All My Loose Ends » oamc

Meun Plan Monday

Jamie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:51:00 +0000

About a week ago, Big Daddy and I finished our second Once a Month Mom cooking session. We opted to roll back to the August menu as we don’t host Thanksgiving here. We shopped for ourselves, Big Daddy’s Aunt and Mom an spent just under 300. I think we probably spent more this time as I didn’t shop as many sales for the items we needed in large amount.

We also opted to package more items in bags that we could thaw quickly. That was our biggest issue last month. If I forgot to pull out an item ahead of time, it was hard to catch up with the food being packaged in foil pans. They didn’t seal tight and you can’t microwave them.

Also, if you can get a good price on chuck roast, I can’t really say enough nice things about the hot beef sandwiches. I will be making some every time we can get a deal on chuck roast. You can find the recipe here.

But without further ado…

Monday Deconstructed stuffed chicken breasts, pasta and veggies

Tuesday-Crock pot beef stroganoff, rice and veggies

Wednesday-Lemon Chicken with Veggies and fresh bread

Thursday-Chilaquile Casserole with corn bread and veggies

Friday-Pizza Night! We’ll be making our own as the price is about the same and the pizza is THAT much better

Saturday-Family dinner at our house with Big Daddy’s cousins. We cannot wait!

Sunday-Lazy Chili Rellenos, spanish rice and corn

This week, I will also be planning our menus for Christmas, including Christmas eve morning breakfast and cookie baking. YUMMY!

Menu Plan Monday

Jamie — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:27:04 +0000

It’s supposed to snow here today. Do you hear me Internet? It is OCTOBER! This is not acceptable!!

Ignore the crocheted mice. Notice the SNOW!!

That was Valentine’s Day, ya’ll. It’s not supposed to snow before Halloween. We do NOT live in Canada!!

Monday

On the run due to other plans, so will probably pick up something quick-like from the store

Tuesday

Book Club

Freezer beef stew and fresh bread

Wednesday

Baked ziti, chicken parmesan and salad

Thursday

soccer practice which I’m already praying will be canceled

Beef Stroganoff, egg noodles and veggies

Friday

Pizza and movie night!

Saturday

Big Daddy and I are going out on a date. So long as my MIL will babysit. Won’t you, lovely MIL??

Sunday

Broccoli cheese soup and fresh bread, maybe bread bowls if I’m feeling saucy.

Menu Plan Monday

Jamie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:14:58 +0000

Can I say that Once a Month cooking rocks! I can? Sweet. It does and I just said it. I probably said it last week too,but I’m saying it again. I thought that spending two weeks cooking and doubling meals made the two weeks off worth it, but in truth, that was totally counter productive and a waste of work. If I was going to have another kid, I’d probably name her (because we don’t make boys) Once a Month Mom.

So, it makes my menu planning pretty easy

Monday

Chicken Marsala, pasta and asparagus

Tuesday

soccer practice

Beef Stew and fresh bread

Wednesday

Mexican cornbread casserole and salad

Thursday

soccer practice

Deconstructed broccoli stuffed chicken breasts and veggies

On the go with previous plans for the weekend.

Last week, I noted that we were having caramel apple pork chops for dinner. They were pretty. I wish I’d have taken a picture, but they were so good all of us sort of inhaled them. I guess 800+ reviews and an overall rating of 4.5 stars on allrecipes.com really does mean something. It means yummy.

Weekly Menu, week beginning 9/28

Jamie — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:45:46 +0000

Well, we did it. This weekend we tried out Once a Month Mom’s September Once a Month cooking plan. We convered on my MIL yesterday afternoon and she helped with the cooking and kid managing and Big Daddy and I went to town. It took 6.5 horus from start to finish (from beginning to clean up) and our outside freezer is stocked with 17 dinners (we halved the recipes based on our family’s needs), three separate breakfast options and four separate lunch options.

I’m so excited about not having to plan dinner for 20 of the next 28 days and I’m more than a little sure that this new plan will save us money.

Again, we halved the plan and figure we spent about $200 to do so. We will be using the meals four days a week (one day a week will be our pizza night, one day a week will be wev. and one night a week will be special requests, grilling, entertaining, etc).

Next time, we will be sure to do ALL of the suggested early preparations EARLY. Big Daddy spent the first hour or more chopping which slowed down our cooking prep.

Monday

Eating a Chili’s to support St. Jude’s hospital to support the fight against childhood cancer. Even though I just spent a ga-million hours cooking, we’re going out to eat at Chili’s to offer our support. If you can manage it, you should too.

Tuesday

Soccer practice @6p

BBQ pork sammies and sweet potato fries

Wednesday

park play date at 4p

Deconstructed stuffed chicken breasts and pasta

Thursday

soccer practice 5:30p

Beef stroganoff, egg noodles and veggies

Friday

Pizza and a movie night.

Saturday

Usually on the run

Sunday

Caramel Apple Pork Chops mashed potatoes and fresh green beans.

Menu Plan Mondayish

Jamie — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:16:37 +0000

We survived the first day of school! And the first week! Hooray! And, we’re still adjusting to our menu so I still have repeats this week. Thank God it’s nothing that goes rancid in the fridge because it’s taking me weeks. The good news is, we start eating from the freezer this week which means my workload will kind of start going through the floor.

I say kind of because I’m hoping to get breakfast burritos, pancakes and zucchini bread made to stick in the freezer this week.

Sunday-Brats boiled in Big Daddy’s home brew, pasta salad and watermelon

Monday-My Birthday and I Am Not Cooking!

Tuesday-Taco Spaghetti and salad

soccer practice

Wednesday-Simply Sour Cream Enchiladas and fresh corn (it’s sooooooo good right now)

Thursday Stuffed peppers with fresh baked bread

soccer practice and parent’s night at Littlebit’s school

Friday Pizza and a movie night

Saturday Usually on the run.

Menu Plan Monday

Jamie — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:49:49 +0000

So, Big Daddy and I are trying something “new” in regards to the budget. Basically, we’d like to save more money and that starts with cutting down our grocery bill. It’s become absolutely stratospheric over the past few months and we had to cut it down. I struggle with trying to cook healthy foods with cutting down our grocery bills. While foodies disagree, they just seem to be competeing factions. However, one thing I know that does work is OAMC (Once a Month Cooking) or freezer cooking. You can google it and come up with tons of ideas but the basic idea is you stock up your freezer and eat from that. Why is it cheap? Well, the bulk buying factor.

I’m coupling OAMC with my local grocery stores “loss leaders” and using that to create our menu.

In two weeks, we’ll repeat this menu there by getting two weeks of dinners out of one week’s budget (well, actually, I’m able to come up with 14 dinners from our budget this week, but you get half a week so there!)

Monday Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers Peppers are hella cheap right now in our location. I’ll be replacing the ground beef with ground turkey

Tuesday Chicken fried rice with egg rolls and sugar snap peas. The Princess is out of town, but I’m hoping this is good. Due to her peanut allergy, Chinese food is basically taboo, but she loves chicken fried rice SO much. Hopefully, this will be a good alternative for her.

Wednesday Chicken Bruschetta Casserole with veggies

Thursday Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas with corn

Friday Dinner Out

Saturday Cold sandwiches. We’re picking up the Princess this day and will have lunch with my family and then eat a quick, light dinner at home

Sunday Grilled chicken and veggies.

Now, the best part? Monday through Thursday’s meals will be doubled and frozen and in two weeks I’ll have a whole week where I don’t actually have to cook. How great is that?