Deborah Taylor-Hough

Family cooking for the freezer - ideas and method as much as recipes. The precise instructions are not to everyone's taste - cans of soup or pasta sauce - but the concept is great. If you can face the mammoth cook-in, the rewards are tremendous : a domestic godess glow with a freezer full of meals for when kids need feeding and school, work, sports, music lessons, Guides and Scouts, and general maternal overload might mean that cooking from scratch night after night might just not happen. To find more about this American author, see her website at http://thesimplemom.com where she talks about food, frugality, home schooling, etc. You'll find her inspiring or exhausting - I haven't decided which yet, but lots of ideas for home, kitchen and family.… (mais)

One of the major innovations in Deborah’s new book is the “mini-session.” Her last book, as I recall, presented a seven-day menu, as well as a 30-day (and a few other things). Apparently not everyone wanted to deal with cooking for a whole month at once, so this book presents the mini-session: roughly 5 to 8 recipes all involving one central ingredient. You wait until that ingredient is on sale in bulk, buy a lot of it, and do one brief session. Stash some of the meals in the freezer, then do a different mini-session a little while later and stash a few more things away.

If you still want to cook for a month at once, you just do several mini-sessions at one time. Note that because of this new format, she does not repeat any recipes within this book (unlike the last one, where the repetition of recipes did waste some space).

Deborah also provides tips and hints for turning your own recipes into freezer meals or putting together your own mini-sessions. Each mini-session includes a shopping list and preparation instructions. And of course, as before, each recipe is simple and easy, and provides quick prep instructions for when you take it out of the freezer. The recipe layout is clean and easy to follow.

As the title of the book implies, these are, in general, healthier recipes than those in her last book. They include more vegetables. There’s an emphasis on lighter fare: chicken and turkey instead of beef, and even beans and vegetarian recipes. Each recipe says it makes 6 servings. Note that if you’re on a diet that emphasizes portion control, they make more like 9 to 10 servings (in our experience). Most of the nutritional information is included (calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol); unfortunately fiber is not included, to the sorrow of Weight Watchers members counting POINTS.

Our overall judgment is that these recipes are a bit more bland than her others, but definitely good. Bland is a minus for me, but I know it’s a plus for many people. So the recipes are quite good, but if you like flavorful food you may want to experiment with them a bit.

Full review at ErrantDreams… (mais)