Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals (ingredients, freezing, healthy)

[Leilani Vasquez]

Because of all the stress i've been under these past few months, i've put on some weight. Has anyone tried this cookbook? If so, I'd like to hear the pro's and cons.

[lcg5026]

I have several of the trim & terrific cookbooks by Holly Clegg... her Freezer Friendly Meals was a gift and became an almost instant hit in my household because I tend to cook in batches. No question - making dishes ahead of time and freezing them takes the stress out of cooking and getting a home cooked meal on the table faster... Ms. Clegg seems to intuitively understand that while many women WANT to eat healthy, we get de-railed because it often feels like such a major commitment in terms of time and effort. We found her cookbooks are very "real world" -- different in that she offers healthy meals that you can make quickly with ingredients we probably already have. Some recipes are surprising in that I would have never thought to combine these types of ingredients - e.g. the Spinach and corn casserole - which we loved. Also a healthy twist on classics such as eggplant casserole and if you have kids – macaroni and cheese are great. I particularly enjoyed the opening chapter that explained what foods freeze well and which ones don't. She also shares tips about foods that change after being thawed (cheese, gravies, milk, yogurt, etc.) and tips on refreezing thawed foods that was very informative - and easy enough that even my stressed brain can remember! Also for those of us in a constant battle to lose weight (or maintain hard-earned weight loss), the nutritional information per serving is very helpful. Friendly Meals is probably one of the most often consulted cookbooks in my collection … so I don’t think you could go wrong here