Freezer chat (making meals ahead to stay successful)

Oh...the things I find at my daughter's school book fair.  I love that they started offering books for parents as well as kids.  Riley and I made a visit to her school's book fair Friday evening, and I found a cookbook for my ever growing collection.  It's Freezer Pleasers by Taste Of Home (also available on amazon.com with Prime shipping for those of you die hard Amazon junkies like me!).  No, it's not a Weight Watchers cookbook.  No Points are listed.  Not even a single calorie.  I didn't get it for that info, anyway.  I can figure out the Points on my own - as I go - like I have done for years (see below for details).  It's a freezer friendly cookbook.  Ahhh, angels are sing in the background each time my freezer is mentioned.  Make ahead meals call my name.  They have saved my tush more times than I care to mention when it comes to getting dinner on the table.  Have you been there & done that?  How does one forget to make dinner?  Who knows.  Who cares.  It happens.  Even with a dinner menu to guide me through the week, I have simply forgotten to make dinner.  That's when I run to the freezer for a little help!  Many folks could benefit from freezer cooking.  Especially for anyone with kids, pets, friends, a job, a significant other, football games to attend, doctor appointments to keep, blogs to read, houses to buy, houses to sell, floors to mop, sewing projects waiting to be starter and/or finished, or with any sort of a life what-so-ever.  Life is busy.  Sometimes dinner gets put on the back burner [pun intended].


{343 freezable, make ahead meals}
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Anyway, if you feel as though there's not enough time your day to prepare meals, perhaps it's time to put your freezer to good use.  Don't let a busy life stop you from reaching a healthy weight & a healthier you!   Whether anyone wants to hear it or not, "...there's not enough time to cook a healthy meal...", is an excuse.  Sometimes legit.  Sometimes not so much.  Sometimes it starts off as totally legit, and then bleeds over into the not so much phase for way too long.  That's life.  Move forward.  Clearly, time management needs to kick into play.  That's where healthy freezer meals really come in handy.  Using my freezer stops me from feeling as though my only option to get my family fed promptly on a hectic evening is a drive thru.


Something as simple as making enough of X, Y, or Z for another meal (or two) is very helpful.  Whole grain rice is one of those items I *hate* cooking.  I've found if I make a big pot all at once, freeze what I don't need that day in zipper seal baggies (1 or 2 cups per bag), life is happier.  It's so nice to have it ready made when I need it.  Ground turkey breast & beef is another.  It's so nice to have it already browned, portioned into baggies, and ready to toss into whatever I'm making.  I even make large batches of browned TVP (faux ground beef), and store it in the freezer.  I don't stop with components and/or ingredients.  Oh, no.  I freeze lasagna.  Meatballs.  Soup.  Pumpkin bread.  Dinner rolls.  Casseroles.  Enchiladas.  Steel cut oats (cooked oatmeal). Cookie dough.  Pumpkin pies.  The list goes on and on.  I freeze it all. 

Because this book, like most cookbooks, is full of high calorie meals, I will for sure substitute lighter versions of many ingredients, add more veggies & less of the higher calorie stuff, and opt for whole grains when possible.  If you do not know how to do this, now is the time to learn.  If you have a Weight Watchers online or e-tools account, you can do this, too!  That's what the Recipe Builder was made to do.  Fill out the name of the recipe, the ingredients used, and how many servings you will get from the dish for a "per serving" based Points value.  Don't like the number you see? 

1. What could you do to lighten up the recipe a little more?  Maybe using ground turkey breast instead of ground beef.  Or reduced fat cheese instead of full fat. 
2. Is this a matter of portion size instead of ingredients?  It could be as easy as making the portion size a little smaller.  For instance, maybe you could get 12 servings of lasagna instead of 8.  Add some steamed veggies or salad as side dishes.  Freeze the left over slices to create your own TV dinners!

OK, so this is where we take a trip down memory lane as I turn into an old, story tellin' lady [scene fades off into a flashback].... 

"Picture it.  Oregon...2001.  Back when WeightWatchers.com was still a baby.  Before the Recipe Builder was created.  Times were hard back then.  Weight Watchers members didn't have it so easy like they do now.  We had to figure out Points by hand.  No fancy computers could do the work for us.  There we sat, listing all of the ingredients WITH THEIR POINTS VALUES on a Post It Note.  Adding it all up.  Dividing the total by how many servings we were getting out of that casserole dish....and THAT'S how we figured out the Points per serving.  Back in the day, I tell ya." 

[Scene fades back into the here and now...]  Don't worry.  I won't subject you to my tortured weight watchin' past any longer.  Enough damage has been done to your brain for the day.  My point is, if you're feeling stale with cooking, buy a new cookbook.  Or look up new recipes online.  Or make some up on your own.  Or flip through a magazine for new ideas.  Think about cooking (or at least assembling) some meals ahead to save time (and sanity).  Keep reaching for a healthier life in all ways.  For me, that includes making better use of my time.  Freeze ahead meals help with that category of life.  

Peace out!