Daniel and I have been slowly stepping into the world of Freezer once a month cooking. I (Beth) struggle with low blood sugar and low iron right now. I found out that being deficient in Iron can take away your appetite along with throwing you deep into depression, well starving yourself along with low blood sugar is a bad mix. Afternoons come along, I'm too dizzy to think or stand, I feel like vomiting or passing out and have no desire to cook anything or sometimes even eat anything. If I do have an appetite that day it quickly dies as I melt over the stove. Daniel has always been so sweet about cooking for us on days I just couldn't pull it all together. He told me early in our marriage that if I didn't want to cook then I shouldn't because he loves doing it. We do have quite a few daddy meals a month, but I still like to cook when I'm feeling good. That's where Onceamonthmom.com comes in handy! I'm not even sure how I found it except that maybe I was searching how to freeze some kind of food? But oh man was it a beautiful site to me! They have everything you need to be as creative or not at all creative as you want, eat as cheep or as extravagant as you want! (Freezer cooking doesn't mean you have to eat junk everyday) If you choose to follow their menus to the "T" you can just print out all their recipe cards, grocery lists, prep and cooking day instructions and just follow the directions in order. It's so simple and beautiful! The meals are well rounded and seem to highlight foods that are in season. I've also noticed a lot of the recipes will include similar or the same ingredients saving you some money. Note they also offer besides the traditional menu a "Whole foods" menu, "Gluten Free" menu, "Vegetarian" menu and even a "Baby food" Menu! Each with their own grocery list, prep list, etc. If you have tons of kids or no one but you, you just enter into the serving box on the Google document how many people you are making for and it adjusts the numbers for you. So simple! I haven't yet followed a menu to the "T" although it seems fun to try. I tend to pick and choose meals from all the menus that look good to us and we end up adding recipes from my Taste of Home magazines or websites that look delicious as well. I like to take lots of the same kind of meat recipes that way I can just buy one big thing of it and split it between all the meals. So many things can be pre-made and frozen ahead with out tasting old. So far I've only made maybe 10 meals at a time before, but this month I'm hoping to go all out! I've made a tentative list of meals we can eat and how many batches of each meal and we'll see how it goes! I like the idea of choosing the night before what to cook for the next day instead of plotting out each day way in advance. So here is my list to choose from this month that may still be tweaked depending on food budget, sales, and preferences. The stared meals are the ones I plan to make ahead and freeze. The numbers with the Xs are how many times I multiply the recipe so we can eat it several times that month. Hopefully this will turn out well!
Breakfast
Cereal-7x
*Waffles-4 Batches; 4 meals
*Banana Bread- 1 Batch (4 loaves); 4 Meals with leftovers for snacks
Oatmeal-8x
Eggs/Toast-4x
Bagles-4x
Lunch
Tuna/egg Sandwiches-4x
Leftovers-4x
*Mac & Cheese-4x (one bag noodles = 2 casseroles. Try Cauliflower in the sauce)
*Lunch Burritos-8x (24 for the ladies; 8 for Daniel)
Dinner
Lentil Soup (left over from July)-x1
*Beef Bourguignonne w/ egg noodles-1x
*Chicken Enchiladas (less spice this time!)-x4
*White Pizza with Kale-x2 (will have left overs)
*French Onion Soup w/ Sourdough bowls-x2
*Crunchy Coconut Chicken with apricot sauce-x4
*Lasagna-x2 (will have left overs)
Salmon &Green Beens-x2
*Pasta E Fagioli with Sourdough bowls-x2
*Salads-x4 (make ahead grilled chicken strips)
*Feta Burgers-x2
Corned Beef and Hash-x2
Fruits/Vegetables
Oranges
Apples
Bananas
Green Beans
Salad
Carrots
Zucchini
Soy Beans
Sprouts
Snacks/drinks
v8
*Homemade Hummus
Homemade Crackers
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