Once-a-Month Cooking, Anyone?

[BadgerGirl84]

I am intrigued by the idea of doing once-a-month cooking. The basic idea is that you do one big cooking day on a weekend and make enough food (or at least starters like ground beef for chili, tacos, etc.) for a month. You freeze the food and thaw/cook as needed.

It seems like it would be a huge time-saver not do a lot cooking in each evening and also good for your budget. Eat out less because there is food ready to go at home and also you can buy meat in bulk and use it up in the recipes.

We have a chest freezer and are members of Costco so I think I have the necessary "tools."

Has anyone does this? What were your experiences? Was the day of slaving away in the kitchen worth it? Any specific books you'd recommend...I see there are a lot out there on the topic.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

What an interesting idea. It would probably be a long day in the kitchen but it sure would be nice not to have to cook the rest of the month. I will be interested in what other people's experiences have been.

 

[andrews_dad]

We cook once per week. One weekend evening. Wait for kids to sleep, cook until done. Kids (3 years and 1 year) usually asleep by 7:30, cook until 1 or 2 AM. Get 7-12 days out of it, depending on how many meals get out of each. We have online grocery stores so order online and they pick and pull, load into back of car for you in designated spots up front of lot. $5 charge. Pretty easy to do with recipes in hand. Makes for late night once a week, but my wife is a regional manager that works 6AM-7PM Monday through Friday every week and kids asleep at 7:30-8, so we have no way to cook otherwise.

 

[mom2maggie]

I have a friend that writes for the Once A Month cooking blog - I just can't get into it!

 

[RangerPooh]

A girlfriend and I attempted to do something similar for our families. It took the bulk of the weekend but what each of us took home were 3 large trays of enchilada, two large trays of rigatoni, and 1 tray of manicotti. Plus we made two large freezer bags full of twice baked potatoes. While it certainly wasn't a months worth of food. it did help. Each tray was good for two nights dinners. Plus the baked potatoes were a nice side dish. I would definitely try this again. Perhaps next time I might prepare/freeze dishes like sloppy Joe and taco meat that just need to be reheated later.

 

[Sadie22]

I have two large freezers. I cook in bulk, for example purchasing and cooking 30 to 40 pounds of lean ground beef (at rock bottom price) at a time, then making and freezing chili, taco filling, spaghetti sauce, meat loaf, meat balls and lasagna. I also will buy chicken breast meat when on sale at rock-bottom price, portion it in meal-size or recipe-size quantities (for example, cut into one-inch pieces), and freeze. I had the first OAMC recipe book and tried some of the recipes, but they were not all to my family's tastes. I use the methods but not so much the recipes. I have a lot of meals in my freezers that any member of the family can heat up before we sit down together, as well as the ingredients for recipes we prefer.

Since I was diagnosed with diabetes, this method allows me to prepare healthy meals that meet my requrements and get all the mess out of the way at one time. My husband does a lot of the cleanup when I'm batch-cooking. I have a lot of single servings of homemade soup in the freezer for my lunches. I also make large batches of muffins and freeze them so I can take out one or two at a time.

 

[disny_luvr]

I honestly can't imagine cooking for a day and/or weekend to prepare a month's worth of meals. That said, I did recently do something like this on a much smaller scale. Me and a friend got together on a Saturday and cooked lasagna, chicken enchiladas, bar-b-que, mini-meatloaves, beef barley soup and vegetable soup. Some of the meals we prepared entirely and froze and other meals we just assembled and kept until ready to make. We enjoyed ourselves greatly and it only took us about four hours. It was nice to have a quick go-to meal when time was short; she made three meals as did I and then we split the meals so we both had six meals. We actually were just talking about doing another day of cooking to stock up our freezers. We might add another meal or two since things went so well the first time. I don't think I'd want to cook anymore than that; like a whole month's worth, but that is just me. I'd see about getting a friend involved; that way she can cut your meal prep in half but you get more meals to freeze and eat later. I think it also makes the time more enjoyable.

I am thinking about starting to brown beef and things to keep in my freezer that I can pull out when needed. We'll see.

 

[wovenwonder]

I find it easier to just cook bulk once or twice a week depending what I find on sale. For instance, I picked up 10 lb of b/s chicken breast today and they will be made into Stuffed Chicken Breasts tomorrow for the freezer. It will be enough for many meals and doesn't take much more time than what it would take to make one meals worth. I try to do something similar weekly and as my freezer supply builds up I really only have to cook once or twice a week and the balance of the nights I pull something out that was previously frozen. Sometimes I actually go a week or two without cooking anything new and we have plenty to eat out of the freezer.

 

[erikawolf2004]

I have friends that get together every other week and do a group cooking, usually get a couple of nights dinner out of it. They rotate who hosts/buys the food and picks the recipes. They have a great time and are exposed to different recipes. Unfortunately I work on the days that they get together so I can't join them, but they are nice and share the recipes I would start out doing maybe 2-3 different recipes at once, just double or triple them. It really isn't that much more work to double or triple a recipe while making it, but makes it great to have all those go to meals in your freezer.

I would check out the ratings of books like "Dream Dinners", "Super Suppers", etc on Amazon and then check a couple of books with high rates from your local library.

Good luck....now I'm getting motivated to do this again...I haven't done something like this in a while.

 

[MrsPete]

I tried this a couple times and couldn't get into the swing of it . . . then I started going to one of those places that plans it all for you. They were popular a few years ago: Dream Dinners, My Girlfriend's Kitchen, etc. I went a couple times, and I kind of got the idea of what kind of foods to prepare. Turns out, I was trying to make a totally prepared meal, ready to pop into the oven -- most of the meals are more like 80-90% prepared ahead of time. It's super-easy and fun, and you come home with a variety of meals for the next couple weeks.

But those places are pretty expensive, so I started doing "batch cooking" at home. This is a much better deal for me:

When I find something on sale, I buy a bunch of it, and I make 5-6 of the same meal. It's easier to plan than a variety of meals, and it doesn't take as much time to prepare.

Things that freeze well:

Cooked chicken in broth with uncooked vegetables -- this is ready to turn into chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup or chicken/rice casserole.

Sauces to go over chicken -- fry small pieces of boneless/skinless chicken in a frying pan, add the sauce at the end.

Browned ground beef with onion, pepper, and a few other seasonings. This is ready to become spaghetti sauce, topping for pizza or potatoes, or lots of other meals.

Enchilladas or burritos -- freeze ready to go.

Meatballs in marinara sauce.
Lasagna.

One last thought: You need some sort of system to keep up with how many meals are left in your freezer. They don't have an infinite shelf life, and throwing away too-old food negates any time/money savings that you hoped to realize.

 

[scbelleatheart]

I collect cookbooks. I know, what a dumb hobby, but so does my sister and she can't cook!
My absolute favorite cookbook is Make-A-Mix. It has tons of recipes to make in bulk to cut down on actual meal prep! Cookie dough for 12 dozen cookies you can roll and slice for a dozen at a time. Seasoning mixes, master recipes for meatloaf, meatballs, etc.
The next favorite is Fix, Freeze, Feast for all day cooking marathons to make and freeze with a great variety. Both are under $10 on Amazon.
I have 3 refrigerators and 1 upright freezer and all I have to do is open the door and thaw. It's a little more difficult now that all my kids moved away but they come home and stock up on freezer food to take back so they don't have to cook often. My pantry could feed a family of four for a year. They help themselves to that too!

 

[worm761]

I tend to batch cook anything that will freeze well. For instance, after Thanksgiving we had turkey pot pie. The filling is not all that different than turkey noodle soup so I froze half. I will thaw that out tomorrow and make noodles to add to it. When I make red sauce I tend to make a big batch. It can be used on pizza, in calzones, spaghetti, stuffed shells/ manicotti, or meatball subs.

I cannot stand in the kitchen all day once a month and cook. I used to work in a restaurant and have no desire to do that now that I am at home. But it really isn't that hard to double or triple a recipe. After a few nights of doing that, you should start getting a nice little stock pile in your freezer of easy meals.

 

[walkdmc]

I did it once and bought 2 cookbooks in preparation for what I thought would be a routine, LOL.

It was a looong day, preceeded by a lot of running around to get the needed ingredients. I had 2 trashcans going and TONS of dishes, TONS, when it was all done. I did it about 3 years ago and my memories were, throbbing feet and my kids didn't like the enchiladas we were stuck eating once a week for the following 3 weeks.

My recommendation is to have a huge trashcan at your disposal....like an outside-size can, good freezer bags - don't skimp on those, and before you cook 4 of the same dish, make sure it's something you'll want to eat again, LOL...so make a small serving first.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Things that freeze well:

Cooked chicken in broth with uncooked vegetables -- this is ready to turn into chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup or chicken/rice casserole.

Sauces to go over chicken -- fry small pieces of boneless/skinless chicken in a frying pan, add the sauce at the end.

Browned ground beef with onion, pepper, and a few other seasonings. This is ready to become spaghetti sauce, topping for pizza or potatoes, or lots of other meals.

Enchilladas or burritos -- freeze ready to go.

Meatballs in marinara sauce.
Lasagna.

One last thought: You need some sort of system to keep up with how many meals are left in your freezer. They don't have an infinite shelf life, and throwing away too-old food negates any time/money savings that you hoped to realize.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

My recommendation is to have a huge trashcan at your disposal....like an outside-size can, good freezer bags - don't skimp on those, and before you cook 4 of the same dish, make sure it's something you'll want to eat again, LOL...so make a small serving first.

Great tip.

 

[nichanda]

I love this idea. I've been doing enough for 1-2 weeks at a time, for a few years. However, a month at a time sounds even better!

I like cooking, so the idea of spending one day a month doing so isn't horrible to me. Our problem is that we work all day, go to the gym after work on our way home on week days, and then aren't home until 7:00pm (and are starving). Having something that only takes a few minutes to put together/re-heat is amazing! It also saves us from over eating. We tend to pick away at snack food while our dinner is cooking. This keeps us from doing that.

Most of these are very handy to take to work too. It sure saves on buying lunch every day!

In my freezer I usually keep:
-Chili, frozen in serving size bowls. When I make a batch of this, I make it in my slow cooker. Other than cooking the ground beef before hand, it is really effortless.

-Chicken Breast, cooked and sliced. Frozen in serving sizes. Great for fajitas, chicken ceaser salads, chicken sandwiches, etc.

-Fully cooked Chicken Breasts, frozen in broth to keep it from drying out.

-Ground Beef with spices/veggies - Frozen in portions, great for tacos, pasta, pizza topping, etc.

-Some form of soup, frozen in serving size. Right now it's Cream of Jalapeno Potato. Yummy.

-Sometimes Pot Roast, cut in individual servings.

-Cupcakes or Cookies (without the frosting). There are some great cupcake recipes that taste so good they don't need frosting. They are perfect for freezing. When we want a treat, we take one out, microwave it for 25 seconds or so, and it's a quick/easy warm desert!

I would like to increase what I keep or at least add more variety. I'm interested in your ideas.

This is a great thread!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I decided I'm going to do a all-out cooking day in early January just to try it out.

Like the above poster stated, my husband and I work until 5-6, go to the gym after work, and often get home at around 7pm starving to death. In the recent months, I have become BIG on slow-cooker cooking (throw the ingredients in the crock pot in the morning or at lunch and dinner is done when we get home) but this freezer cooking would be great to supplement.

I think I'm going to get the Fix, Freeze, Feast book (or download on Kindle) to prep for the big cooking day.

I had a great idea yesterday while cooking. I made a big pot of African Chicken Peanut Stew in the crock pot (search for it on All Recipies--to die for). It's just me and hubby at home so there were about 4 servings left after we ate dinner. Instead of eating that for lunch and dinner for the next few days (it get's boring and we often end up throwing leftovers away), I put it all in a freezer bag and froze the bag flat. I'll thaw out and reheat in a couple weeks and it won't feel like "leftovers." I think I'll start doing this more this month with the slow cooker meals I make.

 

[cjackearl]

Myself and 4 friends formed a freezer meal group. We each prepare 5 ground beef and 5 chicken breast meals and then exchange once a month. We each end up with 10 different meals to stick in our freezer. We usually ok each others meal choices ahead of time and then post our familie's reviews of each recipe on a face book group we created. This Wednesday will be our fourth exchange and we're each making the group's favorites from the last three exchanges. It feels like Christmas when we pick up our meals.

 

[Tree]

I have never been able to cook once a month just have the time or the energy but will often "bulk cook" to make sure something in is the freezer on crazy days. My favorite cookbook is Don
t Panic dinner is in the freezer which has given me some of our family favorite recipes

 

[BCV2003]

I do this once every couple of months just as fillers when I need them. I will take a Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon and cook about four things at once. Its really not as bad as it sounds and love being able to pull things out of the freezer. Things I typically make are:

Beef vegetable soup
Chicken Noodle soup
Stuffed Peppers
Macaroni and Cheese
Salmon Patties
Meatloaf
Hamburger Hash (not really a hash but a soup with ground meat, veggies and homemade dumplings) - that's just what my grandmother called it.
Chop Suey
Burritos