OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - The End

Apparently when I get tired I forget to take pictures!

Here is what I ended up with from my OAMC - Dedicated Cooking Day - Freezer cooking day:


Tonight's Dinner:  Turkey Soup w/ homemade noodles

I ended up making a "creation for supper on May 1st". Note to self - make sure you look through the fridge before you make food or you might not put everything in the chili that you wanted to, thus leaving a lot of leftovers. Make sure you read the recipe so you don't make twice as many noodles as you needed. Thus THE CREATION! If it's good I'll tell you about it. If it's not good, then my husband made it :-)

You can see a few of the recipes from an earlier post:

• Eggs w/ Salty Sausage (hoping the eggs will absorb some of the salt!) 
• Nachos (have chips, cheese, meat in the freezer) ** make salsa
• Pork shoulder Roast (BBQ sauce in the freezer - will dump in a crock pot)
• Keilbalsa (Mary's jambalaya) ** burger, tom sauce, chix, 4 c chx broth -all ingredients in freezer ready to assemble
• Chef salad (use jerk marinade + 2 chx breasts & ham) boiled eggs, peas, cheese, broccoli, bell pepper, onion, carrots, celery
• Lasagna w/ Italian Sausage and Spinach
• Quiche
• Fish on BBQ
• Fried Rice w/ Ham, Chx egg rolls
• Ham Dinner - with cherry pie filling/red hots (make mini cheese cakes using pie filling and graham cracker crumbs in the freezer)
• Buffalo Meatballs (I add Louisana hot sauce to meatballs. I may or may not add cream cheese and celery)
• Refried Beans - NO MEAT w/ rice
• Burgers (from Sleep's) (buns in freezer)
• Enchiladas w/ burger ** make tortillas and assemble
• Meatball Subs ** make hoagies
• Breakfast for dinner w/ sausage and scrambled eggs
• Spaghetti Pie w/ Sausage and Spinach
• Brat and Smoked Sausage ** make buns
• Chili - lunches for the kiddos
• Yogurt will be ready tomorrow
• I need to finish granola, pancake and waffle mixes, and PB oatmeal dry mix too. We'll see if that gets done!

I am determined. DETERMINED I tell you, to serve all of these dinners BEFORE I decide to make something else! I will buy veggies next week if NEEDED. Seriously NEEDED. I have milk and fruit so I'm good there. I am pretty sure I have enough veggies too, but we'll see!

Check out Money Saving Mom for more OAMC inspiration!

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 2:30PM

Lasagna and Spaghetti Pie are done.

Cinnamon rolls, buns and one loaf of bread are rising.

1 batch of spinach has been blanched so I can put it in the freezer for a future meal. I bought 1 pound of spinach when I was at Sam's and I want to make sure it doesn't go bad.






So it took me 2 hours to do this much???? I better get  moving! Yikes! Surely I must have done something else....hmmmmm.....

After my break I'm off to finish the fried rice and make the egg rolls. Hopefully I'll still have enough energy to do my breakfast stuff.

I made myself an iced coffee - yes, it's snowing here in South Dakota on April 30th, but I'm pretending it's a nice sunny day!

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 12:46PM

Lunch is Served! Meatball & Salad

Meatballs for meatball subs and buffalo meatballs.

Dough for hamburger and hot dog buns.

Milk that is cooling so I can make yogurt.

Dough rising for 2 loaves of bread  1 loaf of bread and cinnamon rolls.

Chicken bones & veggies so I have chicken broth.








It's about this time every month that I start pooping out and wonder why in the world I'm doing this. I am such a morning person that it seems like so much fun in the beginning! I'm sure after I eat and rest a bit I'll be fine.

After I eat lunch I'm going to assemble lasagna and spaghetti pie.

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 10AM

Here's what I have so far:

 I found that if I chop up all the veggies at the same time, it's a huge time save. Unfortunately I couldn't remember what veggie went where. Sticky notes to the rescue!

My clipboard with my list of stuff to do is sitting there as well. My water glass is filled at all times - the day goes much better when you are well hydrated!


 

I made spaghetti noodles for spaghetti pie and have my bread making ingredients ready to go!

 

Spaghetti sauce is cooking, tortilla balls are ready and resting, bowl of fresh veggies ready for after school snacks (and for me too!)

                                                                    BBQ sauce is cooking on the back burner, refried beans in the front as well as chili.

 

                  For some reason I felt like you should see my messes.

 This apron MAKES MY DAY! My son made it for me when he was in Kindergarten. Now he's in 5th grade. This makes me so happy.








Next up - a 15 minute break, an apple with peanut butter, then onto the rest of my list. I'll start the meatballs, make taco seasoning and get my baking going.

I have yogurt in the crock pot and the chicken has been in the oven since 6:45 so I'm hoping it'll be done by 11:00. Stay tuned!

OAMC - May Schedule

Here's my OAMC - Freezer Cooking - (Dedicated Cooking Day) plan that I'm working on today.  Let me know if you can't see it for some reason.

Just a little info for you, don't try to plan everything the night before...it gets a bit hectic and you might forget to add something important (ie. MAKE egg rolls and fried rice)!

Friday:

• boil 1/2 pack spaghetti noodles
• Put sticky chicken in the oven
• Tortillas (let soak)
• Cook 1 lb bacon
• Tom Sauce: Ikea Pot = Chili    Crock Pot = Spaghetti
• reserve _________ for taco meat
• reserve __________ for BBQ sauce
• Spinach: Cut up for lasagna and spaghetti pie

Carrots:

• 2 - whole for soup
• 1 - chopped Spaghetti
• 1 - chopped Turkey Soup Dinner

Onions:

• 1 quartered for soup
• 1 chopped for chili
• 1 chopped for spaghetti
• 1 chopped for refried beans
• 1 chopped for Turkey Soup Dinner
• 1 chopped for fried rice & egg rolls

Total: 5 onions chopped


Garlic:

• 2 whole for soup 10 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 chopped for chili
• 2 chopped for spaghetti
• 1 chopped for refried beans
• 2 chopped for Turkey Soup Dinner
• 2 chopped for fried rice & egg rolls
• Dinner: Turkey Soup from freezer. Saute veggies
• Make Yogurt
• Baking: 2 pancake mixes, 1 waffle mix
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal - Dry Mix
• Homemade noodles for soup **pictures!
• Tortillas
• Granola

CHX done:

• Make 1 loaf of bread
• Make 1 batch of burger buns, 1 batch hot dog buns
• Make taco seasoning
• Beans: Make Refried Beans
• Burger: 2 lbs of meatballs  ** some for meatball subs, some for buffalo meatballs
• get chicken off bones
• make soup in stock pot
• spg. Done: make spaghetti pie & lasagna

Grocery Shopping 4/26/10

I had an awesome morning grocery shopping. I didn't think that was even possible! I feel really good about the following:

• where I purchased my food
• the food I bought
• the amount of money I spent.

Sometimes, the more information I gather the harder it is to understand what I really should be eating and where I should be buying it. I will be shopping at the "meat" truck on Wednesday to try to buy some local cheese and chicken. Also, I want to find out if they are going to have local pasteurized milk available soon.

Read more about my Azure Standard order: $55.41

Farm Fresh Eggs $2.00/dozen: $8.00 (Spent $6.00 of May's grocery money because it was convenient to pick them up today).

Safeway - organic carrots - $1.79/2lbs and they are GOOD! I don't usually like regular carrots and I really liked these! Total: $12

Wild Fish 50% off $3.00 for one pound of fish! Total: $12.00 (spent some of my May $ because it was a convenient day to shop and I'm gearing up for a OAMC session!)

I have absolutely NOTHING left in my April grocery money envelope. Total spent for the month of April was $268.00 (I had $10 left from last month). I have spent some money from my "household envelope" on food. I bought some meat locally that I was testing out to see if it tasted okay. I lost track of that, but I'm pretty sure it was around $30-$40. We'll use most of that in the month of May.

Tomorow I am going to my daughter's track meet in Rapid City which is 40 miles away. While I'm there I'll go to Sam's Club. I'm limiting myself to buying the following items: 1 block of cheddar cheese, cream, milk, sour cream, bacon and possibly some veggies. My goal is to spend no more than $50.00, unless there are some amazing organic items that I want to try out (spinach!). We'll see what happens. I'm using my May grocery money in April which always makes me panic a bit. I usually hide the food from myself though so I can't use it until the next month. Did I just say that outloud? What a geek!

Stay tuned for my OAMC plan for May!

This post is linked to the following:

Grocery Cart Challenge

Money Saving Mom

Frugal Grocery Shopping

Forgetting to buy items you needed at the store = frugal???

Okay, not really, but I didn't spend as much money as I should have because I forgot a couple of things on my list. That's because I have been too busy. Whine whine whine...

I seriously do NOT understand how work outside the home moms manage. I feel completely flustered! I guess I used to be a work outside the home mom and managed, but I was spending $600-$1000 on food too (food and going out to eat).

 Yes, I'm going to break my rule of not running back to the store if you forgot something. The spinach and tomatoes that I bought specifically for my recipe will go bad if I wait until next week. I am going to pick up an onion too - onion I would normally live without but since I have to go back anyway I'll grab one. It makes a huge difference in my sticky chicken.

Today I spent $18.38. I have spent $199 for the month so far. My Azure Standard order will be about $50 when it comes in on Monday. That leaves $20 in my cash envelope ($10 extra from last month) for milk and veggies (apples, cabbage, onions, pears and frozen blueberries should arrive with my order) for next week. Whew - this is a little close for comfort for me! Thankfully I have a freezer full of OAMC dinners!

This post is linked to Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom!

Grocery Shopping

A new grocery store! Well, grocery truck. A local farmer comes to our town once a week with locally produced food. I am excited to support local businesses. I hadn't realized how important it was until walking with my friend one day. Her husband's job depends on having local businesses in our town. If there are no local businesses, then he has no job. I didn't realize the importance of it until talking with her.

Yes, it may seem more expensive upfront, but in the long run it'll be well worth it for all those involved.

Can I afford this?

More importantly, can I afford not to?

Grocery Shopping

I spent $7.12. Now I have $98 left for the rest of the month.

Cash is your friend...it's the best way to save money. If you save $2 per week by using cash that's $104 that you didn't have before.

Linked at Money Saving Mom.

Menu Plan 4/12 - 4/18

Eeny Meeny Minie Moe

What food should I pick from the freezer? This is going to be a great week to be able to pull out items from my OAMC session. We have a school roller skating party for my daughter, a track meet to go to, I have a meeting, my son has church play practice and worship team practice every night until 6:00. The mom taxi hat will be on a LOT!!!

1. Turkey soup with homemade noodles - need to figure out what day this fits in - we don't want soup when it's 70!
2. Black beans and rice with guacamole and homemade salsa
3. Spaghetti pie
4. Turkey egg rolls and fried rice (I can't wait to try these! See my OAMC day for the recipe)
5. Pretzel Chicken
6. Beef - not sure what yet, but since my husband likes beef I need to figure something out! Maybe burgers with homemade buns. I tried April's recipe with some success. I changed it and probably shouldn't have so now I need to figure out what to do differently. They were okay. Ummmm maybe I should just follow her recipe instead of changing it. DOH! ** see note below
7. Husband cooks! Yeah!

We have strawberries, apples, bananas, fresh pineapple, carrots, avocado, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, spinach, hmmmm I think that might be it. I think I'm doing okay with this whole  "focus on the veggies, not on breads" challenge!

Find out what others are having at orgjunkie.com.

**April has another recipe on her website - check it out!

Sam's Club and Food Co-op

1. 3 gallons of milk ($2.26 each)
2. 2 pounds of strawberries ($3.00!)
3. 2 - 18 count eggs ($4.36)
4. peanuts ($5.96)
5. green beans (yippee! I love these beans!) ($5.48)
6. bag of apples ($4.42)
7. 6 bell peppers ($6.98)
8. bag of tortilla chips ($3.78)
9. 2 pounds sharp cheddar cheese ($5.12)
10. peas ($4.88)
11. zip lock baggies for OAMC
12. dog food
13. a million bars of soap

I spent $38.80 of my food money and $25.29 of my supply money.  I was planning on buying mixed fresh veggies, but it didn't look so hot. I may end up going to my little grocery store for cauliflower!

I love flax seed - it's cheap and it's good for you. I like to eat it plain, but apparently there are a lot more health benefits if you grind it first. I have a coffee grinder so I'll try doing that and adding it to my granola when I make it again.

Raw almonds and flax seed: I spent $13.92






I have $104 left for the month of April. After reviewing my OAMC session, I'll be just fine for money! I was concerned for a bit. I'm saving about $50 so I can put in an order at Azure Standard. I've never ordered through them so it'll be interesting!

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom and Grocery Cart Challenge.

OAMC - what I learned in April 2010

1. Don't let your 11 year old fold the washcloths for you.
2. 5 onions is a LOT of onions - makes me cry.
3. Cook a turkey the day before so the meat is ready.
4. I think this is fun! Am I weird?!?
5. There is a reason you make a detailed schedule. Stick to it! It's much easier to crush the pretzels before the food processor gets wet.
6. A food processor is your very best friend.
7. Buy chicken breasts.
8. Don't make the awesome biscuit cups during OAMC - too much clean up.
9. Don't grate your finger instead of the cheese.
10. Make yourself rest even though you don't want to.
11. Don't make so much food.
12. As I sit back and relax at 4:50PM it's so nice that dinner is already started and just needs a few more minutes of prep work before it's done. It's a good thing because I have to play mom taxi in a few minutes to pick my daughter up from track.

OAMC - dinners

Completed meals:

1. Tacos (meat and torts in freezer)
2. turkey egg rolls with fried rice
3. fish
4. Mexican beans and rice, guacamole and chips
5. Cajun beans and rice
6. quiche with broccoli and ham (thaw and bake)
7. spaghetti pie
8. refried beans & meat
   

Partially prepped meals:

1. Buffalo flavored turkey spaghetti (need to assemble)
2.  BBQ turkey pizza crust) **BBQ sauce, turkey and unbaked crust in freezer
3. turkey soup (broth is in the freezer) with homemade noodles
4. chicken and ham with a little white sauce like cordon bleu (meats in freezer)
5. carbonara (bacon/ham are in the freezer) 
6. pretzel chicken (crushed pretzels/ chx in the freezer)
7. Chef salad with turkey and ham (meats cut up)
8. Pepperoni and jalep burn pizza (unbaked crust / meets in freezer)
9. simple Caribbean jerk chicken (marinade /chx in freezer)

Raw Meats:

1. Hamburger
2. Sausage
3. Brats

* taco salad with black bean salad and chips (taco meat and black beans in freezer)

I have way too much food! This is not my goal at all. I want to have some meals in my freezer, but not this much. Next month I need to change this!
Breakfast:
**2 pancake mix, 1 waffle mix, biscuit cups

Lunches:
taco meat, chili and burgers (all cooked)

Check out Money saving mom for more inspiration!

Washcloths

AH HA! If you are an 11 year old boy, you put the kitchen washcloths with the cleaning rags because then you don't have to fold them.

OAMC - the cooking!

I don't have enough turkey. I'm not sure if I didn't pick enough turkey off of the bone or what. I much prefer to work with chicken breasts during OAMC.

Baked Egg RollsMy ham mess. We have WAY too  much ham! I have another one in my freezer too. Poor planning on my part.

I am resting now and then I have 30 minutes before I go get my boy for our "mama time". I'm hoping to make pancake mixes and a waffle mix as well as the Carribbean jerk marinade. I want the kitchen fairly clean before I leave so I'll have to work quickly.

I'm so thankful that I had such a detailed list of things to do.

OAMC - the cooking!

Whew! I'm tired. I believe my energy runs out about noon. I've eaten an AMAZING biscuit cup and munch a few things just to make sure they were good of course!

The turkey is done and in big chunks. Now I need to cut it smaller. The biscuit cups are really good.

The ham just got done (well overdone actually - oops) and the turkey soup is on the stove.

I believe I'll start the egg rolls next.

OAMC - the cooking!

This is kind of fun posting while I do this. It's almost like I have a friend.
It's 10:00 and so far I've got 2 batches of taco meat in the freezer for dinner and 2 for lunch. I put a few hamburgers in the fridge as well.

I've made quinoa because I've been meaning to do that forever! I made the biscuit dough for the biscuit cups and I've got my tortilla dough made (I'm waiting until this afternoon to see if they are easier to roll out.

Right now I'm taking a break, changing my shoes and then I'll be starting the bacon, spaghetti pie and making the carribbean jerk marinade.

I am listening to Lincoln Brewster right now - we went to his concert last year and it was awesome! If you click on the audio player you can hear his music!

Okay, break time is over!

OAMC - the cooking!

It's 8:00 AM - I've got a turkey in the oven, a ham in the roaster and I'm boiling my hamburger so I can make some taco meat.

Question: If you were an 11 year old boy and were asked to fold the washcloths, where would you put them? EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.OF.THEM.

I am going to have to resort to cloth napkins as washcloths!

OAMC - the schedule

I'll be updating all day as I cook on Tuesday 4/6/10
TO DO's that are left are highlighted in yellow

Sunday April 4:  soak black beans - oops! got home late from Easter travels so I forgot - I'm doing a quick soak instead (boil for 2 mins then let sit for one hour)


Monday April 5:
Shop at Safeway (milk and veggies)

Wash and quarter onions 2-Sticky Chx

Marinade Sticky Turkey (roasting pan w/ saran wrap)

Defrost pinto beans, cilantro, spaghetti pie innards, spaghetti sauce, 5 lbs hamburger, bacon, broccoli, salty sausage

boil or crock pot black beans

2 rice measures of rice for fried rice

1 c. butter softened for cookies - decided not to make cookies right now...

Dinner = Stew (beef and broth from freezer)

Tuesday April 6:

Put ham in the oven


Put sticky turkey in the oven

make taco meat ( 2 dinners 4 lunches)



wash:

3 carrots - 3 whole for soup


10 celery - 3 whole for soup, 1 for chix salad, 1 for salad, 2 whole for snacks w/ PB, 1 buffalo turkey, 2 egg rolls


8 onions - 2 quartered for soup, 5 food processed, 1 chopped


peel 5 gloves garlic



Fry:

bacon for biscuit cups, chef salad and refried beans



food processor:

Crush 2 cups pretzels - put with chx and recipe for pretzel chx

1 celery stalk for salad, 2 stalks egg rolls, 1 stalk buffalo spaghetti


5 onions, 5 cloves garlic (freeze leftovers) for: chili, spaghetti, burritos, beans and rice, enchilada sauce, ala king, pizza sauce

*** saute onions and garlic separately
chop:

little onion for chx salad


1 celery chx salad

garlic for marinades and enchilada sauce (didn't need to do this)

water chestnuts (use 1/2)


boil: 6 Eggs (1 - chx salad, 5 - kid snacks and lunches)

spaghetti for spaghetti pie



Prepare: salad for dinner: turkey with green beans and salad

refried beans


spaghetti pie

Simple carribbean jerk

Make tortillas thaf have been soaking

Baking: make 2 pizza doughs wrap separately in saran wrap


2 pancake mixes & waffle mix

bacon egg and cheese biscuit cups



make tortilla dough - let sit for a bit to see if it's easier to roll

PB cookie dough - not doing cookies...



turkey done:

get turkey off bones, reserve some broth and turkey for dinner then cut up the rest


make soup in stock pot

make turkey salad (skip this - not enough turkey)

turkey egg rolls



Eggs: Scramble 10 eggs for egg bake - add sausage (skip this - too many eggy things)



Ham: Quiche innards w/ broccoli and ham


Fried Rice w/ ham and onion

Day 4:


skim fat from soup

1 * turkey ala king (lunches) Need 1 1/4 cups broth & 3-4 cups turkey (not doing this -  not enough turkey

white sauce for turkey cordon bleu (put separate items together w/ rubberband)

Make salsa - tom sauce, jaleps, cilantro, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper (moved here because we're not having taco salads until Thursday.

OAMC shopping

I went shopping last week for some things I needed for April's OAMC session. Today I finished up buying some fresh fruits and veggies as well as a few other things.

I almost bought a cauliflower. I'm working on buying more fruits and veggies - it sounded good so I threw it in the cart (well....placed it nicely). After I found out it was going to be $4.00 I asked the lady to take it off of my order. I believe (believe being the key word - I still need to look further...) that cabbage has the same nutrients for about half the price. I bought bagged spinach because it looked a lot better than the bunch you could buy, but the bunch of romaine looked good so I saved a bit of money there.

Another positive step for me was buying the kiwi fruit. In the past when I buy a "treat" for my kids it wasn't always good for them. Today I bought them kiwi as a treat. Hopefully I will keep this mind set! I bought more pineapple today too. That stuff is delicious!

I spent $24 at Safeway today. I have $153 left in my envelope for the month.