My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC): thoughts

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

thoughts

Well.....where do I begin!?~ We held our first once a month cooking group! We will have to see if we offer any more! Started out to be 6 ladies going join my daughter and I. On the night before cooking day...got a phone call that a lady wasn't going to make it...5 minutes later, another one...not kidding. Then as I hung up, another. Kept up like that for a bit...until we were down to one. Talk about discouraging. Not mad, not upset, really not hurt...just discouraged. terribly discouraged. I feel led to have this as a ministry guess I just thought that it would just go...but nope....obstacles. That mean ol' devil!

So I just decided to go on. I'm making plans....I'll open it up, maybe, and see how many show an interest.

We did have fun the day of cooking! Amber did almost all of the recipes from the list. She is so happy with a full freezer. The other lady that joined us, made soups for when her family comes to visit during the holidays! We shared recipes and we shared tips and tricks! Almost as important, we bonded, and laughed!

We ate lunch. I provided with homemade frozen pizza! Let them know how easy this program is!

This last weekend....WOW...I always bake cookies for the office to give out at Halloween! So...I made, with the assistance of my 5 year old granddaughter, Baleigh...15 dozen cookies...chocolate chip, oatmeal, monster, and cake mix cream cheese cookies! The last ones are the bomb!!!! YUMMMMMY. So...after we made the cookies, I made our breakfast/brunch items for church for sunday. 2 breakfast quiches, 1 breakfast pizza, and 1 huge breakfast casserole! I whipped up a 5 lb batch of meatballs to be made up on Sunday. and I put a roast on for sunday dinner. I whipped up a batch of Italian zucchini soup!

Sunday morning was our breakfast/brunch before church. This was in honor of our wonderful Pastors. What a wonderful special turnout. Shows what a blessing they are to everyone's lives. After church 2 of our children and 2 of our grandchildren joined us for a dinner of pork roast, potatoes, gravy. Then again, Baleigh and grandma whipped up 2 more batches of cookies for the total of the 15 doz. I finished up our laundry and got ready for the week.

Last night was Halloween...duh... Worked the P.D. giving out treats...and cookies. After working all day, then that....I was exhausted when I got home. tonight I'm sitting. Blogging!

Okay...here is the recipe for the cream cheese cake mix cookies

1 box of cake mix....any flavor

1 8 oz pkg of softened cream cheese

1/4 cup of butter softened (I use butter flavor Crisco)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla.

1 cup add ons...whatever suits your fancy (chocolate chips/nuts/raisins/M&M's)

Combine cream cheese and softened butter until well combined. Then add the dry cake mix and combine well. Mix in egg and vanilla. '

Bake in a 375 degree oven until golden brown around edges.

I used a white cake mix and added M&M's...I've thought about using a spice cake and using raisins &/or nuts.

More later.

Any suggestions?????

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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.