My New Way of Cooking

I always hear a lot about "once a month cooking". I've never done it and really had no intention to give it a try. Yesterday I decided to do some freezer cooking. We are still working on getting into a rhythm with me back at work and have eaten a lot of sandwiches or dinners out the last 2 weeks. So I wanted to get some meals in the freezer to save those, "Oh let's just get a pizza" moments. I made a very ambitious list on Saturday morning and set off to the store. Figured I'd get all the ingredients and finish what I was able to, then do the rest later. I started around 12 noon and had the kitchen cleaned by 8 pm. Now before you think, "8 hours of cooking?? No way!" let me tell you in the 8 hours I also made and fed my family lunch and dinner, put Brynna down for a nap (which was a 45 minute process), took the dogs out twice and played catch (at least 20 minutes each time), talked to my mom on the phone, made a dip for Brendan's poker game, greeted said poker players, got Brynna into bathed and into bed, and did several loads of laundry. Whew, no wonder I crashed by 10 pm. So really it was probably 4 hours of cooking. And the result? 30 meals in my freezer and pantry which will require, max, 5 minutes preparation to get them in the oven or crockpot! So this will easily get us through November! Not have to cook for a month? I'm sold on the Once a Month Cooking!

What I made:

Pantry Meals (ingredients packaged and ready to throw together in the pantry, just add the meat!)

1.Black Bean Salsa Chicken x 2 (salsa, black beans, taco seasoning poured over chicken)
2.Pesto Chicken x 2 (jar of pesto, parm cheese)
3.Spaghetti x 2

Crock Pot
1. Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken x 2
2. Beef Goulash x 2
3. Mexican Goulash x 2
4. Crock Pot Chicken Curry x 2

Oven Meals
1. Feta Spinach Chicken x 2
2. Baked Shrimp Scampi (We ate this for dinner last night ... ah-mazing!)
3. Enchiladas x 2
4. Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells (modified this a bit, added some spaghetti sauce over it)

Frozen and Ready to Go
1. Taco Beef x 2
2. Spaghetti Beef x 2
3. Taco Chicken x
4. Shredded Chicken
5. Chicken packaged per meal size x 6 (to go with ingredients in pantry)

In the crockpot now:
1. Pork Barbacoa (going to try it with Diet coke instead)

If you're looking for great recipes I just found this blog. Several of the recipes come from that and she has more I want to try. I'll let everyone know how this once a month cooking goes for us! I think next time I will do it a bit differently. Yesterday I just tackled one recipe at a time. Several called for things like chopping sweet potatoes or onions. So next time I might lay all the recipes out and figure out exactly how many of each thing I need and prep each ingredient and not each meal. Should cut down on time. Right now I'm just happy to have a stocked freezer and only need to run to the store for the essentials!

You would have thought she was the one cooking!