Once-a-month Cooking....

We don't actually do cooking only once a month but here's something great to do.

We buy a ton of cheap meat, like chicken on sale somewhere, then my husband charcoal grills it - all of it at once. We chop almost all of it and freeze. Then we can use it for all kinds of stuff - grilled chicken in any dish is great and adds a wonderful layer of flavor. Tons of easy meals!

I also am amazed at all the recipes out there that call for velvetta cheese, cream of junk soup, etc! Anyone who has to watch their salt will cringe when they look at how much sodium there is in most of those things! Simple doesn't mean pre-prepared all the time. And believe it or not once you get the recipe down a lot of really good meals can be made in 30 minutes or less! Here are some of mine;

Chicken Enchiladas

6 chicken tenderloins or 2 chicken breasts (if they are frozen zap them in the microwave for 3 minutes) cut up
1 jar of Safeway (I am cheap) brand green chili sauce
1 bag of shredded sharp cheese
1 small container sour cream (low fat)
4 flour tortillas (large)

Put a small bit of oil in a frying pan, completely cook your chicken. Lay out your tortillas, spread a thin layer of sour cream, add chicken, roll up tortilla, put in baking dish (one layer thick) cover with green chili sauce, sprinkle sharp cheese over the top (to your taste, our family likes it thick). Put in the oven at about 350 degrees. It usually doesn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes for the cheese to melt (my family likes it kinda crusty). If that is too slow put it under the broiler until browned but if you are going to do that make sure you have also warmed your tortillas before you put the ingredients in the middle so it doesn't cool your chicken down too much.

This is a very fast meal! You can serve it with a small salad or some other veggie. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to make. =)

Another is Black Bean Soup. Believe it or not this is one of my kids favorites!

3 cans black beans
1 can corn
1 can green chilis (if you don't like hot be careful to get the mild)
1 can crushed tomatoes (no salt
1 medium onion
1 handful baby carrots

In a soup pot put a little oil in the bottom, saute onions and carrots until onions are soft. Depending on whether you want your soup "soupie" or thick, drain corn and black beans. Add black beans, corn, tomatoes to your carrots and onions. Let simmer for about an hour, the longer you let it cook the thicker it will become.

Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream and shredded cheese. NUM!

Good Morning J., it's 5:30 am here. I will look up recipies for you later and send them along. I just wanted to share this memory I have.
As a young mother, with 3 children and another on the way. I was blessed to have a wise neighbor Joyce Hancock. She had several of us young mothers get together once a month at her house and taught us homemaking skills, how to cook for the month and freeze it is the right portions and many other skills for our children. We used the Make A Mix, book series. Now as a Grandmother(I just got a call at 5am, Mom we need you my wife is sick), I have the blessing of still using those skills and teaching them to another generation. So this is money, and time wise in a day and age of both parents working and seving in the community. I found that I saved hundreds of dollars by having myself organized vs running to the store for what ever-- I spent an entire day one a month instead of several hours everyday with prep,cooking,and all the clean up.
I think that soup has to be the #2 favorite at our home to pull out with Lassagana being #1.#3. is chicken curry.
I wish you well in you achivements. Nana G

Hi J.,

www.allrecipies.com has some great recipies and are rated by real people cooking at home with real families and real lives. :) Just type in the ingredient that you want to use (ex. chicken, turkey, rice, fish, etc) and you'll be able to browse many different recipies.

I don't have any experience with the cooking and then freezing, but I believe both of these dishes would work:

One of my favorite dinners - and my families too - is nachos... Very easy to make... Ground turkey, pinto beans (I use real dried pinto beans - soak um in a pot of water over night, then rinse and pop um in the crock pot with fresh water in the morning - on high - they'll be done by dinner - or, if you have the time to be home, put them on the stove on high until they boil, then turn down and simmer a couple hours - make sure to keep checking that there is enough water to cover the beans), grated cheddar cheese, romaine or green leef lettuce, salsa (home-made is best - very simple and fast to make), and the only 'unhealthy' ingredient for the kids is ranch dressing. :) Pile it on a plate, and use real corn chips to scoop and eat. yum! With this one, you could freeze the meat,beans,cheese, and have the salsa in the frig.. then the only addition would be to chop lettuce. I know lettuce does not freeze. :)

Another good one is chicken and rice.... Cook brown whole grain rice by adding water to a pot, add approx 1 tblsp olive oil, let it boil, then add 1/2 as much rice as you did water. Let boil again, then turn down to simmer, cover and simmer for 50 mins. While this is cooking fry/boil boneless skinless chicken breast in about an inch of water. Once the chick is cooked, somewhat, on both sides, chop it into cubes in the pan with a wooden spoon - the wooden spoon seems to work best for this job :) Allow the chicken to finish cooking, add seasonings - I use garlic (yum) and pepper and sometimes organic dried basil. Chop up broccoli heads very fine, and add to the rice in the last 10 minutes - kids will never know its there if you only use the tops :) Once the rice is done, mix the chicken in with the rice - add a little water if necessary, and season to taste. :) This would freeze well and is a complete meal in one dish. :)

Have fun!! :) Cooking is a great stress reliever!! :)
R.
www.HomeWithMy4.com
www.BeachBodyAtHome.com

J.,

There's a lot of prep you can do with blancing and freezing fresh veggies. The require about eight min in the microwave or about 10 min steaming.

Rice, pasta and potatos are better when prepared fresh and do not take long.

Lasagna. mac and cheese, meat balls, etc. pre-made and frozen is great.

Personally I prefer fresh chicken, fish, chops, steak...non of those take too long to cook fresh.

I'll be interested how long it takes to shop, prep and cook for a whole month.

Blessings.....

J.,

for some reason, the post came up three times.

Blessings.....

J., this keeps getting posted--tried to delete it didn't work.

Blessings...

Hi J.,
For the past 3 years I've gone to the Dream Dinners on Cedar/Nees and wow, has that been fantastic! However, last week they closed for good, so that's not an option for you. =( (Unless, of course, you are willing to drive to Modesto like I am to get your monthly Dream Dinners fix!)

However, what I was thinking was that they must have some kind of cookbook published, or if not, you could probably read their recipe titles on their corporate website (www.dreamdinners.com) and then google for similar recipes. I've found that the majority of their dishes are quite healthy. Tonight we had lemon chicken piccata. Tomorrow is honey dijon salmon. The night after that is Meditteranean Chicken with Polenta. Good stuff! Also, another benefit to checking out a website like Dream Dinners is that you'll find that some of the dishes share common ingredient(s), so shopping and prepping would be a bit easier.

I am a foster mommy for up to 8, plus some whom seem to adopt us along the way. LoL. & I too also homeschool. So I often make Giant meals & freeze 2 or 3 of them for later. I'm trying to do this with every meal I make now, make another meal or 2 worth for the fam. & freeze it. Then just pull a meal out when I don't feel like cooking or if dinner times running late that night... Works out great & is such a relief! I don't think we could do the once a month cooking, just wouldn't work for our family, but it's a great idea! I did notice you said "healthy" meals, & I noticed one of the moms suggested microwaving ingrediants. I just wanted to suggest not microwaving, as I've done quite a bit of research on the matter & have come to find that the microwave is actually quite un healthy. I'm suprised at the different ways you can still heat things up quickly tho. Just gotta get crafty! :)
Also we get 90% of our reciepes off the cook your self thin reciepe guide book. You can get tons of recieps that are healthy & yummy off the website, I think? It's cookyourselfthin.com I saw it on lifetime Tv. one LATE night while rocking a collicky baby LoL. Just hapened to be watching lifetime for the first time in years as there was nothing else on, but glad I did so because the reciepes are great, they're yummy, healthy, & most are pretty easy prep! Anyways, I hope you find some great recieps that work for you guys! :)

Dear J.,
I've never heard of once a month cooking. I used to get so burnt out trying to think of things to make. That was a worse chore for me than the actual cooking. I can't remember if it's Woman's Day or Family Circle magazine, but one of them has a whole month of meals planned out on a calendar and many of the recipes utilize leftovers from things made a previous night. I got some really great and simple ideas from that. You can pick and choose the things you want to try, but it also helps to have things planned out that way so you can organize your shopping list. Those magazines are full of craft ideas too!
I had my kids in the kitchen with me from the time they were very little. They both had their own little aprons and loved helping. My daughter didn't take to it the same way my son did. He is 14 now and a superb cook. Me being a single mom all his life, he knows how to be thrifty too. I think kids who are allowed to help cook are more likely to be adventurous eaters. They want to try what they helped to make.
Like I said, I've never heard of once a month cooking. I'm assuming that means you cook once and freeze everything for the rest of the month. (?)

I will be interested in reading the other responses.
Best wishes!

Im sure the "once a month cooking" has some advantage and I hope you have success with it. I have a thought I want to share with you. You are doing home schooling and your children might be the right age to include in cooking and use it as a classroom lesson. All the way from reading a recipe, making a grocery list, shopping, comparing prices and weights on packaging, to using the cooking terms for a spelling list. Washing foods, measuring, learning the right terms, and safety in the kitchen can be great classroom material. They may learn a lot more than most would in a regular classroom setting and be a lot of help to you too. You may find you'd rather have them help/learn more often than once a month! Just a thought I had. I can see making this a fun project for small kids and they will gain some great kitchen skills to use the rest of thier lives. You might even discover they eat better since they helped make the dinner. (o:

What are the advantages of once a month cooking? Fruits and veges are best when fresh...