Try Freezer Cooking For Tasty, Economical Meals

By Christine Szalay-Kudra

A lot of people enjoy cooking every night but it can become
boring. If you have a busy day, having to think about what
to make for dinner can be stressful, especially if you are
going to have very little time to cook that day.

The easy solution is to cook once a week or once a month,
divide the food into portions and freeze it. Another name
for this once a month (or week) cooking is freezer cooking.
Imagine spending one day making a month's worth of dinners
and then having twenty nine days where you do not have to
cook. Looking at it like that, it is easy to see the appeal
of once a month cooking.

The Best Recipes for Once a Month Cooking

There are all kind of meals, which freeze well, and they
will taste just as nice when they are thawed as when you
first made them. Cooking big batches of food is a real
time saver and if you have a busy weeknight coming up, you
can simply thaw your family's evening meal in the
refrigerator overnight and it will be ready to warm through
in the evening.

You can often get great discounts when you buy in bulk. A
big package of boneless chicken pieces, for example, works
out cheaper per pound than buying a pair of chicken thighs
or chicken breasts. Perhaps you spot some ground lamb on
special offer one week or turkey another week.

There are freezer recipes for all kinds of meats, poultry,
and fish. Meat and poultry in sauces and soups keep for up
to six months. You might want to make some tasty family
favorites like
(http://www.bonelesschickenrecipe.com/Chicken-Recipes/international-recipes/chinese-curry-chicken.php)
chicken curry or beef stew. Beef bourguignon, chicken tacos,
and beef lasagna are other freezer cooking ideas.

Freezer Cooking Tips

Pick a day when you will not have many commitments or
interruptions. Make sure there is enough space in your
freezer and make sure you have all your necessary
ingredients ready. Remember too that you can save time
buying other frozen foods on special offer like precooked
meatballs or cooked shrimp. Simply add these to your thawed
meals to liven them up.

You can either cook one kind of meal at a time or have
several on the stove or in the oven, depending on your
cooking experience and what you feel comfortable with doing.
When you cooked meals are cool, divide them between freezer
bags or plastic food containers, seal them, and wipe the
edges clean. You will be able to fit a lot of meals in the
freezer if you store them flat in zippered food bags.

You will need a lot of plastic wrap and aluminum foil,
freezer bags or plastic containers. You will also need a
marker pen to write the name of the meal, the cooking date,
and any special cooking instructions.

Sometimes you can make a creamy dish but cream does not
freeze well so leave it out of the meal and add it when you
reheat it. Potatoes do not always thaw well either, so you
can either use slightly undercooked barley or pasta as a
replacement or add fresh potatoes when you reheat the dish.

Chicken Stew - From Then Till Now

If you are thinking about a warming, hearty dinner, chicken
stew is one of those recipes that always spring to mind. You
can make lots of different versions of chicken stew and this
dish has a very interesting history spanning thousands of
years.

A stew is two or more different foods simmered together in a
liquid. Hungarian goulash, beef stroganoff, coq au vin, and
beef bourguignon are all stews.

The "Apicius de re Coquinaria" is the oldest cookbook ever
discovered. It contains fish and lamb stew recipes, although
chicken had been domesticated by then too. There were three
Romans with that name living between 1 BC and 2 AD and the
book is believed to have been compiled by one of them.

You can actually go back even further because primitive
tribes used to boil foods together, which is what a stew
essentially is. Amazonian tribes used turtle shells as pans
and would boil the turtle entrails with some other
ingredients. Other cultures used large shells, such as
clam shells, instead of pans. Archeological evidence points
to this type of cookery going back seven or eight thousand
years. The invention of pottery, about ten thousand years
ago, made cooking stews easier.

Domestic fowl has been around for thousands of years and
chicken stew has been popular for a long time, with
different cultures having their own versions of this dish.
Examples include the spicy chicken stew found in Morocco or
the peanut butter chicken stew favored in parts of Africa.

Different Types of Chicken Stew

One very tasty chicken stew is called chicken booyah. This
is a cross between a soup and a stew and is popular in
northeast Wisconsin. In 1853, the first Belgian immigrants
arrived in Wisconsin and they spoke a language called
Walloon. It is believed that the word booyah comes from the
word bouillon and the non-French speaking Belgian just wrote
down how the word bouillon sounded to him phonetically.

Southern Chicken Stew

Perhaps you have tried southern chicken stew. It is a very
popular recipe in North Carolina. Southern chicken stew is
made with a whole chicken parboiled in a milk or cream based
sauce. Butter, salt, pepper, and other ingredients are used
in this recipe. The color of southern chicken stew varies
from white to yellow, depending how much margarine or butter
is used. It can be thin or thick in consistency and saltine
crackers are often served with southern chicken stew.

This dish is often served in the coldest months and "chicken
stew" can refer to a get together or gathering where this
food is served, rather than the food itself.
(http://www.chickennoodlesoups.com/Soup-Recipes/index.php#chicken-stew)
Chicken stew recipes are often thought of as comfort food
because they are comforting to eat and simple to prepare.
Chicken stew is commonly served at social get togethers,
such as church fellowships, community fundraisers, and
family reunions.

The chicken stew at these events will often be made in a big
cast iron or stainless steel cooking pot, maybe outdoors
over an open fire. You might get coleslaw, a grilled cheese
sandwich or rice served with the chicken stew.

The Strawberry - King Of The Berries

Don't you just love a fresh, juicy strawberry? There really
is nothing else quite like it. With fast shipping these
days, you can get strawberries almost any time now, but it
just is not the same as picking that perfectly ripe berry
right out of your garden.

Strawberries do not need a lot of skill to grow, and the
fresh taste makes it more than worth having a few pots on
your patio or a plot in your garden. Fresh strawberries are
delicious on their own with a little cream and sugar, or
added to other recipes.

Today's strawberries originate from a plant native to
America. The large berries we see now are a hybrid of a
South American strawberry that was crossed with a North
American strawberry. This allowed the southern plant to
survive the cooler climates in the north. Strawberries have
long been a symbol of health and luxury in Europe.

On the other hand, in Argentina, in South America, they were
considered poisonous until the middle of the 1800s. These
plants varied a great deal in size, shape, and flavor, they
usually bear the distinctive red color and nearly
heart-shaped fruit that have made them so popular.

While most people think of eating strawberries raw, there
are other recipes you can make with them that are
exquisitely delicious. A really easy recipe is to cut the
berries into small pieces, then place them in a bowl. Cover
the cut up berries with water and sprinkle white granulated
sugar over the top generously. Add some ice, and let the
whole mixture soak in the refrigerator for several hours.
When you are ready to eat it, you will find a lovely cold
summer dessert.

Many people love the firm texture of strawberries, but they
might not be altogether fond of the sweetness, or perhaps
they prefer their flavors a little more complex. If this
describes you, think about putting out a bowl of good
balsamic vinegar and powdered confectioner sugar, and then
dipping the fruit into first one, then the other. The
sweetness will be enhanced by the sharp taste of the vinegar
and you will find that this makes an excellent end to a good
meal.

Strawberries are not just for dessert. Add some sliced
strawberries to a spinach salad to add color and sweetness.
A dressing made of honey, mustard, balsamic vinegar and rice
vinegar makes a nice accompaniment to the spinach, berries,
red onion slices, and caraway seeds. Eat this for a light
lunch or serve it as a side salad at a dinner for instant
compliments.

Another great spinach and strawberry combination takes
tender baby spinach leaves and strawberries sliced on the
diagonal and adds them to a little Gorgonzola cheese and
tasty homemade croûtons. Top it off with a little dollop of
ranch dressing and a grind of fresh black pepper. This
creates an incredible combination of crunch, sweetness, and
tartness that delights the palate.

Do not relegate strawberries only to shortcake. They have a
lot more to offer than the traditional dessert. Strawberries
are nutritious and flavorful, and are the ideal berry to
serve. There is a reason the strawberry is everyone's
favorite.

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