Prepare to be amazed...make that....prepare to be SHOCKED!

I COOKED FOR MY FAMILY!

Some of you (the two of you who I know follow this blog) may know that I don't cook for my family very often. Well, at school we are having a book fair (this is the long version of the story by the way) and I saw a cookbook for 9 x 13 recipes, i.e., recipes that are all for 9 x 13 pans. I thought the cookbook was interesting but instead of buying it I decided to Google 9 x 13 recipes. I found a recipe that said it was good for "Once a Month Cooking". I wondered what that meant. Was that for people who cooked for their families about once a month like me?! I Googled "Once a Month Cooking" and found out it is when people (okay, women) spend a weekend day or weekend cooking several meals for their family and then freeze them to eat over the next month and beyond. I have been to Pass Your Plate before where you do the same thing but they have the ingredients and dishes for you to use. I enjoyed that experience and having dishes in the freezer to have for dinner. I started Googling (I love Google) OAMC recipes and came up with several that I wanted to try. I also read some blogs and got tips for OAMC also known as freezer recipes. I went shopping after work on Friday and made a plan for cooking on Saturday. Davin was excited about the idea when I told him (I made grilled cheese for dinner one day last week and he was SO excited). He even said he wanted to help. That actual made me pretty nervous because I thought we might kill each other. It turned out to be wonderful that he helped!

I have been craving my mom's homeade spaghetti sauce and meatballs but it takes at least 4 hours to make and it has to be in the fridge at least one day to thicken before you eat it anyway so that was immediately added to the recipe list.

Here is what we made:
homeade meatballs and spaghetti sauce (2 to 3 meals worth...the sauce is still cooking as I write so I'm not sure how many meals I'll get out of it)
mac and cheese bake--main dish or side dish (2 meals worth)
twice baked potatoes--side dish (3 meals worth)
pesto hamburgers (3 meals worth)
salsa burgers (2 meals worth)
veggie quiche (1 meal--I halfed the recipe because one quiche meal is already pushing it with Davin)
chicken-biscuit casserole (1 meal---probably could have been divided into 2 meals)
zesty pineapple chicken (1 meal)
refridgerator mashed potatoes (1 meal...this is for a Girl Scout leader dinner I am going to on Monday that had to be made this weekend anyway...there maybe left overs for us on Tuesday...although I doubt it)

The idea isn't to eat hamburgers 3 times in one month, although we could. The idea is that next month I'll make other recipes and mix them in with the ones I already have frozen that we haven't eaten yet and eventually we will have quite the stock of meals. I know this isn't enough food to get us through the month but it sure is a lot more eating at home that we usually do. I'll even admit...it was fun. The part of cooking that I hate is the clean up and how you work on something for over an hour and then it is eaten in 10 minutes (or less if you are Davin). This way I can have a nice meal at home during the week and the prep time is very little...just side dishes and baking in the oven.

I have already Googled recipes for next month. I'll let you know what I make next time. Let me know if you want any recipes. I don't mind sharing.

I'll probably have a OAMC day over Christmas break. Can't wait until next time.