Who does once a month cooking?

[maf8009]

Us too. we cool by the week or month and freeze a lot... Get a "seal a meal" WOW once you have one, you cant live without it.....

You can make soups or stews in batches.... and freeze the left overs in small "seal a meal" freezer bags that can be dropped in hot water to thaw.. then microwave.

(or I like the lunch meat tubs too)

Here our some of our family meals

Pot roasts, soups, roast chicken, turkey, cook ahead ground beef, Spaghetti sauces, meat loaf.. ( I make "balls and freeze cooked or raw meat loaf... yummy)

So cook a huge batch of what ever, freeze the rest and in a few weeks your freezer is full of great food.

 

[Dace]

I had a seal a meal and only used it a couple times, for some reason the vacuum did not seem to work well....or at least I never figured it out.

DDeb....the trick is to disguise things. My Hubby is really not a fan of leftovers either. But a tray of lasagna, or pot of soup served two weeks apart, well, let's just say he has no idea plus you can change things up....chicken stock frozen in meal sized batches can go from chicken and dumplings one night to chicken tortilla, to mushroom & barely, to loaded potato soup. The idea is to reduce the broth down to be fairly concentrated so that it does not take up as much room, then shop for the things that you need to change the soup up easily .....bag of tortilla chips, cheese, avocado and lime for the tortilla soup; pre mix your dumpling mix and labor in the pantry for the chicken and dumplins; buy a bag of potatoes, sour cream and a package of bacon for the pot soup.
Hamburger meat can be cooked and frozen for tacos, spaghetti sauce....and I am sure other things!
So you don' t have to serve left overs per se!

I am right there with y'all! I am really struggling lately and I need to get a better plan together and dinner time is part of my headache. With my son going to school 30 mins away, and each kids busy schedule.... my afternoon gets hijacked and dinner is suffering.

 

[Denim Deb]

Last time I made extra w/the idea of freezing the leftovers for lunch for me one day, he ATE the whole meal! So, I didn't get my leftovers. :/

 

[abifae]

After the concert last night, I was able to snag a casserole/pot pie out of the freezer and toss it in the oven. No effort required!! I LOVE once a month cooking LOL.

When I've lived with people who ate the leftovers, the freezer portion was served out immediately. And the freezer offlimits for snacking. I do that for next day lunches, too. Lunch portions go into the bento boxes immediately and set aside to cool before I lid them. Then everyone can serve themselves. Then I take my serving and set aside the freezer portion. I leave enough for a second serving if I'm serving folk who I know will need one.

Lunch FIRST is the biggest help. Not so much once a month cooking, but I know a lot of us like to eat leftovers the next day

Thank you for posting my link Dace!!

Another easy thing... Take a freezer bag and dump raw meat in, add a marinade. Freeze. Take it out and dump it all frozen into the crockpot and you have a meal! I love doing this when I buy giant batches of meat and have to separate it to freeze anyway.

I have not yet had a marinade that did NOT work this method. I do a lot of asian marinades and fajita and steak marinades work great too.

This eliminates the "ew leftovers" too since it's fresh. It's just fast because you are making a giant batch of marinade and tossing four or five meals prepped into the freezer.

You can also pre-make hamburger patties. Even stuffed patties. Freeze them each separated on a cookie sheet and then you can stack them and they don't stick. Never had an issue with stuffing them first (cream cheese and jalapeno is my fave!!! Jalapeno popper burgers. I put chipotle chili powder in the meat too).

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I usually buy meats in lg quantity when on sale, or sometimes in jumbo packs. I will often go ahead and cook 10 or 15 lb of ground beef and spice it for Mexican or Italian and label how I spiced it and freeze it in dinner-sized batches. Having the meat done makes it easier. I do the same for chicken and slice it for fajitas, quesadillas, oven spaghetti, salad, or shred it with BBQ sauce. I have started doing the shredded BBQ with Boston butt too since it runs less than a dollar a pound on sale, or beef briskets.

I make pots of beans, chili, curry, stew, etc. and freeze in portions. Sealed bags are great for these, but especially good for spaghetti. The bags boiled in water turn out perfect with spaghetti noodles and sauce all frozen together. I try to use bags I've already used for veggies and cut down tho cuz you can't really clean them after tomato sauce (I know they say don't reuse them but unless it's had raw meat in it, I do.).

I wish I could freeze bread dough. I guess I should just give it a try but I hate to waste the work and ingredients. It might work. Fresh bread is the hardest part for me to prepare when everything else has been made easy.

 

[lwheelr]

You can freeze bread dough. You just have to let it raise a LONG time after you take it out, and make sure you either spray the top with oil, or cover it while it raises.

To do this, let your dough go through the first raising or fermentation, and then shape it for loaves or rolls, or whatever, and put it on a cookie sheet, and pop it into the freezer. Take it the next day and bag it up.

To use, take it out of the freezer and put it on or in your pans. Cover or spray, and let raise all day. The top of the dough should not particularly feel COLD when you are ready to bake it, it should be room temp. If it is cold, it may still be partly frozen in the middle, and your bread won't cook right.

You can also make up big batches of fermented dough, and just take a bit out each day. We do this, sometimes making up 2 or more batches at a time, and sticking them in the fridge. Then we can take out what we need over the next few days and have hot bread.

Don't overlook speed cooking to save time either. A crock pot and a rice cooker can help you multi-task, so you don't have to slave over the stove to get a good meal.

A rice cooker can do more than just cook rice. Toss in the rice, chopped veggies, even uncooked meat, seasonings, and water, and let it go. When it is done, everything will be done, you just stir it all together. White rice is done in about 20 minutes, brown in about 40, and it tends itself.

Crock pots are great for doing all kinds of stuff, and they can cook beans or wheat in large batches while you sleep. Then you just cool it and bag it up the next day, tossing them into your freezer in usable amounts.

For husbands who won't eat leftovers, who's to know? Lasagna frozen before it is baked, and then thawed and baked isn't any different than fresh cooked - because it IS fresh cooked.

We prepared a lot of casseroles ahead when we had lots of kids at home, and there were other meals we always made extras of. Pizza pockets and broccoli, cheese and chicken pockets were always made in bulk - a huge batch of dough, and we'd just fill, cook, and freeze until we ran out. They'd be there for fast meals on the run over the next few days - they never lasted longer than that UNLESS we did other things with them for variety.

You can make burritos ahead, pre-cook hamburger patties or chicken patties or breast meat, etc. Go down the frozen meals aisle in the grocery store, and see what is there that you can make.

If you make a batch of something every few days, and always make sure you make a new thing BEFORE the old thing runs out, you will end up with some good variety to pull out in a hurry. If you just make one thing, then it will be gone too fast, because it is the easiest thing in the house to cook!

A lot like going to the store and buying a case of one kind of quick-fix. It is gone in days because everybody grabs it to go. But if you get more than one option, it lasts, and people use a variety. You're just fixing it all yourself instead of buying it pre-made.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Thanks for the frozen dough info, Laura!

The rising is just what I was worried about. So it's still not a last-minute thing, but if I can pull it out first thing in the morning, it might be ok. Not sure about it with wintertime temps, but I'll give it a try, and definitely keep in mind for when the weather warms up too.

Thanks again!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Thanks for the frozen dough info, Laura!

The rising is just what I was worried about. So it's still not a last-minute thing, but if I can pull it out first thing in the morning, it might be ok. Not sure about it with wintertime temps, but I'll give it a try, and definitely keep in mind for when the weather warms up too.

Thanks again!

Put it to rise on top of your fridge. Or in the cupboard above the fridge, if that is what you got.

 

[baymule]

And how can I get started on this?

I can make frozen pizzas. (In batches of 3's, but they're so good they're usually gone in a 2 days!) I'll just have to make a lot more!

I*could* make dinner rolls if I had a better recipe.

I have no ideas what else...

Lets see......I make rolls without the recipe.....if I can actually write it down.

3 cups milk
3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Warm milk and shortening until shortening is melted and sugar is dissolved. Stir to keep bottom from burning.

3 envelopes of yeast
3/4 cup warm water
Dissolve yeast in warm water.

3 cups flour
3 eggs
Put in milk mixture, beat well with spoon. Pour in yeast/water and stir in well.

Slowly mix in 3 more cups of flour. It gets thicker here, but mix in 2-3 more cups flour for a total of about 9 cups flour.

Turn out on floured surface and knead until well mixed and smooth. Do not let rise. Roll or pat out and cut out rolls, I use an upside down drinking glass. Put in a greased cookie sheet and cover with a cup towel and freeze overnight. Put the frozen raw rolls in a zip lock baggie. Take out however many you want to cook, put in a greased pan, cover with a cup towel and let thaw and rise. If in a hurry, heat the oven to 200 degrees and put in the pan of rolls, then turn off the oven. They should rise while you cook the rest of your meal.

I have made these for years. I hope you like them.