Do you know what this is? You might say a really messy freezer. Well, it is. However, I was referring to the month's worth of meals I prepared on my day off on Wednesday! One of my greatest friends Conner (aka stay at home mom extraordinaire) inspired me. Our household spends WAY too much money on eating out simply because of convenience. There are so many nights that I come home from work, and I just opt to order out from pure laziness. Other scenarios are I've neglected to get to the grocery store, or Asher and I are the only ones home (on Mark's second shift rotation) so we entertain ourselves by eating out. No more in 2009! Besides, let's face it. I don't make as much as I did when I was working full time.
I remedied the problem by getting the book Once a Month Cooking. It gives you meal plans, grocery lists, prep plans, and full instructions on how to assemble, store, and serve the dishes. Believe it or not I cook pretty healthy around here so I was able to make each entree Weight Watcher friendly. So far we've eaten 2 dishes, and they have also tasted great!
Now, the book offers 2 and 4 week plans. I did the 2 week since I was nervous about freezer space, and I figured since we aren't scared of a leftover we could draw most dishes out for 2 meals. They typically feed 4-6 people, and picky little Asher won't touch most of it with a ten foot pole.
It was hard work though. I did about 6 hours straight on my feet with no breaks except to go to the restroom. I think next time may go a little smoother though. I have to be honest. There were some major flaws in the book I had to work out. I had read reviews that the new revised version of this book did have problems. It sure did!!! With that said, I had researched several other similar books. This one did seem to be the best. The recipes were simple and good. Some of the other books appeared to be more complicated and expensive to prepare.
Here are some things to consider if you do Once a Month Cooking:
- Inventory your recipes with the grocery list to double check. For example, I had 2 recipes that called for taco seasoning, but the grocery list only had 1. That wasn't a big deal because I just made it homemade which is way better anyway. Also, the chicken amounts and prep was very messed up for my particular menu. There was even a recipe listed on the menu that wasn't even in the book at all!
- Get a kitchen scale. It'll help you from having to guess how much meat for each dish. It was a little frustrating because some recipes would call for 2 pounds worth of cubed chicken which you cubed in bulk before hand. Other recipes called for 4 breasts worth. Hello! They're already chopped up in a pile with the rest! The scale wouldn't help there, but I promise it would come in handy.
- Get one of those Reynolds vacuum sealers. If you don't want to fork out the cash on one of those Food Savers then there's a $7 hand help vacuum sealer that you buy specific freezer bags with. It worked great, and the bags weren't that much more expensive than regular ones.
Our menu this month: Herbed Chicken, Winter Pot Roast, French Stuffed Potatoes, Chicken Nuggets, Playoff Burgers (burgers stuffed with cheese), Spaghetti Soup, Farmer's Casserole (breakfast casserole), Poppy Beef, Country Captain (a maroccan like dish), Black Beans with smoked sausage (basically red beans and rice), Chicken Taco Salad, London Broil, Mexican Chicken Lasagna, Sopa de Maiz (kind of like taco soup)Another good thing...Mark can help "cook" dinner. No excuses:)
