BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Home Cooking Once a Month Cooking

Returning to my once a month cooking plan that worked so well in the past. We saved money in the long run as well as time. Each meal was homecooked and healthier.

Hi Rebecca

How does your plan work? Do you mean you cook less but do a huge cookup and just put stuff in the freezer?

I'd be interested in that too. I live alone and hate to keep cooking all the time.

I usually take one whole day or a weekend and do the cooking for the whole month. I check what is on sale at the local grocery store and then choose my recipes to center around that.

I might take one day and just do my chopping and slicing. The next day I do all the cooking. I cook to the directions for freezing and then put the number of servings needed in each freezer safe bag. Each morning I pull out what will be eaten for dinner. Usually, all you have to do is reheat. If you made beef stroganoff, reheat frozen portion and cook your noodles. Add noodles and you are done. It is so easy!

You just have to keep in mind that it is a lot of $ upfront as you doing a month's worth. If that is an obstacle which it has been for me at times, I just cook for the week and double everything. That way a few items get stored in the freezer.

If you really want to save money and time, do it with a friend. Organize a once a month cooking (OAMC) group and share in expenses and cooking.

Yikes! so efficient. I've never been a left over person after the second day. Then I buy or cook stuff that I don't feel like eating. I should work on that...lol.

I see this thread kind of went cold (lol).

Okay, let's see if we can get it going again.

I am not in love with cooking, but this sounds like an excellent way to do things.

Anyone has any more tips to pass our way?

One thing I learned is to always use the name brand freezer bags. The off brands did have a higher % of problems. I didn't believe it myself when I started this, but it is true.

I agree that it is an incredibly easy way to save money and to have healthy food in the house. Especially if you time your purchases on a sale day, you can get some incredible bargains.

You can make a fun day of it and put on music or your favorite tv show