Cook for a Day eat for a Month!

I recently heard/ read somewhere about once a month cooking. I like the idea of pulling things out of the freezer and having dinner on the table with minimal prep or effort. Don't get me wrong, I like to cook. I just really like not having to do it every day or even every other day.

A few years ago we started doing Dream Dinners which is one of those places you go to that you put all the food together yourself in bags then you take it home and freeze it. It is fabulous, but way more money than we can afford right now.

So when Belle was in town and we went to Powell's Downtown I got this book

It is great. It walks you totally through the planning and prep and then you make all your food.
The only down side? Well apparently I am slower than a snail, cause it took me 3!!! days to get all the food made I had planned a prepped for. But finally Thankgiving eve I got it all done. The worst part is that I had done that really hard Pump class on Monday and could barely move all 3 of those days. And the longer I stood the more stiff I got. But I am finally done and packaged in food saver sealed bags and put away. Here is my gorgeous garage freezer now.

27 meals later- as well as some individual portions and 3 mini meals for my friend Tisha who had a baby last week.
Here is what I made:
~bulk spaghetti sauce (which went in stuff mostly but a few side portions for later use)
~2 lasagnas
~3 baked ziti's (plus a mini)
~12 stuffed peppers
~2 poor man's casserole
~2 turkey and rice bakes (plus mini)
~2 turkey cacciatore (plus mini)
~2 chicken casseroles
~4 sloppy joes
~5 sets meatballs
~2 meatloafs
~3 chicken a la king

Bonappetit!

In related news, this is part of the 1/4 cow we split with our friends/neighbors. I used 8 lbs of grounds beef in my cooking this week! All organic and grain fed! Yum!