I am Blissfully domestic! This week I am doing my once-a-month cooking. It's amazing. I spend one day putting together dinners, freeze them, and eat for a month. It's wonderful. My husband loves it too! If I have something going on one night and can't be home, he knows that I will have already defrosted something and all he has to do is pop it in the oven. And one of the best parts... it saves us money.
It is a bit of a pinch budget wise the very first time. For our family of 4, it costs us about $300 for me to shop. Over the course of the month, I still have to buy perishable items, but for the most part, I'm saving money because I'm not impulse buying once a week. I'm working on getting my cost even lower than that by starting to use coupons and hitting sales.
Here's what we are going to eat this month. If you would like recipes for any of these meals, send me an email or leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you.
1. Grilled Orange Chicken Fingers
2. Ham & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts
3. Chicken Noodle Casserole
4. Chicken & Tomato Rice Bake
5. Chicken Pie
6. Oven BBQ Chicken & Cheesy Biscuits
7. Glazed Pork Tenderloin
8. Baked Chicken Pecan
9. Crock Pot Peppercorn Steak
10. Crustless Spinach Quiche
11. Orange Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry
12. Peking Pork Chops
13. Macaroni and Cheese
14. Chicken Broccoli Rotini
15. Heavenly Chicken
16. Stromboli
17. Chicken Caesar Casserole
18. Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches
19. Farmers Casserole
20. Sausage and Rice
21. Italian Stuffed Meatloaf
22. Lasagna
23. Upside-down Pizza Casserole
24. Black Bean Soup
25. Marinated Flank Steak
26. Chicken Nuggets
27. Meal-In-One Potatoes
28. Cheesy Ham and Potatoes
29. Steak Fajitas
30. Stuffed Sausage Balls
Wow. How long does it take you to prepare all this?
ReplyDeleteI take about 3-4 hours to shop and 1 hour to seperate and number (by meal) all the canned & boxed goods.
ReplyDeleteI then spend a few hours chopping all my vegetables and sorting my meats, cheeses & dairy by meals. Some of the meats need to be precooked and that's where my crockpot comes in handy. Chicken all gets cooked together, then divided, then the sausage, etc.
By the time 'cooking day' comes along all of my ingredients are prepared and divided up. I start at 8 and am finished by 2. It seems like a lot of work, and it is, but it is so worth it in the end.
I agree - it really is worth it, as the work is done in chunks and then it's DONE. It makes every day after so much easier.
ReplyDeletePlus, it's really fun to do with friends!