June 2007 Chewin’ the News with Nanci

 2007, Chewin' the News
Jun 012007
 

Freezer Cooking News from Nanci

Hello everyone! It’s been months since I have written a newsletter. Where does the time go? I’ll hit the highlights for those of you who enjoy keeping up on my life.

  • 07-Jun1I just finished my 3rd year of teaching at Covenant Christian High School and am still loving it! I directed two plays this year as well, The Princess and the Pea and Our Town. Great fun!
  • Our oldest daughter, Kaytee, finished her 2nd year at Ball State University and has transferred to IU to complete her Criminal Justice degree. After that, she plans to head to California to work for the LAPD. We are so proud of her!
  • Our 19 year old daughter, Becky (the one on the front cover with me), just finished her freshmen year at Huntington University. She is majoring in missions. Both girls are working for the City of Indianapolis this summer as day camp counselors.
  • Adam (17) and Jenna (13) are hanging around home this summer. Adam is 6’3” and will be a Junior. Jenna is taller than both of her sisters (and me!) and will be in 8th grade this fall.

 

I’m sure that you are like me and have a summer “to do” list a mile long. By the end of the school year, teachers have things like “shower” and “get a good night’s sleep” on that list – ha! This summer my biggest things are/were:

  • strip and re-stain our log home
  • defrost freezer and FILL IT!
  • catch up with family and friends

We started on the first project right away and are close to completion. Bob worked 2 weeks of 14 hour days and the kids helped a bunch.

Next job – defrost the freezer and fill it! I’ll admit things had gotten pretty bad around here. Since I didn’t do my scheduled “Spring Break” freezer cooking, it was slim pickin’s. We were eating out quite a bit and spending LOTS of extra money. A HUGE cooking day was out of the question. I was still too tired from the end of school so I planned to defrost the freezer and do a smaller cooking day. Wal-Mart had split chicken breast on sale so I built my list around primarily chicken recipes. Like most of you, I still had various errands to run and kids to take here and there during this time so I spread the whole process out over 2 days. Here’s what it looked like:

  • Wednesday morning – unplug the freezer, transfer frozen stuff to fridge freezer, get coolers ready, plan recipes
  • Wednesday afternoon – go shopping (I spent about $180)
  • Wednesday evening – clean out freezer and plug back in; start cooking
  • begin cooking chicken breasts for cooked, diced chicken
  • mix up marinades for chicken and pork
  • do 4 recipes (Stuffed Chicken Rolls, Cheeseburger Quiche, Chicken in Marinade, Pork Chops in Marinade)
  • Thursday – finish recipes
  • do cooked chicken recipes first (Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Pockets, Chinese Chicken Casserole, Cooked & Chopped Chicken, Chicken for Quesadillas)
  • finish with misc. recipes next (Sweet Potato Casserole, Peanut Butter Fudge, Chocolate Chip Muffins, Breakfast McBiscuits)

Here’s a list of my recipes, the number of each recipe I made and where I got them:

 

3 – Chicken in Marinade (from Freezer Cooking Manual)

4 – Chicken Pot Pie (from Freezer Cooking Manual)

3 – Teriyaki Chicken for Stir Fry (from Members’ Section)

3 – Chicken Pockets (from Freezer Lunches to Go)

2 – Cheeseburger Quiche (from Members’ Section)

2 – Chinese Chicken Casserole (from Members’ Section)

4 – Pork Chops in Marinade (from Freezer Cooking Manual)

1 – Stuffed Chicken Rolls (from Freezer Lunches to Go)

2 – Cooked & Chopped Chicken – 3 C. each

4 – Chicken for Quesadillas – 2C. each

1 – Sweet Potato Casserole

1 – Peanut Butter Fudge (9×13 pan) (from Freezer Desserts to Die For!)

1 dz. – Chocolate Chip Muffins (from Freezer Cooking for Daycare Providers & Busy Parents)

1 dz. – Breakfast McBiscuits (from Members’ Section)

 

That’s 28 entrees and several snacks/treats. Having food in the freezer again has already lowered the stress level around here and put money in my pocket. I can have dinner ready when the girls get home about 6 pm without making a trip to the store first. My plan is to have a really BIG cooking day in mid-July and really fill the freezer to the max. That should get me through until Christmas break!

I could have been more efficient and maybe saved more money but I just dove in and did it! You can do it too! Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Company and Website News

I want to say a huge thanks to Carol, Tammy and Shelley for helping me out with the business since I went back to full time teaching. Carol does a great job with the newsletter and keeping up with all of your cooking questions. Tammy is busy answering the questions. There is so much great info there! Shelley is the software brains among us. E-mail her with your questions and comments about our software. If you don’t own the software and you keep thinking that there must be an easier way to tally up all of this info, guess what? There is!

 

Here’s a quick list of our items.

Happy Customer Comments

I love your newsletters, recipes, etc.  I have really benefited from your cooking method.  It’s hard to find the time to do the cooking day, but once I do…I love the results!!!  We are currently using many of the recipes I made with a friend this spring! Shawn

Thanks so much for the speedy reply.  I am planning for my first cooking effort, and am trying to get all my ducks in a row.  I am sure you have heard this repeatedly…but this is a tremendous concept.  I’m planning to cook a month’s worth of recipes for my elderly parents.  What a blessing this will be for them.  Jacque

I purchased my manual at the North American Christian Convention in St. Louis MO. I believe it was July of 1998.  I am amazed on how big this company has become and am excited for you.  I would like to let you know that I have totally changed the way I prepare foods since that workshop.  I can not imagine going back to having to fix and prepare meals every day.  This has allowed me to be able to spend more time with my 5 kids and get them involved in the cooking of the foods also. Amy from Nebraska

I have gotten several teachers at my school interested and several have ordered your new edition!  I take care of my elderly parents and when school gets busy it is wonderful to pull out dinner from the freezer. And if I get stuck at a meeting or PTA, my father is able to pull out a meal and fix it.  My pregnant daughter just got put on bed rest and I was able to put meals up in her freezer. I love your book. This has been a life saver for me. I don’t know why I haven’t been on the web site till now. Karen

We’re in love with 30 Day Gourmet!!!  We (myself and two other friends) completed our first ‘cooking marathon’ on Friday and froze 21 meals for each family at the incredible cost of $108.00 per family (an average of $5.00 per meal).  We have already scheduled our next session.  I never thought spending an entire day in the kitchen could be so much fun!  I used to do a version of 30-day cooking in my own home for my family; but, it is so much more productive (and fun) when you find some friends to join in!  Dawn

Q & A

Question: I would like to access the recipes and worksheets in the members’ section. I own one of the manuals. Can you please forward my user ID and password as soon as possible?

Answer: The access for the “Members” section of our website is a general user name and password that works for everyone. This info is on page 141 in the older editions and on page 3 in the newer editions. It is also on an info sheet that is sent out with every manual and software order.

Question: My computer crashed and I lost the ebooks that I had ordered from you. Is there any way to access them again?

Answer: Just go to the shopping section of our website:

http://30daygourmet.com/shop and click on the “Sign In’ link on the lower left or the bottom of the page. It will pull up a page asking you to enter your e-mail address and the password that you created when you set up your account. Click “Sign In”. It will take you to a page about your account. Click on “View Order Status and History”. It will pull up a listing of your order/s. Click on “view” for your recent order. The page that comes up with has “Download Now” links to your ebooks.

The cart will only allow you to re-download ebooks for one month. If it has been longer than that, click here to email me with your name and approximate date of purchase. I will confirm your order and then e-mail you the ebooks as an attachment.

Closing Comments

Enjoy your summer! Hop on the message boards and let us know what you’re up to. We love hearing from you!

Nanci

Carol Santee

Carol is the co-author of the Big Book of Freezer Cooking and the author of 30 Day Gourmet’s Slow Cooker Freezer Favorites, Freezer Lunches To Go and Healthy Freezer Cooking eBooks. She is a computer information specialist and works for a computer software company.

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