about to start Once A Month Cooking..tips?? (Update #13, 20, 24, 25)

[elephantmeg]

-good luck!
-If you are freezing stuff in pans (so they hold their shape-ie lasagne) you'll want to line them with something-parchement paper or something so they pop out once they are hard frozen
-make sure you have the right amounts. I once substituted tsp for dashes and ended up with really spicy chicken casserole! A friend LOVED it though, lol. The kids, not so much!
-make sure you have enough room cleared out in your freezer
-label your bags before you put the food into it (once they have warm food in them the marker doesn't work as well)
-have one set of measuring stuff for wet and one for dry and just rinse the wet set as needed. I put them on a plate in between times (especially for measuring spoons). That will save you a lot of dishes.
-keep a sink of soapy water so you can wash and go
-It looks overwhelming but really I think this method is so much easier than any other cooking and really feels rewarding. But plan on cooking a meal of it for supper or ordering pizza. You will not want to cook tonight!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Would you all mind posting the book you are using specifically?

Here is the one I found at Sam's Club 2 years ago - OAMC Family Favorites. Some of the meals aren't our favorites, and you would have thought I might have made notes to substitute or whatever...but I didn't. I think I've done almost all the meal plans now. Need to schedule another one very soon.

Good luck today, OP!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

..and i'm finally done!! Wow, that was a cooking marathon .. i have never made that many things in my life! It was very exhausting, but so worth it..freezer is now fully stocked and i don't have to worry about prepping dinners for the next month or so!! here is a pic of my freezer... most of the stuff goes in gallon-sized freezer bags so there is not a lot of wasted space.



today it took me about 8 hours to do everything (and i had already chopped up onions, veggies last night, thankfully!). i had to take a lot of breaks to nurse DD, get something to eat, clean up in between and then wait for DH to get off work once the nanny left. Now i'm just kicking back for a bit while DH cleans up

oh and WTG and elephantmeg, thank you for the tip re: labeling the freezer bags beforehand, that totally helped..yeah, it would have been really hard to write on the bag with food already in it!

i think eventually i want to get sheet protectors and put copies of all the recipes in a binder, so i can easily flip through it while i'm cooking. i had sheets of paper all over the place that got kinda trashed with everything. i have a stainless steel fridge, so i can't use magnets to hold up the sheets, plus i wanted something in front of me that i could easily flip through. i did tape up a few things on the fridge (like the overall instructions) but i think a binder might be nice...

[elektra]

Looks great ms. Pacman!

[twowhat?]

Ok I'm curious for another update on whether the meals are actually tasty!!

[WatchingThemGrow]

I would say that >90% of mine were. I'm not a fan of Italian Sausage, and that was used in 2 dishes last time. A substitution of something yummier would bring that up.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Ok I'm curious for another update on whether the meals are actually tasty!!

LOL i am curious about this too! Yesterday we went out to eat and i had those leftovers for lunch today, so i haven't really had a chance to try them. DH had one of them (the Taco Soup) for lunch today and he said it was good, but my DH will eat *anything*. LOL. Will update after i've tried a few of them.

[overcome]

Reading this thread piqued my interest in this cooking ahead idea. I've gone to The Dinner A'Fare, which is a meal prep place, and I loved it!

I found this book which is going right on my Christmas list... Fix, Freeze, Feast. I downloaded the digital copy from my library and it sounds FABULOUS! The recipes use very little processed foods, they provide the labels (to photocopy) for the bags, and the whole book seems very well organized.

I just wish I had some people I could team up with to share meals (I just moved here and don't really know anyone yet).

[karstmama]

how is your family enjoying the meals, ms pacman?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

ok, so i've tried four of the meals now. my DH is out of town, so he's only had i think 3 things. He liked all of them, LOVED one of them (chili hamburgers). I'm way pickier than he is..I say they're pretty decent meals, so far (i still have 10 more to try!). The curry chicken that i had today, my toddler DS happily ate it for lunch and dinner, so that says something!

A couple of the meals i thought weren't *great*, but i think that could be easily fixed with some tweaking of the recipes..the first time around, there's a lot of guesswork, at least there was for me...i'm not a good or experienced cook by any stretch, and there were a handful of things that i had never prepared anything like it before.

Anyway, I think it's working out well so far..I really like not having to stress out every day at 5pm about what to make for dinner, or having to take time on weekends to do meal planning/grocery shopping. pretty much now i just have to grocery shop for things like milk, bread, fruit, and such. i am definitely going to be doing this again. i am going to buy the other book too (the family favorites one).