Cooking Marathon!

We are always talking about how much work it is to make a meal plan for the week, cook every night and try to find new recipes to make for the fam. We found another mommy blogger who really inspired us to take our batch and freeze to a whole new level! For months now, we’ve wanted to try out the “freezer program” from Once a Month Mom. She does almost all the hard work for you, at least in the preparation! Every month she puts these great menus together including, breakfast, lunch and dinner along with grocery lists, printable labels and even a prep list that’s designed to be split between two people. We would highly recommend reading through her resources links (at the bottom of the months menu page) before starting and listening to the podcast that goes with the months menu.

Last Wednesday we spent nearly 12 hours cooking and stocking our freezer for the next month! We got sitters for the boys for the day and we really had a ton of fun cooking ALL day! Out of  her entire menu, these are the recipes we did last week (we didn’t do them all because we didn’t want to be too overwhelmed!) and how much of each we ended up with (keep in mind the recipes she does should feed a family of four so when we say 2 ziplocs each that means that we each have two dinners which will feed a family of four):

• Breakfast Wraps (20 total = 10 each= 2.5 meals a piece)
• Chicken and Wild Rice Soup (4 gallon ziplocs, 6 cups in each bag =2 ziplocs each)
• Pizza Soup (4 gallon ziplocs, 7 cups in each bag =2 ziplocs each)
• Pizza Croissants (26 total = 13 each= 3 meals a piece)
• Eggplant Parmesan (4 8×8 pans = 2 pans each)
• Sausage Ratatouille (4 8×8 pans = 2 pans each)
• Baked Pasta with Eggplant, Tomato and Sausage (4 8×8 pans = 2 pans each)
• Tostada Goop (4 gallon ziplocs, 8 cups in each bag =2 ziplocs each)
• Kaylee’s Casserole (6 8×8 pans = 3 pans each)
• Simple Down Home Lasagna (4 8×8 pans = 2 pans each)

We both spent about $170 on our grocery lists and we know we can do better next time because we didn’t use any coupons. We did use all locally farmed meats and as much organic produce and other organic/natural ingredients as possible (hence the reason we’re not just going to Dream Dinners- we want to control what ingredients are in the meals- also great for those of you with food allergies). Sometimes, organic can be more expensive but NOT always!  SO we spent $170 a piece for almost 80% organic ingredients, local meat and we each went home with 25 meals! I think we can say that a 12 hour labor intensive of cooking in exchange for an entire month worth of meals is WORTH IT! Note to self: although you will be on your feet all day and make a complete mess of the kitchen, a bottle of wine makes it all better and even more FUN :)

Once a Month Mom specifically designs her menus around what’s in season and what’s on sale, so there’s quite a bit of thought that goes into this menu. So before you start thinking you’re going to end up with a freezer full of food that you won’t like once it is thawed (Tricia..hehehe), think again! We couldn’t stop tasting and oogling over ALL the food as we were cooking it! It’s all pretty healthy, tasty, real food with great flavors!

The great thing is we really didn’t have a lot of left over ingredients and there really wasn’t a lot of things that we needed to get that we would only use a little this one time… (i.e. spices, herbs or veggies). We got quite a bit of the bulk things at Costco (they have a ton of organic items), including organic tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, cheese, etc. Costco doesn’t have a lot of fresh organic produce but I did find mushrooms there. All the meat came from a great local, “organic” (no hormones or pesticides and all animals are humanely treated and fed the correct diet) farmer out of Indiana who has a great stall at Findlay Market. The chicken just arrived in time for us to purchase, and he cuts it, de-bones/skins it to order! It doesn’t get any more fresh than that and let me just say – you can tell the difference with the taste and quality of the meat!

So far we’ve tried and LOVED the following:

• Kaylee’s Casserole
• Breakfast Wraps
• Pizza Croissants
• Baked Pasta with Eggplant, Tomato and Sausage (this one, for example, served one helping for me, two helpings for the hubs and one helping for Cody with a small amount of leftovers!)

Here’s what we’ve learned for next time:

• Plan out your menu to be prepared and stock up on coupons!
• Don’t use the store brand croissants – they have a little less “junk” in them (no trans fat) but they don’t rise the same, making them a little more soggy and they come apart really easily when you’re trying to unfold them
• Bring plenty of extra spoons, pots and pans – it helps if you don’t have to re-wash everything when you’re in the  middle of cooking three different recipes!
• Start planning early! You can keep an eye out for things on sale during the weeks leading up to your cooking day and don’t forget to check out the prep list for both people to do prior to the cooking day (i.e. precook some of the meat, chop veggies, etc. the day before)
• You can find re-usable foil pans to use, however be careful if you want to use the ones with the plastic lids because if you’re stacking them onto one another the lids are pretty flimsy! You can, however recycle old cardboard to put in between the casserole pans for extra stability.
• Double bag ALL your recipes you’ll be putting into ziplocs (we had some spilled food!). Jennie likes to cut the labels and stick them into the bag so it’s easier to re-use the ziplocs.
• Print our your labels the night before
• Type up an excel sheet of the meals you have, how many are in your freezer and the cook time to stick on the fridge. This way, you can see what all is in your freezer and prepare you week out in advance!
• Don’t forget to RECYCLE :)
  

Now, we know this is A LOT of info to take in at once! We plan on doing this every month so we will keep you updated on our progress by posts. We are hoping each month gets easier and easier and in turn, maybe we can save you some time by talking about our failures (and triumphs of course)! Once A Month Mom has a monthly fb party where she answers your burning questions :) We have also started a discussion tab on our facebook page where we can all post our fav freezer recipes, tips, tricks etc. You can also ask us specific questions about our cooking day and we will be online monday the 22nd at 8pm to answer your questions live. We are by no means pros, but would love to help you in any way that we can. We have learned so much just by doing it once! Just think how much easier life could be if you didn’t have to cook every night, think about what to cook, or try and create something new every week! I know, you are stoked aren’t you?! SO ARE WE!!! Feel free to visit fb, send us an email or leave a comment with your questions or suggestions (if you are a freezer pro already)!