My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): September 24, 2011

Sunday, September 25, 2011

September 24, 2011

In our little hamlet of Goodland, we have our Flatlander's Fall Festival this weekend. Lots of antigue restored cars and lots of wonderful motorcycles. Tons of food booths used for fund raisers for local functions. All my kids and I spent the day there yesterday. Lots and lots of walking! Wonderful beautiful weather and an enjoyable day.

This also was our family Sunday at church, which means breakfast casseroles for me to make. I had a couple of requests for my breakfast enchiladas! So easy and so good. I also made a crockpot casserole. Put it all in the crockpot and let it cook overnight. Easy, easy! Then I made a casserole that I baked last night and warmed it up today. Out of all of that, I had 2 small containers of leftovers that I sent home with my daughter and my son...1 each.

For our normal sunday lunch...I made our family favorite "Funeral" Casserole. It is a casserole that the Methodist Church in Oakley serves for funeral dinners. It is easy and YUMMY. I mixed it up last night and kept it in the fridge overnight.

This morning when I got up, I made the sausage gravy for the breakfast enchiladas and poured on them. Then I set the oven to come on at 10:15 to bake the dinner casserole, and put it in there. I made the Texas Roadhouse Rolls and they were rising while I made the gravy, set the oven and got ready for church. Then I made the dough into the rolls and put them on baking sheets, covered them and loaded up the casseroles for transportation to church. After church when I arrived at home, the casserole was ready to come out of the oven, the rolls were ready to go into the oven for 15-20 minutes. So while the rolls baked and the casserole cooled, I and my granddaughters sat the dinner table and I cooked some corn. We added some cantelope and bread and butter pickles to the menu and dinner was ready to eat!

Now I'm "chillaxin"...actually doing laundry!! The garden is pretty well done, so now my house should probably get clean and organized. Then we will also start our Once a Month Cooking for the winter. Anyone wanting to join in, let me know....we are trying to get a larger facility than my kitchen. So....let me know.

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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.