Once a Month Cooking – Again!

They say that the third time is a charm.  I don’t know about that, but Grandma and  Grandpa just finished their third “Once a Month Cooking” adventure.  This time was almost as much fun as the first  time.  We made some changes in both the  recipes and process that made the process a little more challenging since we  didn’t use the book’s well laid out process plan.  (Note – As it is often only Grandma and  Grandpa for dinner, our “once a month cooking” lasts us about 5 months.)

Grandpa’s dietary requirements had us adapting some of the  existing recipes as well as searching for some new ones.  Grandma does a great job of keeping the  recipes all together and even has a spreadsheet to make sure we get all the  ingredients we need.  It only took us a  couple of hours to do all the shopping.   The first two sets of recipes used lots of beef and pork, along with  chicken.  We changed to a set of recipes  that used mostly chicken and that cut the cost of our supplies by about 1/3.  We also found some new recipes that everyone (except  a picky Grandma!) loves at the mediterrasian.com website.  We’ll keep adjusting the  recipes until we find a set we really like and probably still try a new one  each time just for fun.

Since several of the recipes were new, we didn’t do all the  chopping at once like we did the first time.   Instead, we got all the supplies and containers organized on the  counter, grabbed a recipe and started cooking through them one at a time.  Oh, and we also turned on the Southern Gospel  music to keep us going.  We got started  about 9 in the morning and finished about 5 in the afternoon.  We were going to make a time-lapsed video to  share, but had some problems with the camera.   We’ll try again next time because we think it will be fun to watch as we  dance around each other through the day.   It may be the only time you see Grandma and Grandpa dance.

As always, we learned a few things.  It would have been good to have chopped and  cooked the chicken all at once.  (We had  cooked whole chickens the day before and had frozen chicken pieces to work with  as well.)  We should have let the storage  containers cool longer before putting them in the freezer.  (It took our freezer a couple of days to  catch up!)  It really is a good idea to  save all those cottage cheese containers.   They make great single serving storage containers for all of Grandpa’s  special recipes.  Grandma learned a new  way to wrap glass baking pans that don’t have storage lids.  Wrap them in aluminum foil (you can leave  that on for baking) and then “shrink wrap” them with plastic wrap.  That gives them a good seal for the freezer.

There is no question we’ll do this again.  We know we’re saving money and Grandpa loves  the variety that comes from having 30 different varieties of dishes in the  freezer. Grandma loves the ease of fixing something Grandpa likes,  and is always prepared for company.

Here are a few links that will help you get started

Once-A-Month Cooking, Revised and Expanded: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Every Day
The Simple Dollar blog from Christian Science Monitor

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