17 February 2001 I’m gearing up for an OAMC session for March 2001. I’m probably going to do my standards… lasagne, macaroni and cheese, and vegetarian enchiladas (a hit with my dh.) I’m also going to make some lentil soup (yummy!) and some nice stews. Stew season is almost over. Bummer.

I’ll post the list and procedures once I’ve accomplished the session.

I’ll also post my oamc archives once I get this site cleaned up and spiffy looking again.

Once a Month Cooking

(Feed the Freezer, Investment Cooking, whatever you want to call it.) is great!

• The idea is, instead of cooking just one meal (preparing veggies & pastas, grating cheeses, and generally making a mess of the kitchen for just one meal,) you make more than one meal with only one mess.  You can do this if you just have the tiny freezer over your fridge, or if you have a real freezer.

• You can plan your meals many ways: the frugal way: find out what’s on sale and plan meals using those ingredients. You can plan more hamburger meals when ground beef is on sale, and more chicken meals when chicken is on sale.

• Or, you can make a list of meals you know your family will like and that freeze well and make five of each meal.

  Either way, you will end up saving money because you won’t be buying the “convenience” frozen meals at the grocery store.

• There are official sites and books and groups for once a month cooking, and they’re very organized and easy to follow.  If you’ve checked out the rest of my site, you know I’m not quite that organized, so I have to make everything even easier for me. 

• It’s best for messies if the recipes involve only a few ingredients. 

  • I make such things as homemade macaroni and cheese, stuffed shells, stuffed manicotti, and other types of casseroles. 

  • Also on OAMC day, I make bread.  I actually end up making bread each weekend, baking a loaf and freezing five. 

  • As this page grows, I hope to add links to the best recipes I find for bread and casseroles. 

• Another way to use the OAMC principles is to prepare your fresh ingredients up to one week in advance.  I learned this technique while hanging out at a wonderful pasta bar (if you’re ever at the Ramstein AB Commissary, check it out!)  Of course, they prepared their ingredients fresh every morning ( and then as needed throughout the day), instead of only once a week, but the concept is similar.  Plan the recipes you’ll want to make the following week, and prepare the ingredients ahead of time. 

  • Chopped garlic keeps really well in olive oil in the fridge, and for me, that saves a ton of time… I use fresh garlic a LOT! 

  • You can prepare salads for three days at a time, you can chop veggies and keep them in water.