Once a Month Cooking!

It's been many years since I heard a Focus on the Family broadcast about Once a Month Cooking. Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson were on the program talking about their new book and their cooking plan that would allow you to spend two days a month cooking enough meals to put in the freezer to last the month. It sounded like a pretty ambitious plan, but I thought I would give it a try.

As a homeschooling Stay at Home Mom of young children, it made sense to have dinner ready each day without having to drag out the food processor and tons of pots and pans to get dinner on the table. Not to mention cleaning it all up after the meal!

I bought the book, and set to work. It fit my personality to a T. I am a planner - a list maker - an organizer. I made my menu, and then my shopping list and a "to do" list, then I set to work.
First, I went grocery shopping and bought everything on my list. The next day, I got up early and got to work. I spent the day cooking, and I'm not going to kid you. It was a loooooong day! But also, very satisfying. The next day, I finished up the meals I had not gotten done the day before, and I actually DID have enough meals in the freezer to last for two weeks! (I started small and worked up to a month.)

That was back when we had two children and 4 servings worked for us. Now that #8 is on the way, I've adjusted all my recipes to serve 12. Yes, it takes two shoppers and two shopping carts now, but actually, it doesn't take any longer to make 12 servings than it does 4, so it still only takes two days!

What are the benefits?

1) It's much cheaper! Usually (though you still need to do the math) it's cheaper to buy larger packages or buy in bulk. When you are doing all the cooking at once, nothing is wasted and you can use the big bulk package in two days before it spoils. In the months when I am too busy to do OAMC, I can't believe how much more $$ we spend on groceries! When you are running to the market every day or two to buy ingredients for the next couple of meals, it gets VERY expensive (whether you are shopping for one or 10!)

2) It's a time saver! Since I am homeschooling five of my seven children, trying to work part time, busy with church activities and taking kids to youth group and Awana and Girl Scouts, etc. through the week, it just makes sense to find as many time savers as I can. Now, I simply look at the calendar on the fridge, see what's for dinner today, take it out of the freezer to thaw and go about my day. At dinner time, I simply follow the directions on the bag or dish for heating it up, and throw together a couple things to go with it.

3) It reduces cleaning time! Two days a month, I get out my food processor. I chop a whole bag of onions at one time, then I chop my green peppers, slice my celery and mushrooms, etc. Then I wash it out and put it away. As I finish a recipe, I wash out my pot and use it again for the next recipe. When I'm done for the month, everything is cleaned up and put away until the next month. During the month, my cleanup consists of whatever pot or dish I use to heat up the meal. That's it! No dragging everything out everyday and leaving a sink full of dishes to be washed after the meal! Yay!

4) It makes Mama happy and reduces stress! And when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! ;) It takes me about 10 minutes a day to get a meal on the table (not counting heating time). Otherwise, it can take me over an hour to get a meal ready. This leaves more time to rest, relax and hang out with the kids and hubby! I'm not asking Mike "Any ideas for dinner?", then making a mad dash for the store to buy ingredients. Instead, I am enjoying my time and doing the things I want to do.

I'm sure there are many more reasons, but these are enough for me. I HATE when I don't get it done. The months when it doesn't happen are so much more stressful and expensive than when we do!

Anyway, we've come a long way in our OAMC journey. I now teach classes at women's retreats about saving money at the grocery store and Once a month cooking.

I just finished my meals for the month and I mentioned it on Facebook. A couple of my friends are interested in what I do, so I told them I would blog about it. In the next few posts, I'll cover the process, my menu and some recipes. In the meantime, I highly recommend the book, Once a Month Cooking. Mimi and Mary Beth have a new version out and it's available everywhere. It covers the plan and gives several recipes that freeze well.

I hope this was helpful to someone. Stay tuned...