My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): Freezer cooking

Friday, February 18, 2011

Freezer cooking

This week I made a big crock pot full of chili. Since it would take Roy and I a long time to eat that much and would get tired of it after a few meals, I decided to go ahead and freeze it. I poured it into quart size freezer bags and laid them flat on a cookie sheet. when they were completely frozen, I took the cookie sheet out and laid them flat on the freezer shelf. Now when it is cold out and/or we are in the mood for chili, I have it ready to go. This will work on Chili dogs or for Frito chili pie or any of foods calling for chili! I used to can my chili and have it on the shelves, and I froze some too. The frozen was perfect! I always felt that the canned chili was a little more "soupy". So obviously I cooked it too long, but I could never get it just to the right point. Freezing is certainly a lot easier.

This weekend we are going to have the Sweet Mustard Glaze Salmon. This will be our Sunday dinner! along with Parmesan Potatoes and Italian bread and green beans w/almonds! Our daughter loves Salmon (actually any seafood) so will serve when she is at our house for dinner. She can have part of mine, as I won't be able to eat it all! I am thinking of making homemade Butterscotch pudding for dessert! using my mother-in-laws recipe!!! ROY'S FAVORITE!

Tomorrow, I have our granddaughters for the day...think we will make creme puffs! Need to make bread too as Roy is out of bread! They love to help grandma punch the dough! Big helpers.

Monday we will probably be planning our menu for our next OAMC and plan the date! We also will be doing butchering sometime in March, so we are looking forward to having some "real" meat. We call our meat from the farm "real" and the meat from the grocery store (especially WalMart) "artificial"! I plan on taking some of the bones and make my own beef stock and can it so I have beef broth and beef stock on hand! I like to "saute" in broth rather than oil...sure cuts down on the fat!!!

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Introduction

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by deciding what to prepare for a meal? I know I have. Many times. Especially our evening meal when our three children were growing up. Then one day I stumbled across a program called "Once A Month Cooking" (OAMC) and thought I'd give it a try. It was a lifesaver and I loved it. I did it for years, from the time my youngest was in preschool until he was in the 8th grade. I don't remember why I quit, just that I did. When I was doing the OAMC back then I prepared a lot of full, complete meals and froze them, entree, side, and dessert. The only thing I had to actually prepare for the meal was the vegetable or the potatoes. For those of you not familiar with the OAMC program, I will try to explain it to you here. This blog is to try to help you see what it takes, how to do itm give you ideas and how much fun you can actually have. OAMC is the ultimate do-ahead dinner preparation technique. The secret of the OAMC technique is that you cook all your dinner main dishes for a month (or two weeks or even a week) in one day, freeze them, and enjoy eating tasty food, every night without the hassle of lengthy meal preparation. In this blog, I will try to provide the menu we use, shopping lists and recipes. You do not have to have organizational skills, nor do you have to be a good cook to successfully accomplish OAMC. What you need to expect and plan to is: Take a longer-than usual shopping trip, preferably the day or night before your cooking day. Spend the bulk of your month's food budget on this shopping trip (saving money over the course of the month) Cook with a partner or two or three, like I do, for maximum fun and efficiency. Cook half a day for a two week cycle, a full day for a month cycle. Love the freedom and possibilities this will bring to mealtimes. Enjoy family building times around the table and like us, the time we cook together. Take the stress out of having company for dinner I suggest for the first few time you do the OAMC to try to do the two week cycle. Then when you get the feel of the "system" advance on the full month if that is what you want and have room for the food. Also in this blog I will frequently give you suggestions of what to serve with a certain recipe. Please feel free to email me with any suggestions and question syou might have. Even leave a comment here on the blog.