My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): May 2012

Monday, May 21, 2012

May 20, 2012

It has been a long since I last blogged. I have lost interest in blogging....but with the encouragement of my husband have found the love again!!! For those that don't know, I had a serious health issue during my hiatus! On April 8th, Easter Sunday, I suffered a major heart attack! Though recovery was slower this time (this was my second) I am doing much better now! Slow...but better. I do tire fairly easily though

As you know we host dinner on Sundays following church services. Yesterday was no exception. More on that in a moment.

Last weekend we, the entire Wassemiller clan, butchered a beef. Awww the full freezer effect on my meal planning and cooking ideas!!!!! Steaks, roasts, hamburger, soup bones!!!!! yippee!!!! Well, anyway, Saturday we, the hubs and I, took off for the farm to get our stash of beef. Filled the back of our van!!!! seriously concerned us whether we'd have room in freezer. Well lets just say, we open our freezer with great caution!!!!!.

So for our sunday dinner we decided on T-Bone steaks on the grill. so that brings me to the menu!

We served T-Bone Steaks which I marinated in Lemon-Pepper beer/cheesy hash brown casserole/Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad/Chips with French Onion dip and homemade Guacamole/jalapeno poppers/Dutch Apple Pie a la Mode.

These part of the steaks that I marinated. I made a paste of Lemon pepper and vinegar. Rubbed that on each steak. Put them in a container and poured a can of beer over them.

This is the guacmole. 4 avocados and a tomato and some onion and garlic

Hashbrown bake.

French Onion Dip

Jalepeno Poppers

Bacon Ranch Pasta salad

Dutch Apple Pie

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.