Once A Month Cooking, Part 2

How I Began

I first started by sitting down to make a master list of my family's favorite meals.  I just thought it through without looking at cookbooks or online recipes.  That way I knew it would be the TOP favorite meals and the most go-to dishes.  I didn't think it would be many, but I ended up with 18!  I realized I could stop there, but that wasn't quite a month.  So why not double 18 and end up with more than a month rather than think up more meals?  Wouldn't that be nice??  I printed out a table with all of the meals to have on my fridge.  I did NOT use a calendar or date the boxes of the table.  Leftovers are bound to become a meal, and what if I wanted to try a new recipe one week or we ate somewhere else one night?  Then the whole dated meals would be thrown off.  This way, I could just move through the meals one at a time.

My 36 Meals... Fish 'n Chips was added as a reminder Hubz likes it.
So I might throw it in somewhere for his sake.
Do feel free to read through the meals if you want ideas of what can be done!

Once I had my menu, I then began the monumental-but-doable task of assembling my grocery list.  I made up a blank list with categories based upon my grocery store's layout (something I use every time I shop).  Then I went through each recipe, writing down the double amounts of each food item in the right category.  Only write down ingredients that will not perish: meats to freeze, canned goods, pasta, baking supplies, spices, etc.  (You'll buy produce and other perishable ingredients each week.)  Then if a food item repeats in recipes, just increase the amount on your list.  Very basic and easy, just time consuming.  At the end, you'll have what might be the biggest grocery list you've ever made.  But that's ok!  Think of how little time and money you'll spend at the store for the rest of the month!

Before I started the grocery list, I went through on my table and penciled in how much meat each meal would use on the first 18 meals.  I would use 4 chicken breasts for BBQ Chicken x 2 would mean I 'd need 8 chicken breasts on my grocery list for two meals of BBQ Chicken.  Spaghetti would use 1/2 pound hamburger x 2 meals, so I needed 1 pound of hamburger for two meals of spaghetti.  And so on.  I hope this isn't confusing anyone!  Do what works for your brain.  It just made it easier for me to add up the meat poundage for my list AND know how much to allocate to each freezer meal once I had it home for preparation.  'Twould be a shame to get all that meat home and not remember how many pounds went with each meal.  Talk about feeling lost!

Initial Tips

1) Make sure you don't make more meals than your freezer can hold!  If we hadn't had an extra fridge in our garage from when friends were living with us, I would have gotten seriously stuck in this process!  I hadn't even though about how much our freezer would hold (or not).  :-)  After we had been through a few days of meals, I was able to fit it all in our own freezer.  Whew!  And we got rid of the extra fridge... so I need to really think through storage space for my next OAMC!

2) Be sure to purchase storage items: parchment paper, aluminum foil, freezer zip-top bags in both gallon and quart size.  It is also helpful to have a cookie sheet that will fit into your freezer.  This helps liquids in zip-top bags freeze flat instead of with ridges from the wire shelves.

3) Carve out a good chunk of hours for the shopping and cooking.  I did my shopping and cooking over two days, and it ended up being about 12 hours total for work time.  It would have been a bit more if I hadn't forgotten to purchase the Italian sausage for the lasagna.  So add maybe 2 hours (my sauce simmers for 1.5 hours).

4) Figure out which part of the recipes you can prep/freeze.  Here are a few examples:

• Asian Beef w/ Broccoli & Rice: roast can be frozen in zip-top bag with marinade; prep frozen broccoli and rice day of.
• Chicken Pot Pie, Fruit:  filling can be made and frozen (do NOT freeze raw potatoes...subtract two meals from my menu above); pie crusts can be frozen or made day of; purchase fruit week of.
• Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread:  sauce and garlic bread can be made and frozen; prep noodles, salad day of.
• Chicken Tortilla Chili: chicken can be boiled, cubed, then frozen; combine with canned goods and broth day of.  (beans can also be made and frozen if canned is not desired)

So now would be a time to get started on your own menu if you're interesting in trying this!  Go in easy.  Think of meals today, and write them down.  Do your list on another day.  Plan your shopping the next day.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  :-)

Next, I'll talk about a few tips on how to cook and freeze all the food!