My Favorite Make Ahead Cookbooks

Whether you want to cook 30 days’ worth of meals and just get a bit ahead, the freezer can be very helpful!

Cooking for the Week Spend extra time on your Sunday to cook a really nice Sunday dinner, and reuse extras throughout the week. The recipes here are good and the ideas on planning in advance to cut down your mid-week work while still enjoying a nice home-cooked meal are great.

A Dinner a Day : Complete Meals in Minutes for Every Weeknight of the Year This has a year’s worth of weekday menus and recipes, organized seasonally. (Also bound nicely! Why don’t more publishers think about how a cookbook is used?) Complete with a shopping list for each week and balanced meals. My only complaint is it’s hard to find a recipe you want to repeat because of the “cute” names. A minor flaw though.

The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet OAMC = Once a month cooking. If you want to stock your freezer with pre-cooked or pre-assembled meals, this book is a great resource. From planning worksheets to storage tips, it’s packed full of useful freezer information. And so far every recipe I’ve tried has been winner. Plus I love the format of the recipes! Each recipe’s measurements are given in multiple yields, making it very convenient to try out a single meal’s worth to ensure your family loves it. Then when it’s time for the mega cooking session, you can easily double, triple, or quadruple any recipe in the book. This would come in very handy for potlucks as well! Don’t miss out on The 30 Day Gourmet web site either. In addition to the two regular cookbooks, they have a nice selection of affordable e-books you can download. I just got the budget freezer e-book from them and will report back soon–though at first glance it looks great.

Make-A-Mix Cookery Pancake mixes, seasoning mixes, cookie mixes, hamburger mixes–pretty much everything you could want.

Once a Month Cooking Have a major cooking session one day a month and stock your freezer with a great assortment of food.