Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Save Time & Money with a Make-Ahead Meal Plan

There’s an article by Mark Bittman in today’s New York Times, extolling the many benefits of freezing food – both raw ingredients you have too much of and meals you’ve already cooked. “To the extent that you do both of these tasks regularly, and keep your freezer organized, you’ll make your cooking cheaper, more efficient and faster,” Bittman writes.

Storey authors Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik had just these benefits in mind when they wrote Fix, Freeze, Feast, whose pages contain more than 125 fabulous recipes for dishes you can prepare in advance using the cost-efficient bulk packages of meats and other products found at warehouse clubs and supermarkets. Their Tray Pack Method shows you how to fix several meals at one time using fresh, from-scratch ingredients, and then gives simple instructions for freezing the results and thawing and reheating them later. In the video below, Kati and Lindsay demonstrate this method and whip up a big batch of sweet and flavorful Mango-Cranberry Chicken.



You can find more recipes and cost-saving tips on the Fix, Freeze, Feast website, on The Forklift, the author’s blog, and by listening to their Saver’s Kitchen Quickcasts (there are 20 podcasts so far), full of money and time saving tips for the freezer, the kitchen, and beyond.


Melanie Jolicoeur, Marketing Art Director

3 comments:

Karen Salva said...

This is a great idea, I never know what I can freeze, how well it will freeze and how long to freeze. We rarely substitute take out food for home cooked but these would solve those late night dinners we have had due to a late start with cooking!

sukipoet said...

sounds like an interesting book. I know nothing about freezing and just throw things in there willy-nilly often unlabeled so i have no idea what they are. thanks for the tip.

Melanie Jolicoeur said...

Thanks! Since every dinner seems to turn into a late night dinner for me, freezing ahead is an especially good strategy. There's an especially good recipe for Breakfast Burritos in this book, and I've become an expert burrito-roller as a result.

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