Adjusting the menu for YOUR family
Over the course of the last few months I have had many ask if there is a way to adjust our menu for their family situation. I have even heard rumors that we have a closet fan base of single men that are looking to possibly do Once A Month Mom Cooking! That is fantastic. Really. Anyone can do it. It is easy to adjust the procedures for whatever situation you might be in. For now we don’t have an easy way to adjust ingredients or portions but there are ways to make the menu work for you if you aren’t a family of four. Here are some suggestions.
Singles
- Instead of getting 1 partner, get 3. If four people went together to make these meals you each would have enough to make 4 individual servings or 2 two-person servings of 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 8 dinners. That would potentially give you 60 or 30 meals for the month. I would suggest 2 person portions so that you could at least invite someone over for dinner or have leftovers the following day for lunch or dinner. When making up 2-person portions I would use loaf pans, quart size freezer bags or small/medium plastic containers.
- Find one other partner and half the grocery list and the menu quantities. If you wold like you could use the advice above for dishing out the meals.
Couples
- We do the menu as is with a partner and we are a couple. We just invite other people over or use the leftovers to eat the next day at lunch.
- You could find 3 other partners instead of 1 and follow the instructions above for singles making 2 person portions.
Large Families/Big Eaters
You may have a family that would not be satisfied with portions for 4 adults. You may have a family that has more than 4 eating family members. You may have 1 teenage boy which throws ANY meal plan out of whack! Or any number of other variations.
- You could do the menu as it is and just have less meals for the month. You would have a total of 15 meals that you could use. You would want to portion your menu items in several gallon size freezer bags or in a 13×9 pan instead of 2 8×8′s.
- You could do the menu as it is by yourself. I do not recommend this version as I, personally, think it is better to cook with a partner. However, you may be accustomed to cooking in large quantities and it would not phase you. In this case you would have the 30 meals listed on the menu.
- You could DOUBLE the grocery list and menu items and still do it with a partner. That way you are using your time wisely, still working with a partner, and hopefully creating the best “efficiency” situation.
Those are some of my “quick” adjustment strategies for doing the Once A Month Mom menu plan if you don’t have a standard 4 person household. Any other suggestions that readers might want to suggest?
I did it by myself last month but without all the recipes because I didn’t have the freezer space or the interest in the seafood but after talking with some friends I’ve been trying to think of a way to incorporate my single best friend and another friend who with a family of 5 but even less freezer space than I have. It’s tricky. The spirit is willing but we don’t have a plan just yet.
I did it by myself last month. I used the February menu though since I just stumbled across your site and I thought that one looked easier than the March menu. I didn’t do all the cooking in one day. It took me about 5 days to complete it in about 2-3 hour intervals. I just put the spread sheet in excel and divided the grocery list and all ingrediants from the recipes. Also as I was cooking we sometimes would have something from the menu that night while I put the rest in the freezer.
BTW do you have a good recipe for home made chicken nuggets/strips. Those are a staple in our house, but I’m sick of eating processed food.
There is a healthy chicken strips recipe in the March menu if you are looking for one.
In my house we will take chicken breast slice them into strips beat a couple of eggs to dip into and roll in either crushed corn flakes or crushed potato chips bake at 350 for about 35 mins. My 6 y/o loves them dipped in a little honey.
Use freezer bags as much as possible. They take up the least amount of space in the freezer. Freeze on cookie sheets until solid then stack so not misshapen solid blocks you have to find room for. If you make a lasagna for example. line the pan before layering the lasagna in it. Freeze and remove from pan put in freezer bag to store. Takes up less space. You can easily fit 30 meals in the freezer top of a normal fridge if you don’t stock up on ice cream, frozen bread, etc right before you do a big cooking session using the right packaging.
I’ve used this software for storing recipes & scaling them up or down:
http://www.livingcookbook.com/Default.aspx
[...] Adapting The Menu for YOUR Family [...]
I have a family of 6 andcan not get the yellow box to change its number so that i have proper amounts can anyone tell me how to change the # of people yo9ur wanting to cook for
The answers are found in this post: http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/