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Summary: Brings "cooking ahead" to a higher level - simply superb!
Review: A year ago I picked up a copy of "Table Talk" which is a book written by Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg. It impressed me both with the recipes and the ideas for dinner table activities and family get-togethers. I found it truly an inspiration and it has changed the way my family eats dinner and communicates. In the book "Table Talk" the "Once A Month Cooking" book was referred to. For a year I've looked for it in various bookstores and it wasn't until I became a customer of Amazon.com that I found it. A month ago I ordered this book. This past weekend I cooked for 6 hours and now have 17 meals in my freezer. It is truly a wonderful feeling to be organized an prepared for evening meals. Weekday evenings have become the hardest part of the day in our household due to dual working parents, and busy schedules for all. This method is so logical, efficient, time saving and stressfree - just buying the groceries was easier, even though I bought twice what I normally would. With a pre- written list and virtually no decisions to make at the grocery store itself, I was out of there in half the time! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put nutritious delicious meals on the table night after night with far less stress. This book is especially helpful for me because it allows me to prepare meals at a time of my choosing, when *I* have the energy to spend doing it, not when I have to pull something together after a tiring and busy day. Thank you thank you to both Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg for this book. By writing this book, and sharing this logical efficient method, you've provided a service that I can now pass on to my children, my husband and others.
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Summary: busymom
Review: After years of fighting the clock trying to figure out what is going to be for dinner, we have finally found the solution. This book is full of creative, tastful, and nutritious recipes. It is well organized and has made our evenings at home as a family much more enjoyable. Even the one day we spend cooking has become a great time for my wife and I to talk more. I highly recommend this book. My advise is to follow it's directions to the letter and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
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Summary: Once-A-Month-Cooking is a HIT in our home
Review: I admit I grew up where we always made extra when cooking so that we could freeze a meal for later use. This book is along those lines and will probably be invaluable to someone who has never learned the value of batch cooking.What is nice about the book is it gives 2 week entree plans as well as low fat two week plans, and various plans which will fit most people eating styles and likes. And it encourages the reader to choose the foods they like and learn to cook those foods in batches to freeze for 2 or more meals in the future. And the instructions on what a well stocked pantry should have and how to be better prepared when one cooks are excellent. Organization is the key and once you have that down, not only is cooking more fun but it goes faster. There is also a unique and if I do say so refreshing section near the end of the book about table talk. About how to bring talking while eating dinner used to be a relished ritual and needs to become the norm again. It is actually one of my favorite sections of the book. If I had any cautionary note it would be to non-christians who might want the book but be turned off by the small Biblical passages at the beginning of the chapters. But I am not turned off any more than I would be if reading a book on Asian cooking that had saying of the Buddha or a Jewish cookbook that would have texts from the Torah. I actually think this add charm to the book.
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Summary: This book revolutionized this busy working mom's life!!
Review: I bought this book a year ago because with two teenagers and a newborn, I just couldn't get dinner on the table at a decent hour and was too pooped to clean up after it got there. This book has been an abolute lifesaver. Too many books tell you to get organized and use a meal plan--but let's face it; if I had time to sit around planning meals, I'd have time to cook in the first place. This book does it all for you. Shopping lists, meal plans, step by step directions for cooking day so that at the end, you've got 14 to 30 meals just by following their directions. And the recipes are delicious--I serve them to company all the time and no one knows that I didn't just spend hours in the kitchen. At the end, clean up is a snap when I throw away the ziploc bag or aluminum pan (which the teenagers love). I'll never go back to cooking one meal at the time!! I only regret that it isn't in print now. Please tell me there will either be a reprint or new edition because about 5 of my friends are waiting for copies.
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Summary: A good way to start if you don't like cooking
Review: My daughter gave me this book for Christmas because I don't like to cook but need to restrict sodium and fat and therefore have to cook. I'm 66 yrs old and have been cooking since I was 8. I like the explanation of the process and of how to vary it. I started with the 2-wk low fat series. Since I am now a family of one, I had to cut most of the recipes in half or even thirds. With the help of a photocopy of the master shopping list for that cycle, I had no problem deleting the items for recipes I didn't like and adding items for my own preferences--mainly more fish and vegetarian meals. Even so, I got more than a month's worth of meals, with considerable repetition, which I don't mind. It has also inspired me to measure out baking mixes for both quick breads and my bread machine, also portions for hot cereals that I need to eat for the fiber. I am now working on refining this technique for another cycle with more heart healthy recipes. It's not the solution for everyone but, with some thought can help both the busy person who has to cook for a family (which I once was) and for others who need to control both their diet and their budget. Warning: this isn't a "money-saving" plan per se. It helps because there is less waste and, with thought, can be more economical.
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Summary: Not as Flexible as Frozen Assets
Review: Okay This is a 4 star thought that lost a star because it can't improvise. I have tried both Once a Month Cooking and Frozen Assets. I like Frozen Assets better because we buy according to what is cheap the week we are shopping. FA suggests menus of 4-5 meals according to main ingredients (Chicken, Ground Meat, etc.). several menus is a month. OAMC gives you a short or long mixed menu and you buy accordingly. Both books discuss assembling you own monthly menu, which is of course the best way to do this.
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Summary: Highly Recommended!!!
Review: Our family was stuck in a rut of the same old dinners, frozen dinners, too much eating out... SO I decided to try this! I had the book for about a year but never touched it... Oh I wish I had! There's always something good to look forward to at meal time now. Our daughter is a bit on the picky side, as all kids (AND adults) can be, but she even liked a few of the recipes! Here's my synopsis.... PRAISES:
WONDERFUL RECIPES
Preparing for dinner is a snap
Cleaning is easier
Saves time Healthier eating
Saves money in the long run because you aren't eating out as much!
Flexible recipes (e.i. supstitute one meat for another)
3 two-week plans (one is low-fat)
2 month plans
Very well organized
Step by step instructions
Has shopping lists already made for you
Gives instructions on organizing to make up your own plans!
Easy directions! Semi-negatives: unless you have most of the spices, beginning will cost a little more, some of the recipes need a little tweeking (minor things), unless you have help, stick to the 2 weekers because the month long ones are tough (but good! I may try it one day myself!) OVERALL: LOVE IT! We will be eating a lot of the recipes for years to come! They're great! It's even improved my cooking skills! Get it and try it if you're stuck in a rut or in fast food lines or just need new recipes to spice up your own meals! I can't say enough so I'll stop :) Leslie Harris :)
Rating: 
Summary: Not very wholesome
Review: The recipes here are just not healthy enough for me. We don't eat a lot of meat and this book relies on the comsumption of meat. For example, for one month's recipes you should buy: 4-6 lb. brisket, 8 lbs ground beef(she says buy more if needed), 1/2 lb. ground turkey, 9 lbs. whole chicken, 5 and 3/4 lb. bonesless chicken, 2 lbs. chicken pieces, 4 strips bacon, 5-6 lbs. am, 1 lb. sausage, 1 lb. veal and 3 ounces pepperoni!! Keep in mind that this meat list is for DINNERS ONLY. I could never serve my family that much meat! I was hoping for more healthy creative meals.
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Summary: A great hand-holding guide into the world of cooking ahead!
Review: This book is EXCELLENT for people who have NO CLUE how to tackle cooking ahead and freezing. It gives you 3 separate 2 week menus (one of which is low-fat) and 2 separate one-month menus complete with shopping lists, required containers and preparation steps. Each menu set ensures that you're not eating the same thing twice in that menu's timeframe. This is especially ideal when you're new to this because you only make enough for one meal in the timeframe--so if you hate the recipe, you're not stuck with it again and again and again...! A major pitfall when you're new to this stuff! This is GREAT if you're new to this stuff. In fact, unlike most cookbooks (including the freezer cooking ones) the table of contents doesn't group food recipes into groups like "Beef Dishes", etc.--it breaks it up by what type and length of menu you want. For those who don't need the hand-holding and shopping lists, etc., there is (thankfully) an index in the back to lookup recipes that you want. It's a little frustrating, but the recipes are worth it. Now that I have some experience, I generally go to the index and look for recipes. No nutritional information for these recipes is given--so if you need it, this is not the book! But they DO provide a section devoted to helping you adapt favorite family recipes to freezer-friendly versions.
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Summary: Cooking Freedom!!
Review: This book revolutionized the way I approach cooking. I never really enjoyed cooking before, probably due to the drudgery of thinking each day, "what on earth am I going to make for dinner tonight?" This book introduced me to the idea of cooking multiple meals all at the same time, thus reducing trips to the grocery store, reducing nightly meal clean-up (wash all those pots and pans at the same time!!), reducing food prep (ie. chop all veggies at the same time, cook all the beef/chicken at the same time, grate all the cheese at once), and reducing nightly stress!! As someone who enjoys efficient processes, I really got excited about the ideas in Once-a-Month-Cooking. So I tried my first two-week plan about three years ago. It took me two days to make 14 meals that lasted our family about a month. The recipes are far from "gourmet", but they give you great guidelines for the types of foods that can be frozen, and a we've made a couple of the recipes into family staples (the joes to go are GREAT as is the teriyaki chicken). I quickly decided that it wasn't most efficient for me to work with so many different ingredients all at the same time, so I tweaked their ideas into "chicken," "ground beef," and "spaghetti sauce" cooking days (doing this, I can crank out about 14 meals in half a day!). But the greatest part of this cooking technique that Wilson and Lagerborg introduced me to, is that I have discovered that I really do enjoy cooking. Now I cook WHEN I want to, and on the nights when I don't want to cook, I just pull some goodies out of the freezer!
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