Once a Month Cooking
1. Decide on a day
You will need two days! One for shopping and prep work and one for cooking!
2. Check Sale Items
Buy your chicken when it is less than $2.00 a lb. Watch for good prices on pork, beef,
turkey,etc.
3. Get organized!!
a. Recipes
i. Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough
ii. Once-a-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg
iii. Websites
www.once-a-month-cookingworld.com
http://www.frugalmom.net/once_a_month_cooking.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/homemaking/oamc.html
www.cookofthemonth.com pull recipes. GREAT website for people just
starting out with OAMC! Makes menu and grocery list. Gives you the
process chart of how much of each thing you are going to cook.
www.onceamonthmom.com - monthly plans and grocery lists--free
http://www.christysclipart.com/wwwroot/oamc2.html
http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/index.html
www.sparkpeople.com –menus you can make into freezer meals. This
website plans menus based on your health needs—you can put in how much
weight you would like to lose and it will create meals based on your health
goals!
www.stolenmomentsmenuplanning.com –custom menus for your family
in your budget.--cost
www.moneysavingmom.com
b. Plan Meal
Now that you have gone through recipes it is time to narrow down your plan.
Some people need variety and they plan 30 different meals for the month. Some
can handle doubling up and they plan 15 meals and some can plan 10 meals to eat
three times each during the month. Figure out which household you are and plan
accordingly!
i. Get a good month calendar for you to write all your meals down on. If you
are pulling them from magazines or cookbooks make sure to right the
name of the publication and the page number on your month plan.
ii. You can do a weekly plan if a month seems too overwhelming. (You can
even take the week and double it so half your month is done!!)
c. Grocery List
i. I like to have a store grocery list by aisle. This really is simple and makes
my day of shopping nice and easy!! Next time you go to the store take a
notebook with you. Write down the items on each aisle (just write down
what the aisle markers say. For example Aisle 1 may be bread, fruits,
veggies, and deli. Aisle 2 may be canned fruits and veggies and beans…)
Take what you have written for each aisle and put it into an excel doc with
a box for each aisle. This way when you make your grocery list you will
write what you will be getting from each aisle. This will make your
shopping trip much easier and will help keep you from making an
unnecessary purchase!
ii. Make sure you write your ingredients and the quantity of each on your list.
Don’t forget freezer bags, foil pans, and aluminum foil!!
iii. Clean out your refrigerator and freezer before you head out shopping!!
d. Go grocery shopping
i. Make sure to look through your cabinets to check off any supplies you
already have. Check your measurements in your items too (I have looked
an seen that I had garlic powder only to find out on cooking day that I did
not have enough!! Make sure if you need 5 tbsp of something that you
have 5 tbsp of that item!!)
ii. Remember this is a day of its own. Trust me…DO NOT try to shop and
cook all in the same day!! I like to grocery shop in the morning and then
do prep work that afternoon and evening.
e. Prep work
i. Tonight is the night to chop all your onions, peppers, etc. Chop them and
put them in baggies in the refrigerator. This will really save you time
tomorrow.
ii. If you are going through a book that tells you each step of your day it will
have some directions for this night as far as what prep work needs to be
done. If you have pulled your own recipes to cook, you will need to do
some organizing!! You need to make a list of common things that can be
cooked. For example, you will want to write down how many onions are
being chopped, sliced, and cooked. You will want to know how much
ground beef is being browned and how much needs to remain raw. How
much chicken needs to be cooked and cubed, cooked and sliced, cooked
and left whole, or just frozen raw. You will want to know what your plan
of action is in the morning. If you are using the slow cooker that needs to
be put on first thing in the morning so get prepared for that. Think
through your recipes, write down the process of things you need to cook,
and get your prep work done and MAKE SURE YOUR KITCHEN IS
CLEAN.
4. Cook
a. Big day is here!
b. Make sure your dishwasher is unloaded and your kitchen is clean! Fill the sink
with sudsy water and wash as you go (this will make you much happier!!)
c. Make sure you have a good supportive pair of shoes on!
d. Get all of your labeling items together and ready (freezer bags, aluminum foil, foil
pans, and sharpies!!)
e. Start with any crock pot or long baking recipes!
f. Get your chicken boiling on the stove and your ground beef browning if you can.
g. Work through the common things that you can cook and then begin preparing
each recipe individually.
h. Flash freezing: you can put many things on cookie sheets and flash freeze them
(a few minutes or a few hours depending on the size of what you are freezing).
This allows you to package them in freezer bags and they will not stick—that way
you can pull out what you need at a later time. Great things to flash freeze are
onions, peppers, hamburger patties, chicken (diced or sliced), meatballs, waffles,
and pancakes.
5. Enjoy your day!
a. Listen to music (I love to just worship Almighty God this entire day!!)
b. Listen to books on tape or sermons
c. Post scriptures around your kitchen to keep your focus on the God who provided
your food and the money to buy it!
d. Stick post-its of prayer requests around so you can pray for different requests
throughout the day.
e. Exercise while you cook…dance around to get things. Walk around on your tip
toes and work your calves. With each step pull your leg out behind you and work
your bum. Suck in your stomach muscles. Pump your arms carrying cans around
(push behind you to work triceps, pump up in the air to work biceps, etc).