I'm always looking to save time and money...again, providing added balance back into my life so meal planning is something that has become very important. In this economy, it is not economically practical to eat out often. In fact, my family eats out only once or twice a month.
Provided here I will post how I work towards preparing good meals and what my family loves to eat. I have been fortunate that my kids are decent eaters as far as kids are concerned. I have always encouraged them to at least take one bite of something that may be new to them. If it is not something they like that is fine, at least they have tried it. When they were smaller they often amazed themselves at how many foods they hesitated trying that ended up becoming one of their favorites. I have heard that it takes approximately 7 times of being introduced to a food you aren't fond of to begin developing a taste for it. So I would still encourage my kids to take one bite of something even if it is something they didn't particularly like.
I love cooking quick throw together foods. A cookbook I got for Christmas has turned out to be a fantastic gift and has helped me put together freezer meals. The joy of creating freezer meals is that really you are just double or tripling recipes to freeze for use at a later time. The prep work takes a bit of time since you are cutting up additional items but when the time comes and you need a meal, you just easily pull it from the freezer and have no prep work to do. You simply cook it or heat it up.
The book I received is called Don't Panic- DINNER'S in the Freezer by Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell, Bonnie Garcia - Revell
What is great about this cookbook is that we have tried about 4 different recipes so far and have loved ALL of them. When it comes to cookbooks it is rare to find more than a couple of recipes that are really good, but this one seems to be worth the buy.
I will be updating this page periodically to discuss the recipes more in length and any adaptations we have made. I will also share what my family thought of the meal, but to get the full recipes you will need to get the book as I will not post them here.
Another cookbook we have enjoyed is called
Better Homes and Gardens Supermarket Shortcuts
Our family has found a true favorite in this cookbook called Tuscany Ravioli Stew. I have adapted this recipe as well and use frozen ravioli instead of refrigerator ravioli and use a bag of frozen baby broccoli instead of fresh. I recommend using fresh rosemary as this makes a huge difference in the taste. This recipe calls for leaks and the last time I made this recipe I didn't have any on hand and used a regular onion instead. It didn't seem to deter the taste at all. I also like to sprinkle asiago cheese on top but if you don't have any mozzarella would also be good.
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