Logically, this post is going to be about the first P - Planning. This mostly consists of finding recipes and making a shopping list, with just a couple of other minor details.
Ok, so OAMC is a wonderful concept!
But then you start thinking about all of the little things that have to magically come together to make it a successful experience and it starts to look a little less appealing and a lot more overwhelming....
At least, that's how it was for me. I LOVED the idea, but didn't have the courage to jump right in. I was concerned about the grocery bill. YIKES! I was sure it would be astronomical. I couldn't figure out how I could make it work with a toddler running around and a husband at work. I was hesitant to actually FREEZE my food. Would it really taste as good when I cooked it? And what about recipes? What could I freeze and how should I reheat/cook it?
A lot of these concerns were things that I wouldn't be able to address until I actually got into it, so I researched what a could and decided I'd just go for it!
My favorite part, by FAR, is searching for recipes. :) I will browse recipes forever! I've never sat down and read a cookbook from cover-to-cover, but I've gotten close... A lot of recipes never make the cut. I feel like I'm somewhat adventurous in the kitchen but only to a degree. I know what my family likes and tend to stick with recipes that I know will get eaten. Who wants to waste time and money on a meal that nobody will eat?
That was one of the obstacles I had to tackle with OAMC. There are several great blogs out there about the process but some of them use recipes that my family would never eat... No offense, Mama and Baby love (and all of the other super nutritional bloggers, for that matter), but a lot of your recipes just would not work in my house. I'll do one of those wonderful steamed veggies you can make in the microwave in 5 minutes as an easy side dish, and sometimes I can get them to eat spinach or broccoli hidden in an entree... but that's about it.
I'm always impressed by women who can get their children to eat all 5 veggies everyday... Mine take vitamins. That counts for something, right?
Anyway, for my first go at OAMC I chose a variety of recipes - some for the crockpot, some casseroles, some that you just assembled that day, etc... (I think I'd do ALL crockpot recipes, just for the ease of it, but I only have one crockpot and I do NOT want to have to wash it every single day!). I found some recipes on OAMC websites, but most were my own variation of recipes I knew we liked already, and honestly, I think that's why it worked out so well.
By switching to OAMC I didn't change the way my family eats, just the way that I prepare it and that's EXACTLY what I needed.
Here's a list of the recipes we made at the most recent cook:
Spinach Pesto Manicotti
Cilantro-Lime Chicken
Red Beans & Rice
Lazy Chicken
Fauxtisserie Chicken
Sour Cream and Bacon Chicken
3 Packet Pot Roast
Crockpot Ravioli Casserole
Creamy Turkey Dinner
Teriyaki Chicken
Slow Cooker Fajitas
Cheesy Chicken and Rotini
Pesto Chicken Penne
Lasagna
Honey Sesame Pork Chops
Creamy Chicken and Broccoli
16 total meals. We cooked on August 28, just almost weeks ago, and my family still has 3 meals left in the freezer. So although 16 doesn't sound like that many meals, they always last longer than you anticipate. Eating leftovers or having a pizza night each week really seems to help stretch them out over a looong period of time.
The first time I cooked I made 23 recipes. They lasted us WELL over 2 months. That's just another thing to factor in as you decide to take the plunge. How many meals will you reasonably make each week? How often do you cook now? Do you eat leftovers pretty regularly? Do you have a date night? Oh, and while we had plenty to eat, there really wasn't any room leftover in our small freezer.
Ok, so you've chosen your recipes and now you're ready to start making your shopping list. Something I like to consider in choosing recipes is whether or not certain ingredients overlap - can I save money buying a larger size of a particular ingredient and split it between recipes? Take note of that as you make your list.
Go through each recipe and mark the amounts that you need - the number of cups of shredded cheese, or the number of ounces of a canned good, etc... That will keep you from overbuying at the grocery store and help you to remember if certain ingredients need to be used for multiple recipes.
It also helps if you organize your list in a way that is familiar to you. Personally, I organize it by product location in the store. I start in the back and make my way forward. This way you don't spend all day weaving back and forth through aisles looking for items that you forgot. To each his own, do what works for you!
As far as saving money... I mentioned before that couponing is not my thing, and I don't pay much attention to sales fliers. On our most recent group cooking day, we attempted to really use weekly specials and various grocery stores to our advantage, but it turned out that the online ad and the store ad were different and we ended up wasting a lot of time driving between 5 separate stores and a lot of money because we got frustrated and just bought the items we were missing at unusually high prices because we did not have the time or patience to go back to the first store.
I realize that my experience is not typical, and I should take it in stride as a learning experience and only look at the in-store ad from now on.... but I'm pretty disillusioned and probably won't exert the effort on that the next time around. However, if you are a bargain shopper and pay attention to that sort of thing, I'm sure you will save TONS of money using those skills for OAMC. Maybe you should start cooking with me and let me benefit from that specialized skill set... ;)
One last thing that you will absolutely need to include on your shopping list is the freezer bags or foil baking pans that you will be needing. And when I say "freezer" bag, I mean it. You want to be able to count on the food lasting all month, and if it's NOT in a freezer bag... well, there's no guarantee.
Ok, so those are the things to consider as you plan your OAMC cooking day -
- Decide how many recipes you and your family will reasonably use in a month.
- Choose recipes that your family likes or would be likely to eat.
- Choose a variety of recipes with different cooking methods.
- Try to find recipes with similar ingredients - this isn't entirely necessary, but would make shopping somewhat easier and less expensive.
- Create your shopping list in an organized way that makes sense to you and will keep you from running all over the store.
- And remember to include your freezing supplies - foil pans, freezer bags, sticky labels (if you'd like), duct tape (to keep ingredients that are added later with the rest of the ingredients, see picture) - when making your shopping list.
 |
| This is an example of how to use duct tape with OAMC. |
 |
| Creamy Chicken and Broccoli is cooked in the crockpot and has a few ingredients that are added in the last half hour of cooking. In order to keep the broccoli and cheese with the recipe, I like to duct tape them together. Really fancy... :) |
 |
| It does take up a lot of space, but it ensures that you will definitely have your ingredients on hand and where you can find them when it's time to cook. |
And THAT is your first P of OAMC.
Pretty straightforward, right?
Thanks for this great explanation, Jessie! I'm excited for the next 2 "P" posts. I think I'm going to give this a try in the next few months. Tyler cleaned out the freezer this weekend, so we might actually have room. :)
ReplyDelete