Anyone Do Once a Month Cooking?

[djmj3284]

I'm thinking of starting but am a little intimidated right now. If no-one here does this already and can offer some advice, is anyone interested in starting off with me?

I'm going to plan my first cooking day for 1/23/11. That gives me two weeks to plan meals and look for specials. I'll post recipes and shopping plans as I get closer. I just think it will be more fun with others instead of me trying to come up with enough recipes etc by myself. And of course I have a book but don't want to eat her exact menu for a month.

[dancinmama]

I used to do this. I was only cooking for two at the time. Most of what I would do were casseroles as they seem to freeze best: lasagna, chicken spaghetti, chicken divan, home made chili, etc. I don't know if it's possible, but maybe google 'recipes that freeze well'.

[stillyoung39]

I do a version of this. I tried to do the once a month thing once and ended up spending the whole weekend in the kitchen. It was great to have the meals prepared ahead of time but we found that the portions I had frozen were too much and we wasted a lot of food because of it. I now try to cook a few meals at a time every couple of weeks or so. I love the convenience of having dinner prepared when I get home. I have two teenagers that get home before me and with the meals prepared ahead of time all they have to do is turn on the oven and pop in the dinner. It works out great.

My advice is to make sure that you use the proper size containers so you don't have too much left over after each meal and plan to prepare a fresh side dish with your meals. Casseroles and soups tend to be the easiest to freeze and if you don't have something fresh with it you can get tired of if pretty quickly. Also, have fun with it. Maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to join you for a few hours and you could share recipes. Prep as much as you can before you start cooking, if you have a crockpot use it, and keep track of what you have made so it won't go bad in the freezer because you don't know what is in the pan!

There are a lot of websites that will give you recipes for freezer cooking and once a month cooking.
Good luck!

[Tiny]

I'm single and I've never done a true OAMC blitz - but I have cooked ahead quite abit. I work in "weekly" increments versus "daily" meals - I'm single.
Here's a couple of tips:
1.) Use your calendar to figure out how many meals you will actually need and then choose recipes/freeze in portion sizes. I made the mistake of not doing this and I had to choose between thawing a 5 or 6 serving something when I really only need 3 serves and couldn't "move" the extra 3 to lunches or dinners. (in other words I had too much food for the week).
2.) If you aren't familiar with a recipe and how it freezes/reheats you might want to "experiment" with it before adding it to your OAMC repitiore. If you take it for a test drive you have some of it "fresh" and freeze some of it to see how it thaws/reheats. You can then tweak the recipe if needed. I made a big batch of "beef stew" like stuff with lots of potatos. Unfortunately, it was really bland and I discovered I really disliked the consistency of the potatos after being frozen. I couldn't bring myself to tough out these dinners and wound up doing fast food (I was busy that week - that's why I wanted ready to go food!) as I wasn't prepared to make something else.
3.) be sure to label your packages! For some reason I thought I could remember what was portioned out in the 70's era tupperware versus the 90's era tupperware... but I couldn't.

[Tiny]

Meant to add you could work your way into OAMC by maybe coming up with 2 or 3 dinners a week for the month. That might be more manageable as a "Pilot Test" then jumping in and trying to do a whole month at once.

** I like baked mosticholli it's easy to put together, easy to portion out, and freezes/reheats well. When you thaw and reheat you'll probably want to add extra sauce to it. I open another jar o' sauce OR I pull a container of sauce out of the freezer. The pasta always seems to drink up all the sauce.
Add a fresh green salad and maybe some garlic bread (or have a cup of soup before dinner) and it's a great meal!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

. . o O (Some of us don't even do "once a day" cooking! )

[Agatha]

I don't do "once a month" cooking. I don't think my knees could take it! But I do "extra" cooking whenever possible. (Actually my nephews tell me I don't know how to cook for just three adults.) Tonight I cooked a double batch of vegetarian chili and a batch of kidney beans. We had the chili with cheesy cornbread for supper. I put a quart of chili with beans away for one nephew; 2 lunches for the other, and still had a good quart of chili (without beans) for the freezer. I basically did the same with homemade spaghetti sauce a few days ago. Tomorrow I will put up two batches of "jambalya" mix, which is everything but the rice. All in all, I will have seven meals in the freezer without even trying very hard.

Can anyone tell I love my freezer? ;D

[marvholly]

I, too, am a single. I prefer to do once a week cooking. It lets me take advantage of any grocery/produce/meat specials each week.

I prepare 4/more servings of a dish, eat 1x for dinner, 1x for lunch and freeze 2. After 4-6 weeks you have a variety in your freezer. Just remeber to mark & date everything.

Also, the comment about adding fresh sides is good. I always add 2 of: veg, salad or fruit. They are also pretty quick, esp if the fruit & salad stuff is pre washed/cut up.

[gaultamort]

Once a month, I tried to make a two large batches of our favorite casseroles. Since we're a family of two, I can divide each into at least three or four meals and typically have enough leftover for my lunch. I can't do much more than this though because I just have one freezer. And with a single car garage, there isn't much room for an additional one.

My favorites include chicken spaghetti, veggie chili with cornbread topping, which I make and pour on unbaked, and turkey enchiladas. I totally second testing anything you want to freeze and make a lot of!

I do shop or deals for the ingredients, but I'm short on time. I love the idea of having dinner ready almost as soon as I walk in the door. And I like the fact that my DH can put it in oven #grin#

[tiredboomer]

Sort of. About once a month I make enough of a dish for a 6 - 8 month (or occasionally more) supply. For example, if ground beef is on sale, I might make a huge batch of chili or sloppy joe or spaghetti sauce or a pile of meatloaves. By doing this I pretty much always have a supply of our favorite freezeable meals on hand. I find that doing only one item doesn't take much more time than doing just enough for dinner while trying to do enough different meals for a month can take me all day.

[Malarky]

I do big batch cooking mostly on the weekends but this being a snow day I took advantage.
I had a 10 pound pork loin to process today.
I sliced off and froze 8 pork chops plus...
I have two crockpots cooking and stuff in the oven.
Pulled pork-enough for 4-5 meals (small crockpot).
Small pork roast in the oven for DS to slice for sandwiches all week.
Curried pork and rice, also in the oven, for dinner.
Not related to the pork loin:
Spaghetti sauce 7-8 meals worth (large crockpot).
Plus I put the chicken stock and leftover chicken meat from Sunday dinner in the freezer for future use.

[djmj3284]

you guys are probably right about not trying to do it all in one weekend. Instead maybe I'll try just the ground beef recipes I planned - I already have 24lbs of ground beef browned. That's how I freeze ground beef when I get a good sale ($1.29 for 93% when the butcher was changing the display over to new sale items.
Tomorrow I was planning on making pulled pork anyway. Couple of days dinner on either potatoes or sandwiches and then I get tired of it so the rest goes in baggies in the freezer in one day amounts. So I kindof do the easiest version of this now with meat only. I just need to move up a level to have dishes made instead of meat prepared to go in recipes.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

I have never done once a month cooking, but on Sundays when I cook a good meal, I have enough leftovers to take DH and I through Tuesday's dinner. I am working full time and taking 3 classes right now, and I need most of my weekend for studying, so I am not really sure how to work out meals so we don't end up getting sick of sandwiches every night. I may need to start making excess in a crockpot on Saturdays and Sundays so as to freeze & portion the cooked meat. The crockpot cooking is minimal kitchen time. After a few weeks of that, I should have the freezer stocked with enough variety that all we need to do is take portions out in the morning to thaw in the fridge. DH can easily make sides while I dig in with my studying.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Hmmm...I have also been meaning to ask, what kind of portion sized containers are best for using in the freezer?

[tiredboomer]

The size of the container depends on how many you are feeding and what the food is. I usually feed just the two of us. I use quart freezer containers for some thing like soup and pint ones for a meat dish such as BBQ or sloppy joes. When I make meatloaves I freeze them on cookie sheets; then vacuum pack individually. Cheese I divide into plastic bags. Meatballs or stuffed cabbage rolls I freeze; then place in large plastic bags. Then I can reach in and take out what I need for that meal. Steaks or pork chops are wrapped individually in foil.

[keepinthefaith]

Last year for Christmas, I received a program called "30 Meals in One Day." It includes three recipe books (which give great tips on preparing and freezing food), a computer program, and labels. The computer program includes all of the recipes, and you can add your own, too. Then you select the recipes you want to cook, and it combines them all and creates a shopping list for you! DH and I got together with another couple and cooked all day on MLK day last year. We did our grocery shopping a couple nights prior. It was SO much fun! We only chose 15 recipes and doubled them so each couple got about 4 servings of each recipe. Each couple was in charge of preparing one meal at a time...some in the oven, some in a crock pot (I think we had 4 or 5 crocks going at once), and some on the stove top. The meals lasted DH and I a few months. We're planning on doing it again in a few weeks, and a third couple will be joining us for the fun. Each couple is going to choose and be in charge of 4 recipes.

[kadee]

I've never done a once a month cooking or even once a week. But for years I've always cooked more of certain items & frozen the left-overs for future meals.
Baked ziti w/Italian sausage
Chili
Autumn Soup
Meat loaf
Spaghetti sauce
Beef stew
Sloppy joes
Enchiladas
Pot pies (homemade)

I recently discovered that I can freeze left-over mashed potatoes. When you want to use them...thaw, add just a bit of butter & milk & nuk them to right temp...I stir in there at least once. Taste as good to me as fresh mashed.

I am also doing another thing....cooking a LARGE package of bacon (3 lb)...I put it in the fridge in a zip bag & when I want some, 30 seconds in the micro will crisp it up & warm it plenty! Lots faster than broiling it each time I want some. You could probably freeze it cooked too!

Just had another little thought...the QUALITY of your freezer containers will determine how well you foods freeze as well as how long they can remain frozen! So DON'T skimp when buying freezer containers!!! I use lots of ziplock bags & rubbermaid containers but lots of things are double wrapped or wrapped in plastic/foil & then go into a zip bag.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Okay...I really have to ask. I see people that freeze pasta. My mom used to make chili with elbow noodles in it, and we all hated when it was put in the freezer for future meals because the noodles were just mush. How in the heck do you avoid mushy pasta when it is re-heated after being frozen?

[keepinthefaith]

The key is to not completely cook the pasta before you freeze it, because any moisture in the food you freeze it with will continue to soften it. Leave it rather "al dente." Otherwise, you could make your casserole or soup without the pasta and add it in when you thaw it.

[Tiny]

You can freeze cooked bacon (and even breakfast sausages) and then freeze them. thaw 'em over night and nuke 'em or just nuke the frozen ones. I do this all the time.
If you are single you can do a couple of things with a pound or more of bacon (besides eat it in one sitting ) You can cook it all and then freeze some of it in serving sizes. You can also freeze uncooked slices in "serving" sizes - I use a cereal liner (or waxpaper) between the slices or grouping of slices. This way when I do a recipe that calls for 3 slices of bacon or whatever quantity) - I can pull 3 uncooked slices out of the freezer.


I'll second the freezing of Mashed Potatos. It's even better if you freeze them before you add alot of extra milk/butter/sour cream whatever. Thawed Mashed 'Tatos are really good for "twice baking" - mix the thawed tatos with sour cream/creamcheese some green onions or chives - put into a casserole and bake in the oven until they get brown on top. Mmmm mmmm good!

[djmj3284]

One thing I learned is always label the stuff because after freezing corned beef, pork roasts and even pulled pork all look like lumps of meat and it's sad when you make corned beef taquitos.

[djmj3284]

Jan 14, 2011 10:06:56 GMT -5 keepinthefaith said:

Last year for Christmas, I received a program called "30 Meals in One Day." It includes three recipe books (which give great tips on preparing and freezing food), a computer program, and labels. The computer program includes all of the recipes, and you can add your own, too. Then you select the recipes you want to cook, and it combines them all and creates a shopping list for you! DH and I got together with another couple and cooked all day on MLK day last year. We did our grocery shopping a couple nights prior. It was SO much fun! We only chose 15 recipes and doubled them so each couple got about 4 servings of each recipe. Each couple was in charge of preparing one meal at a time...some in the oven, some in a crock pot (I think we had 4 or 5 crocks going at once), and some on the stove top. The meals lasted DH and I a few months. We're planning on doing it again in a few weeks, and a third couple will be joining us for the fun. Each couple is going to choose and be in charge of 4 recipes.

That sounds really cool do you know where it was purchased? I'm going to go google now.

[Malarky]

Another thing I have in my freezer is 5 pounds of meat loaf burgers. I made them when the ground turkey was on sale and however many people I'm cooking for, I can pull out as many as I need. Sometimes I throw them on the grill, some I cook on the stove top or I can bake them if I happen to be using the oven anyway.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2011 19:36:21 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

I used to do this. I was only cooking for two at the time. Most of what I would do were casseroles as they seem to freeze best: lasagna, chicken spaghetti, chicken divan, home made chili, etc. I don't know if it's possible, but maybe google 'recipes that freeze well'.

All recipies.com is awsome!

allrecipes.com/

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2011 10:06:56 GMT -5 keepinthefaith said:

Last year for Christmas, I received a program called "30 Meals in One Day." It includes three recipe books (which give great tips on preparing and freezing food), a computer program, and labels. The computer program includes all of the recipes, and you can add your own, too. Then you select the recipes you want to cook, and it combines them all and creates a shopping list for you! DH and I got together with another couple and cooked all day on MLK day last year. We did our grocery shopping a couple nights prior. It was SO much fun! We only chose 15 recipes and doubled them so each couple got about 4 servings of each recipe. Each couple was in charge of preparing one meal at a time...some in the oven, some in a crock pot (I think we had 4 or 5 crocks going at once), and some on the stove top. The meals lasted DH and I a few months. We're planning on doing it again in a few weeks, and a third couple will be joining us for the fun. Each couple is going to choose and be in charge of 4 recipes.

Amazon has this......

[Agatha]

Jan 14, 2011 10:24:18 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

Okay...I really have to ask. I see people that freeze pasta. My mom used to make chili with elbow noodles in it, and we all hated when it was put in the freezer for future meals because the noodles were just mush. How in the heck do you avoid mushy pasta when it is re-heated after being frozen?

Cooking it al dente is one solution. I just make it a point to freeze chili (or other sauces) without the beans or the pasta. It avoids the mushy problem altogether but also makes things more versatile, i.e. chili with pasta, chili in a baked potato, chili over burritos, chili with beans. . .you get the picture.