Larsen - The Everything Meals For A Month Cookbook : Smart Recipes To Help You Plan Ahead, Save Time, And Stay On Budget

The EVERYTHING Series

Published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com ISBN 10: 1-59337-323-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-59337-323-8
Printed in the United States of America. J I H G F E D C B Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Larsen, Linda.
The everything meals for a month cookbook / Linda Larsen.
p. cm.
(An everything series book)
ISBN 1-59337-323-6
1. Cookery. I. II. II.

Series: Everything series. TX714.L3717 2005
641.5dc22
2005009549 This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

Contents Acknowledgments I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of my agent, Barb Doyen, and my parents, who told me I could be anything I wanted to be and made it possible for me to get the best education. I'd especially like to thank my mother and sisters, who always encouraged my experiments in the kitchen and cleaned up the messes while I was learning to cook. Introduction Did you know that you can cook and bake on one day and make meals that will feed your family for a month? This increasingly popular form of conveyer-belt cooking isn't as difficult as it sounds, and can actually be a lot of fun. You will learn how to use your freezer, oven, microwave, grill, and slow cooker to cook and store delicious, healthy meals that you can just pull out and reheat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in minutes. Imagine having the pressure of planning, shopping, cooking, and serving dinner every single day lifted from your shouldersit's an incredible feeling. This type of cooking can be adapted to any cuisine.

Do you love Mexican food? You can make and freeze a base of meat and vegetables that can be used for enchiladas, tacos, burritos, taco salad, Mexican pizza, fajitas, and Tex-Mex soups and stews. Is your family hooked on Italian cuisine? A base of ground beef can be used for spaghetti, cannelloni, manicotti, and lasagna. The variations are almost endless! There are a few ways to tackle making meals for a month. You can cook triple batches of your favorite recipes and freeze them in mealsize containers; you can cook ten to thirty individual recipes and freeze them; or you can buy a large quantity of meats and ingredients, cook a big batch of starter foods, and then make lots of different casseroles and entrees from the starter batch. And did you know you can bake and freeze breads, cookies, bars, cakes, and other desserts? Storing these foods means you will always be prepared when company drops in unexpectedly, and you will be ready for any holiday meal or family celebration. You'll save money because you can buy what's on special in your supermarket and use every bit.

And there's really no better feeling than knowing your freezer is stocked with enough food to feed your family for a month. Once-a-month cooking is one of the best timesavers in the kitchen. You can also be the best friend and neighbor when you are a devotee of once-a-month cooking. Whenever life becomes difficult for someone you know, you can offer the most wonderful present: a hot, healthy, delicious home-cooked meal at a moment's notice. Probably the most important bonus of this cooking method is this: preparing fresh, delicious meals for your family helps them live a healthy lifestyle. You won't have to order takeout foods or depend on expensive drive-through restaurants with their sodium-loaded, high-fat foods.

Cooking healthy foods for yourself and your family is a way to make everyone feel well fed and cared for. So let's get started on the adventure of The Everything Meals for a Month Cookbook! Chapter 1
How to Make Meals For a Month On the busiest days of the month, you can come home and have dinner on the table in thirty to forty minutes, with virtually no effort. Think of it: Your freezer will become a grocery store where you can browse for complete meals; you just place a dish in the oven and relax while dinner reheats to perfection. Mealtime can be always this effortless if you learn how to cook once a month and freeze your meals. What Is Once-a-Month Cooking? Once-a-month cooking is a marathon cooking session that involves deciding what you want to cook, making lists, shopping, then preparing and freezing enough meals to last for a whole month. With organization, planning skills, and some food-science knowledge, you will never need to order takeout again.

You'll pull delicious, healthy meals out of your freezer and reheat them in minutes. Plan your month by using a blank calendar page. Write down the recipes you want to serve each day, making notes regarding vacation times, times you'll be entertaining, holidays, and days when you're invited out to dinner. Not only will you find plenty of recipes that are meant to be reheated in the oven or microwave, but this book includes some new variations on once-a-month cooking: meals that go from the freezer to your Slow Cooker, and meals that go from the freezer to your grill. And you can even make your own TV dinners with these recipes. Your family members can choose exactly what they want to eat and reheat their own individual meals.