OAMC from start to finish

I'm feeling a bit guilty because I know some of you are interested in Once a Month Cooking and I have been negligent about posting the details. I don't really care for cooking, and writing about cooking is even less interesting than cooking because at the end of this post there won't be a delicious meal waiting for me! I don't think I will be able to post about anything else though, until I get this one behind me!

I started doing OAMC for several reasons. Primarily, I am inherently lazy, particularly when it comes to things I don't enjoy doing. Frequently, I would put off cooking dinner until everyone was ravenous and then it was quicker and easier to get McDonalds. When I realized how much money I was spending on fast, not so healthy, food I knew I needed to quit being so lazy and such a poor steward of our money. When I began cooking, I realized that one trip to the grocery store a month and one solid day of cooking is much less heinous than cooking every day and going to Wal-Mart weekly.

When I talk to people about OAMC I am surprised at how many people go to the grocery store without a list or a plan. Quite frankly, that's crazy, especially now when so many people are struggling financially. Many of my friends are reluctant to start OAMC because they are afraid of spending so much money at one time. I did my cooking on Oct. 24 and spent $604, on Dec. 16 I spent about $550, and when I cooked last weekend I spent $760. I bought everything I could at Aldi's and the remainder at Wal-Mart. One thing I have noticed is that every time we need to get a "few things" at Wal-Mart we end up spending a lot more money than we intended. My goal this month was to eliminate as many of those trips as possible. To that end I purchased everything we would need for the month including all cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, paper supplies, dog food, etc.

Let's say the $760 was spent entirely on groceries. There are eight people here eating three meals a day, that's a total of 24 meals a day. If we multiply that number by 30, for the number of days the food should last, we get 720 meals. That means I am spending the equivalent of $1.06/ person/meal. That's really not bad.

Previously, we only ate cereal for breakfast. We have recently started having a hot breakfast most days, so I purchased something like 25 pounds of hash browns, 90 eggs, 5 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of sausage, 6 boxes of muffin mix, several packages of bagels, and flavored cream cheese. Obviously, this costs quite a bit more than cereal!

For lunch, we often have leftovers, Rice-a-Roni (it is, after all, the San Fransisco treat), spaghetti noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese, nachos, or something else very simple.

I tell you all of this so you can see that the amount of money you will spend depends a lot on what you like to eat. If you normally spend $150 a week on groceries, it isn't likely you will spend $600 to begin OAMC. You may choose to only make a month's worth of dinners and still make trips to the store weekly for lunch and breakfast food. To make 30 dinners you may only spend $300 or so. If you don't have the extra money upfront, try cooking for two weeks and then skipping an extra week at the store until you have enough saved to cook for the whole month. It's so worth it!

Are you ready to get started?

First, you will need to choose your meals. My favorite site is Recipezaar You can do a search for OAMC and you will find numerous recipes. Print off the ones you like. Now, I make about 25 different dinners month, but that's only so everyone gets their favorite foods. Realistically, you could choose 15 meals and then make 2 of each. This generally saves time and money. Print them off and then compile your grocery list. Since I shop at multiple stores, my grocery list is divided into categories such as "produce", "dairy", "meat", etc. If I want a particular snack, I type it on the list. If it isn't on the list...I don't buy it. That's how you bust your budget. I also review each recipe and see how I want to tweak it. If it calls for a small amount of an unusual ingredient I consider whether or not that ingredient is necessary before I include it on the list. Realistically, you're cooking for your family, and they aren't food critics so a spice here or there isn't going to make or break the meal. If it is a Mexican recipe with ground beef, I always stretch it with black beans and then adjust the required amount of beef accordingly. Instead of using a chicken breast per person, I make almost all chicken recipes with 3 chicken breasts and then I shred the chicken, or slice it into strips. Don't forget to add freezer bags and foil to your list!

Once you have an accurate list, on a separate sheet of paper, divide your meals into categories by meat and then cook prep. For example, I divide chicken recipes into two categories, those that need to be cooked prior to assembly, and those that need to thaw so they can be breaded. Do you need to leave some ground beef separate to shape into patties or does it all get browned up? This is your game plan. You must do this before you can cook, or you will have chaos.

As soon as possible, start your shopping. Go to the cheapest store first, or look at all of the sale ads to see which big ticket items you should pick up at each store. When you buy 25 lbs. of ground beef at a time, every penny adds up!

When I bring the groceries home, I arrange everything that does not need to be refrigerated on my kitchen table. It is much more easy to access than if I try to put it all away. If you have a helper, have them start browning ground beef. (I brown about 3 lbs. at a time, then I dump it all into a giant pot and scoop it out as I assemble each recipe.) Leave out the amount of chicken that needs to thaw, and put the rest in the freezer. Follow your game plan and cook your food by category.

When you are finished with each meal, put it into a proper storage container. Items like chicken nuggets, quesadillas, etc. need to be flash frozen on a cookie sheet before they are put in a bag, otherwise they will all stick together. I let everything else cool to room temperature to avoid defrosting my freezer. I label each bag/container with a Sharpie and include the date and how many items are contained in the bag, as well as any special serving instructions.

This time when I went shopping I invested in some casserole pans and plastic containers with lids for soup and chili because I spend a lot of money on throw away metal pans. I figured it was time to buy some real pans. I have a deep freezer. When my parents moved to TX, they gave us their deep freezer. Now, I have one, and they don't. As you can see in the pictures, I take full advantage of it by freezing casseroles in pans. My parents do OAMC also and they fit it all into two regular freezers. You CAN do OAMC with limited freezer space. You will just need to flash freeze your Ziploc bags FLAT on a cookie sheet and then stack them upright or line them up like books on a bookshelf.

When you are finished cooking...RELAX! You don't have to cook again for an entire month! It's glorious, I tell you! Just remember to take something out for dinner each morning. The bags can be defrosted in the microwave if you forget, but it's better to pull them out in the morning.

It's now 3 AM and I am pooped, but if you have specific questions, leave a comment and I will answer it as best as I can. Oh, and the reason Eliana has on sunglasses is because she's chopping an onion. :)