Once a month cooking

[Aubrey]

Let's say you wanted to do...even twice a month cooking. Just...have things more on hand than not. Stick a casserole in the freezer instead of a frozen pizza.

 

How small of a freezer could you get away w/ for 6 people? I have a neighbor who manages, but I really can't fathom. Dh already calls me Mary Poppins for what I can fit in a freezer/car trunk. (Gosh, I sound like the mafia now.)

 

Anyway, thoughts?

[Mert]

It really depends on how you're going to freeze your items. I think one of the books I read suggested filling and flattening out gallon freezer bags. You could do quite a bit of spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, etc. in that manner. I'm not experienced enough to help with the actual freezer size, though. Hope you get the answers you need!

[DianeW88]

I do the "flattened zip lock bag" thing and it works like a charm. It's like file folders full of food (wow, check out the unintentional alliteration :lol:). Anyway, you just stack them one on top of the other and it works great. You won't fit much else in the freezer for the first week or so, but other than that, I love it!

 

Diane W.

married for 22 years

homeschooling 3 kiddos for 16 years

[JoyfulMama]

I do the "flattened zip lock bag" thing and it works like a charm. It's like file folders full of food (wow, check out the unintentional alliteration :lol:). Anyway, you just stack them one on top of the other and it works great. You won't fit much else in the freezer for the first week or so, but other than that, I love it!

 

Wow - what a great idea for the deep freezer! Once they are frozen they can stand on end, and there's so much less digging!!!

[Aubrey]

I don't know the answer, but I'd make sure it was a newer, efficient model. An extra freezer could add on to electricity costs, and I've heard elect costs are high in the DFW area.

 

Oh, no, I didn't mean I was going to buy a separate freezer. It's just that the freezer-on-top-of-fridge that comes w/ our house is a pretty small size. To put a week's worth of casseroles in there is actually mind-boggling to me. At least, if you're going to put anything else in there, too.

[Giraffe]

I'm about to start this too. I'm planning on just double/tripling what I usually make and freezing the difference. I think I'm going to do the ziplock bag thing and double bag. File folders of food! I love it!

 

I also have the teeniest freezer in the world (on top of fridge) and DH doesn't want to buy a freezer until I prove we NEED it. So here we go! :)

[Wheres Toto]

Just a suggestion for anyone who has side-by-side fridge/freezer - don't put unfrozen bags of stuff in the door slots. They will freeze in place and you won't be able to get them out without standing there forever with a blow dryer to thaw them out enough to be removed. Wonder how I know? :tongue_smilie:

Same thing could happen if you have wire shelves and the bags droop through but in that case its a little easier to get them out again (although it often puts holes in the bag).

[DianeW88]

Another tip for saving room: When you are freezing casseroles, line the pan with aluminum foil first...enough to spill over the pan edges. Then freeze the casserole. When it's frozen, pop it out of pan and keep it frozen only in the aluminum foil. Wrap it again with the freezer foil, label it and store. When you're ready to cook it, remove the foil, plop the frozen casserole brick back into the pan, and heat it in the oven.

 

Diane W.

married 22 years

homeschooling 3 kiddos for 16 years

[MariannNOVA]

Let's say you wanted to do...even twice a month cooking. Just...have things more on hand than not. Stick a casserole in the freezer instead of a frozen pizza.

 

How small of a freezer could you get away w/ for 6 people? I have a neighbor who manages, but I really can't fathom. Dh already calls me Mary Poppins for what I can fit in a freezer/car trunk. (Gosh, I sound like the mafia now.)

 

Anyway, thoughts?

 

:w00t: I read your title and thought you had come up with an ingenious way to have the other 29 days off -- I DID NOT think you meant we were supposed to do a month's worth of cooking in one day!:glare::leaving:

[Aubrey]

:w00t: I read your title and thought you had come up with an ingenious way to have the other 29 days off -- I DID NOT think you meant we were supposed to do a month's worth of cooking in one day!:glare::leaving:

 

Oh, no, I have an ingenious plan for that--McTakeOut. :lol:

 

But since that would rate a popularity in the negative numbers on these boards, I guess not...:leaving:

[FO4UR]

Oh, no, I have an ingenious plan for that--McTakeOut. :lol:

 

But since that would rate a popularity in the negative numbers on these boards, I guess not...:leaving:

 

 

Ah...but your popularity at my house would sky-rocket.:auto:

 

When I'm good, I cook double portions and freeze half. It's not quite "once a month" but it cuts the work a great deal.

 

:bigear:

[Aubrey]

Freeze them flat on a cookie sheet and then move them wherever you need them to be.

 

Also, you may not have a whole day to cook but it doesn't take much longer to do multiple batches of things so start small by tripling whatever you are making once or twice a week. In a few weeks you will find that you really only need to cook a couple of times a week.

 

I don't have pots big enough to *double* what I cook. For a solid week, I tried making enough food for our family & dh's cousins in the hospital. They don't need much, kwim?

 

And the little tapeworms licked the pots clean every. night.

 

I realized about a yr ago, though, that I don't mind clean up as much when there are no left-overs. And I don't mind cooking as much as I mind heating up leftovers. So for a little while, I got pretty decent at cooking just the right amt.

 

But #3 wasn't eating solids at that point, so this here's a whole new ball game. :001_huh:

[Pajama Mama]

I do the "flattened zip lock bag" thing and it works like a charm. It's like file folders full of food (wow, check out the unintentional alliteration :lol:). Anyway, you just stack them one on top of the other and it works great. You won't fit much else in the freezer for the first week or so, but other than that, I love it!

 

Yep, I do this too. I'll cook a bunch of ground beef or turkey and season them up and put in separate bags--taco meat, meat for spaghetti sauce, etc.

 

I also season chicken breasts or roasts and throw them into freezer bags. As the chicken gets defrosted it also gets marinaded at the same time.

[FO4UR]

This is a good time a year to have dh grill up a bunch of chicken & beef, cut into strips, freeze. Then heat them up to put over salad, pasta, and/or rice.

 

In the fall/winter, use your crockpot and make huge batches of chili & soup.

 

I like to keep chopped onions/veggies in the freezer...so when I do cook, I'm not spending 18hours on one dish.

[clarkacademy]

This whole idea is very mind boggling to me! I hate to sound stupid but how do you guys reheat this stuff? Microwave?? Like let's say I wanna freeze spegheeti, do I freeze the sauce seperate do I freeze th noodles too or cook them when it is time? How do I recook it? Like I said this probally sounds really dumb but I see these threads and I am like WOW!!! What a time saving idea but how in the world would it work?

[everettrj]

This whole idea is very mind boggling to me! I hate to sound stupid but how do you guys reheat this stuff? Microwave?? Like let's say I wanna freeze spegheeti, do I freeze the sauce seperate do I freeze th noodles too or cook them when it is time? How do I recook it? Like I said this probally sounds really dumb but I see these threads and I am like WOW!!! What a time saving idea but how in the world would it work?

 

 

Ooh okay, so this one I know! I actually have (as a last resort to saving too much leftover spaghetti) frozen it and defrosted successfully. After the spaghetti is cool just toss it into a gallon sized freezer bag and freeze flat. Then when you're ready to use it run the bag under tepid water to loosen the edges so it'll come out of the bag easier. Then put all of the spaghetti into a strainer run hot water over it and voila! Spaghetti in five minutes :D

I started doing this in smaller baggies with other noodles so I could heat them up with some frozen veg for a quick meal when we're in and outta the house all day but need to avoid the drive-thru. I have also made large batches of homemade marinara and frozen it like pp said, in a gallon zip lock flat. I am curious to hear more ideas though, I like the pre seasoned meat idea..although mine would be preseasoned faux meat, but same general idea ;)

 

Great thread!

[StephanieZ]

Honestly, a tiny freezer is fine. I think I did with one 7 ft freezer for a couple years. Now, I have a second (10 ft?) one but that's only b/c we buy half a cow at a time and I discovered coupon shopping, so have a tendency to fill the freezer w/ 50 lb of free cheese or butter and veggies, popsicles (how can you say no to free?). . . The 7 ft was fine for us (family of 5) until the cow-purchasing and couponing madness began.

 

Personally, I do much prefer our 10 ft stand-up (fridge shaped) freezer for OAMC items. I save the 7 ft chest freezer for the cow & mass quantities of cheese, etc. . . The fridge style ones with the shelves are just much easier to organize OAMC stuff as I tend to have 10 or more different types of items in there at any time, with say 5-10 of each item . . . So, having shelves to sort things on makes it a lot easier to 1) know what I have and 2) rotate things.

 

Love, love, love OAMC cooking. Makes our life so much easier and we eat much better than life before OAMC.

 

FWIW, I find it easy to cook just once a month. . . One day, I do 3 or 4 types of pork chops one month -- say 20 meals. . . Then the next month it's 100 beef taquitos (10 meals) and 9 batches of "beef base". . . (So, another 20 meals). . . Next month it is something different. . . Or maybe some day I find a great deal on potatoes and so throw 4 or 5 meals of mashed potatoes in the freezer in an hour that evening. . . It becomes a natural way of thinking. . . and I just restock when we are getting low on something. . . I don't use all 20 in the same month I make it (they all last at least 3 to 4 mos no problem). . . So, with one afternoon/evening of cooking each month, I soon have a freezer stocked with a wide variety of dishes . . and 5 days a week we can eat from the freezer with 2 days of other non-OAMC meals. . . Works like a charm. Love, love, love it. Huge time saver!!

[clarkacademy]

so would you guys bake a meatloaf then just freeze it?

[cougarmom4]

I also love OAMC...although I tend to do it in a few days rather than one day. I usually prefer it in the fall/winter--most things I make I heat up in the oven and hate to do that in the summer. The nice thing about it is you figure out what's for dinner in the morning, take it out to thaw, put it in the oven around 4:30 and it's ready an hour or so later. Throw together a salad, cook a veggie, and I feel I've done an amazing job...and yet the dinner hour isn't so crazy.

 

I typically cook up a bunch of ground beef & assemble several casserole type of things on one day: enchiladas, tator tot casserole, lasagna, spaghetti pie, pizza casserole, taco meat, minestrone soup, chili, meatloaf. I usually do 3-4 of each recipe. I don't bake the casseroles--simply assemble them and freeze them in the foil casserole dishes w/tinfoil on top. The same day I will put a whole bunch of chicken breasts in the oven and crockpots to bake for awhile.

 

The next day, I shred/dice the chicken and assemble my chicken recipes: chicken enchiladas, chicken & stuffing, chicken & rice, white chicken chili. I'll also bag up uncooked chicken w/sauces that I plan to throw in the crockpot (bbq chicken, chicken licken, chicken noodle soup).

 

When I plan my weekly menus, I don't use a freezer meal every single night; I kinda throw in a few meals of baked potato bar, grilled cheese/soup, french toast, leftovers, etc. So I usually use perhaps 3-4 of my casseroles a week.

 

If all of this seems too overwhelming, I'd suggest at least preparing your meat all at once...browning the ground beef & separating into bags; baking or grilling the chicken, shredding/dicing & separating into bags. It is so nice to just grab a bag of prepared meat and throw it in to whatever you're in the mood to make. (Maybe it's just me, but I just hate that part of it...). (My dh says the ground beef has a funny taste when I do this, but if I'm adding it to a sauce w/good seasoning, I can usually hide it).

 

I was using my side by side freezer and storing things in freezer bags, but finally gave in and bought an upright deep freeze. Only thing I can say about that is I wish I hadn't gone with the smallest one. I can't even describe the excitement I feel when my freezer is full of casseroles...oh, my goodness...I open my freezer sometimes just to look at how beautiful it is!

[DianeW88]

This whole idea is very mind boggling to me! I hate to sound stupid but how do you guys reheat this stuff? Microwave?? Like let's say I wanna freeze spegheeti, do I freeze the sauce seperate do I freeze th noodles too or cook them when it is time? How do I recook it? Like I said this probally sounds really dumb but I see these threads and I am like WOW!!! What a time saving idea but how in the world would it work?

 

Once a Month cooking is a bit more than just freezing your regular dinner and microwaving it later. I never use my microwave to cook mine. When I do OAMC, I usually prepare 3 or 4 meals in the crockpots, 3 or 4 in the oven, 5 or 6 on the stovetop and the bulk of the remaining are "assembly" meals, meaning they are assembled, frozen, then cooked on the day we want to eat them.

 

Here is a search list on Amazon for cookbooks that specialize in this type of cooking. Honestly, it is one of the best things I've ever done for my family. It saves me time and money, not to mention we eat much healthier meals.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=once+a+month+cooking&sprefix=once+a+mon

 

Diane W.

married 22 years

homeschooling 3 kiddos for 16 years

[mycalling]

Can you freeze things like mashed potatoes or plain noodles?

[mycalling]

 

Th potatoes, yes. It has never occurred to me to freeze noodles because they can live (dry) in the cupboard and not take up freezer space.

I was thinking about freezing potatoes and noodles because my stove takes 35-40min to bring water to a boil. (Dreaming of an induction cooktop!)

[KatieJ]

I was thinking about freezing potatoes and noodles because my stove takes 35-40min to bring water to a boil. (Dreaming of an induction cooktop!)

 

 

My new glass top stove takes longer to bring water to a boil than my old gas range did. (I still love the glass top.)

Sometimes I use my electric tea kettle to boil water..it's fast even if I have to fill it up two times to get enough water.

[StephanieZ]

These are the absolutely positively best ever mashed potatoes. They freeze like a dream. Absolutely fabulous. I will never make regular mashed potatoes again b/c these are just sooooo much better.

 

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Make-Ahead-Mashed-Potatoes-34059

[angela in ohio]

I did it with just the freezer on our cheapo fridge before we moved. Now we have a chest freezer. We don't like fully frozen meals every day anyway, so it is easier. I freeze parts of meals mostly, although I do some lasagnas, stuffed shells, and chicken noodle casseroles. So I freeze the chicken breast trimmed and cut up, the spaghetti sauce but not the noodles, sloppy joe meat, etc. I do freeze things in quart size bags flat. We cook turkey breasts and freeze them in portions for salads.

 

I don't do it all in one day; I tried that and didn't care for it. I cook big batches of one or two things every week or two.

 

Now... how many bodies CAN you fit in a trunk?

[Aubrey]

Now... how many bodies CAN you fit in a trunk?

 

Now I never said..."bodies".... :lol:

[bookfiend]

Another tip for saving room: When you are freezing casseroles, line the pan with aluminum foil first...enough to spill over the pan edges. Then freeze the casserole. When it's frozen, pop it out of pan and keep it frozen only in the aluminum foil. Wrap it again with the freezer foil, label it and store. When you're ready to cook it, remove the foil, plop the frozen casserole brick back into the pan, and heat it in the oven.

 

Diane W.

married 22 years

homeschooling 3 kiddos for 16 years

 

 

But don't do this with tomato based items, the acid "melts" the aluminum and little bits of shinny silver are stuck in your food.

[kathkath]

Ah...but your popularity at my house would sky-rocket.:auto:

 

When I'm good, I cook double portions and freeze half. It's not quite "once a month" but it cuts the work a great deal.

 

:bigear:

 

ditto--or even 3x a recipe if it's a good one. Boy is it nice to have casseroles on hand, ready to go. I just freeze them in disposable square brownie pans, covered with foil and then inside a gallon ziplock. Sometimes I can fit 2 in one ziplock if they're not too full. I'll have to try the pop-the-foil-out-of-a-real-pan trick. I did do a once a month deal with a friend and it was a TON of work. I prefer just doing a few at a time when I'm already cooking dinner.

[katemary63]

I'm going to do the ziplock bag thing and double bag. File folders of food! I love it!

 

I've tried the flattened freezer bags and I detest them. They leak when thawed and are actually not as easy to stack as you might think. I truly hate them. I finally switched to plastic containers and I'm so much happier with the results. I will never use a freezer bag again for things like stew or sloppy joe!

 

I don't do once a month cooking, but always cook double, triple or even quadruple recipes of certain meals and freeze the rest in meal sized portions. I also cook about 10lbs of ground beef w/ chopped onions at a time and freeze it in about 8 portions for use in just about anything. We always have a container of taco meat, sloppy joe, shredded pork or beef, or stew in the freezer. I use three lbs of ground beef mixed with two lbs of ground pork and make up the biggest batch of meatloaf you've ever seen. I split it into three portions, bake one and freeze two raw. (I LOVE MEATLOAF!)

[Renthead Mommy]

I used to do this, but it's been about 5 years now and we really don't eat much of what you OAMC anymore. I wish I could, but it doesn't seem to work. The only thing we use ground meat in now is on pasta. We don't do stews, chilies, casseroles type things anymore. The meat is more of a side dish with the veggies as the main meal. I just don't see how you can OAMC veggies. I wish I could.

 

One thing I did do back when we were doing it was a lot of meatballs. The kids loved them and you could use them for tons of things from pasta, to parms, to bbq, various sauces or just ketchup as my son liked.

 

When doing the meatballs, I found it easiest if you took a cereal box, taped the lid closed, and then cut out the whole front side. You line it with wax paper. Put down your first layer of meatballs, with space between so they don't stick together. Put down another wax paper, another layer of meatballs (which helps lock the first layer in places as well as the second). You can usually get three levels of meatballs in a box. Then you just dump the frozen ones out into a bag and they are all seperate. You can take out the number you need when you need them. It worked better than plates and cookie sheets and took up less space while freezing them.

[SailorMom]

I just found this thread....

For the past two days (well - today will be day 3) I have been cooking, cooking, cooking!

Kids and hubby are away at Boy Scout camp, and we just purchased a stand up, fridge style freezer - so I decided I needed to fill it!

I've made 26 dinners (plus 7 batches of corn bread) and frozen them. All I have left to do is 24 breakfast sandwiches, 4 batches of waffles, and 4 batches of dinner rolls...:tongue_smilie:

I'm a bit burned out - but I doubt I'll have to do so much again for a while. I intend to use this as my starter OAMC, and then add to it as we go by doing the triple batch method when I do cook.

As to the original question - I tried this years ago with a small freezer - really couldn't do enough to make it worth the planning for me. It was very frustrating! What you may want to try is shredding all your cheese (i shred 6 lbs of cheddar yesterday but only had to wash the food processor once), making up sauces, and browining meat - and leaving it at all. It is amazing how much time can be saved just by getting some of the prep work out of the way.

For those in the know - I read here that the food lasts about 3 months? I was worried about going over a month with it. I double freezer bagged the bagged items, and used a ton of foil on the casseroles - but it still concerns me.