Frozen Assets

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m producing a show in the Absolut Fringe Festival. It’s keeping me on my toes ( along with the day job and family life) so I’ve been trying to use my time wisely and plan meals in advance. I had some quality time at home this weekend, so I decided to do some bulk cooking and freezing. This evening now finds me relaxing in front of The Sunday Game with a glass of wine safe with the knowledge that this week’s meals are done & dusted.

I started off by thinking about breakfast. Cereal is all well and good, and I do love my Special K, but it always leaves me wanting. I find that if I don’t have some kind of bread with my breakfast, I give in to the morning munchies and end up having a pastry with my eleven o’clock coffee – not good for training. So I used up the last of the garden’s summer bounty and baked a lovely batch of Rhubarb Muffins from Rachel Allen’s Food at Home and some Zucchini Bread from her brilliant Bake. The loaves of bread were sliced in half, double-wrapped  in cling film, and popped into the freezer. Muffins were popped into Ziploc bags and frozen as well. I’ll take them out the night before, leave them to defrost on the counter, and voila – breakfast!

On the savoury baking front, I also made two loaves each of brown soda bread and cheddar & bacon bread, which I’ll save for nights when we’re having some of the Minestrone and Lentil & Onion soup that I whipped up. (Seriously…I spent my entire weekend cooking…I barely ate!) Finally, I made the piece de resistance…an enormous lamb tagine a la Rachel Allen’s Easy Meals. (Do I have a Rachel Allen addiction? Maybe, but if admitting a problem is the first step to solving it, I don’t wanna!) This tagine will do us for at least three separate meals, and makes my entire family enormously happy. Served with cous cous, the ultimate fast food, it’s a great freezer treat. Here is one version of it, although if you have Easy Meals, which I highly recommend, give that recipe a try, as it uses dried apricots, which I love.

Last, but certainly not least…I also made a sweet treat to have on hand in case I need to brighten an upcoming production meeting, thank a co-worker, or keep the hubby sweet as I keep some looooong hours at work: these Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies. They pretty much speak for themselves – super easy and sinfully delicious…try them. But don’t make the mistake of just making a single batch – double the recipe so you have some left for the freezer, because you will eat several straight from the oven…guaranteed.