Customer Reviews

Frozen Assets Lite and Easy: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like an earlier reviewer, I found that this book really suffered from being poorly edited. However, the recipes are delicious and the fat has been sensibly trimmed from most recipes. You can easily modify recipes to take out even more fat by using techniques like using cooking spray in a nonstick skillet for sauteing onions. Everything I have made from this book has been great, although I am jotting down lots of notes in my copy of the book as I have modified things a bit to suite my own style and experience. For example, her Cheddar Chicken recipe uses a very lowfat cheese sauce which is made without starting with a roux (flour browned in butter). I found it helped to use Wondra flour mixed in a jar with some of the liquid, like you would for gravy, instead of just tossing everything in the pan. This could cause clumping. She also has a crustless quiche recipe, but I plan on cooking it in a premade pie crust, with the extra fat and calories. I think my family would prefer that.

I really like how she has organized her recipes into "mini-sessions" of 5 or 6 recipes grouped by protein type. So, for example, you might do a chicken (breast) session or a lean pork session in one afternoon or evening, rather than cooking for an entire month in one day. Slowly your freezer supply of delicious food will build up.

I really, really do like this book, and having checked many freezer cooking books out of the library, this is the only one I bought. My chief complaint, however, is that it appears to have been rushed into print, and I lay the blame for this on the publisher, not the author. (This is just my theory, no one has confirmed it.) The author is a nice lady who deserved to have had support from her publisher.

Here are the problems:

First, the shopping lists for each mini-session often list the ingredients in a different unit of measurement than they are listed in the ingredient lists in the recipes. For example, with the chicken breasts they are listed alternately by weight, number of whole chicken breasts, number of chicken breast portions (not immediately clear that these are different), and by cups of cooked and cubed meat. Chicken breasts vary considerably in their size, so buying them buy weight is more useful information for recipes where they are going to be cooked and cubed.

Second, in some cases, the preparation instructions seem to have been copied and pasted without editing--e.g., boil skinless, boneless chicken breasts and then remove the meat from the bone?

Third, the list of ingredients in the recipes are rarely listed in the order that the ingredients are used in the recipes. This is a convention that we cooks are used to, and it is disconcerting to have them listed out of order. A cook is more likely to make an error and omit and ingredient this way.

Fourth, as noted in an earlier review, there are instances where the amount of some ingredients is given incorrectly. All I can say is keep reading the reviews here, and hopefully all major blunders will eventually be listed. I keep hoping that the author will post some errata information on her web site (you can find it easily in a web search), but it has not happened yet. Debi, if you read this, pretty please give us a "known errors" page!

Of course I like the premise of the book (cook for a day, eat for a month), but I made several recipes from it this weekend and there were a number of small, but irritating, errors. For example, before each mini-session (group of recipes) she has a shopping list, which I used to shop from. However, there were several ingridients omitted from the lists but used in the recipes, and I didn't realize it until actually going through the recipes to cook. So I didn't have everything I needed. In one recipe for Tofu Broccoli Quiche, it called for 1 TABLESPOON of dry mustard. I think that has to be a typo. When I put it in it seemed like a lot, and I should have listened to my instincts. It must be 1 TEASPOON. The entire thing tastes like mustard. Another recipe calls for 3 TABLESPOONS of chili powder, for six servings. It can't be right, but I learned from the mustard and reduced the amount. Even one tablespoon makes it pretty spicy. There are other examples of words omitted from the recipe, and such. The recipes I tried are pretty simple, and the only one I have eaten was delicious. But I will be a lot more careful when I use it next.

I read about this book online and then checked it out from the library to see if I would actually like the recipes. I DID like the recipes (more importantly, so did my son and husband, both picky eaters) so I bought it used here at Amazon.
The book has revolutionized the way I approach dinner and cooking in general. I'm not a very organized person, but when you have five pounds of ground beef in your fridge, you learn to be. I split up the "mini-sessions" and just made the meals that sounded good to us. WARNING: Most of the recipes are onion or garlic heavy, so if you don't like either of these ingredients, this book is not for you.
There is a vegetarian session, tofu sessions, chicken, turkey, ground turkey, beef, ground beef and bean sessions. We're on our fourth "cooking day" and still have not tried all the recipes. (White Chicken Chili is my favorite!)
WARNING #2: The book, while a lifesaver, is not well-edited, as others have mentioned. Wrong measurements for ingredients, omitted ingredients from the recipes or shopping list and there is one recipes that says "bake for 1 1/2 hours" but it doesn't tell me at what temperature!
Overall, a great book, but read carefully and exercise your own culinary judgement!

I was impressed when reading through this book, especially with the tips in the begininning. Then I picked one recipe to make for a supper swap. I was making this for 6 families! I shopped and cooked and 3 hours later all the meals were in the freezer. Then I baked one for my family for supper. The recipe (chicken broccoli noodle bake) called for way too much water, which made it soupy. Then I baked it for the recommeded time and when we were eating it we realized that the egg noodles had gotten too soft and made a mushy mess in the bottom of the baking dish. So it was now a mushy soup with chunks of chicken and broccoli. Both my husband and I felt sick after eating it. Now I have 6 meals of this in my freezer that I don't dare bring to the supper swap and I'm back at square one!!! Let's try editing before going to press next time, Deborah!

If you have been freezer cooking for awhile or are completely new to it you will enjoy this book because it has a different spin on freezer cooking than the classics. I started with Once-a-Month-cooking and at the time it seemed revolutionary, but, though I loved it was a hard days work. Then came Jill Bond and she was really talking bulk cooking! When Deborah's first book came out I was excited because it fit in with my low-on-cash, short-on-time lifestyle.

This book is terrific because it provides a healthy alternative that is still pretty inexpensive. The meals are more than casserole and there are lots of options that are more appealing for the warmer weather when you don't want to heat up the kitchen.

My favorites are the Cheese and Chicken Shells (not for everyone however) Chicken Enchiladas (taste great made with homemade whole-wheat tortilla, if you do that), Crab rice Chowder (gourmet), Bean Casserole and everyone LOVES Spaghetti Pie. There are lots of good recipes in this book.

The drawbacks of this book is that after a few initial sessions I felt that I was more likely to choose some favorites than to use her already laid out sessions...that is okay, but, not as easy as using the shopping lists and plans. Worth trying if you are serious about Freezer Cooking, but I would start with Frozen Assest first.

If you are already familiar with the idea of cooking for a day, and eating for a week or month, then you will likely be disappointed with this bland and boring cookbook. The best recipes in it are uninspired versions of spaghetti sauce, chili, and casseroles. These are all concoctions that you probably already have recipes for, and could just double and freeze. This cookbook also needs serious editing. The author repeats recipes in several sections, and often has inaccurate measurements for her ingredients. Save yourself some money and buy a traditional cookbook instead.

Ok, I haven't acutally made anything in the book yet but....the recipes look tasty, not the cream of whatever soup casserole type at all. Unlike other another freezer cookbook I have, these recipes have a variety of spices and non casserole presentations. I really like the idea of the "mini sessions" where several recipes of the same type are grouped together. That way freezer cooking doesn't have to be so overwhelming and you can make things according to what's on sale.

I was satisfied with the 'Healthyness' of the recipes...they are not for hard core low fat cooks, but for most of us who are trying to eat better they work. There are 3 Vegetarian sessions, a Bean session, and a Tofu session to cut back on that red meat consumption and save us from chicken overload!

I did spot a typo on the amount of chili powder in a recipe and another with dry mustard. I plan on asking about them on the website given in the book. I will just be a little wary when making the recipes. In spite of this, I am very satisfied with this book.

It is just what I was looking for in a freezer cookbook!

"A mini-session consists of choosing one main ingredient, such as chicken, and then preparing a group of chicken recipes in a single afternoon or evening. A mini-session usually involves only an hour or two of cooking rather than the eight to ten hours often required for a complete month of cooking." ~Deborah Taylor Hough

Deborah Taylor Hough has a talent for not only saving money (she saved $24,000) in five years, she knows how to cook once a week and then enjoy meals every night with her family. In this book she shares her secrets and tips and has divided the book into Mini-Sessions which include a shopping list, preparation instructions and recipes. So, for the Vegetarian Mini-Session you could make Vegetable Fried Rice, Ricotta & Broccoli Pie, Cheese and Vegetable Quesadillas and Three Cheese Lasagna. There are plenty of recipes for Tofu, Beans and Eggplant. The rest of the book is made up of pasta, tuna, crab, pork, beef, turkey and chicken. There seems to be something for everyone in this cookbook.

By using the ideas in this book, you can find ways to save money. Like if you find a sale on chicken, you can save money on the Chicken Mini-Session meals. Some of the recipes in this book include:

Marinated Lime Chicken
Mushroom Chicken Couscous
Sloppy Turkey Joes
Braised Beef
Pork Rice Skillet Bake
Crab Strata
Cool Lime Burritos
Eggplant Bake

While the chapters are designed for making more than one recipe at a time, each recipe can also be used to just make one meal to serve six people.

~The Rebecca Review
Author of Seasoned with Love: A collection of
best-loved recipes inspired by over 40 cultures

First.. I am no expert chef.. more along the lines of novice but good at following directions. I bought this book about 6 months ago and I have made about 30% of the recipies in it. I waited till now so I could give a comprehensive review of my experiences.

I am a college student who was looking to save time and money while still eating healthy. This book looked like the perfect solution. I make two mini sessions at a time, freeze um up, then I will eat them by myself over the course of a month. For this purpose, the book is quite suiting.

The biggest problem I have is that about a third of the recepies I have cooked up came out TERRIBLE. Now, I will be the first to admit (again) I am no chef but I am good at following directions. The directions in this book, however, are sometimes ambiguous and confusing (and judging by some of the other reviews, just down right wrong). In my opinion, even the recepies that are a "hit" (and by that I mean I would consider making them again sometime) are bland and lack that signature flavoring I have come to expect when I use cook books. I mean, if you make maccaroni and cheese from a cookbook, you expect it to be MUCH better than the kraft blue box special right? With this book, the best I have come to expect is ON-PAR with the blue box special (figuratively speaking).

Unfortunantly, many recepies I have prepaired from this book have been so far below edible I have come to not expect much for all the time and effort that goes into cooking them. The worst part is after you have cooked and frozen your huge meal, thawed it out, prepped it/heated it back up, and then take the first bite just to find out that your next six meals are going to taste horrible (or you are about to throw away a ton of food).

A final note.. I am no chef! But in the past I have prepaired many recepies from many different sources and I'd say that from other sources I can cook a "hit" about 80-90% of the time. With this book.. Im running around 50% or less. Take that as you will!

I don't always use the book the way it is designed. Some nights I'll cook 2 double-size meals and freeze the rest. Works great! My freezer is stocked with healthy food. I freeze alot of the recipes in single serving containers so I can take them to work for lunch.