Friday, December 31, 2010

Plan A Once A Month Cooking Session

Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) is a method of producing fifteen to thirty meals in one or two days. These meals are then packaged and frozen, allowing for quick, healthy and worry-free family dinners for several weeks at a time. Read on to learn how you can cook for a day and dine for a month in a few quick and easy steps.


Instructions


1. Pick a cooking day. Look at your monthly calendar and choose a day that you can devote entirely to cooking. If you have small children, you'll want to hire childcare to ensure that you have uninterrupted time to create your meals.








2. Choose a shopping day. You'll want to reserve several hours prior to your once a month cooking session for grocery shopping. Keep in mind that you will be purchasing several weeks worth of food versus a typical weekly shopping session. Plan your time accordingly.


3. Gather store coupons and fliers. This will help you choose your menu and it will allow you to save a considerable amount of money on your monthly grocery bill.








4. Choose your meals. Start by picking out some of your families favorite meals that can be easily frozen. You can also find a plethora of once a month cooking entree suggestions online by using the search term "OAMC recipes." You'll want to gather between fifteen and twenty-five freezer friendly recipes for your cooking session.


5. Create a meal calendar. Insert the recipe titles into a calendar. This way you can ensure variety and prevent serving similar types of meals back to back.


6. Tally your ingredients and plan your shopping trip. The easiest way to tally ingredients is to use index cards. As you are reviewing your recipes and creating your shopping list you'll want to make tick marks next to each ingredient to show the amount you'll need. For example, write down the common ingredient "onion" on a card, and make a mark next to it for each recipe that calls for one.

Tags: cooking session, Month Cooking, next each, once month, Once Month, once month cooking