The hard truth about eating right is that it’s never more important than when everyone is to busy to worry about it.
When life is busy, it can be hard to find the time to prepare balanced meals. We can’t change that, so we end up turning to take-out or prepared foods that are often high in fat and salt. (For a taste of what that in turn can do to our health, read “Just a pinch of salt” by Marie Berry on page 48.)
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There may be another option, however. Three women from Medicine Hat, Alta. have figured out a way to get back in control. It started in 1997 when, with favourite recipes in hand, Joanne Smith, Deanna Siemens and Lorelie Thomas got together to see if they could mass produce dinners instead of everyone having to start from scratch every day.
It worked. At the end of that first day, the three friends went home with enough main courses to feed each of their families 20 suppers.
Based on requests from friends and family, they published their recipes in 2005 in a cookbook appropriately called THE BIG COOK. To date they’ve already sold more than 30,000 copies across Canada.
They’ve created a website too at where they actually produce eight beef meals in five minutes. The website also includes Facebook links so you can join their discussion group and pump them and their readers for extra tips.
Thomas says the three women are their own best customers. Between them, they have 11 children (10 boys and one girl) and a non-stop agenda of sports, church, club meetings and more.
By following THE BIG COOK recipes, Thomas says, three people working together can produce a month’s worth of dinners, including chicken, pork and beef selections.
THE BIG COOK cookbook makes it easy by itemizing everything including grocery lists and the different quantities of ingredients needed for feeding different numbers of people. Each of the meals is frozen raw and can then be popped into the slow cooker or oven when needed.
The time-saving concept is simple, Thomas says. It takes about 15 minutes to make one meal using the recipes in the cookbook. However, it only takes
