OAMC - my turn

[rafala]

OK, since Mrshart did her once a month cooking i started thinking about trying it again. I have tried many things before but when cooking for 3 picky kids and a picky husband it is tough to find recipes to freeze that dont have lots of onions and peppers, and without the peppers a lot of the recipes seem bland.

so i went to the library and took out a couple books to read what they said. one was ok but the other was fantastic!!! It is called "once-a-month cooking" by miimi wilson and mary beth lagerborg. I found 5 or 6 recipes to make and i have liked every one of them so far, and my hubby has also. they were easy ones to make and small so as not to take up tons of room in the freezer as i still had to have room for ice cream, bagels, waffles, ice pops, ice cubes and hot pockets.

i made these meals starting the 30 of august, i did a couple that day and a couple the next and one i did the following week. they are fairly easy to put together on the day you are going to have them and i just keep a calendar on my freezer that has what we are having each night for dinner and in the margin any extras i need to but to go with the meals.

now, to feed the 5 of us i try to stay around $100 a week at the supermarket and around $150, or under if possible, a month at a warehouse club. So when i went to sam's i spent $150 and that included pudding for the kids and flavored water for youngest son and dh and slimfast powder for myself, and maybe a few other things. i bought more chicken than i needed but that is fine the price is good and it will get used. my normal sunday grocery bill is $75-80 for the last 2 weeks it has been $45!! on Tuesdays I go to a store that doubles $1 coupons and i have still been under $30 there and i have stocked up on toothpaste like you wouldnt beleive

the hard part is that since i dont have to buy meat i usually impulse buy something else, like more snacks for the kids. I am working on this though and hopefully will be able to get my food bills down even more.

well, i just thought i would share with my frugal pals how well this OAMC is going and how it is saving me money. definately check out the library if you are interested in doing this.

karen


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[doglover22]

If you don't mind sharing, what were the recpies that you made?

[rafala]

Love to share

I made chicken packets, which is cooked chicken mixed with cream cheese and chives. the day you serve you put in croissant rolls then dip in butter and then in seasoned croutons.

Marinated Flank Steak - steak is frozen in the marinade, all you have to do is defrost and cook. It is a terriyaki marinade.

French Bread Pizza - you freeze everything seperately then put together and broil, very easy.

chinese chicken morsels - still in the freezer but cooked chicken in the marinade, should be easy to heat up.

grilled fish - buy frozen fish, put marinade in seperate bag, defrost both then put fish in marinade for 30 minutes. then grill or broil. suggests serving with potatoes which i found out my oldest son actually likes

I also make spaghetti sauce and freeze the extras for spaghetti during the week and i buy whole chickens plus i also buy pork tenderloin which i do in the crock pot.

i am looking forward to trying some more of the recipes now that i know these others are very good.

happy cooking.

karen


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[doglover22]

Would you mind sharing the recipe for the Chinese Chicken Morsles? I'm not able to have my tiny freezer full of diners, but I would like to have a few things.

[lauseng]

I didn't like the Chinese Chicken Morsels at all. Too much soy sauce or something. It's been about 5 years since I made it and all I wrote in the margin was "yuck!" so I'm not sure exactly what the problem was or if it's adjustable.

However, my favorite recipe from that book (and the tiniest in the freezer) is the Baked Herb Fish Fillets. You make a bread crumb-based coating mix and store in a ziploc bag. On dinner night you thaw some fish (I've done it with orange roughy and alaskan pollock), dip into egg white and then the breading mix and bake. Takes about 5 minutes to make up ahead of time.

Others from this cookbook I like include the Lemon Chicken, Taco Pie, and Pizza Roll Ups. Not all are the cheapest freezer meals though. You can freeze nearly anything. I typically just freeze my leftovers. Pot Roast. Meatloaf. Potato Soup. Look down the freezer aisle and you'll see all the possibilities for meals you can freeze.

Jackie

[rafala]

hope this comes through. we havent had this one yet but i have had it before and liked it. maybe less soy sauce if you dont like that much. i really liked the chicken packets as well. they were small to freeze, you mixed cooked chicken with cream cheese and chives and freeze that. the day you want it defrost and put in croissant rolls (make rectangles out of the triangles) coatt in butter than in crushed up seasoned croutons. tasted really good. 2 or my 3 kids even liked it.

here is the chinese chickenn morsel: