preparation, many of us still find ourselves hungry and disorganized by the time the dinner hour rolls around. There is no end to the excellent resources available, but our busy lives get the better of us, and all our good intentions can come to naught. We want to feed our families healthful, economical meals that taste great and do not require hours of work. How can we accomplish this when time is short and the demands of work and family are ever increasing?

How are you coping? Is the local pizza delivery outfit on speed dial? Do you rely on drive-through fast food, expensive restaurant meals, packaged convenience foods, uninspired, boring food thrown together in a hurry? Maybe youre ready to try something new but dont know where to start.

This book will help you. Contained within these pages are dozens of fabulous recipes for dishes you can prepare in advance. Freeze them and pull one out at a moments notice youll be rewarded with a delicious dinner you made from scratch without spending hours in the kitchen!

Warehouse clubs are everywhere, and they are among the best places to save money, day in and day out, on many products. True, if you are willing to chase down the bargains, they can be had in other places as well, but for many busy families, the warehouse is the place to go for major shopping trips.

The large size of the packages at the warehouse can be intimidating, though. Do you linger in the meat department, attracted by the competitive prices but wondering what you would ever do with so much meat? Maybe youve bought a large package of boneless chicken breasts, planning to split the contents into smaller portions to freeze for later.

Weve heard from people who have bought a warehouse pack intending to defrost a few breasts at a time for family dinners. But, despite the good intentions, it usually goes something like this: After hours of running errands, your last stop is the warehouse store, where you notice the chicken is much cheaper than at the supermarket so you buy a package. You finally get home, the kids are getting off the bus, hungry and impatient. The babys crying and has a soggy diaper, and you still have to unload the groceries and get dinner started. You throw the chicken into the fridge and notice it there a few days later. Worried theres no time to spare, you toss the whole big package into the freezer. Result: youre stuck with a six-pound solid sheet of chicken and dont know what to do with it!

If not that scenario exactly, you might regularly buy the warehouse packs of meat, knowing theyre a great way to save money, and split them into single-meal sizes before freezing them. The only problem is, when dinnertime approaches, you have a frozen chunk of meat and no good ideas for what to do with it. There has to be a better way! If these experiences sound something like yours, you have the right resource in hand. Read on!

We have created our recipes based on the large packages of meat from warehouse clubsthe tray packs. We developed the Tray Pack Method to help people just like you! The Tray Pack Method allows you to fix several meals at one time. No doubt youre used to preparing a recipe from start to finish and then presenting a hot meal to your family. But our method is different: we scale the recipe to the warehouse tray pack of meat and then divide it into multiple meals. The meals are prepared right up to the final cooking stage. You then package and freeze them, and voilall you have to do is thaw one and cook it for dinner! It couldnt be easier, especially with these tasty recipes and our proven system to get you started.

Not only is our system straightforward, but its also flexible. If you have only two hours every other week to prepare a few entres, simply select two recipes that use the meat from two tray packs. Even this small step will yield several entres. Devote a day and make six recipes that use six tray packs and yield many more entres. By cooking the tray-pack way, you have the flexibility and control to prepare as many entres as your time and energy allow.

Maybe you have already read articles or books on cooking ahead and filling your freezer. Admittedly, ours is not the first recipe book touting the benefits of using your freezer to keep ready-made food on hand. On our own bookshelves we have cookbooks featuring meals for the freezer that date back to the 1950s.

But what we offer here thats new and unique is a method thats updated to the modern warehouse shopping experience while preserving the proven benefits of storing main dish meals and other items in the freezer.

We know what its like to balance children, jobs, activities, and a household. As owners of meal-preparation businesses, we bring you our best of the best in this book. Yes, these recipes are straight from our stashtried, tested, and true. Our clients have made many of these recipes countless times and rave about the delicious results. We are passionate about what we do and uncompromising in our commitment to using fresh, from-scratch ingredients wherever possible. We give you only dishes that meet the same standard we use to feed our own families and those of our customers.

Whether youre a novice or an advanced cook, a bargain shopper or someone with money to spare, time-starved or a leisurely from-scratch cook, youll find here recipes and tips that will help you create wonderful meals without a lot of work!

Begin by evaluating how busy you are and what your family currently likes to eat. Do you need an entre every night of the week, or will you still cook from scratch some of the time? Are you preparing for company, expecting a baby, or anticipating an interruption in your routine?