Comments on: Tightwad Tuesday: Once a Month Cooking

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[...] Tightwad Tuesday: Once a Month Cooking. [...]

By: Zengirl

Zengirl — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:30:48 +0000

Great! looking forward to see how it works out for you. I am wondering if you write about your home schooling days and related. I am curious about it, how it is working out for you? I homeschool my 4 years old and it has really amazing, but some days are tough, when he does not want to do reading, phoenix etc and just play with cars. :-) but we do achieve so much education wise.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:19:37 +0000

Lynnae, I’m so glad you are excited about this! I’d love to see a follow-up post in a few weeks to see if you really use the freezer meals or if McDonalds gets more of your business.

By: marci

marci — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:24:24 +0000

I have a smaller freezer, and it’s just me at home, but I do this anyway and freeze in smaller portions for stuff to take to work for lunches. To make more freezer space available, I have started canning meats and some garden surplus veggies. This was not only to save space in the freezer, but in case of our infamous week long electric outages in the winter storms here… I hate losing fish, clams, venison, etc, that are so much a part of my intake here on the coast.

I also freeze up my family Christmas gifts – the quiches, breads, cookies, and homemade pies, as well as lasagna’s for gifts. Cooking ahead and freezing those gifts makes a much less stressful holiday baking/cooking season :)

And I ALWAYS make up at least a double batch of whatever I make – and freeze half of it or more. Saves a lot of time in the long run – time I can be out working in the garden, playing with the grandkids, or enjoying a rare sunny after noon here :)

By: CJ McD

CJ McD — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:28:01 +0000

I haven’t done a month of cooking, but I regularly do large batch cooking of several different things. It’s still basically an afternoon or evening of cooking, but it’s worth it to have good, home made, ready to heat and eat food on hand. It might be 2 meat loafs, a pot of soup, 2 pot roasts (one to freeze, one to eat during the week), meatballs in sauce, a pan smothered pork chops, etc. I try to cook in a way so that the oven is full as well as the stove top. I usually do the main courses only, but it is handy to have cooked rice or grains on hand for the bottom of the soup bowl or for side dishes.

It’s especially handy if I know I’ve got a crazy schedule coming up.
If I can’t squeeze in the big-batch cooking time wise, I still ususally make double of whatever it is I’m preparing (2 chickens, two pot roasts, etc.) or make extra to convert into other meals for the week. Ex.: Roast chicken one night, fajitas the next, chicken salad sandwiches or chicken stir fry another.

What ever strategy works I say!
Thanks for the blog post though. I’m definitely going to check out the book. Can’t have too many tips and tricks to keep a busy household humming, can we?

By: Dogfood Provider

Dogfood Provider — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:29:44 +0000

Wow, lots of interesting info in the comments here. I live alone and am really intrigued at this way of cooking, but I am not sure how to implement it on a smaller scale. I admit that I am uber-jealous of people who have an extra freezer. The smaller-sized refrigerator in my rental home has a correspondingly smaller freezer, and the bottom shelf on the door has broken off, and that really cramps my style! I have got to figure out how to replace that.

Did you freeze your entrees in big casserole dishes or in single servings in freezer bags?

By: Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship

Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:31:58 +0000

A friend and I have gotten together twice to do this, each time ending up with ~15 meals for our small families. It was exhausting. The first time, we decided we shouldn’t do meals from the freezer cookbook that we hadn’t tried, b/c we had enough failures that our families didn’t like. We used tried-and-true favorites the second time, but between the time it took organizing and figuring out that best order (that the book did for you) and shopping and traveling and cooking…and then usually I still had to make a side dish or salad the night of the dinner, I am not sure it saves me personally a lot of time. Then again, maybe if I just did it on my own w/o a friend to chat with…! I much prefer making a double meal on a random night that I’m home and freezing the extra one for a busy night. I can do this just about every time we have soup b/c I always make such big batches and soup freezes well.

The recipe I linked up today is super easy and fast, and it freezes all right, too! It’s a flexible side dish that mimics rice-a-roni. Enjoy! Katie

By: karyn sweet

karyn sweet — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:30:27 +0000

I don’t know if I could handle cooking for the whole month, but I would like to incorporate your idea even for just a week or two week’s worth of “back-up” dinners. I did a lot of freezer meals in preparation for each of my babies’ births but got out of the habit…thanks for the reminder to get something started again.

By: Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:38:31 +0000

I’ve been interested in the once-a-month cooking but have never taken the time to sit down and really do it. My wife and I have done some batch cooking/freezing but never a full month. Currently we have 5 days worth of spaghetti sauce in the freezer, 1 tuna casserole left (from 2 we made at once) and tons of ice cubes of homemade baby food.

The idea of once-a-month cooking is becoming more appealing now that my wife is working twice a week from 4-7. By the time she gets home from work, the little guy is fed and in bed it’s 8pm before we can sit down and eat together. We’ve been lazy those nights and either get carryout or eat soup’n'sandwhich. I just don’t know that we have the freezer space for it and I’m not willing to buy a chest freezer until we have a real garden going and possibly a couple to go in on a quarter cow with.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:54:25 +0000

I forgot to say – I also dream of doing this as a “party”. Having 1 or 2 friends over for the afternoon and ALL getting a month of meals done at once.