My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): Bread Recipes

ITALIAN BREAD
2 pkgs yeast
3 T sugar
3 T shortening
3 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
8 to 10 cups flour, divided
1 T salt
1 egg, beaten
melted butter

Dissolve yeast, sugar and shortening in water. Stir in 4 cups of flour, salt and egg; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 -8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and allow to rise in warm place, punching dough down every 10 minutes for 1 hour. Then allow dough to rise for 1 additional hour, or until doubled. Punch dough down; let rest 10 minutes. Divide into two loaves. Slash tops and place on greased 9x5x3 loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven; cool on wire rack. Brush with melted butter.

To SERVE Thaw at room temperature. If wrapped in aluminum foil, heat at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. I have sliced them and put garlic butter on each slice and then wrap in foil and bake for the 15 minutes.

If you are one that is intimidated by the bread making process you can purchase the Italian bread. If you are in a group of OAMCookers, and someone in the group wants to make the bread for the group, that works great too. I LOVE making bread so I do it and have done it. This makes 2 loaves so one recipe can feed two families.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP LOAF1 2/3 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 T pumpkin pie spice (I make my own mix)
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
dash salt
2 eggs
1 cup plain pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips (tonight I used M & M's)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. Set aside. In small bowl, bland eggs, then add pumpkin and butter. Whisk together. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together. Pour into greased baking pans and fill 2/3 full.

Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes for bundt cake, 40 -45 minutes for loaves, and 20 - 25 minutes for muffins. Cool completely. Freeze using insturctions for baked good.

SERVING DAY

Remove cake, loaf, or muffins from freezer bag and allow to thaw at room temperature until served.

**NOTE** I quadrupled this recipe!!! made enough for all of us to freeze some.

LEMON BREAD

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 T lemon juice
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 t baking powder
2 t grated lemon peel
1/2 t salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together egg, milk, oil, and lemon juice. Stir in flour; sugar; baking powder; lemon peel, and salt. Beat well. Pour into greased 9x5 loaf or bread pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan onto wire rack. Freeze, using instructions for baked goods.

SERVING DAY

Remove loaf from freezer bag and allow to thaw at room temperature until served.

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.