Once A Month Cooking Tutorial

Over the last few months, I’ve had several emails from women who see my Meal Planning posts and express a desire to begin once a month cooking – but are unsure how to begin. So I’ve put together this tutorial with lots of tools and tips to help you get started!

The key to success with once a month cooking (OAMC) is to consider the needs and preferences of your family. It’s always best to begin with meals you know they’ll love. New recipes are great, but when they don’t go over so well, you don’t want to have three more in the freezer! Your success with the tried-and-true family faves will motivate you to repeat the process the next month, and perhaps add a dish or two as your confidence grows!

Remember too, that this process will get easier with practice. The first month will likely take you the longest as you learn how to organize and maximize your time. Hang in there, and before you know it, it’ll be a snap!

So let’s get started!

Useful supplies:
- 3 ring binder
- Page protectors
- Dividers
- Sharpie (for labeling freezer bags)
- Always be on the lookout for sales, coupons and clearances on freezer bags and containers!

I suggest using the first three items to make your own once a month cooking cookbook/organizer. You’ll have a convenient place to keep your shopping list, menu planner, and a place to keep all your OAMC recipes.

Step 1 Choose Your Meals
I use THIS simple spreadsheet to plan the meals for the month. This is my “rough draft” of sorts. Since I won’t be saving this page, I can make changes, add or subtract quantities, etc. until I have it the way I like it. You can also use the bottom of this sheet to plan cookies and snacks you’d like to make. During the school year you can add weekday lunch plans. Some meals will be repeated during the month, so you’ll want to jot down how many times you plan to make each meal.

Step 2 Grab Your Recipes
I find it easiest to print out recipes I plan to use regularly and have them in my OAMC binder. Since my version of once a month cooking can be rather *ahem* messy, it has helped to have them safely tucked away in page protectors.

Step 3 Make A Shopping List
Using your recipes & your meal plan from step one, make a shopping list. It’s a good idea to have a standard shopping list created in a way that makes sense to you. You can do this on an excel spreadsheet, copy it off and keep a few in your OAMC folder, or use MINE.

This will be your most expensive shopping trip of the month, so plan ahead. In the end, it will save you BIG BUCKS because you’ll eliminate the ordering-take-out-because-mama-didn’t-know-what-to-cook days. And you’ll save yourself a lot of time in the kitchen! After all, making sloppy joes for four meals takes as much time as making it for one. You’re just getting it out of the way in one shot!

Step 4 Get Cookin’
How you plan your cooking day is up to you. I prefer to do all the meat items together, then clean up, sanitize the counters and work on the bread and snack items. I do it this way so that if I’m unexpectedly interrupted, I know the most important work is completed.

You’ll want to think about ways you can combine tasks to make the most of your time in the kitchen. For example, I might be cooking 6lbs taco meat, boiling a chicken to shred, and rolling meatballs all at once. Then later, I might be cooling my taco meat, cooking sloppy joe meat, broiling meatballs and shredding chicken all at once. Use your spreadsheet from step one to keep organized, and cross out items as they are completed.

When an item is finished, cool it completely and place it in a freezer safe container labeled with item name and date.

Step 5 Organize
Now that the work is done, you’ll want to have your menu plan written out to keep you on track throughout the month. Here are two options:

· If you’re the type that likes to have a day-by-day menu plan, you’ll want to use the calendar available HERE and transfer items from your spreadsheet (step 1) onto the specific days of the month. Assigning each meal to a specific date makes dinnertime the easiest, but leaves little room for flexibility. Here’s an example of a two week plan:

· If you prefer to have more “wiggle room” in your meal plans, try THIS spreadsheet. Simply list the meals you’ll make, with the circles to the left representing how many of each you’ll have available in the freezer. The example below shows a plan that includes (3) Sloppy Joe dinners for the month. I’ve blackened out two of the circles, leaving three empty. As I use them, I place an “X” in the circle.

Resources for Once A Month meal ideas.
-Your own family favorites. Think about ways you can get the “prep work” out of the way for family favorites that won’t freeze well. Example: We loves stir fry. Since I can’t make the entire meal ahead, I’ll slice the beef, add the seasoning and freeze it uncooked in meal size bags. Anything you can do to save time and mess later is great.

-Recipezaar has a OAMC cooking forum HERE. You can also do a general search for OAMC to bring up oodles of recipes.

-Once A Month Mom – great blog filled with recipes.

-Visit my Amazon store HERE and view the Once A Month Cooking category for some great titles. Get them at the local library first to be sure you’ll love ‘em before purchasing.

-Stop over HERE for a list of recipes to use with frozen ground beef, HERE for shredded chicken and HERE for meatballs.

Posted in: Homemaking by Heart,Meal Planning

Tagged as: tutorials