Does anyone do the once a month cooking? I have been looking into it and was wondering how it works for you. Thanks! This forum is great!

-- Jennifer (puppythor@hotmail.com), January 20, 2002

Answers

I use a lot of the once a month cooking concepts in my kitchen. I only go grocery shopping once a month and buy in bulk so that prods me along with the concept.

Whatever I cook, I cook big and freeze leftovers in dinner sized quantities.

Except when I am cooking big, most my dinners take less than 1/2 hour to get to the table.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), January 21, 2002.

I do my own variation on once a month cooking. Trying to do everything in one day was too intense for me, so now I spread it out over a weekend. This past weekend was my chicken weekend. The grocery had whole fryers on sale for 59 cents a pound so I bought 5 of them. On Friday I put them in a big pot, cooked them down, and pulled all the meat off of the bones. On Saturday I put together chicken and rice casserole, chicken and stuffing casserole, and spicy/sweet chicken breasts. On Sunday I made chicken and cheese stuffed shells and chicken pot pies. Now I have a month's worth of chicken meals.

I also do a hamburger weekend where I make meatloaf, meatball stroganoff, spaghetti sauce, lasagne, and baked ziti. That's another month's worth of meals.

This way of cooking can save you a lot of money if you plan ahead. I have a master shopping list for the chicken meals and the hamburger meals. Whenever something on the list goes on sale I buy it. (I also keep a price book so I know if a sale is good or not). By the time the freezer starts getting bare I usually have all the supplies I need for another session.

Once a month cooking sounds intimidating but if you start slow it's not that bad. I work 2 jobs and go to school and I can still manage it. It is so nice to get home at night and know that dinner is already made. :)

I also have a plan for once a month baking, but that's going to have to wait until I get a bigger freezer.

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), January 21, 2002.