Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Fix, Freeze, Feast: The Delicious, Money-Saving Way to Feed Your Familyby Kati Neville with Lindsay Tkacsik | Cookbook Review

(Warning: the cover images are the only images in this cookbook.  :/  I prefer my cookbooks with lots and lots of photos.)

Overall, I'm going to give this cookbook 3.5 of 5 stars.  No pictures.  Over 50 recipes, and I only found three to try out.  The instructions are clear and concise, so that's a plus.   This would definitely be worth looking at if you're interested in freezer cooking, but I've also seen better.

I picked a couple of things to try out of this cookbook.  As I write this, I'm eating a breakfast burrito!  It's pretty good, but I'm not overly excited.  However, that could be because I followed almost none of the directions properly.  It was late at night when I was assembling them.  You're supposed to start with scrambled eggs (did that) and then add in diced boiled potatoes (I subbed in thawed frozen Ore-Ida hash browns) and a cup of sour cream and salt and pepper.  So far, so good: only one substitution and all instructions followed.  Then you're supposed to start assembling the burritos: 1/2 cup of the egg/potato mixture on each tortilla, topped with diced ham and some shredded cheddar.  Here's the second substitution: I'm not that into ham so I subbed in cooked crumbled sausage.  And I didn't read the instructions in full, and mixed it plus the shredded colby jack (turns out I didn't have cheddar in the house) into the egg/potato mixture.  So now everything is one big mixture and I ladled that out onto each tortilla and wrapped them up.  I don't think this made any difference at all.  The thing is, the ratio of potato to egg feels pretty "off" to me.  And I only used 2/3 as much potato as the instructions called for!  There's a lot of potato in this.  I like the concept enough that I'm going to try again with a second batch of burritos, but I'm going to double the eggs, half the potatoes, leave out the sour cream, and increase the shredded cheese.  

Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut and Mango: while descriptive, that cookie name is a mouthful! I re-named them Jungle Cookies. :) No disrespect to the authors. I made them and froze most of them, but couldn't resist baking 1 dozen immediately. I served them to my parents & hubby & all four of us gave them 2 thumbs up! Yay! And I have another seven dozen in the freezer!

And last but not least, I also tried Mexi-Stuffed Peppers.  We LOVED LOVED LOVED these!  They're like regular stuffed peppers, but with taco seasoning mixed in, and fiesta cheese sprinkled on top.  I'll definitely keep my freezer stocked with this one.

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