Once a Month Cooking

Filling the freezer above is what I did for the first time with my mother a few days ago.  In about 9-10 hours, we made 48 meals to feed my family.  It was fun and really pretty easy to do.  We used the great resource, Once a Month Mom, for recipes, grocery lists and great tips.  They plan the meals around what is on sale during that particular season.  I chose the September 2009 recipes because most of them sounded like food my family would eat.  We made beef stew, white chicken chili, black beans and rice, parmesan paprika chicken, chicken and chilies casserole, baked ziti, corn dog muffins (I know, ew, but the kids might like them), eggwhiches, apple streusal muffins, mexican cornbread casserole, and chicken and broccoli.  On the site, go to resources under cooking at the top of the page, and you can find past menu plans.  On the meal plan pages, like the September one above, they provide recipes, a grocery list, instructions, and labels that have instructions to put right on each meal!  Each  recipe is yields about 16 servings.  Some of the casseroles we divided into 8 or 9 in. round aluminum pans we got from the dollar store, 3 for a $1.  Since we have smaller kids, we can make each one work as a meal for all of us.  We had a really busy school year this past year and had little to no time for really cooking anything.  I'm excited to be able to use these meals to help us get back to dinner at the table!  Try it.  Work together with a friend, sister, mom or neighbor.  If you only have room for a few things, try one recipe.  It is truly fun!