Obstacles to once a month cooking
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I am back from Blogher and can I just say that it will likely taking me a few days to get my head put back on straight (I will write more about the whole experience soon). But it was through this experience that I was reminded that so many people “want” to do a once a month cooking day, or at least that is what they tell me, they just don’t.
So, this week our poll is, “What has kept you or is keeping you from doing a once a month cooking day?” Unlike our other polls, you can actually choose more than one answer to this question. If you choose the “other, not listed” option please consider taking a few moments to leave a comment below to tell me what “other” option I didn’t list.
Thanks!
I’m a really picky eater, so it’s hard for me to find recipes. Plus, the recipes I know how to cook, I’m not sure how to freeze/unfreeze them.
I found OAMM several months ago and have had several freezer cooking sessions since then. However, I have never made an entire month’s OAMM menu.
–I pick and choose recipes from all your menus as well as cookbooks and my personal recipes. This works better for my family and how we buy our meat. We buy our beef and pork pre-frozen from the farm, so your recipes don’t always work with the re-freezing issues.
–I cook by myself, so I usually make about 2-3 weeks worth of meals because I’m too tired to keep cooking any longer than that and still have time for the dishes.
–Another hurdle I have is that I don’t use foil baking pans. I line my pyrex baking dishes with foil and freeze the food in that. When they’re frozen solid, then I pop the food out, wrap and bag it. Until the food is frozen, that baking dish is occupied and I don’t have enough dishes. I bought more baking dishes at a yard sale, but now I have a hard time storing those! BTW, I learned that the food has to be frozen solid or else it smooshes out of shape and won’t fit back into the baking dish on cooking day.
I just simply don’t have the room in our freezer. And even the days I have off, I don’t feel like I have enough time to make a month’s worth of food.
I do this but not on my own….in conjunction with a group of 6 other families. We make a meal in multiple on one day each month and then swap. We average our costs so that everyone pays the same no matter the meal. I am excited to find this website though – hopefully it will be a source of new menu items I have not made before!
I also pick and choose recipes from your menus to make. Sometimes, the recipe just doesn’t sound good to me, or it uses meat I just don’t buy or have on hand (the salmon, shrimp, and steak recipes come to mind here). Also, like Amy, I don’t use foil pans. I just can’t bring myself to pay that much for something that’s going to get thrown away.
We primarily eat vegetarian, and I have a hard time finding enough good freezable vegetarian recipes to give us variety for the month. Also, I don’t have any other vegetarian pals to cook with.
not enough room(my big deep freeze quit) and not enough pans.
*I, too, pick and choose through the menu. Some of it is because there are recipes I know I won’t be able to get the kids to eat and some is that even if I half a recipe so that I can get better variety into the freezer, I still have A LOT of just one thing usually. Inevitably that will be the thing that the kids won’t eat;)
*As for foil pans, I went ahead and bought some heavy duty pans at Costco and I wash and reuse them. They’ve held up through 3-4 cycles each and I still have most of the pack ready and waiting in the wings for another cooking day.
*I’ll also add that there have been some recipes that the kids and I have loved and we have added them into the family rotation and we definitely have you to thank for that.
*And, yes, without a deep freeze space is limited so making a full OAMC would be out of the question anyway.
*But I love coming here and checking out the recipe. I’ve told so many people about the site because everything is so well organized. Thanks for the great work.
Too many allergies to follow along-otherwise I would love to.
Did you check out the adjusted allergy menu that has been offered the last 2 months?
My husband and I have talked about doing this a few times as well as buying vegetables and fruit to can, but we can’t seem to find the time. I am tired of coming home some nights and being to tired to cook. Our freezer is full of things we do eat or use and we do not have room for any kind of freezer to store any freezer prepared meals. I love your recipes though and have saved quite a few. We are hoping that in the future we will be able to do the once a month cooking. It sure would save us money. Thanks for your site. I love it!!!!
I have been doing a full month’s supply of meals for 4 straight months now, and I’m happy to report that I love it! Planning a set date each month has helped tremendously, giving me a date to work towards by gathering grocery supplies. I make perhaps only 1 or 2 meals with the foil pans. Everything else gets put into a food saver or freezer bag. Most everything I make gets heated up in a skillet or microwave on serving day. And all my freezer meals for the month fit nicely into my refrigerator/freezer with a little room to spare.
See for yourself (I got a picture of my freezre here) http://balancingactbasics.blogspot.com/2009/07/deana-answers.html
Thanks, Tricia & Cortney for your OAMM posts, menus & tips! They’re very helpful and definitely got me motivated to get started. It’s been fun using some of your recipes, a lot of my own, and recipes from friends & other sources. I don’t seek after “freezer meals”. Instead, I just convert a meal into a freezer meal and everything has worked out great so far.
It seems like an overwhelming process to me to do OAMM. Plus, I have picky eaters. I am easing my way into it by doubling some of my usual recipes. Just this little bit has been helpful. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to report a full session.
I just discovered your site a few weeks ago but think it’s a great plan. I want to take some time to go back through the archives and make a plan. Great site. Thank you.
My family doesn’t like the casserole-type frozen meals. Preparing some of the components and freezing those for convenience works for us, but they like their pasta and veggies freshly cooked.