Customer Reviews

Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently purchased Holly Clegg's New Trim and Terrific Cookbook. After trying a few of the recipes my husband told me I could throw all my other cookbooks away! So, I purchased her new Freezer Friendly Meals! Oh my goodness! The recipes are good tasting, easy to prepare, use everyday ingredients and are economical! I made the Chicken Lentil Chili the other night, and it was killer good! Don't hesitate to try this book. You won't be disappointed!

This cookbook has lots of nice recipes and I like that it has the nutritional information. But I was looking for a freeze ahead cookbook and this book is disappointing in that regard. As far as I can tell all the recipes are precooked and then "cool to room temperature" and freeze. A few say don't precook but all the ingredients are precooked before the final assembly and cooking. This does not result in a very fresh tasting dish when reheated and in some cases was quite disastrous. I tried freezing one of the soups with pasta and the pasta when defrosted made the soup that was previously delicious quite unpleasant and in my opinion inedible. This cookbook has lots of nice recipes that try to cut back on fat by using reduced fat cheeses or cream cheeses but if you are looking for a 'freezer' cookbook I would recommend the 'Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer' or the 'Dream Dinners' cookbooks. Those books are also better for bulk cooking. For instance you make a triple batch of your dish and eat one for dinner and freeze two. Or cooking with friends you can make 9 of a dish and you all take some home for dinner and the freezer. This book only give the proportions for a single serving. Of course it is not that hard to multiply by three and just make more but if you are planing a lot of bulk cooking it saves a lot of time to have someone do all those calculations for you (also cuts down on possible mistakes). Furthermore, in some cases certain ingredients (acids) should not be increased at the same rate as other ingredients. The other cookbooks compensate for those adjustments.

To summarize, nice recipes but disappointing as far as freezer cooking. The best freezing recipes are the ones that freeze fresh and raw foods and then cook once (when you are ready to eat it); that is NOT this cookbook.

After purchasing this book I marked several recipes that I wanted to try immedialty. (20 in all) Needless to say I a have been cooking up a storm. I keep calling my neighbor for tips on OAMC and I already know some different things to do next time for organization. I have been sampling what I have made before freezing and so far everything has been great!! My daughter really likes the Empanadas(we are going to make some carmel apple ones like Taco Bell) and for someone who doesn't like eggs she likes the mini muffing rancheros (I made hers w/o salsa) I was making the mixture for the italian pizza rolls and my son says "wow that really looks good) Some of the recipes I have divided into two meals. The soups I have divided into one large bag for a meal for four and then broke the rest down for lunch size portions. I was able to get two pizzas out of the bbq chicken pizza. I like this book so much I purchase two more to give to my two neighbors who already do OAMC. We have been talking about each of us making 5-6 meals each X 3 and swapping meals. If you are doing weight watchers this is a great book I got my points calculator out and started writing the points on the recipes, these meals are low in points!!

There are some great recipes in this book, and I appreciate that there is nutritional information provided. At the same time, this isn't a book I will refer to often. There are too many ingredients, and many of the recipes would take a lot of time to put together. I have other freezer cookbooks that are much more user-friendly and that are easier for cooking a lot of meals at once. This is perfect for preparing ahead for the holidays or a party, but doesn't work for doing regular dinners a month at a time.

This book is not a great freezer cooking book. Recipe quantities are not standard--one recipe will make 6 cups of soup, another will make 10 cups. One recipe makes only 2 1/2 cups of soup--freezer cooking for one?

Also, many of the recipes call for "diet" ingredients such as low-fat cheese, non-dairy whipped topping, etc., where you might read the label and decide you'd rather have a smaller amount of the real thing. One recipe is for a Diet Sprite cake....

As far as being a "healthy" recipe book, it is healthy mostly due to small portions. A lot of the dessert servings are what most people would consider tiny--for example, the Italian Cream Cake is expected to serve 16-20 people with a 9" 2-layer (3 if you count the top) cake. For the cookies, there is no amount stated as to how many are a serving, and very few people generally eat just one cookie at a time, especially if they're small cookies to begin with. Many of the entrees are higher in calories than you expect to see in a diet book.

Some good recipes (that I'll still have to adjust a bit), but I'm glad I borrowed this one from the library.

I LOVE this cookbook! I bought this one and two others; "Super Suppers" and "Don't Panic...", but this one meets my needs FAR better than the other two. Nearly every recipe looks and sounds appealing. Nearly everything is uncomplicated and the ingredients are "normal" and readily available. Many are interesting without being far-out (for instance, Ham and Sweet Potatoe Pot Pie, which was delicious!). The other cookbooks had a lot of recipes I already make and so I appreciated new ideas that were not weird. My kids (10,8 and 3) loved what I've tried and the 10yo picked out others she wants me to make. Also, I couldn't tell I was using low fat ingredients; a plus for mothers who need to hide the skim milk behind the salad dressings to prevent mutiny! The format of the book is a big plus; I love the lay-flat binding, the photos and the nutritional information.

The only caveat I'll mention here is that I haven't freezer-prepared anything yet. I prefer things freshly cooked and don't rely heavily on freeze-ahead or OAMC. So I don't know yet how well the meals turn out if you follow the freezing directions. Also, if you are turned off by short-cut ingredients, like canned soup and cake mix, be warned that she uses helper ingredients a lot to make it easier/faster.

I just realized how much time I spend on cooking and washing up every night, and since there are things I am trying to find time to do, I decided to learn about "freezer cooking". The idea is to cook once a month (seriously), fill the freezer with cooked meals, wash up all the pots and pans, and enjoy a lot more time doing stuff you've been wanting to do. I wanted time for writing and quilting and reading, and this method really works.

Holly Clegg's recipes are stylish, delicious, economical, and full of great, practical tips. She takes you quickly through the basics of what freezes well and what doesn't. Her recipes are varied and include lots of vegetable dishes.

Dinners at my house now take about 15 minutes from freezer to table, and there are NO pots and pans to clean. We are sitting down to eat together as a family 50% more than before, and I estimate I have gained at least an hour a day for use on projects I much prefer to cleaning up the kitchen. And economical? I think my grocery budget is stretching to cover about 20% more. . .which might be a source of more money for me to play with!

I have already cooked over 20 recipes in this book since purchasing it in August of 07--it's October now. All recipes are very easy and fairly quick to prepare with a few exceptions. There are many recipes that are perfect for company. I have only cooked one recipe that wasn't worth the trouble but all the others I have made will be made over and over again. I have about 10 tags on recipes I plan to make in the upcoming weeks. As it gets cold, I am looking forward to the soup recipes.

As a working professional it is so nice to pull out several meals from the freezer on Sunday to defrost in fridge for the week. And they taste better than frozen diet meals and you can make the portions as large as you want. Many recipes already have veggies in them so you have minimal cook times for a complete meal. There is a pretty good variety of foods and they all use diet friendly ingredients with great tasting results. There are tons of recipes in this book. Many have already become repeaters with me. The banana muffins are excellent and so convenient for a quick breakfast by defrosting in the microwave. The macaroni and cheese is sooo good as well as the hashbrown casserole. I have been looking for good healthy recipes for these 2 items for a long time. The Chicken spinach florentine is excellent... I could go on and on.

Another wonderful detail is that Holly provides immediate cooking instructions as well as "from the freezer" and "already defrosted" heating instructions. This gives one a lot of flexibility should you forget to defrost your dinner. And I have had great success by placing individual servings into freezer bags for single servings for this single gal. She also gives you freezer dates for each recipe so you can write the expiration date on your freezer bag. And for you moms and dads out there, most of the recipes are kid friendly.

Only drawbacks are that there are several enchilada/mexican casserole recipes that seem very similar to each other but I have yet to cook them so I really can't confirm that they taste the same. I wish there were more red meat recipes and more desserts with chocolate--but that may be wishful thinking? Most of the ground beef (ground turkey) recipes seem to be the same thing as well-- several versions of tomato based meat sauce and plain spaghetti sauces. I also wish there were some marinated meat recipes. There is nothing easier in OAMC cooking than adding herbs and sauces to raw meats, freezing and then while they defrost, they marinate. Holly, I think you need to write another one of these freezer cookbooks, please!!!!

All in all, this book has definitely changed my eating habits, made my meals tastier, made my life easier, and saved me money! When chicken goes on sale, I make several chicken dinners that last for weeks. Great purchase and I will be on the lookout for a second book like this one, Holly! Thanks!

I just got this book a couple of weeks ago, and am sadly unimpressed! The three recipes I have tried have not been that great. I made the Slice and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies - bland, and needed a dash of salt; Peanut Butter Cookies - Also bland, and when I added the suggested oatmeal, they were dry and crumbly; Kugel - too sweet and a little weird. That one kind of grew on me a little bit, but my husband hated it, and requested that I not make it again.

I will keep trying more of the recipes, and will hopefully find a few winners in here. I have yet to tackle any of the main dishes, so perhaps I will get luckier with those.

On the flip side, All the recipes seem fairly healthy and most do not use processed ingredients like canned biscuit dough, Velveeta cheese, or "cream of" soups, like many of the other "make and freeze" cookbooks do. This is a bonus.

I have been making freezer meals for convenience for about a year now but have been disappointed with many recipes I've found in other books and online. This book though is fantastic! I have made about 10 of the recipes so far and my family has liked them all! I'm looking forward to using even more of the recipes. The format of the book is easy to read & use and the spiral binding inside the hard cover is really nice. I definitely recommend this cookbook - the recipes are low in points if you do Weight Watchers but not low in taste. I've tweaked a few recipes to fit in with my family's tastes and the results are still excellent.