Table of Contents
For Mitch Mandell, my best friend, partner in crime, chief recipe taster, and fellow collector of points in the game of life.
Introduction
When you think of easy freezer meals, you might think, Why cook for the freezer? The better question might be, why wouldnt you cook for the freezer? The benefits of cooking and then freezing the dishes for later are many, and I cant wait to share them all with you in the following chapters. But if I had to boil freezer cooking down to a single word, its this: freedom.
By using the easy recipes and meal plans in this book, you can actually gain more free time in your life, every day. This isnt a vague concept or an empty promise. Once you get rolling with freezer meals, you can take nights off from kitchen chores anytime you choose. By allowing your freezer to act as your personal home chef, its easy to shave an hour or more off your daily chores. What will you do with that extra free time?
While you save time, youre also building your personal food bank. Anytime you cook food for the freezer, youll be making more than your family can consume in a single serving. That means you cook once, but your family eats two, three, four, or more times as a result of that single effort. Not only will you save time by cooking several meals at once, youll also only have to clean the kitchen, stove, appliances, and utensils once. The rest is a matter of heating and eating.
Another benefit of freezer meals is that you know the food youre feeding your family is delicious as well as nutritious. Too often, busy people resort to fast food or processed convenience foods and sacrifice good nutrition in the process. Im not claiming all the recipes in this book constitute health food, but they are all made with real, wholesome ingredients. No chemicals, preservatives, or high-fructose corn syrup here.
With freezer cooking you are also in control of how much salt, sugar, or excess fat goes into the food. You can have the freedom to enjoy convenient foods from your freezer made with locally grown or organic ingredients instead of those trucked in from far away. If you have a garden, youll easily be able to extend its usefulness and preserve its bounty for delicious use all year long. Furthermore, by packaging your freezer meals in appropriate portions for your familys needs, youll find it easy to control portionsone of the biggest challenges facing anyone trying to lose pounds or maintain a healthy weight.
Cooking for the freezer saves you money. Anytime you find grocery bargains, youll now have a plan of how to use them, not only for now, but for delicious and economical meals down the road. Shop wisely and deposit extra meals in your freezer food bank, and youll also be keeping more money in your actual bank account. With just a little planning to take advantage of supermarket sales, its easy to knock 10 to 20 percent or more off your grocery bill!
You can also save by shopping at warehouse stores. Buying in bulk used to only be practical for large families. By planning how to use ingredients in advance and filling the freezer, even people living alone can take advantage of the lower prices offered at warehouse stores, without any fear of wasting food.
Freezer cooking isnt difficult. For the most part, if you know how to cook, you know how to cook for the freezer.
If you just cant wait to get started, pick a recipe and jump right in. Before you actually send your recipe creation to the freezer, however, you might want to take a few minutes to learn some important basicseasy techniques that can make the difference between a delicious dish thats heated after freezing and comes out with a freshly made taste and texture, or a recipe that comes out watery, mushy, or dry. (Thats where the chapters in Part 1 come into play.)
As you flip through the recipe chapters in Parts 2 through 5, which contain over 100 recipes that have been specifically tested for going through the freezing process and coming out delicious on the other side, youll notice that some meals are cooked before freezing, while other times the first heat a dish feels is after its gone through a stint in the freezer. And some recipes need nothing more than thawing before they can be enjoyed. In all cases, the lions share of the work is done far in advance of when youll be enjoying the food. That leaves you, the cook, with plenty of time to relax and enjoy the meal like everyone else at the table.
How to Use This Book
Ive divided the book into five parts to help you find what youre looking for quickly and easily:
The chapters in Part 1, Freezer Cooking Essentials, give you the lowdown on freezer food basics, including what does and does not freeze well, as well as steps you can take to ensure your freezer food comes out tasting like it was made fresh on the spot. Youll also discover tips for getting the most mileage possible from your freezer. And while you dont need any fancy equipment for freezer cooking, I show you some items youll find handy as well as information on packaging foods for the freezer.
Part 2, From-the-Freezer Morning Meals, gives you a great place to start practicing freezer cooking skills, starting with breakfast, the most important meal of the dayand also often the most rushed and, therefore, most skipped meal.
Part 3, Lunches, Appetizers, and Snacks, gives you dozens of recipes for knock-out light meals and starters. Dont want to eat from the office vending machine? Need to pull together some quick party food when unexpected guests drop by? The chapters in this part have you covered.
Part 4, Whats for Dinner?, answers that age-old question simply and deliciously. The recipes in these chapters enable you to cook once, freeze, and then have your pick of delicious, good-for-you entres to feed your family come dinnertime.
Finally, Part 5, Sweet Endings, gives you recipes for the finishing touches, whether you want a sweet treat, or need a fantastic sauce.
At the end of the book, Ive provided several appendixes, including a glossary of terms and a list of further resources you might want to check out. Ive also included a checklist to help you stock your pantry with everything you need to cook for the freezer, and a worksheet for planning out your menus. Last but not least is a freezing timetable to give you at-a-glance information on recommended freezer storage times for different foods.
Extras
Throughout the book, Ive included informative sidebars that give extra insight:
COLD FACT
Check these sidebars for informative fun facts about ingredients and cooking techniques that add to your arsenal of culinary and nutritional knowledge.
COOL TIP
These sidebars offer handy time-saving, money-saving, or kitchen-efficiency suggestions.
