Susie Martinez - Dont Panic - Dinners in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead

2005 by Suzie Martinez, Vanda Howell, and Bonnie Garcia

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-0393-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

The recipe for the Pinwheel Flank Steak pictured on the front cover is found on .

We lovingly dedicate this book to our most excellent and awesome husbands, Joe, Steve, and Mike, for supporting and encouraging us throughout the Dont Panic journey.

To our children, Chris, Cassie, Nathan, Daniel, Jonathan, and Elliott. We love you!

Contents

The Dont Panic method of cooking began in 1990 when one new mother (Susie Martinez) quit her job and was home alone all day with a colicky baby and a reduced household income. At that time, it was not a developed method of cooking to be shared with others. It was a means of survival that helped her through a tough time.

In short, instead of cooking dinner each evening, she cooked one recipe once a week in large quantity. One meal was eaten for dinner that evening, and three more were frozen for another time. With a variety of meals in her freezer, dinner became a pleasant oasis instead of one more headache at the end of a long, hard day.

A lot has happened since 1990. This new mother began cooking with two of her friends, and they began to share what they were doing with others. The system is now called the Dont Panic method of cooking, a fun new cookbook has been published, and presentations are being given across the country. But over time the idea has remained the same, because the need never changes. We encourage you to read on and learn how easy it is to simplify your life through the Dont Panic method of cooking!

We offer thanks to God for the opportunity to publish this book and for blessing our lives so abundantly. Without his provision, this book would not be possible.

Countless thanks to our moms, Colleen, Shirley, and Flo, for instilling in us an appreciation for good home-cooked meals and the value of family mealtime. We hope to pass this legacy on to our children.

Thanks to our dear friend Jeanie Wilking, who has been our prayer warrior through the ups and downs of our endeavors.

Special thanks to Marita Littauer for giving us encouragement and a vision for the publication of this book.

Its three oclock in the afternoon... do you know what youre having for dinner tonight? If that question sends a wave of panic through your already-harried mind, then this cookbook is for you!

For most of us, the June Cleaver era has ended. No longer do we have time to stay at home all day, keeping our houses spotless and preparing wonderful meals. As a result of the new, hectic lifestyles we face, people are hiring more household help and eating an increasing number of take-out items, fast food, and prefrozen meals.

But take heart! We have developed an easy, economical, and enjoyable alternative to traditional meal preparation. After speaking to hundreds of women and receiving feedback from many of the people presently using our cookbook, we can assure you that this book will help youwhoever you are!

The Dont Panic method of cooking is being used by

• Hungry professionals
• Working parents
• Stay-at-home moms (or dads!)
• Retired, elderly, or widowed people
• People who eat (this means you!)
  

Once you try this method, you will have a hard time returning to the way you used to cook. So grab this book, grab a friend, and embark on a whole new cooking experience! Then next Tuesday at five oclock, when youre peering into your refrigerator and theres nothing for dinner... Dont PanicDinners in the Freezer!

This book is your guide for preparing healthy, gourmet-style meals available at a moments notice. We hope it becomes an invaluable tool in your cooking. Its design lets you prepare numerous meals with minimal effort, which means you will spend less time, money, and energy cooking better meals than ever. The recipes in this book have been freezer-tested and refined.

Here are five practical steps that will be helpful in making the Dont Panic method of cooking easy to implement.

Step One: Get Started

The Dont Panic cooking method can be implemented simply by choosing your favorite family recipe and doubling or tripling it. For example, if you are making Cranberry Chicken, triple the recipe, have one for dinner that evening, and then put the other two meals in the freezer to serve at a later time. In its simplest form, making recipes in quantity is what the Dont Panic method is all about.

Step Two: Choose a Day

Preplanned activities that actually make it to the calendar tend to be the ones that get done. Practically speaking, this step requires looking at your daily and weekly responsibilities and choosing a block of time out of that week for cooking. This may involve a weekday morning or afternoon if you are home during the day; it may be an evening or on the weekend if you work full-time outside the home.

Step Three: Check Weekly Loss Leaders

The term loss leaders refers to items that supermarkets sell below cost and at a loss to entice you to shop at their store. The other items you buy while shopping make up for the loss the store takes on loss leaders.

Supermarkets usually rotate their loss leaders on a weekly basis. Stores will promote these items through weekly advertisements distributed in a local newspaper or through the mail. To track loss leaders, you will need to consistently consult weekly supermarket ads. You will soon know when these ads are distributed and how long a supermarket sale is effective. As you do this regularly, it becomes easier to recognize and take advantage of great loss leaders.

To illustrate how you can save big by buying loss leaders, consider this example, which uses Chicken Enchiladas as the Dont Panic entre. If you are cooking with two friends, you will need approximately fifteen pounds of boneless chicken. If boneless chicken is a loss leader in a local supermarket, it will be advertised at around $1.99 per pound. Thats $29.85 for fifteen pounds of chicken. On the other hand, if the chicken was purchased at the regular price of $3.99 per pound, you would have spent $59.85. By simply shopping loss leaders and planning your cooking menu accordingly, you just saved $30.00 on the meat item alone! By doing this consistently, you will never pay full price for your entres.

Another important way to make the Dont Panic cooking method economically beneficial is to custom package according to what your family will actually eat rather than according to the directions in the recipe. Custom packaging is described in detail in the Packaging and Freezing the Goods chapter. By simply shopping loss leaders and custom packaging by family size, your savings can be incredible! Each entre included in this book should average between $3.50 and $4.25 to feed a family of four. Please note that this cost is per family, not per person.

Step Four: Choose Your Recipes for Cooking Day

After checking local ads to determine weekly loss leaders, choose one or two recipes for cooking day that use those discounted items. For example, if beef is on sale, choose beef entres for cooking day (Teriyaki Steak and Beef Stroganoff, for example). The key is to avoid paying full price for meat items. Cook according to what is on sale!