I've seen on a few posts where some of you marvelous ladies do once a month cooking. I'm interested in this as a way of saving time (never seems to be enough of THAT!) but I'm not really sure about how to do it. I understand the concept - cook a lot of stuff and freeze it, but could you give me some examples? What kind of stuff do you cook?

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 05, 2001

Answers

Hi, Cheryl. There's a great once a month website over at Gardenweb.com. Go to "That Homeplace" once you get there, then to the general topics on the right. Lots of good ideas and ways to cook ahead. I've done it on a limited basis, and it's a real boon for a working woman. I've never gone the whole route with a month's worth of meals cooked ahead, but it sure is nice to have stew meat, ground chuck or chicken already cooked and in the freezer. Good luck and let us know how you do with it.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.

Hi Cheryl,

I use to do the once a month cooking regularly and then stopped when when moved and our freezer went out. Now that we have a new freezer, I will probably start again. I didn't mind the cooking, it was the shopping trip I disliked. Our family liked having all those meals ready though.

Just take recipes that your family likes, figure what ingredients you need times four, make out your shopping list for these items and shop (ugh). After returning home you get things started cooking like your soup broths (cook soup bones, celery, carrots, whole onions, garlic, etc. until everything is mushy and then dispose of the veggies - can give to the chickens - put the broth in the frig. overnight and the next morning you skim the fat off and now you have a nice big batch of broth full of vitamins. Freeze the broth in freezer bags and when ready to use just add any meat or vegetables and noodles or rice for a great soup or stew). Also, cook up any chickens that you will be using for meat and refrig. overnight. The next day you debone your chickens, brown meats and cook pastas, cut all your onions and veggies at once and then start assembling your meals.

If you don't mind using aluminum foil you can line 9 x 13 pans with it, put your casserole or lasagna in it and seal with more aluminum foil and then freeze. Take the frozen meal-in foil out of the pan and then you have your pan back for any baking you might do within the month. When it is time to cook the meal simply plop the frozen-in- foil meal back into the pan and cook.

You can remove the air from ziplock backs that you are using by sealing the bag all the way across except for the area that you have a straw stuck though. Now suck the air out and quickly seal the rest. This helps you be able to stack bags better. Be careful when sucking the air out of bags containing hot liquids.

Every item you freeze should have the cooking instructions written on it and attach ingredients that you would add later such as bags of shredded cheese or croutons.

It's nice to have two months of recipes so that you have a variety of meals. It's any easy method to learn and customize for your family. I jumped right in there and did the whole month the first time and it's not that difficult.

An example of meals we used were enchilladas, burritoes, chicken soups, beef stew and beef soups, cream soups, casseroles, taco meat prepared, poor man steak, and many more.

Hope this gives you an idea of what is involved.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.

This is an idea borrowed from someone else.

There were 12 young married women in a certain church. Once a month, they each made 13 casseroles (all the same) to freeze and brought them all to a meeting they had at the church. They exchanged casseroles, so that each went home with 12 different dishes. The 13th dish from each lady went to the one who was the most pregnant.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 07, 2001.