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Summary: This book changed the way I cook!
Review: I bought this book a few months ago after a friend recommended it. My friend has a cooking partner and they've been cooking this way for well over a year now. My circumstances do not allow me to spend a whole day cooking meals, but I have used the ideas and recipes in the book to fit our family. Instead of spending a whole day cooking enough dinners for a month, I will make 2 or 3 meals' worth of a recipe when I do cook. I freeze what we don't eat and I've accumulated quite a good supply of meals that are in the freezer. Tara and Nanci have developed quite a system. There are charts and worksheets that are extremely helpful. This book is not just a book of recipes that freeze well. It's chock-full of information and techniques. Also, 30daygourmet.com is their website and they have message boards (with the authors participating!) and if you own the book, you can see and print out an additional 50 recipes, set up just like the ones in the cookbook! The ingredients are listed in quantities for one meal, then they do all the math and multiply out what you need for however many meals you want to make. The recipes are very family-friendly and delicious. No strange ingredients that you would have trouble finding. Everything I've made from the cookbook has been WONDERFUL. I've made the Taco Rice (serve it with cornbread - yummy!), Crispy Baked Chicken, Saucy Oven Pork Chops (recipe from website), Cheeseburger Quiche (also from website), and Cheese-Stuffed Shells. I made 80 shells last time I made them and you freeze them in rigid containers and they don't stick together and to cook them, you just take out however many you need in the morning and put them in the fridge and at dinnertime, put them in a cooking dish with spaghetti sauce on the bottom (I use Ragu!) and cover with more sauce and bake. Absolutely delicious! This is a great way to have homecooked meals without having to cook every night. I really enjoy doing it! God bless you, Nanci and Tara! PS Nanci and Tara also do conferences where they give a demonstration of their cooking methods. I'd love to see one of those - they also have a great sense of humor! With 7 kids between them, they really know what it's like to have a chaotic dinner hour! Cooking this way saves you time and money and gives your family great meals. I can see that this would be useful for anyone - from young singles or newly-married to families with children at home to empty nesters! You won't be disappointed with this book!
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Summary: Makes it all seem possible!
Review: This is an excellent, well-researched book! I love the way it is set up and the forms that are included. It is set up in a logical format and the recipes are healthier and offer more variety than some of the others I've seen. Well worth the purchase! I love it!
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Summary: I feed my family for less than $150 a month!!
Review: I LOVE THIS BOOK! I have cooked this way for years and have all the "other" once a month books. This book is the best by far. The Freezer Cooking Manual has made the process so simple, I am now a "Quarterly Cook". By buying in bulk and preparing everything in advance I save SO much money. I really do feed my family of 4, breakfast, lunch and dinner, for less than $150 a month. Saving time is an added bounus. As a homeschooling mom, days can get really hectic sometimes. Knowing that I do not have to stop in the middle of whatever we are doing, to go cook, is a huge blessing. Thank you Nanci and Tara for making my life a little easier!!
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Summary: The Freezer Cooking Manual is THE BEST freezer cookbook!!!
Review: The Freezer Cooking Manual saved my sanity. My children had sport practice every weekday from 5:00-7:00. After the first 2 weeks, I knew things had to change. We ate more takeout and processed food than I care to mention. An online friend suggested 30 Day Gourmet and THE FREEZER COOKING MANUAL. I had my first cooking session May, 1999 and I will never go back to the 5:00 dinner blues! Our biggest decision each day is which dish of all the possibilites that fill my freezer should we have each night. What a wonderful feeling! The book is very logically organized. The forms that help you plan and for a freezer full of food are invaluable. Tara and Nanci, through their "tried and true" experiences, make it possible for ANYONE to have a freezer full of delicious entrees, side dishes, snacks and desserts on hand. The Appendix in the book has a ton of helpful information from choosing and maintaining a freezer, to what to do in a power failure, breakfast and lunch ideas, food cooperatives and freezer timetables, just to name a few. The recipes are family-friendly, appealing to adults and children alike. The Freezer Cooking Manual helps you adapt your favorite recipes to "freezer friendly meals" also. Before 30DG, I was in a slump, serving the same old things that were easy to prepare and took very little thought. Everyone looks forward to dinner enthusiastically since our meals are more diversified. A very nice bonus to the book is the 30 Day Gourmet site. With the purchase of the book, you get 50 additional free recipes, tips and recipes submitted by other 30 Day Gourmet-ers, and the support of others. You can contact Tara and Nanci with any questions about freezer cooking. They are a wealth of knowledge! I have recently expanded my freezer cooking to include my mother and mother-in-law, who are widowed and don't see the point of cooking for one. It eases my mind to know they are eating well. I tried many other freezer cooking plans (and have the books to prove it!) The Freezer Cooking Plan is the best by far. The savings in your pocketbook and on your sanity will more than return the reasonable investment price of this book.
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Summary: I'm saving money AND eliminating stress!!!!!
Review: I have been cooking the 30 Day Gourmet way for two years now, and I can't even begin to express the difference it has made in my life! No more stress at 5:00; no more stress when company drops in at the last minute; no more racing around in a panic, trying to make it to the grocery store after work and then throwing something together to feed the hungry family when all I want to do is collapse in exhaustion. I now have all my dinners in the freezer, more quality time with my family in the evenings, and my dinnertime blues have disappeared! My family eats nutritious, home-cooked meals instead of fast food, and we save lots of money! My biggest problem now is deciding which of the delicious meals sitting in my freezer to make for dinner tonight. This is truly the most organized, easy-to-follow and flexible freezer cooking system on the market. The recipes are good, home-cooking types of recipes without exotic, strange ingredients that kids won't like or that will cost you an arm and a leg to buy. I love the fact that Tara and Nanci have made it so easy for users to adapt many of their own families' favorites to the system so that those recipes can be frozen, too. You absolutely are not limited to cooking just the recipes that they provide. One of my favorite features is the appendix in the back. There, Tara and Nanci have done an amazing job creating equivalency charts. If that graham cracker crust you're making calls for 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and you don't know how many graham crackers it will take to make one cup of crumbs, check the equivalency charts. The answer to this and much, much more is there, taking the guesswork out of bulk cooking and eliminating the time and frustration that comes from trying to figure it out yourself. The charts they include are glorious. They are easy to follow and easy to understand. I was amazed that something that could potentially be so complicated could be made so easy. In addition to all of this is the wonderful support that comes from visiting their website. There is a wonderful network of other 30 Day Gourmets who consistently share recipes, cooking adventures, support, etc. It's a wonderful resource to be able to turn to the message boards and touch base with others who cook this way, ask questions, and sometimes get wonderful encouragement. Also, there is an area at this website for book owners to obtain 50 additional free recipes! All I can say is, Thank goodness for 30 Day Gourmet! I'll never cook any other way again!!!!
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Summary: Never panic again when asked "What's for dinner?"!!!
Review: As a work-from-home mom, I hated the "4pm Panic" when I knew I couldn't put off any longer the decision of what to make for dinner. Since I hadn't planned, it meant a couple trips to the grocery store every week, with 2 preschoolers in tow. Not a good plan! I've been cooking the 30 Day Gourmet way for a year and a half, and I will NEVER go back to the "4pm Panic" way of life! This is too easy! The worksheets included in the manual are priceless!! They help you organize your planning, shopping and cooking. The recipes taste great... my kids age 4 and 6 regularly tell me that "Mom's Cafe" is their favorite place to eat. And they didn't say that before I discovered 30 Day Gourmet! The recipe ingredients are calculated out for you to quickly make from 1 to 6 batches of each. I also easily adapted my family's favorite recipes to this plan. I tried a different once-a-month cooking program before I discovered 30 Day Gourmet, and knew there had to be a better way! This is it!! If you've never tried cooking like this, don't be intimidated. The manual is full of tips and info not only to help you get started, but to make you successful! The thing that makes it so awesome is that it's SO flexible! You can cook for 30 days. Or less. Or more. You can cook by yourself or with a friend. You choose which recipes and how much of each to make. Not only are there main dish recipes to choose from, but side dishes, salads, snacks and desserts. If chicken is on sale at your local store, buy a bunch and have a chicken cooking day. Do the same with ground beef when it's on sale. You choose!!! Since I started cooking this way, my family is eating more nutritious meals. I make fewer trips to the store, saving time, money, and stress! We eat out less, saving more money. My friends are jealous that I am so organized in the kitchen! And what a sense of satisfaction when I open the freezer and see all those great meals!! Another great thing about 30 Day Gourmet is their website. Once you buy the manual, you can get additional recipes from the site. They also have a bulletin board where you can meet other 30 Day Gourmet cooks, share recipes, ask cooking questions and get great ideas. Tara and Nanci drop in with info and ideas too. This manual has definitely changed my family's life for the better. Thank you, Tara and Nanci, for giving me such an easy way to be Superwoman for my family!
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Summary: Suppertime is stress free thanks to 30 Day Gourmet!
Review: Every parent has heard the question a thousand times, "What's for supper?". Those three words alone are enough to put me in a bad mood when I get home from a full day at work. Now when the kids ask, "what's for supper?", I can say one of over 30+ meals all ready and waiting for me in the freezer. I have tried other make ahead meal plans but this is by far the best I have ever used. The manual is packed with helpful information along with many wonderful recipes and worksheets. Nearly all the recipes I have tried have recieved 3 thumbs up from my family of three picky eaters. Many of the meals are pre-assembled and baked on the day that they are going to be served. This gives the food a fresh-baked taste rather than twice-baked taste. This book isn't just a cookbook it is a "how-to" book. It explains how things are best frozen and shows you how to prepare your family favorites into frozen entrees. The book is well written with a dash of humor added through out to make it even easier to read. Finally, 30 day gourmet has a great support network on the internet. Other 30 day gourmets connect on the website where questions are answered, recipes are shared and we encourage each other to keep up the great work. Even the authors, Nancy and Tara, stop by to give advice and encouragement. You too can have stress free mealtimes. It will take some extra effort on your part for a day or so but then you have 30+ glorious days when you can reap the rewards of your effort! Get the "30 Day Gourmet" you won't be disappointed!
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Summary: You won't believe how easy cooking for 30 days can be!
Review: I've been using the 30 Day Gourmet system for nearly three years now. The book is so logically written. It gives you lots of tips regarding freezing, preparing and nutrition. The recipes are all so good and contain "normal" ingredients your family is likely to eat, even the picky ones! The charts included are an invaluable tool when it comes to preparing for your big cooking day. Tara and Nanci take you through the day step-by-step. You can use their recipes or convert your own, again, charts are included for this! I've found I save an incredible amount of grocery money by cooking this way. But, by far, the biggest benefit is having the knowledge that there is something good and nutritious to eat for supper when you get home! No more wondering what we're going to eat, and then deciding it's easier to go out anyway. I always have something good ready to prepare, and save the going out for special occasions now. I've convinced two of my friends (and am currently working on my sister-in-law) to buy the 30DG manual. You won't be sorry if you get this one!!!
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Summary: I'm saving time and over $300 per month!
Review: I started using this book in November of 1998. Since that time I have not let my freezer get empty without doing another freezer cooking session. The book is well-written and easy to follow. I haven't found a recipe in the book that my family didn't like and some have become new family favorites. It is not an easy task to find a family pleasing recipe as I have a 79 year old and a five year old that are fairly picky as well as my husband and myself. Our family now enjoys healthy meals every night from our freezer and when we go out to eat it is because we WANT to, not because we "have to". In addition to saving us money this system has restored the enjoyment of eating out for my husband and I. I used this book for the first time right before a 300 mile move. It was a perfect way to save money by eating at home while I didn't have to run out and buy groceries that I was going to have to move. Having some meals already prepared was a life saver for those first weeks in the new house!! Early this year, I decided to cook ahead for a 6 week period after abdominal surgery. Cooking ahead for my hospitalization and recovery was easy and it relieved so much stress on my husband and I during my recovery. The 30 Day Gourmet Cookbook really saved the day again. I have used and abandoned other cook once a month systems but this system is great for everyone. Novice cooks will enjoy the recipes and hints while gourmet cooks will find the charts and worksheets useful to use with their own recipes I have enjoyed cooking so much more since finding this system than I ever did before!! The worksheets that are supplied in the book are worth the cost of the book alone. The 30 Day Gourmet system lets you use your own recipes or their recipes with equal ease. Taking advantage of the sales at your local stores and not having to make "emergency" trips to your local restarants should save your family hundreds of dollars each month, I know that I save over $300 per month and I have a LOT more time than I did before starting this system. I have cooked with my husband and I have also devised my own system of spreading the cooking out over 5 days and cooking alone. (I cook 4-6 batches of one meal each night for 5 days and then I am done!) As you can tell, I cannot say enough good things about this book. I have already bought a copy for my mom and my sister for this Christmas so that they can find the freedom from the kitchen that I enjoy!
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Summary: The best once a month cookbook around!!
Review: I think I have all the once-a-month-cooking books, and this one is definitely the best one out there. There's no extraneous material in it, and they explain the methods of freezing, what can be frozen, etc. very well. My favorite part is the way the recipes are in charts and you don't have to multiply or divide your amounts, you can easily make 1-6 portions of the recipe. The recipes are good, there aren't a lot of casseroles which I appreciated, and there is a good variety. The charts are really helpful, and they include charts so you can write out your own recipes, keep track of what's in the freezer, what you need for cooking day, etc. It's very well organized and I love it!! I'd just like to know if we can get any more recipes soon??
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