The single biggest lifestyle change I have made since starting my new Life Regime, is freezing meals.

It is the BEST THING since sliced bread (which, being full of carbs, is apparently not quite as good as it’s cracked up to be!).

Here’s why:

On a bad week, I cook two large pots of things on a Saturday or Sunday (these days may vary depending on activities). Spices are my new best friend and it is literally a source of constant wonder to me how many variations of flavors you can get. I now truly believe that anyone who has experimented with spices will probably wind up being an enthusiastic chef. It’s like a science experiment in your own kitchen and the sense of achievement you feel when you re-create one of your favorites without the aid (and disappointment) of a jar or can is pretty darn good.

Anyway, I also cook the right portions or rice and/or mashed kumera/pasta and bust out 5-10 of my wonderful storage containers and a little slop, and little stacking and into the freezer they go.

Which means that for the whole ENTIRE rest of the week, including cold nights, busy days, sicknesses, gathering at a friends house for dinner and any number of other times that I would have (in the dark old days) raced by a takeaway shop, I literally WHIP something out of my trusty old freezer. Each meal is PERFECTLY portioned to have the right combo of meat, veges and carbs and whatever else you’re meant to eat, and is actually yummier and EASIER to get to than any takeaway I can think of.

It gets better though, because over the course of a couple of weeks, you build up several different meals, you can be eating something pretty different at each meal, so you never get bored… And EVEN better! Now Nadine has re-introduced me to the wonderous world of Feta cheese, in 5 extra minutes, you can put together a salad to go with your meal that will change your very notion of what the combination of lettuce, tomatoes and other tasteless veges can achieve. I honestly believe I am eating the best I have ever eaten (outside of when i lived with my parents and had a full time chef on hand – thanks mum!)

Now I have discovered this, I feel sorry for this lovely lady, who has been doing a lot of travelling and as a result was struggling with finding healthy food. I have also heard other people complain that they simply do not have TIME to cook healthy meals every day (and I remember telling myself this same story for years.) It is just so easy to fix!

Frozen meals (and it is surprising what you can freeze) take a while to defrost. So even if you don’t have a fridge handy, if you are going to need dinner on the run, you can have the food out all day without it going scummy.

Revolutionary!

UPDATE: A cooking demo by the wonderful Julia fits nicely with my cooking philosophy!