source: Kathleen Franklin

The following is a guest post from Kate at My Kids Eat Off The Floor:

Quick—it’s 5:00 and the family is hungry, but there’s nothing in the fridge. Do you reach for the peanut butter or the Top Ramen?

If you have a well-stocked and organized freezer, you might not have to reach for either! Keeping your freezer filled with easy last-minute meals does not require marathon cooking sessions; all it takes is organization, proper storage, and planning.

Organization

The key to utilizing your freezer for last-minute meals and emergencies is organization. Without organization, it’s easy for items to get buried or shoved to the back and forgotten about until they’re inedible. Not only is this a waste of money, it’s also a waste of space and a source of major disappointment when you realize the pork chops you bought on sale are too freezer burnt to ever actually eat!

In order to keep your freezer organized, choose a freezer with lots of shelves and removable baskets. Dedicate each shelf to a different category of food: put all of the bread products on one shelf, all of the meat products on another shelf, and so on. Invest in a whiteboard you can attach to the front of your freezer with magnets. You can use this whiteboard to keep track of what is in your freezer with a very simple system. Use a permanent marker to write the categories and how many months each item can be frozen on the whiteboard. Use a regular whiteboard marker to update each category as you put food in and take it out. With the whiteboard on the door of your freezer, you can see at a glance what items are available and how long they have been there.

Proper Storage

In order to best utilize your freezer space, you need to choose proper storage products. Zip-top freezer bags are the most versatile product for storing foods in the freezer. Gallon size bags can be used to store bulky items, like egg rolls or taquitos. Use sandwich size bags to store smaller portions of cooked pasta or rice. Save space by freezing soup, sauces, gravy, and mashed potatoes flat in gallon zip-top bags—lay them on a cookie sheet until frozen solid—and stacking the bags like bricks.

Unbaked cookie or roll dough and muffin or cake batter can also be stored in gallon zip-top bags. For cookies or rolls, shape the dough as you normally would and flash-freeze for an hour until solid, then transfer to a zip-top bag. For muffin or cake batter, scoop into a muffin tin and flash freeze until solid, then transfer to a zip-top bag. When you are in the mood for fresh-baked goods in a hurry, simply bake the frozen dough or batter as you normally would.

Casseroles or pie fillings can either be frozen in disposable foil pans or flash-frozen in pans lined with plastic wrap, then tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or foil. However, casseroles with tomatoes or tomato sauce should never be frozen in foil pans because the acidity in the tomatoes can eat away at the foil and change the flavor of the sauce.

Whatever method or product you choose for freezer storage, make sure you label each item with a permanent marker and the name, date, and preparation instructions—otherwise, you might find yourself wondering what you just defrosted!

Planning

You can enjoy a fully stocked freezer, full of quick snacks and meals, without weekly marathon cooking sessions or much added expense. How? By carefully planning and making use of the time you already spend cooking. Most recipes are easy to double without added effort or time, leaving one to eat now and one to freeze for later.

As you chop carrots, onions, celery, and other vegetables save the scraps in a zip-top bag in your freezer until you are ready to make vegetable or chicken stock. Add the vegetables to chicken bones, water, and seasonings in a slow cooker and simmer for several hours. When the stock is done, carefully add ½ cup to muffin tins. Freeze until solid and then transfer to gallon zip-top bags. When you need stock for making soup or cooking rice, take out the amount you need and use straight from the freezer. Each frozen cube is equal to ½ cup (ice cube trays are equal to ¼ cup).

Cooked pasta and rice freeze well, so when you are making spaghetti or rice for a side dish, cook extra and freeze some for last minute pasta or side dishes.

When you are making a recipe that calls for ground beef, brown (and season, if desired) extra meat to freeze. After the meat has cooled, transfer it to a gallon zip-top bag and lay flat. Using a wooden dowel, score the bag in thirds and freeze until solid. When you need browned ground beef for a recipe or a quick meal, simply break off the meat along the scored line—no need to defrost the whole bag.

If you can spend just a few extra minutes each week, it’s easy to whip up a quick marinade for chicken. You can freeze chicken breasts directly in the marinade in a zip-top bag. When you’re ready to use it, thaw the whole bag in the refrigerator overnight and cook as you usually would. The chicken will be extra moist and flavorful.

If you follow these simple guidelines—organization, proper storage, and planning—you will be surprised at how quickly and easily you will start reaping the benefits of having a fully stocked freezer!

Do you keep your freezer stocked with easy last-minute meals?

Kate Anderson is the mother of two (almost three) little girls. She loves staying home with them and putting her degree in Family Life to work. She blogs about a little of everything at My Kids Eat Off The Floor.

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source: Marci Goodwin

The following is a guest post from Marci of Overcoming Busy:

It is my nature to find the most efficient ways to do things. When I clean out the dishwasher, I even plan out how I can finish the job with the fewest trips around the kitchen. I know, the whole thing only takes about 2 minutes (yes, I’ve timed it), but I still hate to waste time and energy. That is one of the reasons the concept of once a month cooking really appealed to me. Take an afternoon and fill your freezer with a month’s worth of meals. How efficient is that?!

So what took me so long to try once a month cooking for myself? I’m really not sure. I think the lack of knowledge of what meals can freeze and how to properly prepare them for the freezer played a big part. A few weeks back, Mandi posted a series on once-a-month cooking. That series inspired me to finally do it! She gave such great tips and links to make it look easy.

source: Marci Goodwin

Preparing

Being my first experience at once-a-month cooking, I chose to follow a menu and plan offered by Once A Month Mom. This site gave possible menus along with grocery lists and step-by-step instructions for cooking day. Very easy. I can follow directions….kind of!

After choosing a menu that I thought my family would enjoy, I headed to the store with my daughter and the Once A Month Mom grocery spreadsheet. To me, that spreadsheet was a God-send. It allowed me customize the amount of ingredients based on the number of servings I wanted to prepare. The spreadsheet also had all the items listed by categories to make shopping a relatively easy experience. My daughter put the spreadsheet onto a clipboard and recorded the prices so I could keep track of how much a month of meals actually costs. It made a great homeschool project!

source: Marci Goodwin

Getting Down to Business

The night before the big cooking day, I chopped all the veggies and prepared the meat. That only took my daughter and me about an hour, but it saved lots of time the next day.

On cooking day, I followed the instructions pretty much to the letter. I put my daughter in charge of two of the items I knew she could handle on her own (muffins). I prepared the other 20 meals. From beginning to clean up, it took us about 5 hours. Not bad for making 20 meals and several dozen muffins.

That was two weeks ago and I have to tell you that it was totally worth it! It has been awesome to go to the freezer and choose an entrée, add a side and I know that my family will have a delicious, home-cooked meal without all the stress, prep work and clean up! I do make several fresh meals each week, when I have time to prepare them. I love to cook, but for those days when there isn’t time to prepare a good meal or I just don’t feel like cooking, I love breaking one of these meals out of the freezer!

Next Time

As I mentioned at the beginning, I crave efficiency. Even though this was a really efficient process, I made notes to make my next experience even better.

1. Have someone cook with me. It really would have gone faster with another person. I need to get a friend who needs some great freezer meals to come over and join me.

2. Adapt some of my own recipes. Now that I have an idea of what can be frozen and how, I can make and freeze some family favorites.

3. Look over the entire recipe before starting. This seems so “duh!”, I realize, but there were so many recipes. I didn’t make it through every one, and I got surprised by a couple steps.

4. Start earlier in the day. I started at 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. The upside was that when I finished cooking and cleaning up, I tucked the kids in bed and I went straight to bed too!

5. Have the freezer cleaned out first. The meals fit perfectly in my spare refrigerator’s freezer in the garage….after I cleaned it out. Oops!

My meals will be devoured in a couple more weeks, and I am excited about my next cooking day. I need to start preparing my menu and my grocery list soon. Can’t believe it took me this long to try it! If you have been on the fence, don’t fight it! Jump on in! You won’t regret it!

Have you tried once-a-month cooking yet? What’s holding you back?

Marci Goodwin has a passion for helping people get the busyness and clutter out of their lives so that they can slow down and enjoy what is really important. She readily admits she doesn’t have it all figured out and is a work in progress experimenting on her family – a self-employed husband, an 8-year-old daughter (the homeschooled entrepreneur) and a 4-year-old son (110% boy). Marci can be found blogging about her journey and the evil of “busy” at Overcoming Busy.

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source: francois et fier de l'Être

The key to successfully using the once-a-month cooking method is to get organized and plan ahead. This is not the time to fly by the seat of your pants in the kitchen! While I’m sure there are a few people who could do that and still end up with a freezer full of delicious home-cooked meals, most of us would simply end up huddled in the corner in tears because of the chaos of trying to cook 15-30 meals at once without a plan.

7 Once-a-Month Cooking Tips

If you’re ready to take the plunge and give once-a-month cooking (OAMC) a try, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Start small. Plan to cook one or two weeks worth of dinners during your first cooking session rather than starting off with a full month of all three meals. Follow someone else’s plan your first couple of sessions before attempting to create your own.

2. Bring in the reinforcements. Ask a friend to join you, and double the recipes so you each have a set of meals at the end of the day. Have your husband or someone else wrangle the kids so that you can focus on the cooking.

3. Shop the day before. Don’t try to shop on the same day you’ll be cooking. You won’t have time to get your ingredients organized, and you’ll probably end up exhausted by the time it’s done!

4. Clear out the freezer. Whether you’re using a refrigerator freezer or a chest freezer, take some time to clean it out ahead of time. Throw away food that is unrecognizable or has been in there through more than one season and move ingredients and meals that still need to be used to the top so that you can use them up first.

5. Use freezer bags or vacuum sealer bags to freeze as much as you can. This will allow you to stack them flat and fit more in your freezer.

6. Label, label, label. Be sure to label everything with the name of the meal, the date it was frozen or an expiration date and instructions for cooking it. You can make these labels ahead of time as well to save yourself time on your cooking day.

7. Take a break when needed. I love this tip from the Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites book. If you start to feel your stress level rising, take a few minutes to step outside and get away from the kitchen before heading back in to finish up!

Once-a-Month Cooking Resources

A couple of you mentioned that you’d love to see vegetarian plans for once-a-month cooking, so I did some searching, and here are two that I found:

:: A Soy Vegetarian OAMC Plan, Ellen’s Kitchen

:: OAMC – Vegetarian Plan, Fractured Frugal Friends

If you’re looking for books with recipes and plans laid out for you, here are a few options:

:: Once-A-Month Cooking and Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites

:: Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms

:: Everything Meals for a Month

:: The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet: A Month of Meals Made Easy

:: Fix, Freeze, Feast: Prepare in Bulk and Enjoy by the Serving

And finally, be sure to check out these websites for everything you want to know about OAMC cooking and more:

:: Once a Month Mom

:: Official Once-A-Month Cooking website

:: Once A Month Cooking World

:: Organized Home: Freezer Cooking Guide

If you’re a veteran OAMC-er, share your best tip! If you haven’t yet tried once-a-month cooking, are you ready to put a date on the calendar to give it a try?

And if you’re looking for another opportunity to win the Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites book, be sure to head over to Food for My Family to enter!

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You were the first to publish a book about bulk freezer cooking, and many others have come after you. How did you think of this concept—and what made you feel it would work for so many women?

Mary Beth: Mimi developed this method at a time when we were writing articles together. She wanted me to call The Denver Post to see if they wanted us to write an article about it. I thought Mimi was crazy, and asked her to call. When the paper sent a reporter and photographer to her home within a week to do a food feature, we knew we were on to something. We’ve found over the years that Mimi’s three reasons for creating the strategy—to save time, money, and make possible good times at the table —resonate with most families.

Mimi: As a mother of three young children, I wanted to streamline my life without taking away from the things I loved. At the time, I was working with Hmong refugees in Denver, trying to sell their handwork.

I studied my days by writing down how I spent my time in 15-minute increments. And I found I was wasting the most time in the kitchen. I remember the day I decided I would cook until I ran out of the food I had on hand. I put all the dishes I had prepared on the dining room table. When I counted 30 meals I was ecstatic, because I knew I didn’t have to cook dinner again for a month. Every month for the next year I used the method, once for me and once with a friend, so I was able to perfect it. If someone was having a baby, I’d say “You buy these groceries, and I’ll prepare you a month’s meals.” It became the gift I gave my friends.

What wisdom could you offer to the busy woman who has never tried this method?

Mimi: Even preparing two of any entrée at one time will show you how much time this technique can save! In the beginning, try this technique with a friend who can help you with the many tasks, even just answering the door, the phone, taking care of the kids, and making sure the ingredients are ready. The first time you try this, I’d recommend trying the free, downloadable one-week cycle from our website once-a-monthcooking.com or a two-week cycle from the book to get used to cooking in bulk. And don’t try to shop and cook on the same day if possible, to conserve your energy.

You say that anyone with a side freezer can implement the Once-a-Month Cooking plan—how do you make it work?

Mary Beth: I’ve frozen even the month’s-worth of entrees without a separate freezer. But I have to clean out the freezer before my cooking day, and I freeze most entrees in plastic bags, which can be squished flat or wedged into corners.

What is the key to preparing a month’s worth of meals in a day without running out of time in the process?

:: Reading the cycle through ahead of time so you know what’s coming, and setting up for the cooking (labeling bags ahead, etc.)

:: Giving yourself the same margin you do on a daily basic, knowing you will be interrupted by children, the phone, and life. Keep your finger on your emotional pulse, take some breaks. Change your shoes, take a break outside. Give the kids a new coloring book. Little things to break the stress (and give your back a rest).

:: Don’t plan or expect to do anything else on your cooking day (like drive carpool).

:: Don’t try to make desserts on the same day — don’t do extras.

What are your top three favorite recipes in the new Once-a-Month Cookbook Family Favorites—and why?

Mary Beth:

1. Country-Style Ribs (This slow cooker entrée provides great aroma-therapy!)

2. Corn Soup with Basil, Avocado, and Crab (This delicious soup proves that frozen entrees can be both elegant and delicious.)

3. Penne in Cream Sauce with Sausage (My son Drew keeps asking me when we’ll have this one.)

Mimi:

1. Lemon Chicken (It’s so fast and tasty! Great for unexpected guests; it can be on the table in ten minutes.)

2. Uptown Joes (Great for picnics or ballgames in wide-mouth thermos.)

3. Beef Pot Roast (I love this one for its smell. There’s nothing like coming into a house that smells good.)

Beyond the obvious rewards of reducing food prep time, hassle, and grocery bills, what are you hoping Once-a-Month Cooking Family Favorites will do for busy families?

Mary Beth: My hope is that this technique will make it possible for families to spend more meals together around a table. The family dinner is a simple concept with profound, measureable advantages for children and parents. We relinquish it too easily to busy schedules. I want other families to discover that a warm meal and good conversation are simple, valuable gifts that anyone would enjoy.

Mimi: And I truly believe there isn’t any other family activity that is more meaningful or productive.

Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson’s original bestseller Once-a-Month Cooking™ started the bulk freezer cooking phenomenon from recipes made for their own families. Both live in Colorado and continue to share a passion to help today’s cooks save time and money while building family relationships over delicious meals.

Mary Beth is the creator of the website dwellingspace.com, providing tools on creating a home full of acceptance and creativity. She is also the former media director for MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers).

Mimi travels extensively to regions like Jordan, Ecuador, and Rwanda, and teaches Once-a-Month Cooking principles and benefits internationally.

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source: Jonathan Moreau

It involves setting aside one day each month as a cooking day to fill your freezer for the rest of the month. You simply pull out a meal each day, let it defrost and then reheat it (most often in the oven) for a yummy home-cooked meal.

The Benefits of OAMC

For busy families who still want to make eating together each night a priority, once-a-month cooking gives you the best of both worlds — home-cooked meals without the prep or clean up!

Whether you work long hours, have kids in after-school activities and sports, often take meals to friends and church members or just hate to cook, OAMC can take the stress out of your evenings. Buying and cooking in bulk also saves you time and money, and most people choose to do it with a partner so that it’s fun as well!

I’ve mentioned before that I stocked my freezer full before the birth of our daughter, and those meals will probably last us until the end of this month or the beginning of November. I hadn’t necessarily planned to restock it right away, but the Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites book that I’m giving away mentions that it can be great to have a fully stocked freezer during the holidays so that you can focus on holiday baking and other festivities of the season without worrying about what’s for dinner. I love that idea, and I’ll probably plan a day in mid-November to stock my freezer once again!

How It Works

The thought of cooking meals for an entire month in a single day can be overwhelming. However, most people who use this method will tell you that it gets easier each time you do it, and the benefits far outweigh the work involved.

The key to a success is planning ahead. Books like Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites and blogs like Once-A-Month Mom include complete plans with shopping lists, recipes and preparation guidelines to walk you through the step-by-step process of putting your meals together. You can also create your own plan using recipes your family loves, of course, but unless you’re a natural in the kitchen (which I am definitely not!), you may want to try following someone else’s plan first to get an idea of the rhythm of creating multiple meals at the same time.

Most monthly plans include 15 meals, since the other days may involve leftovers, eating out, church functions, etc. Some plans, like those at Once-A-Month Mom, include breakfasts and lunches as well as dinners.

Later this week, I’ll share tips and tricks for making the process easier and more rewarding!

If you’re a once-a-month cook (or have been in the past), do you create your own plans or follow someone else’s? If you’ve been wanting to try OAMC but haven’t, what’s holding you back?

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source: Steve Wampler

Wow, you all had some great suggestions in response to the question, “What are your favorite freezer meals?” If you haven’t read through those comments yet, you’ll definitely want to!

I finalized my plan for stocking my freezer with 6 weeks+ of meals for after the baby’s born, and I’m excited to get started. I thought I’d share my list with you in case anyone else is looking for ideas:

Breakfasts

:: Muffins (batches of 10): apple, banana, pumpkin, blueberry, morning glory
:: Pancakes (batches of 12)
:: French toast (batches of 10)
:: Waffles (batches of 10)
:: Apples (chopped up, to be added to oatmeal)
:: Cereal (in the pantry)

Lunches

:: Chicken noodle soup (in individual portions)
:: Corndog muffins (batches of 8 )
:: Spaghetti pizza (frozen in half pizza portions)
:: Chili (in individual portions)
:: Ham & cheese pockets
:: Chicken fingers
:: Pizza roll-ups
:: Macaroni and cheese*
:: Tomato noodles*

*Thanks to Sati for sharing this great tip, which I think will be very useful on days that balancing 4 little ones under 5 years old doesn’t leave any time for lunch prep: “My favorite thing to freeze for a variety of meals is cooked plain spaghetti noodles. Freeze them in individual portions. You can put the bag in boiling water for 30 seconds to thaw and heat then add sauce of your choice, or butter and garlic, etc.”

Dinners

:: Chicken for tacos/quesadillas
:: Meatballs for spaghetti and/or subs (thanks, Whimsy Girl!)
:: Spaghetti meat sauce*
:: Chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing (thanks, Allegra!)
:: Cheeseburgers
:: Sausage patties and/or sausage balls (thanks, Whitney!)
:: Pizza
:: Baked ziti
:: Lasagna*
:: Meatloaf

*I can’t wait to try Bekki’s tip for cooking large batches of ground beef: “I also cook all of my ground beef at once in a big stock pot. Just add a 1/2 cup or cup of water to the pot and I have done 15 pounds at once.”

Making it Happen

I know that a lot of people stock their freezers by simply doubling each recipe they make and freezing half of it. Usually I’m too busy during the week to even want to think about making extra, and I much prefer to just set aside cooking days. The exception to that is usually breakfast foods, which I don’t mind doubling nearly as much.

My plan is to make all of the breakfast foods over the next 3 months, doubling or tripling the batches to get a few extra meals out of each. My mom is going to come one Monday a month to help me prepare most of the meals, and I’ll take one weekend near the end to prepare all of the no-cook things, such as the marinated chicken breasts and cheeseburgers.

I’m looking forward to having six weeks off from cooking (I’m not a great cook, and while I do enjoy baking, that’s about it) without forcing my family to eat plain rice or frozen dinners the entire time.

Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) Resources

:: Once a Month Mom (with new recipes, shopping lists and cooking plans each month!)
:: A Beginner’s Guide to Freezing Meals and the Basics of Food Storage, from Shaina at Food for My Family
:: Don’t Panic: Dinner’s in the Freezer and Don’t Panic: More Dinner’s in the Freezer (thanks, Karen!)
:: Vacuum Sealers, a must have for OAMC!

Thanks again for all of your tips and recipes!

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source: wolftone

Before our third daughter was born, I stocked our chest freezer with over six weeks worth of meals – mostly breakfasts and dinners, with a few lunches as well. It was the best thing I’ve ever done, especially considering I ended up with an emergency c-section and we had just moved into a not-yet-finished home (hey, we’re stupid adventurous, what can I say?).

I’m starting to plan my freezer meals for this baby’s birth and would like to include more lunches as well this time, as well as some more variety (last time I just made HUGE batches of 8 or so of our favorite dinners).

I know you all probably have some great ideas, and this week I want to know:

What are your favorite freezer meals?

Have you ever tried to freeze something that didn’t freeze well?

Any tips for cooking large batches or freezing meals so that they last?

Once I get our plan finished, I’ll be sure to post it. But in the meantime, be sure you head over and read Shaina’s post about all things freezer and food storage related!

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