Once a Month Cooking - The Recipes

Disclaimer: Sorry this is a novel's length! I tried to label the different sections so you can skip around as you'd like.

With this entry I wanted to talk about what I actually prepared. I wanted to do something really, really easy to prepare so I could get the whole project done in a day. BTW - I went shopping Monday and today is Thursday...it took me that long to recover from the insanity of shopping for a month and cooking for a month in one day. I hope to do follow ups in the upcoming months about what we're changing, so hopefully I don't have that lengthy of a recovery period next time. (I feel like a wimp typing that out, but I kid you not- that was a LOT of work!!)

What I Chose to Cook

I decided the easiest way for me to do this freezing for now was to go ahead and do the majority of my meals with a method I found online called "dump chicken." The idea is that you stick the amount of chicken (I used boneless/skinless) you need in a bag, add the ingredients for a marinade, shake it up, flatten and freeze. It really made the majority of this process so easy, and the only thing I cooked was enough lean ground beef for a couple of those meals at the end.


Modifications

We're trying to be much more health conscious, so I did modify some of these recipes slightly as I went along. The recipes listed are the original recipes. I cut down on the oils and the butter in a lot of the recipes. Some of the recipes called for jelly so I used a little less of that just to watch the sugar. The possibilities are endless- modify as you see fit.

How I Prepared the Meals

First I labeled all the freezer bags and cut any of the fresh ingredients (such as garlic) I needed so it was all ready.  Then I did the meals as such:

Chicken

1. Cut the chicken breasts into the appropriate portion sizes. We each get about 4 oz- about the size of a deck of playing cards, and Hat Boy gets half of that. So, about 1 1/2 of the chicken breasts I bought.
2. Wash hands. Carefully place chicken in labeled bags. (I say carefully because I get worried about chicken residue getting everywhere.)
3. For the love of Norman, clean up your counter space and disinfect so you don't cross contaminate with the raw chicken.
4. Gather all the ingredients, and just start divvying them up according to your recipe list. I taped mine on the cabinet above me as a prep list.
5. Wash hands, seal bags (double check- I learned the hard way! ;) ) and shake them up so the ingredients are mixed. Flatten and stack 'em up in your freezer!
6. For good measure, I wiped down the counter with vinegar and water again to avoid spreading the chicken germs.

Ground Beef

1. While divvying up the ingredients, I put all the lean ground beef on the stove and browned it.
2. When it was done, I let it cool enough to handle (I had to double check food safety rules on this one- can you tell I'm worried about food poisoning?) and then I separated into the freezer bags for my meals.
3. Same thing here with the ingredients: add the spices, shake 'em up, flatten and freeze.
4. The only hamburger meal that was different was the enchiladas. I mixed the enchilada mix in a bowl (ingredients listed on the recipe sheet - I honestly just kind of eyeball the mix since I've made it a hundred times) then separated that into two bags. That's also the only meal that uses creamy condensed soup. I've seen healthier substitutes floating around Pinterest, if you're interested.


The only thing I did at the end of all of this was to check on the meals in an hour or two. I have a small freezer and they were all stacked in pretty tightly, so I just shifted them around a bit to make sure they froze quickly and thoroughly.

How I Prepare the Meals at Night

This is the best part. Right before bed, I pull out the next day's meal and put it in the fridge. By dinner time, it's thawed and goes in a small baking dish. All meals bake at 350 F for 20-30 minutes. I take 5 minutes and start one of the starch options, and then chop up a salad. That's it. Dinner takes me 10 minutes tops. I know we're only a few nights in, but I am loving it.

Other Things on the Recipe List

Some meals I made two of for the month, and those are marked with "X 2" next to the name. This mostly covers all the meals, except leftover nights (I'm second guessing this because I already portioned the meals appropriately so it's going to be tricky) and nights we eat with family members. The carb/veggie/pregnant snack options are really what I used as a guide to plan the shopping list, since we need those too. I tried to appease the other two people in the house a little more by planning less produce for them in the morning/lunch, and more throughout the day for me so I can stick with the Brewer's Diet for pregnancy.

Again, sorry this is sooo long! When I was searching for information on once a month cooking, I wanted to know all of these things so I knew my own blog posts about the project would be really long.

Tomorrow I'll be wrapping everything up by showing you my grocery list and talking about the supplies needed to do this thing! :)

Have a great day!