5 Steps to EASY Once a Month Cooking

I spent just 2.5 hours this morning preparing 10 meals for my family's freezer. Instead of messing the kitchen up to make dinner 10 different times, I messed it up all at once and got it all done!  Think about how much time you spend each evening making/cleaning up dinner.  Maybe an hour total?  That would be 10 hours to get done what OAMC gets done in under three.  Despite the craziness of homeschooling and various afternoon/evening activities, we can still eat good, home cooked meals.  That makes this mamma happy.

The key to once a month cooking (OAMC) is planning and prep.  If you do this step correctly, the assembly goes much more smoothly.  Here are a few quick tips to get you started.

1. Choose recipes you are already familiar with.  Yes, you can look on-line and find a plethora of OAMC recipes, but choosing 10 new recipes to assemble on cooking day will slow you waaaay down.  Instead, look over your family's favorites and see which ones might freeze well.  Soups, stews, casseroles, sloppy joes, quiche, crockpot favs, chicken in marinade...most recipes will freeze fairly well.  If you want to try a new recipe, consider limiting it to one or two each cooking session.  If the family likes them, you can add them to your regular rotation.

2. Decide where in the cooking process you will freeze each meal.  I don't like my meals to taste like leftovers, so if I'm assembling a casserole I put it together and freeze prior to baking.  This way when I take it out of the freezer I just defrost and bake.  Right now I have Salisbury steak patties and Ranch chicken I am flash freezing and will bake when we're ready to eat them.

3. Prepping is the key.  I list out how many pounds of hamburger I need to brown, how many onions I need to chop, how many pounds of cheese I need to grate, etc.  Keep this list handy to work from.  Taking the time to chop all the onions at once instead of each time you need them saves loads of time...and sanity.  

4. Lay out each recipe with the ingredients.  I'm a visual person, so this helps me IMMENSELY with assembly.  When I start putting it all together I'm not scrambling all over the kitchen and pantry to find what I need - it's right there. Makes the process super fast.

5. Gallon Ziplock freezer bags are your new BFF.  Just label with the recipe name and date and pop the meals in the freezer. These freeze flat and don't take up too much space. The only thing I ever freeze in a baking dish would be lasagna or something I need to layer.  Even the quiches fit nicely into the bag and freeze very well.

Now to relax.  After all morning in the kitchen, hubby's taking me out to dinner! :-)

Once a month cooking - oh yeah!

In my freezer sits 13 meals ready to feed my constantly hungry family.  It took just three hours this morning to put them all together and another hour to clean the kitchen.  My kids said it was just like watching iron chef...only the iron chef was wearing jammies!

I'll supplement the meals with other quick fix dinners, a couple of times eating out and a couple of YOYO nights (Your On Your Own), so the 13 meals will probably last three to four weeks. 

That's 13 nights of not having to figure out what to cook for dinner. 

13 nights of not having to mess up my kitchen or wash pots and pans. 

13 nights of less stress. 

Oh yeah!

Here's what's on the menu:

Tangy Pork Chops
Marinated Pork Roast
Penne pasta with meat sauce
Sweet and Sour meatballs
Swedish meatballs
Hamburger Stroganoff
2 types of quiche
Tater Tot Casserole
Cheese stuffed meatloaf
Rojo Casserole
Honey Lime chicken
Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

Tomorrow I'll post a few tips for making the OAMC experience less stressful...dare I say, even fun!  Right now I need a nap...and a cookie.

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.

OAMC = sanity

Several years ago a friend introduced me to the joys of once a month cooking. The thing I enjoyed most was always having the answer to the age old question, "Mom, what's for dinner?" Knowing my freezer was stocked with healthy, homemade meals gave me peace of mind and peace in my checkbook.

Because of different circumstances, I have not done OAMC in several years...until yesterday. I started out slowly, choosing several simple dishes and doubling them. Without much effort, I was able to put eight meals in our freezer. While the initial outlay of time can be a bit exhausting, the rewards FAR out weight the drawbacks.

With summer coming, I will be able to spend our afternoons at the pool and still have a great dinner waiting when we get home. That is an awesome thing ladies!

Here is one new recipe I tried last night. It was a huge hit, even with our picky eaters.

French Fry Casserole

2 lbs. hamburger (saute with garlic, onions, peppers...whatever you want to add)

1 package Lipton onion soup mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 pint sour cream

corn

cheddar cheese

crinkle fries OR tater tots

Mix first four ingredients and spread in the bottom of a 9x13" pan.

Sprinkle corn on top

Add tots or fries

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Turn broiler on for last couple of minutes to brown fries. Sprinkle cheese on top.

If you were going to freeze this dish, mix all ingredients except for fries and cheese then freeze. When you are ready to cook, simply thaw, layer potatoes on top and bake.

What's your favorite OAMC recipe? Please share!