Once a Month Cooking

[DanCole42]

As someone who enjoys cooking, this isn't exactly up my alley, but I did find it interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once-a-month_cooking

Anyone have any experience here?

[Anna Blume]

Busy moderns make their own frozen dinners. Scrappy. Bet they use Glad.

Once saw an episode of some Woman's Show in which a very organized mother knew exactly what she was feeding her family every single day of an entire calendar year. Want to know what we're having for dinner on June 23? Look it up on the computer.

[zoramargolis]

Once saw an episode of some Woman's Show in which a very organized mother knew exactly what she was feeding her family every single day of an entire calendar year. Want to know what we're having for dinner on June 23? Look it up on the computer.

This woman can start making psychotherapy appointments now for when her children are adults. Sheesh. Just imagine what else she schedules a year in advance

[Heather]

I tried the Frozen Assets cookbook once. Take the "ets" off the end, and that's what most of the recipes tasted like.

[leleboo]

This woman can start making psychotherapy appointments now for when her children are adults. Sheesh. Just imagine what else she schedules a year in advance

You beat me to it, Zora. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not married to her, nor growing up in her household. Yikes.

Honestly -- even if I try to menu-plan a whole week, I find myself riffing on ideas rather than specific recipes. Granted, I don't have a houseful of hungry young mouths to feed at this point, but still, even with all the stage-management OCD-esque tendencies I have, I could plan that much. A month would be pushing it, even. (Again: yikes.)

[jayandstacey]

You beat me to it, Zora. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not married to her, nor growing up in her household. Yikes.

Honestly -- even if I try to menu-plan a whole week, I find myself riffing on ideas rather than specific recipes. Granted, I don't have a houseful of hungry young mouths to feed at this point, but still, even with all the stage-management OCD-esque tendencies I have, I could plan that much. A month would be pushing it, even. (Again: yikes.)

Funny - my mom actually wrote a cookbook of her own that was a month worth of recipes, sorted into meals for individual day's full meal menus, and laid out so you'd go shopping once a week. The book gave you the shopping list for the week and was 'integrated' to some extent, where for instance extra mashed potatoes from day 1 would be used for potato pancakes on day 2. The recipes are basic, home-style stuff, like stuffed green peppers, meatloaf, chicken casserole, etc.

I never really thought of it as OCD.

And now I do that, though not all with her recipes. I'll sit down on Sunday night and plan the recipes based on our schedules, make a shopping list based on those recipes and that's what we're eating.

Is that very unreasonable?

[jayandstacey]

As someone who enjoys cooking, this isn't exactly up my alley, but I did find it interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once-a-month_cooking

Anyone have any experience here?

I have some indirect experience...for a while, my wife was going to "Thyme Out" in the Kentlands in Gaithersburg - the place has recipe stations, where you'd assemble recipes into pans and freeze them. You'd then put a sticker on that had the name of the dish, some health info and the cooking instructions.

She would typically make a month's worth of meals, about 20 at a time.

It certainly wasn't as good as fresh made, but:

- doing it all at once was nice.

- having the "stations" helped, mostly because everything was pre-chopped.

- having a 1/2 way decent meal handy and ready in 20 minutes simply beats another box of mac and cheese.

It wasn't fine dining but ir works and some of it was really good.

[synaesthesia]

I'd heard of some single moms making their PBJs for the week and putting them in freezer. Apparently the duration of time from leaving for school and lunch time was sufficient for defrosting. I could see where if you were just getting by with respect to time and money, how this would be an effective, though not ideal, solution.

[goodeats]

I'd heard of some single moms making their PBJs for the week and putting them in freezer.

Well, I think Corporate America took this idea over years ago. I was given a sample once and thought it was interesting tasting.

[jayandstacey]

Well, I think Corporate America took this idea over years ago. I was given a sample once and thought it was interesting tasting.

Uncrustables rock!

The crust is convenienently pre-removed. What more could you want from life?? It is the apex of man's achievement.

Smucker's aquisition of Jif in 2002 was probably the most logical, "synergistic" corporate merger of all time.