The February/March 2002 Issue of Chewin' the News from 30 Day Gourmet Freezer Cooking . . .

Happy spring everyone! I’m writing this newsletter longhand on a steno pad in the Minneapolis airport where I have been stuck all day in a raging blizzard. When I left Indy this morning it was 70 degrees! Hopefully, they will let a plane leave tonight and I will make it to Sioux Falls tonight in time to do a tv spot and seminar tomorrow. Ah – such is life. Unpredictable as a spring blizzard! Actually, I’m one of those people who kind of likes it that way. I like change and surprises and doing things at the last minute (just in case something better comes along!)

Thanks for hanging in there with me as I make changes and try new things here at 30 Day Gourmet. I really appreciate the great feedback and encouragement that so many of you have given me. We just keep growing and reaching more and more people. It’s pretty exciting! And I’m still working on getting this newsletter out on time too!

January 1st and those New Year’s Resolutions are now a distant memory, aren’t they? Where do the days go? Let’s see – if we had lost a pound a week since 1/1 we would now be 10 pounds lighter. Oh, that’s encouraging huh?

And if we had begun freezer cooking at the beginning of the year, we wouldn’t be thinking about which fast food restaurant to visit tonight either. Okay – the guilt trip stops here! Like my friends at the Flylady website are always saying “You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are.” Doesn’t that make you feel better?

I have to tell myself this a hundred times a day. It’s so easy to feel behind all of the time. The problem with that is that we are always looking forward to getting everything done so that we can relax. I read a line that changed my life recently. It said “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”. Ouch!

What in the world does this little lecture have to do with cooking? Well a lot actually. I just want you to know that if you still aren’t really doing the freezer cooking thing it’s okay to start in March. Don’t wait until 2003. Do a quick review of the January newsletter and follow the steps. Remember them?

Freezer Cooking on a Budget
Our new ebook is ready and selling like hotcakes! If you’re looking for hints and tips on saving money along with 25 great freezer recipes that are low cost and high flavor, get this book. Click here to download a free sampler that includes the following three recipes, a table of contents and a page of budget tips.

Christi Gillentine from Tulsa, Oklahoma has written our Q & A section for this newsletter. She’s an expert on saving money by freezer cooking. Christi is available to answer questions related to her ebook on our message boards or by e-mail at christi@30daygourmet.com.

“Survivor” Party Recipes for the Freezer
I know it’s a stupid show but our family have become Survivor fans. For the current episodes, we are letting the kids invite friends over and join our Survivor party. So far, it’s been a bunch of fun. Make it a learning time if you like. The official Survivor website at: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor4/ has some fun info. Click on the “Marquesas” to see a really neat geography lesson about Tahiti and the island of Nuku Hiva.

But what to feed them? Here are some great snack and meal ideas for Survivor Marquesas Party Recipes:

Polynesian Turkey Burgers
These are inexpensive and easy to make. The sweet sauce gives them a great flavor too.

Click here to view/print the Polynesian Turkey Burgers recipe
Click here to see a picture of the burgers, meatballs, chicken and pork recipes.

Meatballs with Sweet & Sour Sauce
A new twist on an old favorite. These meatballs have diced up water chestnuts in them for a crunchy texture. I served the sauce separately but you could do it all in one pan or in the crock-pot. Yummy!

South Sea Pineapple Chicken
Here’s a casserole that can be combined ahead of time or frozen separately and combined later. We loved it!

Polynesian Barbecue Pork Marinade
You can’t have too many meats-in-marinade recipes. This one can be used with chops or pork bites. We grilled the pork bites and served them on skewers for make-your-own kabobs. (Picky kids!)

Orange Fruit Freeze
What a great recipe! You’ve got to try this. What I love most about it is that you can freeze it or refrigerate it – tastes great both ways! The sherbet makes it smooth and creamy. I did some in a mold, some in individual fruit cups and some in a freezer container. Good stuff!

Click here to view/print the Orange Fruit Freeze Recipe
Click here to see my Orange Fruit Freeze & Coconut Carrot Wedding Cake

Coconut Carrot Wedding Cake
I made this cake and took it to our Easter play for the cast to taste-test. Let’s just say IT WAS A HIT! If you love coconut, nuts and cream cheese you will love this cake. It’s moist and rich and just plain delicious. We finally brought the rest of it backstage because people kept running up to the makeup room for another piece and we were afraid of missing our cues. Ha!

Click here to view/print the Coconut Carrot Wedding Cake Recipe
Click here to see my Orange Fruit Freeze & Coconut Carrot Wedding Cake

Royal Tahitian Fruit Drink
Strawberry Non-Alcoholic Daiquiris
My kids and their friends really love it when I make these fun drinks for our Survivor parties. They are easy to do in the food processor or blender. Get some of the little parasols. The kids love them!

Click here to view/print the Royal Tahitian Fruit Drink Recipe
Click here to view/print the Strawberry Non-Alcoholic Daiquiris Recipe
Click here to see Adam, Becky’s friend Brandon,

Freezer Cooking on a Budget is finally here! Our second ebook is ready to order and download. It includes 25 recipes along with other great info for saving money as you freezer cook. Take your cooking sessions to the next level with “Freezer Cooking On A Budget”. Assembling low cost meals that look, taste and smell great is easy with this eBook! Your family will enjoy eating these recipes and your pocket book will enjoy the relief! Each recipe conveniently lists the average assembly cost per meal as well as per serving. There is a “Pantry Checklist” that every budget minded cook needs and a “Low Cost Alternatives and Substitutions” sheet to print and tape inside your pantry door. Why pay for shipping? Download your copy of Freezer Cooking On A Budget right now! Print it out from your computer and start planning your next cooking session around your food budget!

Read about our author
Christi Gillentine is an At-Home Mother of three toddlers; including twins. In fact, her children are SO close in age that each May she has three kids that are all the same age! If that isn’t enough to keep Christi on her toes, her work as a published Freelance Writer certainly does. She credits 30 Day Gourmet cooking with reducing her family’s monthly food budget by $200.00 a month!

Freezer Labels – The new freezer labels have arrived (actually I’ve already sold out of the first 4000 and have ordered more). Get yourself organized and quit playing that “frozen food guessing game”. Our custom labels are 2x3 and have space for your name, the date, the item name and cooking instructions. They stay on in the freezer and peel right off at room temperature. Click here to order. Only $10 for 200.

MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES FROM TAMMY
The message boards have been busy since our last newsletter. There have been 186 new posts! Thanks to our regular posters for sharing their knowledge, opinions and recipes with everyone. If you haven’t checked out the message boards recently, come visit us!

Newbie Info Page, New Categories
Webmaster Curtis continues to keep busy making enhancements to our site. Since the last newsletter, we have added a page to acquaint new people with our site. From the web site, when you click on the Message Boards button, it takes you to a page that says “Welcome to 30 Day Gourmet Message Board System”. In the paragraph under that, it says ‘click here’ if you’re new and want to learn more. On the boards themselves, we have added a Newsletter Topic Chatter category, as well as two categories for our new contests… Crazy Cooks Stories and Do a Good Cooking Deed. Also, some of the categories were getting quite long with posts, so Curtis divided them into pages. On the left side of the screen, if there is more than one page of posts, it says Multiple Pages and shows which page you are currently on. Just click on a different page number to go to that page.

Check Your Profile
Now, some “business” items… If your email address changes, and you use the message boards, please go to the boards and update your profile. If you subscribe to the newsletter and your email address changes, please un-subscribe to the newsletter using your old address, and re-subscribe using your new address. Your taking care of these couple steps really helps us out… thank you!
It’s probably a good idea for the message board users to pull up their profile occasionally and check it, just to make sure everything is correct and current. I for one would really appreciate this, because I have to check profiles for email addresses before I can choose a Recipe of the Month winner. This month I tried a recipe, loved it, and then couldn’t contact the winner because the email address was bad! That’s disappointing! For both of us!! Our profile form says you have to fill in all the information in order to be eligible for the contests. The information you choose to share publicly is up to you. But we would like to see you share your email, city or state and a little info about you just so we can all get to know each other and develop a better sense of community.

Recipes from Old Boards are Ready!
Lost your copy of an old favorite recipe from our site? Help is here! There are 155 recipes from the old boards that are now available for you! Go to the message boards to check them out. They are available for you to read and print, but not for you to reply to.

New “Best of the Boards” eBook Coming!
I’m starting work on a new eBook. It will be called “Best of the Boards… Chicken”. It will feature tried and true chicken recipes from the boards, formatted out for you in the normal 30 Day Gourmet recipe fashion. It will be the first of a couple “Best of the Boards” eBooks we are planning to release. Look for it this summer!

50 Free Recipes Coming in Adobe format!
Our web master is working on putting the 50 free recipes on the site into the 30 Day Gourmet format. Be watching for the 34 recipes from the archived newsletters to be available in this format as well. Then all the calculations are done for you, figured out to 6 batches of each recipe. Just print and you’re ready to cook! Easy access from the “Recipes” tab at the top of the home page.

Guess that’s it for message board news this month. Keep watching the boards… we have more enhancements coming! Thanks for your patience as we make our site better for you! As always, if you have any comments or ideas about the boards, please feel free to email me at tammy@30daygourmet.com.

Our apron winner will now be chosen from our Crazy Cook’s Stories. I know you’ve got ‘em so send ‘em on. I love reading about all of the zany things that happen to you because you cook the 30 Day Gourmet way. You can submit your story by e-mail or on the message boards.

The March winner is Deanna J. from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Here’s Deanna’s story:

Our Cook of the Month contest is changing to the “Do a Good Cooking Deed” contest. Tell me how you use 30 Day Gourmet cooking to help others and if your story is chosen I’ll send you $25. Again, you can submit your story by e-mail or on the message boards. It’s okay to nominate someone else, too.

The February “Do a Good Cooking Deed” winner is Sue A. from Burnsville, Minnesota. What a great idea!

The March “Do a Good Cooking Deed” winner is Kathleen D. from Waupaca, Wisconsin. Kathleen was nominated by her friend and cooking partner, Kristen. Here’s what Kristen told us:

To have your recipe considered for the Recipe of the Month contest, and your chance for $25 cash, just post it under the appropriate category on the message boards. Be sure to include freezing directions! As we said in last month’s newsletter, we will be doing away with the Recipe of the Month category on the boards. I’m working on getting the recipes from that category moved to the correct recipe category… beef, fish, sides, dessert, etc. So please post your recipe under the appropriate category… poultry, soup, breakfast, etc. All recipes posted under the recipe categories will be considered for the contest. Good luck!

February’s Recipe of the Month winner is Tammy C. from Henderson, North Carolina. Tammy’s winning recipe is for Pecan Pie Muffins. Wow, are these yummy!! They could be dangerous to have around… you can’t eat just one!! This recipe is very quick, and easy enough to mix by hand.

The batter is very runny, as opposed to doughy, so it’s important you spray your pan well with a cooking spray like Pam, or you will have a mess! If you use cupcake liners, use foil ones, not paper, and spray them too. I made mini-muffins when I tried the recipe. I sprayed the pan with Pam, and still needed to run a rubber spatula around the muffins to get them out of the pan when they were done.

The muffins are very moist and tender… more of a dessert muffin than a breakfast muffin. It’s great to have a bag of these stashed in the freezer when you need something for your sweet tooth! Very easy to grab a couple out, thaw them in the microwave and eat them warm! Yummy!!!

My hubby and kids really liked this recipe too. Savannah, my almost 9 year old, doesn’t like nuts in things. I asked if she even wanted to try it, but since it was for the Recipe of the Month contest, she had to try it to give her opinion. She gave it a thumbs up and asked for two more! This recipe is definitely a keeper at our house!

Our March Recipe of the Month winner is Cheryl H. from Pardeeville, WI.
Cheryl’s winning recipe is Italian Chicken. It’s fixed in the crock-pot, and smells wonderful while it’s cooking! This recipe can be made with low fat ingredients, and is still very tasty.

My family loves Italian Chicken! The kids love it just as much as the adults do. Don’t tell anybody, but I could eat it right out of the crock-pot! It’s served over pasta, and we like it over thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta, as opposed to fettuccini or egg noodles. One batch makes quite a bit… if you cook for 2, you would probably get 2 or 3 meals from one batch. I made a double batch, and got 3 meals plus leftovers each meal for my family of 5.

This would be a great meal to serve company. It looks and tastes like it’s a lot more difficult to make than it is! Add salad and garlic bread, and you’re ready to go!

Q.	What is the most cost effective containers to package my frozen meals in? - Pam S.
A.	Well that depends on your freezer space. If you rely solely on a freezer above your refrigerator, then your best choice may be assembling the majority of your meals in freezer bags to save as much space as possible. However if you own a stand alone freezer (chest or upright) your options are much wider. Start by taking inventory of your casserole dishes and plastic containers you already have. Because you already own them, they will cost you nothing on assembly day to package your meals. If you need to buy more, think second hand. Go to yard sales and thrift stores for the best deals- you pay $2.00 on a casserole dish that would have cost three times that if bought brand new. Plus when considering your cooking for a month at a time that cost is really going to add up. For plastic wear some of the best buys on the market are those new Gladwear containers. They are very inexpensive, and they stack and store neatly as well. Another popular packaging choice is freezer bags. I used to think I was wasting lots of money because I used so many freezer bags to assemble my meals during a cooking session. Every time I threw one of those bags away I saw money going into the trash. So I decided to break down the cost per bag based on what I normally paid for the package. I found I was only spending $ .06 cents per gallon sized freezer bag (even less for the quart size). That was a number I could live with for packaging meals and now it doesn't bother me. By using a combination of these containers you can keep assembly packaging cost to a minimum.
Q.	What are some immediate ways I can lower my grocery bill on my next cooking session? - Kelli R
A.	Two things I would suggest are planning your meals around in-season produce and taking the "pantry challenge". Here is an idea of what is considered in-season produce for March; asparagus, avocados, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms and strawberries. Supermarkets are most likely to have this produce on sale during the month and you can use that to your advantage in your cooking sessions. For more information on seasonal produce visit www.nutrition.cornell.edu/foodguide. Take the "pantry challenge" by shopping your own pantry store before you even plan your cooking session. This way you know what you have to work with and can easily use the items you already have on hand. You may be surprised to shave a big chunk off your food budget this way! Look for more ways to lower your grocery bill in Freezer Cooking On A Budget.

KY – I had a great time with the ladies from the Welcome Home Outreach down in Kentucky last week. They donated tons of great stuff for the women’s shelter and graciously laughed at all of my jokes!

IL – A big welcome to the moms who heard about us at the Hearts at Home Convention in Bloomington last weekend. My friend, Karen Ehman, recommended our cookbook in her seminars on organization. Karen is one of three authors of Homespun Gifts from the Heart and an avid 30 Day Gourmet cook. If you’re into homemade gifts, this book will give you a ton of great ideas, recipes, tags, and more. The book is $12 + $2.50 s & h. Send a check to Kelly Hovermale @ 1764 N. Crown Westland, MI 48185 if you’d like a copy.

SD – And a special thanks to the ladies who came out on a very snowy day to hear me speak in Sioux Falls. It was a bunch of fun! Thanks to consultant Elizabeth Hagen for providing my airport shuttle and for arranging the tv spot (we were pre-empted by weather news. Ha!) I also enjoyed lunch with consultants Teresa Chladek and Terri Fries who drove over from Luverne, Minnesota. Click here for a pix of me with them. If you live near Sioux Falls and want to host a 30 Day Gourmet seminar talk to one of these three gals. They’re great!

I’ve got seminars planned for:

If your civic group, conference, retreat, church or local library is interested in having me come for a seminar, click here for the details. My plan is to limit my schedule to one out-of-state seminar/conference and two in-state seminars/conferences per month. I’m looking at Texas, Florida, and Arizona for late summer/fall. These are a bunch of fun and a great way to get your friends (and yourself) motivated to start freezer cooking. Many groups sell tickets, collect wonderful door prizes and actually come out MAKING money.

It’s time to get out of the stone age and update my seminar from slides to power point. This will enable me to include lots more info and photos. I would love to share many of your stories and pictures. Click here to see what I need. If your photo or story is chosen, I’ll send you a certificate for a free ebook. Thanks!

We have nine new consultants. Click here to check out the whole list with contact info on the website.

Please contact them if you’d like a 30 Day Gourmet speaker for your local group of frustrated cooks!

ONE MORE THING – DATE IDEAS
I asked for date ideas in the last newsletter and you sure came through for me. Click here to read my favorites. So what did I end up doing for my honey? Well – actually – nothing yet. I’m still planning. Ha! Ha! With four kids and a tight budget that’s not an easy task. Here’s what I hope will happen April 5th.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this issue. I welcome your comments and suggestions. Just e-mail me anytime. Have a wonderful Easter! My oldest daughter, Katie and I just finished stage managing the Easter play at our church. There’s nothing like 6 straight nights of hearing that great story told and re-told to get your re-focused on what’s really important in life.

See you in April (oops, that’s next week!),