Dinner Is Ready!

About a year ago, my sister gave me this book called "Dinner is Ready" She said the lady that wrote it came to her stake and gave an enrichment night on this concept of freezer meals. She helps you with your menu, grocery shopping and organiziation. It's a big job but she has the whole process down to a science. My sister has been doing this ever since then. She has been trying to talk me into doing it too and says I will love it. But I'm lazy and it sounded like a lot of work. But for some reason recently I decided to give it a try. In the book, the lady has all sorts of recipes that she has tried and are freezer friendly. So you pick 15 reciepes and you double each one so you have 30. One for each day of the month and you only have the same thing twice in a month. She has you pick 2 crock pot reciepes, 2 oven, 2 stove top, and 9 assemble recipes. That way you can make the best use of your time. It is an all day process and works best if you have a friend to help you. You copy your recipes and put them in a pile and you each take one and start cooking your crock pot ones first and so on. She has all these tips on how to cook your pasta so it isn't mushy when you freeze it. She also has you not cook your lasagne noodles just assemble it and freeze because she says it absorbs enough moisture when it's frozen that the noodles cook perfectly when you are ready to eat it. She has you use freezer foil that's heavier so it doesn't get freezer burn. She has tried everything and gives you all her best tips and recipes. Most of the meals can be put in zip lock bags and stacked so they don't take much room in your freezer or use up your dishes for the month. Then when you know you are going to have a busy day you take one out in the morning and let it thaw on the counter all day. Then at dinner time pour it into a greased pan and bake it. Some recipes you add things to right before baking. Like the pot pie you make ahead and freeze but then add refrigerator bisquits on top before you bake it. Or the Ravioli meat sauce you make ahead and then add frozen ravioli at the end. So I finally did it! I even went to Salt Lake for 3 days and left my family here. They all ate nutritious, home cooked meals when I was gone and said they were delicious. If I hadn't had done this they would have went out to eat every meal. They had Chicken Cordon Bleu, Tuna Bow ties, and Beefy macaroni. They all said they were good. I have yet to try them because I just did it and just got home. But we are having meat loaf tonight. I have it thawing now. At dinner time I will just put it in a greased loaf pan and bake it. Then I will just make some instant potatoes or minute rice to go with it. So I am pretty excited how convienent this is now that I am done with the cooking. Just think, when you get a call to bring someone in a meal, you all ready have one ready to go! This lady even freezes individual servings and stalks her Grandma's freezer for her. My huge grocery list to buy everything for dinner for a month came to $180 Which I thought was pretty good for a family of 6 for a month! I just had to take a picture because it feels like such an accomplishment. It gave me the same pleasure I get from canning and you sit back when your done and admire your beautiful jars. It's a great feeling to know DINNER IS READY!