Book Review: Frozen Assets

One day a few years ago i was talking with a good friend of mine. I mentioned to her that I was considering trying out freezer cooking. she told me she had the perfect thing for me. She gave me a book called frozen Assets: how to cook for a day and eat for a month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough. I was totally intrigued! I could not wait to start reading the book.

I sat down and started reading through the book as soon as I got home and settled. The first page in the book is tons of praise for this book and the plan that is inside of it. This only excited me more. As I read through the introduction and the first few chapters my mind began to race with all of the possibilities. I have always loved cooking for my family, it was something that my mother always did for us and I wanted to continue this with my family. However, many nights myself and my husband were just too worn out to cook anything, or had forgotten to take something out of the freezer to thaw out. We started getting take out or getting bored with convenience foods from the freezer section of the grocery store.

The first time we tried cooking for the freezer, we were mere novices. We purchased several whole chickens from the store while they were on sale. Came home and processed the meat into our own home made chicken nuggets. Fried them, cooled them and then froze them. it was simple, but it took us forever to just accomplish this one bag of home made frozen chicken nuggets. Now whenever my kids wanted chicken nuggets, I could just pull our home made nuggets from the freezer and heat them up. This was the beginning of our love of freezer cooking, also known as once a month cooking or OAMC.

My husband was sitting next to me in the living room as I read the Frozen Assets book for the first time. As I read I kept speaking out loud saying things like "Wow", "Oh! that is awesome!". "how easy!", and other countless exclamations. He stopped what he was doing and was allowing me to share all of these tips with him as I read them. He was just as excited about this as I was. The idea of saving money on our groceries was thrilling for both of us. Especially with the constantly rising costs that come with raising three children.

Their are so many wonderful things about this book. It is really hard to break it down into one short article. I am going to go over some of the main points that make this book the best resource for freezer cooking.

FAQs
If you have questions about anything to do with once a month cooking, this book will answer them. All of the questions I had were answered withing the first few chapters. I even had questions answered that I didn't have yet! She goes over each and every thing in detail. the questions range from my freezer is too small, all the way to what tools you will need to cook the meals. Deborah Taylor-Hough has this down to a science and she is sharing all of her knowledge with the readers of this book.

The Plan
The third chapter of this book is probably my favorite part of the book. She describes in detail her monthly cooking session. She begins the chapter with planning out her monthly menu. She goes on to describe how she prepares for her big cooking session right down to how much money she spent at the store for all of her supplies including a list of everything that she purchased! This shows you how much money this can save you. It is truly money saving and that is clearly explained in this book. No more wondering about saving money by freezer cooking! There are also several tips for how to plan out your meals and how to do your shopping as well as many other countless tidbits!

The Recipes
What I find so amazing about this book is the volume of recipes! Deborah lays out the recipes, the grocery list, and how many meals each recipe will make. She tells you how to prepare for each recipe. However, one of the best things is how the recipes are set up in the book. Not only will you find recipes for individual freezer meals, but you will find full thirty day meal plans. It is literally a step by step guide on having your first month of freezer meals done. All you have to do is follow along with the book and you are done in a weekend! She even has holiday meal plans, so you won't get over extended during the holidays either!

Whether you are a seasoned freezer meal maker, or someone just thinking about getting started with OAMC, this is definitely a book for you! You will be sure to find helpful tips on every page! It has changed how I cook for my family, and I am sure it will change your ways too!