Rating: 
Summary: A Home-cooked meal every night without fuss!!
Review: Without a doubt, the best cookbook I've ever bought. Cooking the 30DG way has allowed me to entertain last-minute guests, serve nice company dinners without hassle, and feed my husband and I 2 different meals since he's a meat & potatoes guy & I'm more a chicken/vegetarian type. The recipes are down-to-earth, easy to make and who would have ever thought that freezer mashed potatoes could taste so great!! Recipes cover all courses from breakfast to dinner and appetizers to dessert. I don't especially enjoy cooking so this has been the perfect answer to "what to fix fast for supper that isn't drive-thru or casserole/crock pot". The worksheets, tips, & hints in the book are a breeze to work with and you can even adapt your own favorite recipes into the system. A must for every cook whether you're cooking for 1 or a mob, love to cook or hate to cook.
Rating:
Summary: I will never go back to cooking daily after this!!
Review: The 30 Day Gourmet provides a structured and well thought out process for cooking once (or less!) a month to feed your family. I cook once every 2 to 2 1/2 months for my family of three, and not only do we save money buying bulk, our meals are healthier and my picky family is happy.I found the system alone worth the purchase price, without the recipes! The recipes are good old church cooking, and most are easy to adapt to dietary needs. While I haven't tried them all, it doesn't matter, because the authors provide a web site where you can download more recipes for free, and a forum for sharing hints, tips and recipes with other 30 Day Gourmet cooks. Not only do you get a great cooking system, good recipes and a shot of humor, you get an on-line community and continuing help and support. This help has assisted me with new recipes, and adapting family favorites to the freezer. Meal time is stress free at my house. What more could you ask for??
Rating:
Summary: Great--especially for beginners to bulk cooking...
Review: I was glad to have this book when I first took on bulk cooking--and struggled until I actually READ those "teaching" sections. This book is as much educating on bulk cooking, freezing, planning and tracking as it is about the recipes. It is the be-all-end-all primer to bulk cooking--right down to helping you investigate freezers, maintain them and deal with them during power failures. There's a wide variety of recipes here; but their bigger value is in the way the recipes are laid out so that you know the ingredient amounts for a wide variety of serving sizes--so you can cook in the amounts you really want. In the beginning, I never dreamed of cooking for more than 1-3 meals at a time; but I'll tell you that now I usually follow the ingredient column for the 6 meal amount! So it allowed me to grow in ability. There were also some recipes for "base" ingredients--stuff you can cook now and freeze that are used as the basis for a variety of meals. Even though I wasn't thorough about reading the advice on planning and organizing (I glanced through it at first), I managed to cook in one weekend enough food for my husband and I to eat well for over a month. Now, a full weekend of cooking can last me 2-3 months (depending on how many ingredients are on sale!). Last, there is access to ADDITIONAL recipes online. An excellent buy for someone who is overwhelmed by the idea of bulk cooking, doesn't know where to start and needs ALL of the basics to ensure that time and money savings are achieved through the process!
Rating:
Summary: Cooking for Two?
Review: This book is the best I have purchased in this catagory. Though my family now consists of just myself and my husband, the recipes were easily adapted for servings for two. After a delightful weekend of cooking, my freezer is now stocked with easy to cook meals, saving me a huge amount of time and money. My husband and I own our own business and a 12 hour day is very common. The recipes are good "home cooking" with out expensive ingredients, but with a good gourmet touch, and with so much variety to choose from, you can't get bored! The hints, the shopping lists, the schedules, and suggestions are all wonderful, and were a help even to an old kitchen pro like myself. And, as if this is not enough, their web site has even more information, helps hints, and is a good, easy to navigate site!
Rating:
Summary: Kitchen Organizing 101 - What an Inspiration!
Review: What an inspiration this book is! Not only do the authors offer a step-by-step guide to bulk or freezer cooking, but they provide you with the tools to make it work effectively, and even encourage you to have fun while doing it. Written primarily for moms, The Freezer Cooking Manual takes the dreaded chore of planning, shopping, and cooking for your family and turns it into a working system. You know you're going to enjoy a book where the authors confess in the introduction that they are NOT superhuman , but are "fellow strugglers". And you thought you were all alone! This is not another cookbook, although it does include simple to prepare foods. More importantly, it is full of checklists, food storage tips, recipe worksheets, shopping lists, meal inventory checklists, freeze time chart, and numerous other reusable forms for you to simply your life. Well organized and streamlined, I recommend using The Freezer Cooking Manual to get and stay organized in the kitchen. I got so inspired that I'm going to try bulk cooking again, and can't wait to see how much spare time I will have in the weeks to come with my family, friends, and myself.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST of the Freezer Cookbooks
Review: The 30 Day Gourmet Cooking Manual is the BEST of all of the Freezer Cooking manuals!!! These ladies have REAL food for families and individuals...not what I like to call "California Food." Tasty, hearty, filling and oh so EASY!! The forms make once a month style cooking a breeze. This food is NOT leftovers, it is either not precooked before being frozen, or is not cooked all the way. Out of the 21 recipes I made for this month, only 3 were entrees I did not care for, and one of those was because I didn't use good enough wine in the sauce. Although their personal focus is on team cooking, I cook by myself for just myself and my husband and it works just fine. The recipes are scaled from four servings so all I do is package them in two-serving containers. If you want to learn more about 30 Day Gourmet be sure to check out their website at www.30daygourmet.com for more tips, recipes and stories from other REAL home cooks!!!
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic idea
Review: I stumbled upon this book by accident, and I am so glad I did! I used to hate cooking, and only within the past four years since getting married have I become more interested in it. That doesn't mean I want to cook every night though. My husband and I both work full time with long commutes, and have relied on convenience foods (which are getting old) and cold cereal for dinner. I was skeptical that I could really benefit from this book since I don't have a separate freezer (just a tiny one above my fridge). But you'd be surprised how much you can get in a small freezer if you pack items flat in ziploc bags. I made 7 recipes (doubled two of them) two weekends ago and now I feel like I'm on vacation! It's been absolutely wonderful to come home and simply heat up something from the freezer. The recipes are easy to make, taste delicious (we've devoured two pans of granola bars already), and there's much more at the website. I also purchased the software (another review in and of itself), which was an amazing amount of help in simplifying the process. The great thing about this whole concept is that it can work for anyone--not just large families--and you do not have to prepare 30 days worth of meals at once. A few smaller, shorter cooking sessions are very doable. And I'll soon be trying some of my own recipies in bulk, with the knowledge Nanci shares on what foods freeze well, and how to package them. My husband has been so impressed with the great food and the prospect of saving money and eating healthier, that he's going to take me shopping for a stand-alone freezer this weekend. Hoooray!!
Rating:
Summary: Great--especially for beginners to bulk cooking...
Review: I was glad to have this book when I first took on bulk cooking--and struggled until I actually READ those "teaching" sections. This book is as much educating on bulk cooking, freezing, planning and tracking as it is about the recipes. It is the be-all-end-all primer to bulk cooking--right down to helping you investigate freezers, maintain them and deal with them during power failures. There's a wide variety of recipes here; but their bigger value is in the way the recipes are laid out so that you know the ingredient amounts for a wide variety of serving sizes--so you can cook in the amounts you really want. In the beginning, I never dreamed of cooking for more than 1-3 meals at a time; but I'll tell you that now I usually follow the ingredient column for the 6 meal amount! So it allowed me to grow in ability. There were also some recipes for "base" ingredients--stuff you can cook now and freeze that are used as the basis for a variety of meals. Even though I wasn't thorough about reading the advice on planning and organizing (I glanced through it at first), I managed to cook in one weekend enough food for my husband and I to eat well for over a month. Now, a full weekend of cooking can last me 2-3 months (depending on how many ingredients are on sale!). Last, there is access to ADDITIONAL recipes online. An excellent buy for someone who is overwhelmed by the idea of bulk cooking, doesn't know where to start and needs ALL of the basics to ensure that time and money savings are achieved through the process!
Rating:
Summary: What a lifesaver!!!
Review: I LOVE this book. Not only are you given recipes to get you started, it walks you through the process of adapting your own meals step by step. The planning worksheets are a real time saver, and help organize your meal planning and shopping. Lots of practical advice on cooking on the "buddy-system" too. What a treat it has been for the past few weeks not to worry about what's for dinner; it's already in my fridge thawing out and just waiting for me to heat and serve. So who cares if our Brownie meeting runs late, dinner is waiting for me (without the hassle or expense of running through a drive-thru!)
Rating:
Summary: Crowd Pleaser!
Review: Easy directions. Helpful for our church care teams and for neighbors having fun while cooking!
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