cook by the month large batches

[maf8009]

Our family cooks and eats at home.... ( who goes out to waste money in resturants any more..... Its a rare treat for us!)

We are big on left over night once a week and we put back our favorite meals in large batches (spaggetti, chicken and dumplings, red beans rice and sausage, soups and stews)

and I read somewhere that there are "cook by the month clubs" where neighbors get together and all place ingredients
(noodles, cooked meat, rice, veggies, gravies and sauces spices) as well as large freezer aluminium pans ...

You can make a month of cassaroles in just minutes and pop in the freezer.... has anyone tried this, It will cut down on cooking time, heat and in buying and cooking in bulk you will save money... and support out there????

 

[2dream]

Well, I don't cook for the month but anytime I cook spaghetti or chili or chicken pie type meals I always cook enough for a second meal and then freeze. I purchased some of the new Glad Ware oven safe containers for this purpose. They are reusable and freeze well.
I also use leftovers but I use them to make my own TV dinners. I keep a frozen supply on had for those times when I don't have time to cook. They are easy to pop into the toaster oven on Saturday or Sunday for a good lunch with no fuss.
Any leftover veggies or meat that are not used for the frozen dinners are dumped into my soup bucket in the freezer. When its full I make a pot of soup. And yep you guessed it. Any leftover soup goes right back into the freezer.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I looked inot OAMC (once a month cooking) while hekids were young, but I coudn't really do it. I felt the need to be in the kitchen every day. What I did do was prepare alot ahead of time. I started out with a menu of what we were going to eat all week, based on the sales at the grocery store, I precooked rice potatoes and pasta, and kept in the fridge or freezer so I could scoop out whta I needed all week. On grocery day, I would come home and wash up all fresh produce, so it was easy access all week. I figured, having a plan would help me be organized, therefore making it less stressful. Most meals were under 1/2 hour and that was mainly the meat cooking.

We did have a club at our local preschool centre for oamc classes, I think they planned what meals they were going to make for the following week, a grocery list was developed, they took turns getting the groceries, you provided your own containers, and the grocery bill was divided by the number of participants. The use of the kitchen was offered by the local preschool.

 

[FarmerChick]

cook by the month club?

do you mean one person cooks meat, one veggies, one noodles and they all meet up and combine into casseroles? Hmm...sounds great if you can get friends in on it.

I don't have enough people I hang out with do to it..LOL



I don't cook by the month either. I always do extra batches of many things, like lasagna and all that. Keep leftovers to use for soups.

I don't do alot of casseroles actually.

My meals are meat, veggies, maybe a tater, salad, biscuit or cornbread type meals. Or soup and sandwich. I cook super simple.....lol

 

[hwillm1977]

I bought a cookbook called 'Five for the freezer' from SavingDinner.com

They give you five 'prep ahead' meals that have related ingredients (like five burger meals, five chicken meals, etc.) The meals aren't cooked, just prepped and frozen in freezer bags. I usually prep 10 meals each Sunday (takes about 1-2 hours once you get a system down) based on whatever meat is on sale that week. Then they only take 10-20 minutes to make on a weeknight, and everything is pre-chopped and prepped for you.

I really enjoy it. That way you are still cooking a fresh frozen meal, rather than re-heating an already cooked and frozen one. Somehow it seems to taste better Plus because I make 10 meals each week, I can take a weekend off each month and use up the remaining meals.

You could definitely get together with neighbours and put these together, that would make it even easier.

 

[freemotion]

Look for "dump" recipes, too. You freeze meat into ziplocs with the appropriate sauce ingredients, then "dump" the whole thing in a crockpot in the morning. I tried a bunch of chicken ones and they were good. I tripled most of the sauce ingredients, though, as they were a little dry.

 

[Ldychef2k]

My niece did the OAMC thing for almost a year, but her family has a problem with obesity and her kids are not restricted in what they eat, so the meals didn't last a month. Personally, with just one person to cook for, it wasn't practical. As others do, I keep leftovers in the freezer. Because most recipes feed a lot of people, and soups and stews even more, I have many servings of those types of meals in bags and GladWare.

We used to have a "Dining Deals" or something like that...where you went there and they did all the prepping and you just put things together in a freezer container, then took them home and cooked them when you felt like it. I got a gift certificate there one year, and could not believe what they charged for stuff I could do in five minutes at home, with just a little bit of imagination. (I used to cook for money, so it seemed like such a waste.)

Canning has proved to be the best solution for long-term cooking, in my book. Lots of variety, no freezer space used, really easy to prepare. And the sense of satisfaction just can't be matched !

 

[SKR8PN]

We are not into cooking entire meals for a month at a time, but instead, we prepare our foods in meal size portions. For example, I will smoke an entire pork belly with my own secret herbs and flavorings, then we split it, slice it(making bacon) and vacuum seal it into meal sized portions, then freeze it. That way, whenever we want to have bacon for breakfast, all we have to do it thaw out one package, toss it in a skillet and fry it up. Easy peasey! In a way, I guess you could say we cook MORE than a months worth at one time, it just isn't an entire meal.

 

[Dace]

I bought a cookbook called 'Five for the freezer' from SavingDinner.com

They give you five 'prep ahead' meals that have related ingredients (like five burger meals, five chicken meals, etc.) The meals aren't cooked, just prepped and frozen in freezer bags. I usually prep 10 meals each Sunday (takes about 1-2 hours once you get a system down) based on whatever meat is on sale that week. Then they only take 10-20 minutes to make on a weeknight, and everything is pre-chopped and prepped for you.

I really enjoy it. That way you are still cooking a fresh frozen meal, rather than re-heating an already cooked and frozen one. Somehow it seems to taste better Plus because I make 10 meals each week, I can take a weekend off each month and use up the remaining meals.

You could definitely get together with neighbours and put these together, that would make it even easier.

hwillm1977....I would love to know more! Can you give some examples?
I take my meat and break it down into smaller servings and toss in some seasonings, then into the freezer, but your versions sounds very interesting.
Oh, and

 

[hwillm1977]

hwillm1977....I would love to know more! Can you give some examples?
I take my meat and break it down into smaller servings and toss in some seasonings, then into the freezer, but your versions sounds very interesting.
Oh, and

Sure... Volume 1 of chicken is: 1. Apple Chicken Breasts 2. Caribbean Chicken 3. Chicken Satay 4. Country Fried Chicken and Peppers 5. Way Easy Chicken Stir Fry

I put all the ingredients on the table, chop all the veggies I need into bowls (for example, the main directions will tell you for a family of 6 you need say 5 cups chopped onions... but that's for all 5 meals), once you've got your ingredients organized you open up five LARGE freezer bags and the individual recipes tell you how much of each ingredient to dump into each bag, close up the bags, label and freeze...

We keep a list of meals we have on hand on the outside of the fridge and take out dinner for the next day as we finish dinner each night... then it's defrosted and ready to go in the fridge.

FYI, we are a family of 2 so I just divide the ingredients into portion sizes we need.

I like the convience of freezer meals, but I don't want to buy pre-packaged crap from a grocery store

Here's a link to their Christmas dinner from the freezer menu: Roast Beast, Twice Baked Chive Potatoes, Balsamic Glazed Baby Carrots, Broccoli Florets with Lemon Butter Sauce, and Chocolate Raspberry Torte

http://www.savingdinner.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=171

(they are cheaper to buy if you get bundles of menus together)