Getting Started With Once a Week/Month Cooking

This week, I am going to be plunging headlong back into working after a long summer break. I am excited to get back to work, but this will mean I need to get back to being organized again. It's a never ending cycle, isn't it?

For MPM this week, I wanted to tackle something that has intrigued me for quite a while - bulk cooking. The premise is that you take a day and you cook for for a week or, if you are particularly ambitious, an entire month.

I work really hard at being organized enough, but meal planning is always where I fizzle out. After looking into this concept, I think this is something that could work for me.

Here's where I started:

Once a Week Cooking - This is a good site to start with, but since it's a pay for subscription site, unless you are willing to drop $10 a month, it won't take you too far.

Frugal Mom - Learn Once a Month Cooking in 7 Easy Steps - This is a GREAT introductory article. It gives you a specific (though not too in depth) overview of how to cook once a month, including planning sheets. This is a fantastic place to begin.

Simply Saving - Once a Month Cooking Recipes - This blog give a few good ideas for easy to cook meals that you can prepare early, but don't necessarily have to cook ahead of time.

Resources:

Organized Home - Feed the Freezer - Has very good links on how to get started

Once a Month Mom - THE authority on cooking once a month. She seriously makes it sound easy. I mean, easy enough that I might be able to do it. New menu plans posted at the beginning of each month.

What now?

For me, I hate cooking. I mean, I really loathe it. While I LOVE the idea of cooking less during the week, cooking for an entire month seems too overwhelming for me.

Cooking for one week sounds a little better, as long as it meets a few requirements:

• It doesn't take up all of a weekend day.
• It isn't too overwhelming.
• It can be food allergy friendly - I have a feeling this will be a sticking point.
• My kids will actually eat it - this may be an even bigger sticking point.

So, not too challenging, right? ;)

Here's what I came up with:

• I started at the Once a Month Mom site for three reasons - I am somewhat familiar with the layout, I like the structure of the menus and I like the printables.
• After looking at the menu, I took a long pause. I am not a cook. I admit it. The thought of making Ratatouille is intimidating as hell. Then I reminded myself that I only had to find a few recipes, since I was only trying this out for a week.
• Then I remembered it was a short week, since Monday is a holiday and Wednesday we are taking our son out to dinner for his birthday.
• If I vacuum seal the food, all I have to do is drop the bags in boiling water to heat up. This, by the way, rocks.

Challenges:

• Many of the meals were heavy on the cheese and pasta - two big no-nos for me.
• I really hate that so many recipes use cream of ____ soup. I am not a purist (hell, I use Rice A Roni), but with a dairy allergy, it's important. And no, I don't have time to saute mushrooms and do 9 other steps to get a cream of mushroom soup.

So, what to do?

Here's the recipes I selected:

Tostada Goop - I am going to check Trader Joe's for a non dairy cream of chicken soup.

Ribs - These I can cook in the crock pot, then freeze to reheat during the week. The challenge will be not eating them when they are cooked the first time!

Neat Sloppy Joes - If you know me at all, you know I LOVE Allrecipes.com. This is a recipe from their site.

And here are some tips on how to freeze foods to reheat.

Phew! Here's the question of the day - have you ever done this? If so, what works for you