I spent a little time last Wednesday assembling meals for my first Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) adventure. I only had a couple of hours when Emma was at preschool, and I was working around the guys who were installing our new bathtub. In fact, the new bathtub was sitting in the middle of my kitchen as I was cooking! I just though of it as an upside-down island but didn’t use it as part of my work surface. (Note to Self: Don’t try to do a big cooking session when there is a large bathtub in your kitchen.)
I didn’t get through my whole list before preschool pickup time, but I was proud of everything I got done. Here’s what’s in our freezer now.
Homemade Pizzas (4 meals’ worth of crust dough)
Marinated/Grilled Chicken Meals (2 meals worth)
– Enough chicken left from these meals for 2 Grilled Chicken Salad Meals
Southwestern Chicken Wraps (2 meals worth)
Bean Casserole with cornbread (2 meals)
Meatloaves (2 meals)
Chicken Sausage Stew
Crock Pot Teriyaki Pork Roast (2 meals)
Crock Pot Potato Soup
So far, we’ve eaten the potato soup, one meal’s worth of the Teriyaki Pork Roast, and one round of Southwestern Chicken Wraps. So I currently have enough food in my freezer for another 15 meals. I also have fish for two fish meals that will be made on my days off. I couldn’t think of a way to make those ahead of time.
My plan is to spend a little bit of time this week finishing up the rest of my to-do list:
Meatless Lasagna (2 meals)
Italian Stuffed Shells ($5 Dinner Mom’s Recipe)
Cheesy Beef & Rice Casserole (Heavenly Homemaker’s Recipe)
That will give me another 4 meals to add to my stash, and – since we have a couple of traveling days coming up – that should get us through the rest of this month.
I’m truly amazed at how little effort it took to get all of this stashed away! I didn’t spend days upon days getting it ready. Maybe that was because I chose meals that were easy to prep. Maybe it’s because I made myself a little chart to organize it all. Who knows? But I’m totally sold on the idea of prepping meals once a month and reaping the rewards of it for the weeks to come!
That said, here’s what’s on the menu for this week.
Monday:
Leftover Teriyaki Pork Roast
Leftover Green Beans
Baked Yams
Tuesday:
Broiled Tilapia Parmesan
Oven Fries
Broccoli
Wednesday:
Meatless Lasagna
Salads
Thursday:
Leftover Lasagna
Salads
Friday:
Homemade Pizza
Saturday:
Grilled Chicken (weather permitting)
Veggie Kabobs
Sunday:
Meatloaf
Baked Yams
Salads
If you’re looking for some Once a Month Cooking inspiration, stop by Money Saving Mom or Life As MOM.
If you’re looking for some general menu planning inspiration, stop by Menu Plan Monday hosted by I’m an Organizing Junkie.
i have often thought about a once a month cooking spree…haven’t quite convinced myself yet!! 🙂 but i think its great, keep us posted about how it works out!! 🙂
I really thought it would take longer than it did. That’s why I put off trying it for so long. But I was getting tired of being tired of cooking. So I figured I’d give it at least one shot to see how it worked out, and I’m really finding it to be a HUGE help! If you’re not sure about diving into a whole month’s worth of meals, you might start with just two weeks instead. I could handle cooking just once every two weeks.