When we did our once a month grocery shopping on Friday. I bought I planned my May meal plan around these meats. One way that I stretch meat is by adding in beans and vegetables for additional bulk. Celery and green peppers are two of my favorite add-ins. They both go with most of the dishes that I make, or they do now since I nearly always add them. To start my meat cooking time I chopped up all the vegetables that I wanted to add to the meat.
Throughout the day I kept my large skillet cranking with my ground meats and vegetables. I also started a large stock pot full of chicken to boil you can read my post on how to boil chicken here.
I cooked brown rice and beans in separate pots on the back burners too. Even though I did not prepare full freezer meals at this point I still have saved myself a huge amount of prep time and mess for making my meals. For example last night I made our homemade chili. I already had my meat, rice and beans cooked. There is no charge for you, in exchange for feedback and t…. Read More. Your ideal freezer temperature varies.
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Once A Month Cooking. Simply put you make ahead enough meals for the whole month. Yup, 30 meals in one day. Sound good? You start with a plan. Seriously, without a good plan you'll have a really long day.
Most OAMC sessions are only for 10 or 15 dishes. Do these ideas sound impossible or just too overwhelming?
Well, Annette felt completely overwhelmed with the idea of Once-A-Month cooking when Steve first mentioned it to her more than 30 years ago. Once-A-Month cooking is a bulk cooking method where you assemble a number of dinner meals in one day to be frozen and then enjoyed throughout the next 30 days. Time and money are saved because common ingredients are sliced and diced at the same time and then distributed into the various meal containers.
For example, carrots, onions or potatoes may be used in 3 or 4 meals and are all cut up at the same time. Further, beef or chicken or some other protein source may be used in a number of meals and prepared in bulk.
Money is saved by avoiding fast-food or take-out meals because dinner is already in the freezer. We are constantly juggling our schedules, errands, work, chores, adult kids, grandkids and maybe even some recreation time. Years ago, Steve spent long hours driving to and from work and client appointments. While driving he listened to audiobooks and talk radio. Of course, like any devoted husband, he immediately came home and presented this great idea as something Annette ought to consider. At that time, we had just two children, who were two and four years old.
Annette was working hard to care for their needs, and to keep our household running smoothly. Remember, she barely knew how to boil water when we got married. But after some time thinking and considering the possibilities, she decided to give it a try. She was completely overwhelmed during her first attempts to follow the instructions contained in the OAMC book. After reading the book, Annette decided that many of the menus and meals they proposed were not for us.
So being a motivated mama, she modified many of our recipes to work with the Once-A-Month cooking concept. The end result of our Once-A-Month Cooking day is 12 to 17 meals that are stored in the freezer and added to the monthly menu.
The meals are usually pulled out the night before or that morning—depending on the time of year to defrost. Later in the day the meal is cooked or heated for dinner that night. The end result of this process is more time on a daily basis for other things. Dinner is already prepared and in the freezer. As a result, meal prep time is minimized and family time is maximized. She also looks at what cuts of meat we already have in the freezer, and items we have stocked in our pantry.
We describe this in our article about meal prepping and menu planning. Watch for a new article coming soon. Normally, Annette will have somewhere between 12 to 17 meals that will be prepared on cooking day. The menu for the other days of the month consists of roasts, chops, leftovers , and other meals that are prepared on the day we eat them. Her menu list usually consists of five beef dishes, six chicken or turkey, two or three pork or ham, and three vegetarian or miscellaneous meals.
These vegetarian meals include: lentil vegetable soup, calzones, eggplant parmesan, or tofu with sesame and ginger stir fry. Cooking day really starts the night before, when Annette pulls out a large slow-cooker and throws in a beef brisket or another easy meal. According to the Once-A-Month Cooking book, this is done so that you start your day off with a meal already completed.
When beef brisket is on sale, we stock up. These make a wonderful meal of brisket with mustard and onion sauce, served over rice, pasta, or baked potatoes with salad or a vegetable side dish. Another option is cooking a Corned beef with the fat removed and slicing it for use in Reuben sandwiches later on in the month. To round out this meal we serve the sandwiches with pickles and sometimes potato chips. The morning of cooking day, we clear the kitchen table and cover it with many 9-byinch glass baking dishes, large plastic containers, and a variety of other baking dishes.
Just choose containers that fit with your family meals. Each is labeled with a piece of masking tape with the name of the meal scrawled in black marker. We even created laminated meal names so that Annette can put them in the appropriate baking dish or container. This helps her remember which meal goes in which container. Next, Annette makes a list of tasks that will need to be accomplished on cooking day.
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