Cook Smart: Prep Once Cook Twice - using your freezer to advantage.

In the interest of more GRACEful living in 2016 I will be bringing you a series of posts which share some of my CookSmart strategies which make it easier to get home cooked meals on the table on a regular basis.

It's almost as easy to prep 2 meals in a marinade as it is to prep one. Tonight I'm making Five Spice Coconut Chicken for dinner, but I purchased double ingredients and I prepared a second batch at the same time as the first. An added benefit of this method is that before the meat freezes, then again as it defrosts it is also marinating so you get very flavorful results.

Label 2 one gallon freezer bags.

Add marinade ingredients to each bag, smoosh the bags to mix, then add chicken to each bag.

Turn the bag over on itself and press out any excess air, then seal.  I place one in a shallow container in my refrigerator, and the second I spread out flat & freeze for a future meal.
I find that things defrost more quickly when they're frozen flat this way, because they are thinner. I also measured my 9x13 baking dish and found that it's max capacity is 1 liquid gallon. So Anything I can freeze in a one gallon bag, ought to fit into a 9x13 casserole dish for baking, this opens up all kinds of possibilities for freezer meals.

Also See: The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority
Preparing Casseroles for the Freezer
Recipes which work well with this method:
No Leftovers Fice-Spice Chicken
Easy Picnic Chicken

The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority

"Everybody wants to get out to the gym, and that's a good thing too, but if we took as much time in our day to plan our meals and prepare them and maybe bring along a healthy food supply for the day. Then we wouldn't be at the mercy of the grab and go and whatever's out there and it would be so good for our bodies as a whole and we could probably get, (again I'm biased, exercise is great but being a clinical nutritionalist and knowing the outcomes that I have seen over the years) more mileage out of paying better attention to our diet every day."

The above quote is an excerpt from an interview with
Geri Brewster RD MPH CDN, a registered dietitian-nutritionist
from from the Autism Intensive Summit (January 10-18 2016)
I'm getting so much out of this informative online event!
You can register for this free limited time event at the link below.

http://theautismintensive.com/

Meal Planning On The Fragrant Hand

New Slow Cooker

I got a new slow cooker for Christmas. Today I tried it out. I made Slow-Cooker Chinese Barbecued Pork from Cook's Country - October/November 2013 issue.
http://picasion.com/

2016 A Year of GRACE

This year I am choosing a focus word, GRACE I intend to use it as a reminder to keep me on course this year.