The Complete Idiot's Guide to Easy Freezer Meals [Paperback]

Cheri Sicard (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 5, 2011 | Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide

"Freezers are your friends!"

Freezers allow busy home chefs to plan their family menus a weekend, a week, or even a month in advance. Now expert chef and flood blogger Cheri Sicard presents recipes for 120 delicious, healthy meals that can be frozen and then reheated-and still taste fantastic.

• Over 120 delicious, unique and easy to prepare recipes

• Great cooking tips designed to help the home cook

• Flexible menu planning from a weekend to a full month

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cheri Sicard was the creator, editor, and publisher of FabulousFoods.com, now owned by SheKnows.com. She has taught cooking classes for Williams Sonoma and is the author of The Low Carb Restaurant Guide and Everyday American and has written for The Boston Herald, Magellan, Canoe & Kayak Magazine, and The Armchair Reader, as well as The FamilyCorner.com, iChef.com, ChefMom.com and GardenGuides.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: ALPHA (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1615640649
• ISBN-13: 978-1615640645
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cheri Sicard has enjoyed an eclectic life and writing career. A professional circus performer, magician and variety arts performer, Cheri traveled the world performing. This lead her to began writing travel stories for freelance outlets.

Her earlier books deal with US government, patriotism and citizenship. She is also a professional food writer and recipe developer, having created the popular cooking website FabulousFoods.com. and authored "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Easy Freezer Meals" (2011, Alpha Books) along with its associated freezer and make-ahead cooking blog CheriOnIce.com.

Cheri's newest venture, "The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook" (2012, Z-Dog Media) and its associated blog www.CannabisCheri.com combine Cheri's love for food and cooking with a strongly held belief in the benefits of medical marijuana.

Had someone told Cheri back in 1996, when California's Prop 215 first legalized marijuana for medicinal use, that she would become entrenched in the cannabis movement, she wouldn't have believed them. Other than the rare toke at a party, Cheri didn't use marijuana. It wasn't until she was nearly 40 years old that her doctor suggested, off the record as the hospital he worked for didn't "allow" it, she try marijuana to help with a chronic nausea problem that a variety of prescription drugs had failed to help. It worked immediately.

Cheri immediately began doing research and studying this amazing plant. The more Cheri she learned, the more the scientific evidence bowled her over and convinced her that the marijuana she was using improved not only specific symptoms, but overall health and well-being as well. She found it impossible to keep quiet about all the astounding medical research that's routinely ignored by the mainstream media and started talking about it to everyone she knew. She continually found herself outraged by government hypocrisy surrounding the war on drugs and the fact that people all over the county, including in states where the people have voted to make medical marijuana legal, are still being jailed over this benevolent plant.

Over the course of six months Cheri went from the typical closeted American marijuana user to an outspoken cannabis legalization and anti-drug war advocate. And she hasn't looked back since. When she isn't cooking and developing new recipes, you can often find Cheri speaking at civic meetings and city and county councils, organizing rallies, teaching classes, and attending court supports for medical marijuana defendants.

Through it all, she is always working side-by-side with other medical marijuana patients. Many are people like her, who have realized a dramatic improvement in the quality of their day-to-day lives by using cannabis. Others with serious and life threatening conditions like AIDS, cancer, PTSD, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, and countless other debilitating ailments, could not bear to live without the relief cannabis gives them. The valuable input, opinions, and support of all these people has lead Cheri to start work on Volume II of "The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook: Healthy Cannabis Cooking."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No more take out August 19, 2011

By Radar626 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Even though there are only two people in our household, there are days when getting supper prepared, cooked and ready to eat is something that cannot be accomplished unless it's cereal or a pb&j. I often prepare meals ahead of times, or freeze leftovers from big meals, but after awhile we both noticed the rut we were in when it came to choices. Though many recipes in cookbooks, magazines, online sites, etc. claim to be make-ahead and freezable, they simply do not turn out as well as if they would have if eaten the same day as prepared. A person could say that almost any meal is freezable, but that doesn't mean it will freeze well, keep well, or even taste well when it is finally cooked.

This is the latest in a very long list of sources I've used to try and expand the variety of tasteful and healthy make-ahead meals. The practical information this book includes regarding freezing foods (which freeze well, which don't, causes and prevention of freezer burn, etc.) are worth the purchase price alone. With 120 recipes, I've found it quite easy to find ones we both like and, with little tweaks, others that will work great as well. I've also had no problems halving recipes that are too large or doubling those few I've made already for large get-togethers. And best of all, after reading the incredibly helpful information in this book, I can now go back to other favorite recipes and easily figure out how to make them much more freeze-ahead friendly.

For those of us trying to lose or maintain weight, this book should be required reading. Portion sizes can easily be controlled. With a freezer full of pre-made dinners, those weekly take out orders to the local Chinese place or pizza parlor can drastically drop. With no more wondering what's for dinner, you can avoid the roaming graze as you stand in front of an open pantry or fridge and wonder what to make. This book even shows how to plan ahead for a full months of meals. All you'd have to do is pop one in the oven or microwave, make a fresh salad or side of veggies while it cooks, set the table, and ding, dinner is done. With this book, it really can be this simple.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific June 14, 2011

By jojo

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This cook book is terrific! I enjoy it so much. The first thing that struck me were the recipe selections. Cheri's choices are interesting and offer foods I want to eat, foods I want to prepare. Second, there are a lot of recipes here providing a nice diversity of meals to consider. Third, her stuff works. The how-to guides on freezer storage and the follow-up preparation are spot on. And the icing on the cake is everything tastes good.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Goog Food Made Easy !!! April 6, 2011

By putalidonthings

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I got this book and immediately fell in love with it! Not only are there a bunch of great recipes but the practical information about freezing foods is hugely helpful (which foods freeze well and which ones don't, what causes freezer burn, etc). Planning and freezing meals as taught in this guide is an enormous time saver. Highly recommended!