Once a month cooking

Spring seems to be peeking out her head here in north Texas this morning. All the sunshine and warmer weather gets my creative juices flowing. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be rearranging some furniture soon.

One thing I've been wanting to tackle again for the last few years is once a month cooking. When the kids were little a friend introduced me to the concept. What a time saver. It's nice to be able to pull something out of the freezer in the morning, pop it in the oven at 5:00 and have dinner done. It's especially great for those busy days when time is at premium, but another bowl of cereal for dinner just won't cut it.

Though cooking day is a LOT of work, it's worth it. You mess your kitchen up one time rather than every day...less pots to wash and less daily clean-up. Since I enjoy cooking, I usually save the freezer meals for the busyness of the weekday, reserving the weekends for grilling and trying fun new recipes.

I think I'll ease back into it and try making just a few recipes. A whole month's worth is probably biting off more than I can chew the first time around. Here's what's on the menu for the next couple of weeks:

1. Sweet and sour meatballs

2. Spaghetti and meatballs (make a large batch of meatballs for #1 & #2)

3. Hamburger stroganoff

4. Pizza casserole

5. Cheese stuffed meatloaf

6. Lime pepper chicken

7. Orange ginger chicken

8. Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese

How about you? Ever tried OAMC? Care to share your favorite recipes?

I'm off to Wal-Mart to do my shopping...on a Saturday...prayers would be appreciated.

And we ate...

We're home from our Mexican cruise and while my body seems to be present, I'm fairly certain my brain was left somewhere on a beach in Cabo. I can still smell the salt and sunshine. Sigh...

This would be the part where I show you all our wonderful pictures of sand and surf, except that would mean I would have to download them off my camera. Which would mean I would have to find the cord to connect my camera to the computer. Come to think of it, where is my camera? The piles of laundry beckon and the children need to be taught, so the pictures will remain trapped until another time.

The time away with my amazing husband was...sigh...well, amazing!

We slept in.
We ate.
We snorkeled.
We ate.
We breathlessly watched a pod of whales jumping and playing.
We sat on our balcony and marveled at the magnitude of the sea.
We wandered hand in hand along the beach and rode in a "Mexican limousine" .
We survived a "bargain" excursion in the ghetto of Mazatlan and lived to tell about it! Thanks Terry!
We searched for "el plato" and then...ate some more.

Isn't that why you go on a cruise...to eat? If there was some other purpose, I'm afraid we may have missed it. Along with all the amazing food, we laughed - a lot. We were reminded of friendship and 20 amazing years together and thanked God for each and every one.

Then we celebrated with another buffet!