When I arrived home from the airport last night, I realized one of my last excuses for the sorry state of our family dinner hour had evaporated overnight.  Waiting in a lovely brown Amazon.com box were the solution to the food rut we seem to have found ourselves in here in Suburbia.

First, my long-awaited copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  Yes, I attended the book signing.  Unfortunately, I neither preordered a copy nor arrived early enough at the event to snag one before they sold out.  Instead, I ordered online after the fact, saving a bit of money along the way.  Adventure Guy is already drooling over just the photo of the onion strings.  And, there are plenty of other inspirations between those pages as well. 

But sometimes, it’s tough to put together dinner after a long work day.  I loved the make it and take it places that seemed to blossom out everywhere around here and then go out of business just as quickly.  Heading in for a couple of hours to make a dozen meals to pop in my freezer led to quite a feeling of accomplishment. 

Fix, Freeze, Feast gives me hope of replicating that feeling again in my own home.  Even though I know the lovely sight of all those pre-prepped ingredients, not to mention cleanup people at the ready is not destined to be duplicated.

What I like about this book is that not only does it provide bulk cooking recipes for freezer-ready chicken, beef, pork, and vegetarian dinners, but it also provides “second generation” meals that can be made with the leftovers.  The recipes use good, basic ingredients and few processed foods like canned soups.  There are even recipes for breakfasts, snacks, and sides.

Adventure Guy will be out-of-town next weekend, so my goal is to have a well-stocked freezer by the time he returns. There’s nothing like having a home cooked meal ready and just waiting to go at the end of the day.