Sam and I have a running joke that he eats the best when Hayden is here...sometimes that's the only time during the month/6 weeks that he eats home cooked meals!
In an effort to remedy this, I decided to start Once-a-Month Cooking! (Also, I HATE to cook in the summer time!) With OAM cooking, I can pick up fresh ingredients for sides and snackes/staples at the grocery, and stop randomly going and buying things we don't need!
I started planning Wedensday morning when the new Kroger ad. came out. I had a list of meals I wanted to cook and tailored it slightly based on the sales. I also used every coupon I could find, since I most likely won't buy some of the items again for a month or more. We had two freezers full when I started, so I had to be creative! We had lots of Free Range Chicken, Deer and Duck Smoked Sausage and Ground Deer Meat from last season, so that helps. (We still have lots of quail and bacon wrapped dove if anyone is interested!)
I boiled and shredded 2 whole chickens + 4 Chicken breasts on Wednesday. This was a time saver because I only have 2 large stock pots and needed them for several other dishes.
I shopped on Friday and put the rub on the pork shoulder to sit overnight. Here's what a month worth of meals looks like in our house! (I used everything with the exception of a few ingredients that I've not made anything with yet. )
Here's the list of Recipes I compiled from Pinterest, Google and Other Blogs. I don't want to steal anyones ideas, these are NOT my recipes! If you'd like any of them, please let me know. I'll try and go back and add links in later. Each of these were doubled, so they make at least two meals for the two of us, most of them will make more.
Lasagna Chili
Chicken and Black Bean Chili
Chicken Spaghetti
Pulled Pork BBQ
Crockpot BBQ Chicken
Baked Ziti
Cheddar and Cracker Coated Chicken
Stuffed Peppers
Chicken Tortellini Casserole
Beef Stroganoff
Olive Garden's Minestrone Soup - These are in smaller ziploc bags for lunches/single meals
Macaroni and Cheese - These are in smaller ziploc bags for lunches/single meals
Breakfast Burritos (24 Burritos)
Breakfast Muffins
Sam went to Memphis Saturday to visit his friend Brian, so I knew it's be a great time for the A-Man and I to have a work day! We started about 9 running a few errands, including one to Lowe's to pick up some things for our Patio Renovation...more on that later!
With Alex in his johnny jump up, I got started around 10:45. I started with the Chicken Spaghetti and Lasagna Chili and just progressed. I didn't clean as I went unless it was neccessary because I ran out of pot/spoons/bowls, etc. Here's a photo mid-way through. I'm a good cook, just not a clean one!Don't Judge!
I cooked until about 7:30, feeding an playing with the baby in between. It was work! But at 8 last night when Sam got home, It felt food to see all the progress I hadn't taken time to look at all day! I froze everything I could flat in gallon ziploc bags. The baked Ziti, Chicken Spaghetti and Chicken Tortellini Casseroles were in pans. I laid plastic wrap in the pans first, then flash froze them. I took them out, wrapped in foil and put them in ziploc bags with labels. When we cook those, I'll just unwrap them and pop them back in the pans! This is what the freezer looked like at about 5. I can't tell you how happy I am to be done for the month! To top it off our sweet neighbors were smoking food all day long, and they called us to comeover about 8:30 last night and gave us a smoked pork shoulder, which we ate for dinner. It was delicious! Alex was some kind of trooper! He played in his johnny jump up or his other bouncy seat in the kitchen when he was awake.
I'll post his 5 Month pictures and what I found this morning when I went to get him up later! We've got to get ready for church!
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