My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

March 5, 2011

This week has been very busy...and wow does my house show it. It all started last Friday night and I made some dessert for a fund raiser here. Then I was asked to make sandwiches for a mission trip, so I made about 35 sandwiches (ham salad, roast beef, pastrami, turkey) and potato salad. Monday night went and did the shopping for the lunch stuff and some other necessaties. Tuesday night was my show, (the biggest loser) so I didn't do anything. Roy had put the ham on cook during the day, so it was ready. Wednesday night I boiled eggs, ground up the ham and made up the ham salad. So Thursday I made up the sandwiches and the potatoe salad. Friday night we delivered the lunch to the church. This week I volunteered to take muffins to church. So after making the sandwiches and Potato Salad on Thursday night, I started making the muffins on Friday night. Ha! My dining room table is full of mini muffins. I made pumpkin, applesauce, spice, and banana muffins. I was up until 3 a.m baking the muffins. Then today we went to the farm and slaughtered 2 cows. Now in two weeks we go to butcher them up and package them. I can't wait! A freezer full of meat!!! Only thing is I need to defrost my freezer!!! Ughhhh I do not like that job!

Tomorrow is church and the kids will be here for dinner again...Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and homemade biscuits.

I will try to get back to posting recipes again. I also have our OAMC menu for March to post. I will get that done this coming week...I promise.

Happy eating to all and to all a good night!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

March 1, 2011

Hi!!! Tonight was a busy evening. Tuesday's I ALWAYS make sure that I'm done with my evening "stuff" so I can sit down and watch my most favorite show..."The Biggest Loser". Tonight was no different. When I got off work, I came home and turned on my oven and changed my clothes and went for my 45 minute walk. Then I came home and we went and exercised our rights and voted in our City primary! Before we left to vote, I put some of the HUGE Italian Bread in the oven to heat it up. When we returned home I put some water on to boil for some penne pasta, heated up the sausage in cream sauce. When the pasta was done, so was the sausage in cream sauce AND the bread. 10 minutes tops is all it took. We sat down and ate, and I got the dishes done and was sitting in the chair just as my show started. That is another reason that I LOVE OAMC!

I'll be sharing more recipes soon, so keep watching.

Tomorrow night I'm grinding up ham to make ham salad for sandwiches for a mission trip for our church this weekend. Then Thursday night Amber and I will assemble them and we will make a potato salad. Then Friday night and Saturday, I will make muffins for our church services on Sunday. I love doing this! I'm having a blast! I will let you know what muffins I make and I will take pictures and share with you all.

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.