Once a Month Cooking...sounds like a great idea huh? IT IS! IT REALLY, REALLY IS! My friend Courtney and I have taken on this adventure and we couldn't be happier with the results. Many of you have asked questions so I thought I would share a little info about it. The theory in a nutshell is to cook for a day, eat for a month (or two). Think about it, how many times a month do we do the same things over and over: boil chicken for casseroles, prepare chicken for the grill, chop onions, fry ground beef for spaghetti or tacos, etc.? We all do the same things over and over and over again. Well, OAMC condenses all of your repetitive kitchen behaviors. We decide upon recipes we think both of our families will eat and then double them. One for us and one for them. Sounds like a great plan, right? OAMC helps me stay organized and prepared for that infamous question...What's for dinner?
Today was the big day! I hit the floor running at 6:45 AM (The kids slept late :-). I officially began my cooking day at...
(it was J's Saturday to sleep in so I didn't get started until he got up).
I had my large list of ingredients on hand and a large bottle of...
12 hours later this was my bottle...
and THIS was my freezer...
Finally to bed nearly 12 hours later...
Once we swap on Wednesday, we each will have 20 different meals. Here is our September-October menu...
Poppyseed Chicken x 2
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole x 2
Chicken and Spinach Manicotti
Chicken Pot Pie
Creamy Chicken and Rice
Chicken and Potato Casserole
Nacho Cheese Chicken (courtesy of my good friend Paula Deen)
Lasagna x 2
Baked Spaghetti x 2
Sloppy Joes
Taco Soup
Baked Enchilada Casserole (P. Deen)
Goulash
Layered Meatball Casserole (P. Deen)
Deep Dish Pizza Casserole
We made 10 meals each. This month I was chicken and she was the beef. ha. the beef. Sorry Court. We rate the recipes from 1-5 to decide which are keepers and which are LOSERS. Over the next two months we will eat these OAMC meals along with grilling, Wednesday night church meals, a few eating out nights and simple supper nights. The good news: all of the labor intensive meals are done and I am free to spend that time with my family instead of cooking and cleaning my kitchen. The time and MONEY we are saving is well worth the 12 hours of hard work. Can't wait to start taste testing...
Saturday, September 1, 2007
OAMC...
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4 comments:
can I sign up???
I'm very interested....I need to know how this turns out...don't have anyone to swap with but I can fix that if its worth it! =) Keep us posted...
Just wanted to chime in here and say that this rocks! When we did it last, my family ate well for a month, at least... minimal eating out (which is a crutch that we use TOO often). Also, I spent $160 this time in groceries to prepare 20 meals. Granted, I have a freezer full of ground beef that I didn't have to pay for... but that probably would have added no more than $50. You can do the math and see that this that this really saves you.
So it's economical, it time-saving, it's delicious and FUN. Well, maybe I'm lying just a little bit about the fun part. =)
Misty,
I want the receipes. Do you just freeze all of it? Or the next time your cooking, I'll pay you to just prepare mine, lol. We never have anything at night because of our busy schedule.
Love you,
Aunt Linda
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