About a year ago, I started doing Freezer cooking or "Once a Month Cooking". There are many different styles and ways to do freezer cooking but mine is based mostly on www.onceamonthmom.com. This site has lots of great recipes but even more amazing is the amount of planning. If you have never done freezer cooking and want to try it, this is a great way to get started. Each month, she puts out a menu (several now, a regular menu, diet menu, etc) and includes printable recipe cards, labels, cooking instructions and a grocery list. Everything you need to get started.
I followed the instructions on that site to start generating monthly cooking menus based entirely on my menus. Each month, I determine how many days I want to cook for, how many servings I need and then how many recipes I will cook. Usually for a 4 week period, for just Ryan and I, I will make 10 recipes. I make enough of each recipe to fill (4) 8"x8" pans (check out Glad Ovenware), it's awesome. One of those pans is usually enough food for both of us to have dinner and have leftovers for lunch the next day. I also make 2 breakfast recipes. We usually are able to eat at home around 5-6 nights per week for dinner and around 4-5 days per week for lunch (and everyday for breakfast).
Tomorrow is another big cooking day for us (Ryan is helping this time). But I won't be able to cook again in four weeks, I won't be able to cook for 5 weeks. So my cooking list and grocery list were a bit bigger. And on the downside...we hit $300 for the groceries, yikes! But it still comes out to only about $3-$4 per person per meal. And it keeps us from eating out. My favorite part of once a month cooking (OAMC) is that when I am driving home from work (I have a 45 min commute) Ryan can heat up dinner and it's ready when I get home. Plus, after we eat, there are almost no dishes - just our two plates and the pan we cooked the food in. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow and let you know how it went :) Wish me luck!!
I followed the instructions on that site to start generating monthly cooking menus based entirely on my menus. Each month, I determine how many days I want to cook for, how many servings I need and then how many recipes I will cook. Usually for a 4 week period, for just Ryan and I, I will make 10 recipes. I make enough of each recipe to fill (4) 8"x8" pans (check out Glad Ovenware), it's awesome. One of those pans is usually enough food for both of us to have dinner and have leftovers for lunch the next day. I also make 2 breakfast recipes. We usually are able to eat at home around 5-6 nights per week for dinner and around 4-5 days per week for lunch (and everyday for breakfast).
Tomorrow is another big cooking day for us (Ryan is helping this time). But I won't be able to cook again in four weeks, I won't be able to cook for 5 weeks. So my cooking list and grocery list were a bit bigger. And on the downside...we hit $300 for the groceries, yikes! But it still comes out to only about $3-$4 per person per meal. And it keeps us from eating out. My favorite part of once a month cooking (OAMC) is that when I am driving home from work (I have a 45 min commute) Ryan can heat up dinner and it's ready when I get home. Plus, after we eat, there are almost no dishes - just our two plates and the pan we cooked the food in. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow and let you know how it went :) Wish me luck!!
