OAMC - the cooking!

I must admit I really enjoyed this. I didn't plan to do anything other than cook and it was great to be able to focus on just one thing. I can't imagine doing this with little kids around though. I had to concentrate way too much! I admire those that can do this with little ones!

I am so grateful that I took the time to plan this out. I don't know that I'll do this plan every month, but I learned so much this month I hope I can incorporate some of this knowledge into my cooking strategies which will save time and money!

My new favorite part of my house - the island!

 Thursday:

What on Earth is in the bowl? It looks like oatmeal. Actually it's 8 cups of rice, but it looks nasty! In the crock pot I have my spaghetti sauce cooking (the sauteed vegies and seasonings are on top).

I can't imagine doing this without a food processor! You can find them at a thrift store for a few bucks.

It's very important to take breaks. I had to force myself to stop and sit for a few minutes:

On Wednesday I put two whole chickens in a pan so I would be ready to cook them early Thursday morning. Good thing I started early, they were huge and took forever. I'll have to post my sticky chicken recipe - it's YUMMY (I added the recipe link 3/12/10)

On Thursday at 6:30AM I put the chicken in the oven and made taco meat. The burger was already cooked so I had to add a little water and the taco seasoning. Some went with my son in his lunch box, some went into the freezer for a meal and some went into individual servings for more lunches.

I made 8 cups of rice (well, the rice cooker actually made it)

From this can of crushed tomatoes I made chili, saved some to mix in with my enchilada sauce, and kept some out so I could try making BBQ sauce.

I cut up all of my vegies (celery, carrots, onion, garlic) for chicken stock, spaghetti sauce, chili, chicken ala king, chicken salad and my marinade. That was a spectacular sight (and smell as well). 

Made marinade for pork chops, soaked beans, par boiled Italian sausage, froze some, chopped some, cut chicken off the bones, threw the bones and veggies in a pot to make soup. PHEW!

Friday (see pic above) I divided up my ginormous bag of cheese from Sam's club into 2 cup portions, made lasagna (recipe on the box), cooked enchilada sauce, made two batches of chicken ala king. I made 4 different meals of beans and rice. Two black beans and rice w/ taco seasoning and two red beans and rice with burger and cajun seasoning.

Then for some reason I decided I needed to make peanut butter cookies.

I had a breakfast coffee cake that I finished as well. Then I decided since I had all of my baking stuff on my island that I would make two pancake mixes and one waffle mix (dry ingredients only).

I'm really happy with what I got accomplished. I found out that I can go go go until about 12:00 and then I'm just done!!! I forced myself to keep going so I'll have to see this month if it was worth the effort. Definitely a learning experience.

Following is the result of my cooking days:

•  2 meals red beans and rice
• 1 pan lasagna
• 1 pan burritos
• taco meat
• 2 meals black beans and rice
• 2 meals chicken ala king
• 2 pizza sauces
• 1 meal spaghetti (plus some lunches)
• 2 meals pork chops (marinated)
• 1 meal chili (plus some lunches)
• 4 cups chicken broth & 4 cups chicken
• par boiled Italian sausage
• BBQ sauce
• 2 pancake mixes
• 1 waffle mix

Ironically, I took my son to get a free kids meal at Culver's last night and tonight we're having friends over for Nick and Willy's take out pizza. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are already made for Saturday. Then, my husband cooks on Sunday so I get a few days off from the kitchen. Yee Haa!!!! I think I might like this.

Maybe next month I'll do more Once a Month Cooking. Or not.

Check out Money Saving Mom for more OAMC ideas.

P.S. I'm not re-reading this extremely long post so forgive me if there are ton of errors!