September 20, 2003

• Whew!

  
  

  All done. 

  
  

  Have you ever done once a month cooking?  There's actually a book by that title.  The edition I'm using is several years older than the one I've linked to at the bottom of this blog and I understand the newer version has some changes for lower fat recipes, and easier preparation.  I use the template for chopping and dicing, but I don't stick to their recipes.  We like things that are spicier than the fairly basic resipes the authors include, but then they tell you up front that they hope you will adapt their idea to suit your own tastes. 

  
  

  When I first heard of it, I thought it sounded like a nice idea for those poor souls who didn't have the luxury of staying at home.  But I couldn't see why I'd want to do it.  Then, when I was pregnant, I discovered an excellent reason to try - I was sick as a dog for nine months and one day a month was about all I could stand to be in the kitchen.  So my sister and my friend came over, we got out every pot and pan in the house, and went to town.

  
  

  Now I know there are excellent reasons for doing this even though I rarely do it anymore. 

  
  

  1. It's the cheapest way I've found to feed my family.  I spent less than $140 at the grocery and I have enough home cooked from scratch meals to feed growing BOYS for more than two weeks.
  
  2. Even though I'm a stay at home mom, I'm busy with homeschool and life (writing!) and I don't have time to spend chopping and dicing and cooking every day the way I'd like to.  The once-a-month-cooking-plan saves us from convenience foods or being forced to head to McDonald's on nights when I just can't do it. 

  
  

  3. Because I start with fresh veggies, meats, cheeses, etc, I know that the food I'm preparing for my family meets MY very tough standards in terms of low-fat, no preservatives, etc. 

  
  

  The food that I prepared today ALL fits in the bottom half of the freezer atop my refrigerator so it's not essential to own a huge freezer in order to do this. 

  
  

  It is a lot of work.  I started this morning by boiling and deboning 2 chickens.  While they were cooking I browned a little over 5 pounds of very lean ground beef (for the once-a-month-cooking thing, the leaner the better so you don't have shrinkage.)  With these foundations, I have since assembled -

  
  

  1.5 quarts of chili
  1 quart of Spaghetti sauce
  1 tray of enchiladas with green chili sauce
  1 quart of hamburger stroganoff

  
  

  Teriyaki chicken
  Chicken a la King
  Tarragon Chicken filling for croissant roll sandwiches
  Chicken Spinach casserole
  3 quarts of Chicken and Wild Rice soup (really good served with toasted almonds for garnish)

  
  

  Ham slices in cherry sauce
  Ham Linguini Casserole
  Broccoli and Ham Casserole

  
  

  Tomorrow I'll finish off by making Split Pea and Ham soup (heavy on the garlic the way that Tucker likes it.)  Corn Chowder.  And baking bread.  I don't know how much bread I'll bake - more than one loaf - less than a dozen. 

  
  

  I trimmed my list of recipes considerably since I'm only going to be gone for two weeks.  And I didn't do a lot of side items.  If I were cooking for an entire month, I'd have added in several vegetarian nights with beans and rice, veggie casseroles, and tofu stir fry.  Since my neighbor has already told me that she's strictly a "meat and potatoes" kind of person, I figure I've pushed my luck about as far as I can get it with the heavy-on- the-veggies soups. 

  
  

  My family will not miss me while I'm gone, I won't feel a bit guilty about leaving them.  And tonight?  They are taking me out to dinner. 

  
  

  

  • 6:58 pm
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