Rating: 
Summary: Practical information, clear instructions, tasty receipes!
Review: Finally, a plan-ahead cooking system that works! And in a book that presents information in clearly-written instructions, logical sequence, guides the reader/cook to work easier and dine better. Covers starting, menu choosing, planning, shopping, cooking, freezing, thawing, and much more; includes dishes ranging from biscuits to ziti; plus worksheets to guide your menus, receipes, shopping. This book, in one word: EXCELLENT!
Rating:
Summary: I like the Holiday Meal Plan idea.
Review: This book has a Ten Day Holiday Meal Plan. I've never seen anything like it. Looks like a great idea. I can't wait to pack my holiday meals away in the freezer. I won't have to think much about cooking when busy during the holidays. I might even use the plan at Thanksgiving. BTW, I tried the Turkey Manicotti recipe. It was to die for!
Rating:
Summary: No more store-bought frozen food!
Review: Last year I received a copy of "Frozen Assets" as a gift, and I really enjoyed it. Because of reading the book, when my mother said she didn't have time to cook any more and hated store-bought frozen food, I immediately knew what to get her for Christmas! We filled her freezer with food from "Frozen Assets" and "Frozen Assets Lite" while she was out at work. When she got home and opened her freezer door, she was shocked and amazed. She said it was the best Christmas gift ever (she also got a copy of this book).
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: With all the rave reviews this book has gotten, I couldn't wait to check it out myself. All I can say is, I'm glad I got it out of the library rather than spending my hard-earned cash on it. I guess it works for some people, but my objections to it are: 1) the advice on how to cook in bulk all seems very obvious to me, 2) the recipes are -- being diplomatic -- very unappealing and 3) the book could have used more editing -- many recipes and much of the advice is repeated several times throughout the book. With the redundancies eliminated, the book would have been about 1/3 as long.I don't need a book to tell me that I should pick several recipes, triple them, write down all the ingredients, check my cupboards for any ingredients I already have, and then buy the rest. I don't need a book to tell me to use large pots when cooking large quantities, or to use freezer containers when freezing things. I certainly don't need a book to tell me (several times) not to shop hungry, and to leave the kids home on shopping day. Then, there's the recipes. I can't imagine cooking any of these recipes even in small quantities, much less in mega-batches. It's hard to pick which recipe is the worst, but my candidate is "Chili Day Meatballs" -- which actually calls for cooking meatballs in a combination of, I kid you not, chili sauce and grape jelly! And to anyone who might try to tell me I should try it before saying it's awful -- I don't have to jump off a tall building to know I wouldn't like it, and I don't have to combine meatballs, chili sauce and grape jelly to know this would be a waste of good ingredients (I have no objection to grape jelly in its place, which as far as I'm concerned is in a PBJ sandwich, not on my meatballs, thank you very much!). And even if you like the recipes and find the advice useful, do you really need them to be repeated 3 or more times? I urge anyone who thinks they might like this book to borrow it from the library first and see for yourself -- you may be very glad that you did!
Rating: 
Summary: This book is definitely worth buying!
Review: I have been "budget-cooking" for a while now and have found there is not one "do-it-all" book for saving money, freezer cooking or simple recipes. I use a variety of cookbooks and pick and choose the recipes we enjoy as a family. Everyone's tastes are different, so the bad reviews I have read here about this book surprised me. Yes, there are a couple of recipes here I probably won't try, but as an experienced frugal cook I found many great hints that saved me time and money, enough so the book went from my library list to one I purchased last month. We enjoy many of the recipes, they are simple to make(I even prepared two weeks worth of meals with my two children underfoot in the kitchen). If you are looking for french cuisine or five star restaurant entrees you won't find them here, but if you need some simple dishes to prepare ahead to save time and money (especially on those hectic soccer game or scout meeting days) this book is a very helpful tool.
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad (and some of the ugly too)
Review: Great idea...cook when you have the time and freeze the meals so you have something on hand for those crazy days when you're short on time. Unfortunately, the plan falls short in the recipe department.
Nearly all the recipes can be halved, so please, please, please test them before you buy ingredients in quantity. You may find, as I did, that some of the recipes just don't taste all that great. Most are bland, at best. However, you can doctor them very easily, IF you have some experience as a cook and know how to do this. Beginning cooks may be lost.
Some of the recipes were just plain inedible and one, a lentil/rice stew, required far more water than the recipe specified...PLUS I had to keep watching the pot since the lentils kept sticking to the bottom. It came out fine but only after I added lots of spices and some extra ingredients.
Rating:
Summary: Mundane recipes but excellent guide to shop, cook & freeze
Review: The concept behind "Frozen Assets" is that you should take one day a month and freeze down finished meals. Then meal preparation daily is a matter of thawing the menu.
The author gives excellent advice on shopping the grocery stores (have you SEEN the prices lately? The oil price increase has caused food prices to go up, as American food is trucked in a long way.) Taylor-Hough tells the reader to check store brands, which in many cases are excellent and even might be made by brand-name manufacturers and just private-labeled. Shopping the sale items can mean many dollars saved off the final total. I concur--we do this and it's amazing how much you save if you are not an impulsive buyer. She also recommends listing the contents of the freezer on the outside on a piece of paper. It is a great idea. Nothing gets lost that way and you can take inventory before you go shopping and most importantly, avoid leaving things too long in the freezer.
The author gives ideas for finding freezers such as ads in the paper and asking around--sometimes people even give them away. In our case, we bought a simple one from the local appliance store when it went on sale. The problem with the side by side or top/bottom fridge freezer is that it is too small and it's typically a no-frost model and tends to damage the food after a while with the defrost cycle. A chest freezer that doesn't automatically defrost is a better bet for long storage.
The book has recipes for dishes like burritos, sloppy joes, meatloaf and meatball base, casseroles, desserts and even a holiday set up. My only quibble is that the recipes aren't things we routinely eat, and are very average recipes at best. But if you follow Taylor-Hough's advice and substitute what you prefer, taking in account that not every finished dish freezes well, then you can take advantage of her system.
A freezer plus cooking for a month (or two weeks, if you choose) can save you time, and money going to fast food, pizza delivery or take-out. I can tell you that following her shopping advice would pay back the cost of a freezer for a family in a couple of months. Try it out.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: With all the rave reviews this book has gotten, I couldn't wait to check it out myself. All I can say is, I'm glad I got it out of the library rather than spending my hard-earned cash on it. I guess it works for some people, but my objections to it are: 1) the advice on how to cook in bulk all seems very obvious to me, 2) the recipes are -- being diplomatic -- very unappealing and 3) the book could have used more editing -- many recipes and much of the advice is repeated several times throughout the book. With the redundancies eliminated, the book would have been about 1/3 as long. I don't need a book to tell me that I should pick several recipes, triple them, write down all the ingredients, check my cupboards for any ingredients I already have, and then buy the rest. I don't need a book to tell me to use large pots when cooking large quantities, or to use freezer containers when freezing things. I certainly don't need a book to tell me (several times) not to shop hungry, and to leave the kids home on shopping day. Then, there's the recipes. I can't imagine cooking any of these recipes even in small quantities, much less in mega-batches. It's hard to pick which recipe is the worst, but my candidate is "Chili Day Meatballs" -- which actually calls for cooking meatballs in a combination of, I kid you not, chili sauce and grape jelly! And to anyone who might try to tell me I should try it before saying it's awful -- I don't have to jump off a tall building to know I wouldn't like it, and I don't have to combine meatballs, chili sauce and grape jelly to know this would be a waste of good ingredients (I have no objection to grape jelly in its place, which as far as I'm concerned is in a PBJ sandwich, not on my meatballs, thank you very much!). And even if you like the recipes and find the advice useful, do you really need them to be repeated 3 or more times? I urge anyone who thinks they might like this book to borrow it from the library first and see for yourself -- you may be very glad that you did!
Rating:
Summary: Cook for a day, oh yea!
Review: I found this book to be very informative - a shopping list is provided and I shopped on a Monday and then began cooking for 30 days on Tuesday. It took me from 7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to complete 26 dinners. I left out the soup. The recipes are easy, kid-friendly (my picky eater loved the mexi-chicken especially) and freeze well. As a home-school mom, I find it difficult to get dinner on the table with teaching, field trips, etc. It is great to know there are a month's worth of dinners in the freezer and the recipes are good, easy to follow, and ones my kids and husband enjoy.
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