Cook Once Eat Twice™---what does that mean (part one)?

If you are going to take the time to cook, and mess up your kitchen, then it makes sense to double the recipe and put half in the freezer for another day. The clean up will be identical and once you are in the rhythm of cutting the vegetables, it only takes a few more minutes to cut up another pound. Depending on the dish, you often will not have to add any cooking time to the doubled version. Therefore, for a minimum amount of extra work, and time, you get two meals. If you do this every time you cook, before you know it your freezer will be full of your own freezer takeout. As long as it is wrapped well the food will not dry out or get freezer burn.

At any given time, you can have a freezer full of foods you made weeks or months earlier. Once they have been frozen, they have been forgotten so they cease to be leftovers and instead are a completely new meal. When you do not feel like cooking, or you get home too late to cook, open your freezer and take something out, put it in the microwave, add a salad if necessary, and in less than fifteen minutes a home cooked, delicious, nutritious meal is on your table. This is what I refer to as my Cook Once Eat Twice™ philosophy and it is a convenience and time saver like nothing else.

As America’s Cooking Cheerleader™, I want you to get into the habit of cooking two evenings a week. I understand your time constraints and I realize that cooking two nights a week will require you to rethink and reorganize how you feed your family. That is why I am teaching you about Cook Once Eat Twice ™. On the nights you would normally run and get fast food, you can run to your freezer and put something in the microwave. You will have the speed and convenience you need, you will save money, and you will have the satisfaction that you fed your family a home cooked nutritious meal.

Cooking is easier than you think and you and your family are worth the time and effort it takes.

Simple cooking idea: Peel the thick stems of broccoli and cook them along with the tops. They will become tender and equally delicious.

Copyright ©2010 by Gigi Centaro. All Rights Reserved.