My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): March 2016

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Today we celebrated Easter with our entire family. All 3 of our children and their spouses and 7 of our 8 grandchildren. Our daughter Amber and her husband Dallas and their daughters, Cassie 17, Rilynn 11 (almost 12 in her words), and Baleigh 9. Ivy and her husband, Bret and their sons, Ryker 5 and Axel 3. Levi and his Brooke, and their daughter Kaisley 4 and Maxton, 2 months. This grandma was in heaven! How I love being grandma and spending time with my family. Our small house was bursting at the seams, but everyone was enjoying it.

We began the celebration on Saturday. After our grocery shopping...my least favorite thing to do, it was home to cook! I began cooking at 1 p.m. and finished after 10 p.m. A list of what I made was as follows: 48 Resurrection Rolls for our Kids church. They are so simple and so good.

I made up a batch of Dinner rolls for our dinner today and rose up early this morning to get them made out to rise.

I also did a dozen deviled eggs and I dyed the whites, like normal Easter eggs.

Then I made up a GINORMOUS batch of cookies for the coffee bar at church. They were Apple Cranberry Oatmeal cookies. They are moist and ohh so good. I also made a small batch of Peanut Butter quick bread. Hardly had anything to bring home. Made over 409 cookies.

Then when they were done, I made a triple batch of scalloped potatoes.

Our kids added to the meal too. Amber made an orange jello salad and green bean casserole. Ivy made cheese cakes. We loved every bite!!!!

We had church, obviously, first thing. We stayed for both services and loved every second of it! What a wonderful blessing to spend time worshiping our Lord and Savior and to be with our church family. After church we came home and all of the families were here waiting on us!

The girls and I sat down to plan our next cooking day. Recipes have been agreed upon and the menu made out and the date sat. Now to make out the grocery list and get it done!!!!! I'm so ready. April 16th is the date. I'll post the menu and some recipes next time.

Today my feet hurt so bad I can hardly walk. But you know what.....it is worth it.

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.