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Step 1
Start a new mantra: Your freezer is your friend. Side dishes, entre'es and desserts freeze well and can be reheated for ultraeasy cooking.
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Step 2
Plan your menus and do your shopping (see 297 Plan a Week of Menus), and then chop, julienne or dice any of the ingredients you'll need for the week ahead. Prep work is the real time thief in the kitchen.
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Step 3
Make stocks or soups up to a week ahead and store them in the refrigerator; or freeze extras in 2-cup rations for future use.
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Step 4
Stock your fridge with a few days worth of essentials: Using your food processor's chopping blade (or a knife), chop three yellow onions and six to eight garlic cloves and store separately in zipper-lock plastic bags in your refrigerator. (For recipe purposes, one small garlic clove is roughly 1 teaspoon, and half an onion is roughly 1 cup chopped.)
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Step 5
Make extra waffles, pancakes, biscuits, muffins or scones on lazy weekend mornings to freeze. During the week they can be toasted for a fast, delicious breakfast.
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Step 6
Double (or triple) your recipe for pasta sauce and freeze familysize portions for easy lasagna, baked ziti and spaghetti.
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Step 7
Slightly undercook pasta, vegetables and rice for frozen casseroles or entre'es. They will continue to cook when you reheat the entre'e.
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Step 8
Freeze batches of appetizers for easy entertaining. Make individual portions of empanadas, phyllo spinach triangles or miniquiches and freeze them in a single layer on baking sheets. Once they're firm, transfer them to labeled zipper-lock plastic bags. See 315 Plan Party Foods Ahead.
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Step 9
Fill pie tins with rolled-out pastry dough, and wrap and freeze for up to a month. They can be filled and cooked the day before you need them.











Comments
TrayC said
on 12/19/2008 **good is what i meant to say. by the way I wanted to give you 5 stars but I dont know how!? can you let me know if you know <3tray
TrayC said
on 12/19/2008 goos idea
holmesie said
on 12/21/2006 Great ideas, simple and easy. Thank you!