Welcome to the Favorite Freezer Foods Ezine Issue #16: What's For Dinner Tomorrow?

Novemeber 4, 2010

What’s New This Month?
What's for Dinner Tomorrow?
Freezer Cooking for Diabetes

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What‘s New This Month?

It's an emotional roller coaster too. You'll start out thinking 'This is so easy,' and when you fall behind you'll think 'I have plenty of time to catch up.' Then as the target word count slowly climbs ahead you'll start to feel overwhelmed. Eventually, you'll decide you can still finish and you'll be scrabbling to write in a way that makes your family whisper about taking you to the nut house.

But if you're a writer, or ever wanted to be, this is the time to apply fingertips to touch-screen and get started. (Pen and paper works too.)

There is a clause for rebels where you can write anything so I'm taking the month to type up a ton of recipes to share with you all. I make no promise to edit and publish them this month however.

On www.FavoriteFreezerFoods.com: This month as I do my NaNo writing I’ll be catching up on all the freezer cooking questions you guys and gals have submitted.

Also, if all going according to my master plan you'll be seeing a new and improved look and feel on the site this month (even in the midst of NaNo. No details, I don't want to ruin the surprise. ;)

What's for Dinner Tomorrow?

You wouldn't dream of having family over for a Holiday dinner without having the menu planned in advance, but do you know what's for dinner tomorrow?

I'm a firm believer in having a meal plan. There's only a zillion and one ways to create one but I'd like to share what works for me.

I like to use the simplest method possible.

One week at a time is how often we hit the grocery store for fresh produce and dairy, the things that are hardest to stock up on. So, that's how long we try to meal plan for.

We've also found if a week is too hard that 2-3 days is just enough planning ahead to give things time to thaw and keep us cooking at home instead of just going out to eat.

The first step is to think about how long you have for dinner, for both cooking and eating each night. It's really important you figure out this or your plan just won't meet your needs.

Do you only have fifteen minutes before you have to run out the door again? You need a crock pot or homemade microwavable meal then.

Do you have two hours at home but don't want to be in the kitchen the whole time? You could have a stew or casserole that takes fifteen minutes to prepare and cooks for an hour and a half while your AFK (away from kitchen).

Once you know how much time you have you can pick your actual meal, the protein and the sides or decide how you're going to cook it.

I go one step further, because I've lived in small towns and seen the local store sell out of chicken, and base my meal plan for lunch and dinner on what's already in my fridge and freezer.

This way when I go shopping I can buy what's on sale and stay in budget plus I know I have everything I need for the weeks meals.

Breakfast and snacks are pretty simple to keep stocked up for. I always have two to three dozen eggs in the fridge, keep some homemade bread in the freezer, and buy whatever seasonal fruit looks good for breakfast and snacks.

Tonight we'll have a pork tenderloin that's marinating in an Asian Sauce in the fridge and we'll roast that with a seasonal veggie like sweet potatoes. The leftovers will be lunch Friday.

On Friday I work and hubby is home so he'll make a big pot of chili with the ground beef thawing in the fridge. It's a one pot meal because it's got the beef and beans but also has tomato, green pepper, onions, garlic and whatever else he's in the mood for. We'll have some for lunch on Saturday too and the rest can go in the freeze in individual portions.

Saturday we both work during the day and have evening commitments so we'll pull a casserole out of the freezer for dinner.

With this type of meal plan we get homemade meals, good variety, add more meals to the freezer and use the meals we've already frozen for ourselves.

What are you having for dinner tomorrow?

Freezer Cooking for Diabetes

November isn't just NaNoWriMo, it's also National Diabetes Month.

I think that everyone with any diet related dis-ease should invest time in stocking their freezer.

Having those healthy choices available when you need them can help you stick to your meal plan which is critical for someone with diabetes.

Searching Google I struggled to find any resources for diabetics that want to start freezer cooking.

So I've created a page on Diabetic Dinner Recipes.

Please feel free to contribute your favorite recipes at the bottom of the page or, if you know of any, please send me links to pages with freezer recipes for diabetics.

Contact me:
If you have any comments, opinions, content ideas, or requests I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on Favorite Freezer Foods' Facebook page

Eat Well!
Michelle Zack