5 Day Mini Menu January 2012 OAMM Menu (Traditional)
Welcome to the FIRST EVER Once A Month Mom Mini Menu! It was so very clear when we did our last survey that readers need some smaller steps other than the BIG cooking menus. Those menus are GREAT but some of you indicated that you wanted to start smaller. Or you weren’t quite ready to jump into the whole day. Or you had life circumstances that necessitate that you do your cooking bit by bit instead of one big day. So we give you Mini Menus!
What are Mini Menus? Mini menus are a fraction of the meals you would see on a normal menu and can be completed quickly and efficiently in a few short hours, in the evenings when you are preparing the meal for dinner or during small bursts of times like naps. Mini meal plans are designed for the busy family who wants freezer meals in their freezer but doesn’t have time to do a full months worth of meals.
This is a 5 day plan (there will also be a 10 day plan). Each of these plans will give you 5 recipes that you will make for a total of either 5 or 10 meals. If you want to turn the 5 day plan into a 10 day plan, you can do so by simply doubling the number of servings you enter into the yellow box. What do I mean? Well, the 5 day plan is 5 recipes that yield one of each recipe for the number of servings you are making. If I am a family of 4, I would put a 4 in the yellow box and I would get 5 meals for my freezer. If I wanted to have two of each of those meals instead I would put an 8 in the yellow box and would get 10 meals. For more directions on the 10 day meal plan.
This January 5 Day plan is based on the January 2012 Traditional All Star Menu. Due to the fact that this is a seasonal menu, you may find that some of the produce items are out of season in January. Feel free to make substitutions or to ask us about potential substitutions. We didn’t want to eliminate All Star recipes based on season, after all, you think they are the BEST!
Teriyaki Honey Chicken
Dinners
- Ham & Cheese Pinwheels
- Ranch Chicken Parmesan
- Teriyaki Honey Chicken
- Easy Pleasing Meatloaf
- Mexican Shepherd’s Pie
**Indicates meals that require NO COOKING on your OAMC BIG DAY!
Recipe Cards
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Grocery List
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Instructions
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Labels
OAMM Members Only!Become a Member or Sign In to gain access.
Pinterest:
Are you a person that likes to see the menus visually? Perhaps you should check out the January 2012 5 Day Mini Menu via Pinterest to see the yummy goodness you will be cooking up on this menu. Not sure what Pinterest is all about, check out what Once A Month Mom has to say about it.
Facebook Fan Party:
OAMM Facebook Fan Page Party – January 15th 2011, 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST – We will be able to chat via video AND messaging during the event through FACEBOOK! How cool is that? We will be talking about the current month’s menus, answer your burning questions about freezer cooking and have fun getting to know one another. You can also see other past recordings from that tab as well.
Instructions for viewing live-stream:
- Go to the Once A Month Mom Facebook Fan Page.
- Click on the “FB Fan Night” Tab on the left side margin.
- Hit “view live recording” – If I am live streaming it will show you what is happening in progress. If I am not live streaming at the time, you will have the option to click through other videos that I have recorded in the past.
- Enjoy!
Test Cooks
Each month we have some wonderful volunteers who “test” out the menu prior to publication. They do an amazing job of helping to eliminate confusion and mistakes. They may not catch everything but they sure do catch A LOT! Here is a little bit about this month’s test cooks:
- Heather Allen – I’m a work at home mom (nurse medical coder) to 3 boys (2) 9′s and a 14, and a sweet hubby of 24 years! I am a veteran bulk/freezer cook whose love of cooking and spending time in the kitchen trying new recipes, has the benefit of feeding this constantly hungry herd!
Get Started
Are you new to Once A Month Mom or once a month cooking (oamc) in general? If so, you might want to spend a few minutes (or hours) on the Get Started Series. If you are in a real hurry to catch on we have written some simple steps for getting started. Welcome!
If you are feeling abundantly blessed and generous feel free to donate. :) But don’t feel guilty if you aren’t able.
- Included below are the menu items that we will be preparing as part of our Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) BIG DAY. In the printable 5 DAY MINI Menu January 2012 Recipe Cards the menu items are intended to feed one person for a month. You can insert the number of people are cooking for on the first tab to automatically make recipe adjustments to feed multiple people for a month.
- View the printable 5 DAY MINI Menu January 2012 Recipe Cards.
- Having trouble using the Recipe Cards or YELLOW BOX? See this post!
I’m a little confused b/c the menu calculates the gr beef to 8lbs (w/ a 4 in the yellow box), but then there’s only 3lbs used (1 in meatloaf, 2 in shepherd’s pie). Any help? :) Thanks!
Sorry about that, the formula was a little off on the chopping sheet and grocery list. Thanks to your attention to this we have it fixed now.
Thanks!!
Looking forward to trying this. I know a mimi menu will help tremendously for me as I work full-time. It will be great to have some “go-to” freezer meals for those busy days when I don’t have the time to cook … without having the seemingly overwhelming time commitment that a full menu calls for. Thanks!
I love this! I always get so intimidated with the big menu that I don’t follow through!
For some reason, though, I can’t “make a copy” of the cards/directions. I only have the option to download a copy. Is this something I’m doing wrong, or do the permissions need to be changed?
Kimberly – This link should answer all your questions on how to either make a copy or download into an Excel spreadsheet.
http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/
Let us know how your Mini Menu Cooking day goes! – Lisa
Yes, I’ve read the link and followed the directions for many other menus. My problem is that these particular files are not giving me the “make a copy” option, even though the regular menus do. So I was wondering if there is something different about them?
Never mind! I figured it out! Even though I was logged into gmail, I somehow wasn’t logged into my Google docs. Sorry about that!
Glad it is working for you! Happy Cooking!
Just did the grocery list and it lists .75 lbs of ground beef no matter how many servings I put in. Is there something I’m missing? Other items change, just not that one.
Sorry, I thought I had solved that problem earlier but apparently my brain was still asleep. It is fixed now but you are going to have to recopy the cards and grocery list and then calculate. Sorry about that. And thank you.
When I do 6 servings – the recipe tells me 22.5 ozs of black s beans and also corn, but the grocery lists say 7.5 of both. Also, the ground beef is telling me I need 6 lbs (if I combine the needs for the mexican shephards pie and the easy meatloaf) but the grocery list says 2.5. The stuffing mix also seems off – when I look at the recipe it says 9 ounces, but on the grocery list it says 3.
Sorry if I’m missing something easy – but this is my first time doing it.
I see you’ve made a lot of changes to the excel – so maybe I have an old version (and I can’t download the new one at my work). I’ll just buy based on the recipe and check it out again when I get home. I’m doing this tomorrow with my nieghbor! Super excited!
Sigh. Apparently my formulas didn’t work well with this recipe. I changed them and you now might get a fraction of an egg but that will just have to work. :) Round up for our eggs if you get a fraction.
And thank you, we needed that feedback.
Anytime! I manage a software QA team – so I can’t resist! ;)
I’m doing the 5 day mini menu before starting the once-a-month thing next week!
Tried the Ranch Chicken Parmesan tonight & it was DELICIOUS! If all the recipes are that good, I am even more excited than I already was (if that is possible) :-) You ladies are awesome!
Hi! Your website is awesome. Thank you for all of your work. I have one question… I tried to change the number in the recipe section from 1 to 5 and I cannot seem to make any changes in the yellow box. Any thoughts or suggestions? I can figure out the measurements on my own but if there was an easier way? Thank you!
Yes, there are some steps you need to make the documents your own – they can be found here – http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/
OMG. First. Love the whole website! But, I have to report that those pinwheels are such a GREAT quick lunch. I take them out of the freezer in the morning on the way to work and they are defrosted perfectly by lunchtime. Today, I was working at home and I throw one in the panini maker and wow. Extra delicious! Just wanted to give that tip to anyone else making these!
Yum, to the panini maker, that sounds like a great idea!
This will be my first attempt at OAM cooking. What am I doing wrong? I printed the instructions and shopping list, but when I click on the recipe cards, there’s no recipes.I just see a conversion chart.
Ok. I see the tabs now. DUH! But, there are no instructions when I save the file to my Excel. Under directions, it looks like this “###########”.
Collette head on over here http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/ and follow the instructions there. If you’re still having trouble once downloaded switch the format of the cell to general or normal.
I’m just wondering for the Mexican Shepherd’s Pie, how do you do the taco meat in the slow cooker? Do you just put the meat and water in the slow cooker and then drain the fat after 6hrs? Sorry if its a dumb question I’m just used to doing it in a skillet, but would love to be able to do a large batch in the slow cooker.
BTW I love your site, I’ve been wanting to freezer cook for a while, but was overwelmed. You’ve layed everything out so nicely I feel confident I can do it.
Misty-
Yes – that is exactly how you do the meat in the slow cooker! After I learned this “trick” it totally simplified my Big Cooking Day! So glad you love the site as well!
These 5 day mini meals were my first attempt at freezer cooking. I was quite skeptical in the beginning. Armed with the information on your sight, my Big Cooking Day went very smoothly and the food is delicious! I love the step-by-step directions. They really make everything flow easily. I’m gearing up to try another round of meals. I’m thinking about trying the 10 day next as I step up to the once a month cooking.
Also, the Teriyaki Honey Chicken, according to my husband, is the best meal I have ever made and is “restaurant quality!”
The Miz Team Awesome Freezer…
[...] hose pinwheels are such a GREAT quick lunch. I take them out of the freezer in t [...]…