Once A Month Cooking:
A Frugal Mom's Guide
Once a Month Cooking saves time & money. How?
1. Stop the "going out" and "ordering in" rat race, by coming home to a ready-made meal. This saves loads of money!
2. Stop the madness right before the dinner hour when everyone is starving and wants dinner NOW.
Simply pull something out in the morning or the night before & with a few easy steps; have dinner on the table. Thank you Once A Month Cooking!
If you like, adapt this cooking formula into "bite-sized" pieces the first time you use it and cook for just one or two weeks at a time. Let's do what it takes to get our menu plans organized & start saving time & money. YES!
You can go straight there by clicking the cookbook below and get started, or hear my opinion. :)
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THE PROS OF ONCE A MONTH COOKING:
1. Dynamic value! 127-page e-book for only $12.95, and the author throws in a second e-book, Freezer Meals, for free.
2. A simple system to get you started immediately with a little planning. The author takes you through everything necessary to be successful.
**How to plan, shop, and cook for one week, two weeks, or once a month.
**Various freezing techniques are described and selected for each recipe to utilize freezer space effectively.
**A handy freezing guide is included to prevent foods from becoming a science project. Very helpful information.
3. Buy in bulk and save money! Choose a few recipes each week with similar meats, so you can buy a family pack of chicken, ground beef or ground chicken, and/or pork chops. Separate them at home before they go into the freezer. This step alone is a huge money-saver.
4. The recipes are easy to make with helpful reviews in the text.
Here's an example of one of the recipes in Once A Month Cooking:
Hash Brown Casserole:
Freezing Method: Freezer Bag
“This was very good…my family loved it.” - Linda
Cooking Day Ingredients:
1. 2 lb. ground beef
2. 1 can cream of mushroom soup
3. ˝ cup milk
4. 3 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided
5. 1 bag frozen hash browns, shredded
Cooking Day Instructions:
1. Brown ground beef in skillet and drain.
2. Stir in cream of mushroom soup, and milk. Mix well.
3. Stir in 1-cup cheddar cheese.
4. Remove from heat and cool using freezer bag method.
5. Put remaining 2 cups of shredded cheese in small freezer bag.
6. Put cheese bag, hash brown bag and meat mixture bag in freezer.
I often group them in a plastic grocery bag to keep them all together.
Serving Day Ingredients:
No additional ingredients needed.
Serving Day instructions:
1. Defrost meat mixture, cheese, and hash browns.
2. Spread meat in bottom of greased 9” x 13” pan.
3. Top the meat mixture with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
4. Layer the hash browns on top of cheese mixture.
5. Top hash browns with the rest of the shredded cheddar.
6. Bake in 350-degree oven for 1 hour.
This recipe sounds delicious, doesn't it?
I would substitute ground chicken in place of ground beef, because we are not big ground beef fans.
Personalize these recipes to your family's tastes and they all come out as winners.
Here's a recipe using pork chops:
Grilled Pork Chops
Freezing Method: Freezer Bag
Cooking Day Ingredients:
1. 6 pork chops
2. ˝ cup apple cider vinegar
3. ˝ cup olive oil
4. 3 cloves garlic, minced
5. 1 T sesame seed
6. ˝ cup sugar
Cooking Day Instructions:
1. Mix in a blender the vinegar, olive oil, garlic, sesame seed and sugar.
2. Place pork chops in freezer bag.
3. Pour marinade over pork chops and freeze.
Serving Day Ingredients:
No additional ingredients needed.
Serving Day Instructions:
1. Defrost pork chops and discard marinade.
2. Grill pork chops.
There is also a whole section on chicken dishes.
Here's a recipe from the potpourri section.
This one sounds so delicious, and convenient to have on hand.
Egg Burritos
Freezing Method: Plastic Wrap
“I prepared these last weekend and it was soooo easy. I never thought to freeze breakfast burritos. They were definitely a hit! I will do this more often. I brought them to work this morning and everyone loved them! Will do again!”- Cindyloo
Cooking Day Ingredients:
1. 12 eggs
2. 1 onion, diced
3. 2 cups cheddar cheese
4. 1 lb. mild sausage, ground
5. 24 flour tortillas
6. 16 oz. hash brown potatoes
Cooking Day Instructions:
1. In skillet, cook hash browns according to package directions.
2. Remove hash browns to mixing bowl.
3. In skillet brown sausage and onion.
4. Add to mixing bowl.
5. In skillet, scramble eggs until almost done. (Under cook so when you reheat on serving day the eggs aren’t overdone.)
6. Add eggs to mixing bowl.
7. Mix all ingredients and cool completely.
8. Once cool, stuff flour tortillas with mixture and sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
9. Roll burritos and wrap individually using plastic wrap or freezer paper.
10. Freeze.
Serving Day Ingredients:
Salsa if desired
Serving Day Instructions:
1. Place frozen burrito in microwave and heat for 2 minutes on medium power.
2. Serve with salsa.
You can always make half as much if that suits your family size. Perfectly customize-able (is that even a word? :)
If you've heard enough, and want to get started; click on the banner below and get cooking! :)
5. The Once a Month Cooking e-book provides simple forms and worksheets to manage this system;
Monthly Meal Calendar,
Master Plan Worksheet, (this is where you choose your menu plan),
Grocery shopping list, (this includes every possible ingredient you may need taken directly from the recipes)
Cooking session map, (here you decide the order of your procedures on cooking day, like chopping all the onions for the recipes you are cooking, or brown all the ground meat, etc.)
And finally, Label master sheet, (to mark your bags before they go into the freezer).
This really is a complete guide to Once a Month Cooking --- or cooking for a week or two; whichever suits your needs. :)
THE CONS OF ONCE A MONTH COOKING:
At the price, and with the "freebie" e-book, I am hard-pressed to find any cons.
1. The most obvious is "Will you do it?" You will need some dedicated time to cook; the author gives suggestions for this -- getting a babysitter for the day or cook over a couple of sessions, etc. Those are do-able ideas.
I would also recommend cooking for a week at a time or two weeks, and then advance to the once a month cooking. Of course, you can start right in with the whole she-bang, because the instructions are all there.
2. You might not like the recipes -- that's always a possibility with any cookbook.
3. Do you have available freezer space? This can be a problem, but I think it's workable.
***Clean out your freezer and dump anything that is unrecognizable. :)
Then, follow the author's instructions for freezing.
When something requires a casserole dish; you line it first with tin foil and plastic wrap, so when it's frozen, it lifts right out of the casserole. Plastic freezer bags are recommended, which makes food items with sauces very easy to stack and freeze.
***Again, cook for one or two weeks at a time until your freezer is able to accommodate a larger quantity of food.
***If you like this method of once a month cooking, you may look into purchasing a stand alone freezer.
Overall, I think this e-book is loaded with value, and will save you time & money.
Click on the book below to purchase this e-book or anywhere you see it within keep-your-home-cooking.com. You can download it instantly after payment through Clickbank's secure site.
To saving time & money,
Julie :)
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