TRADITIONAL August 2012 Menu
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It’s August again- the kids are getting ready to go back to school, sports are still in full swing, and many of us are trying to squeeze in that last vacation. My August is particularly busy because I also have a family reunion to attend and my daughter’s birthday, plus her party. Seven years ago she graced the world with her presence in a dramatic way only she could. I often call her my miracle baby as she was born 6 weeks early. What a whirlwind that next month was, spending hours on end at a hospital, not knowing whether I was coming or going somedays. I had never heard of once a month cooking back then and I can guarantee it would have made my stress level a little lower to know there would be something to eat when I got home from 12 hours at the hospital.
Roasted Tomato Bisque
This month’s menu is full of easy, on the go breakfasts for those rushed mornings when school starts. Most of the dinners require no cooking on your big OAMM cooking day to keep the oven off as much as possible (and to get you in and out of the kitchen as fast as possible). And if you have a garden full of vegetables, the Roasted Tomato Bisque soup will be perfect.
The Traditional menu is designed for the “traditional” or “average American family”. It is favorites you would find in a majority of kitchens across the country. If you aren’t the average american family you may wish to try out one of or specialty menus. If you are new and not sure how to get started we have a wonderful series starting with 5 easy steps to get you on your way to once a month cooking. Good luck!
Looking for some other great ideas for back-to-school breakfasts, lunches and snacks? Check out our 31 Back-to-School Freezer Meals. Or the Back-to-School Mini menu!
Breakfasts
Raspberry and Cream Pancake Rolls
- Lemon Raspberry Yogurt Muffins
- Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Burritos
- Raspberry and Cream Pancake Rolls
Lunches
Dinners
- Dijon Baked Chicken**
- Crockpot Mongolian Beef**
- Grilled Spinach Stuffed Chicken**
- BBQ Meatballs**
- Orange Teriyaki Pork**
- Bubble Up Pizza
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Yogurt Marinade Greek Chicken**
Printable Traditional August 2012 Recipe Cards
**Indicates meals that require NO COOKING on your OAMC BIG DAY aka “throw and go” meals, perfect for the family who needs to adjust to just do the quick meals!
Recipe Cards
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Grocery List
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Instructions
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Labels
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Pinterest:
Are you a person that likes to see the menus visually? Perhaps you should check out the August 2012 Traditional 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.
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! If you are interested in test cook, feel free to volunteer. Here is a little bit about this month’s test cooks:
- Christine Gannon- She is a part-time nursing student who enjoys spending time with her husband and three cats when she is not in class or at work. While cooking once a month is a fairly new addition to her routine, she finds it to be considerably easier than trying to get her cats to behave.
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Stacey Whitaker – I am a military wife and stay at home mom to two little girls, an energetic two year old and a smiley five month old. We recently moved to Alaska for my husband’s current assignment and are really enjoying the change from the South where we both grew up. Once A Month Cooking helps us have more time for fun as a family and keeps the grocery budget in check since Alaska is so much more expensive.
- Courtney Reynolds-Pies – I’m a stay-at-home mother and wife. I have a blog called Optimistic Mommy (www.optimisticmommy.com). I love reading, cooking/baking, listening to music, and watching movies and television!
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. :) And don’t forget you can always go back and use August 2009‘s, August 2010‘s or August 2011‘s menus if you are looking for something different!
Hi, ladies! I was planning to go to the grocery store today to get the items for my “July Menu” big cooking day, but then I saw the August Traditional, and decided I would go with that, since it looked a little less expensive. I went to the store and got everything I needed (had a FEW items on hand) for 4 people, and I spent about $165. I thought that was pretty good! That included a few boxes of ziplocs, but I didn’t get the throw away pans. Walmart has the pans for .97 and I’d rather reuse them. I got about 70% of the items at Aldi and the rest at Schnucks. Just thought for all of you wanting to attempt it and trying to plan your budget, I would pass it along. There is ONE little problem I have found so far, it said that I need 8 pounds of ground beef and I think I only really need 3-1/2 pounds? Looks like the numbers are transposed for the chicken and beef on the prep. list? So I guess I have some extra beef in my freezer for later, and that is part of the $165! Thanks!
Dyana – yes, those numbers were inverted. Sorry. But that also means that you probably didn’t buy enough chicken. :( If you were doing 4 servings you need 8 lbs of chicken. Sorry about that. And great job doing this menu for that little. That is amazing!
I’m new to freezer cooking and I’m quite excited to start! I’m not sure if it’s an error or just that I’m not understanding something (which is ENTIRELY possible), the recipe for the meatballs doesn’t seem to multiply out right. For 1 serving, the spreadsheet says 1.5 lbs ground beef and for 4 servings it goes to 3 lbs (the yield # stays at 6 and doesn’t change). The 3 lbs plus the 1 1/2 C for the taco bites and the 1 1/2 C for the rolls doesn’t seem as though it would add up to the 8 lbs on the grocery list, either.
Also, in the chopping amounts spreadsheet, it seems the boneless chicken breast under “meats needed” and the ground beef under “thaw” should increase from 2 lbs to 8 lbs when the servings are changed to 4 (currently they both say 3.5 lbs).
Thank you for all you do :)
There was a slight formula inversion that was causing a problem with the “meats needed”. If you copy again and then try it should work now.
As for the BBQ meatballs – that has a special formula so that you are not using a part of an egg. Go with what it says, it won’t steer you wrong, I promise. It just isn’t neat in it’s multiplication and yes, it is accounted for in the grocery list.
I LOVE that you have put all of this together! AMAZING!!!
I changed the servings to 5 for my family and some of the quantities have me so confused; .83 teaspoon, .625 teaspoon, etc. etc. Help!
Hi Amanda, sometimes we have to do rough math to make all the serving sizes work. So, for .83 teaspoon I would do .75 teaspoon first and then add in a touch extra. Hopefully that helps!
Sorry, I found another thing that needs to be corrected. On the tomato bisque soup, the recipe calls for crushed tomatoes and the grocery list has diced tomatoes. You DO need diced for the chicken cacciatore, but the tomato bisque should be crushed. Thanks!
Actually, we had you buy enough diced tomatoes to cover the soup so I am just going to change that description, diced will be fine instead of crushed. Thanks.
The spreadsheet is not working at all for me….
Hillary I don’t see any issues as of right now. But read through this post first http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/ and see if you are downloading them right.
Hey I’m new here and SO excited about how simple this will make my meal planning & shopping! However, this may be a silly question but how do I ‘Flash Freeze’ things at home? Is this different than just putting them in the regular ‘ol freezer? Thank you for your help!
Check out this post – and it is NOT a silly question – http://onceamonthmom.com/flash-freezing/. There is also a great getting started series here – http://onceamonthmom.com/category/resources/get-started/.
Anyone have a ballpark of what this grocery list is costing?
We had a report of $165 from one family of 4.
Just did our menu for 8 at Wal Mart and spent $270. I bought my chicken at publix for $25 and we used venison from the freezer instead of ground beef.
I think something went wrong with the ground beef amount. My taco bites seem to make hardly any at all. I followed the recipe but only came out with maybe 24? Perhaps that’s correct. It seemed to make a lot less then the other recipes. This is the first time we’ve done a month long meal cooking this way. My husband and I worked for 12 hours together in the kitchen. Nice bonding time. Thanks so much for all this work, how amazing! We are excited to see how this helps our family have more time together and less time in the kitchen.
Laura, thanks for sharing the grocery amounts. We love to hear the savings! I will look into the Taco Bites and make sure the formulas are correct. When I made mine for a family of four, the amount seemed correct but once I started eating them, I knew I should have made more- one of my favorites off this month’s menu for sure.
Last month was my first attempt at the once a month cooking and so far so good! Thanks for your hard work preparing all of this it is truly a gift! I am looking at the August menu and wondering at one point do I actually prepare the Raspberry and cream roll ups? I see them listed to freeze but well…. nowhere does the list say to make them? ( I know i shouldn’t worry so much about this but I’m a newbie and just don’t feel comfortable yet stepping out on my own… YET )
Again thanks for all that you do to help us make great meals for our families with just one day of cooking. :)
Hi Jenn, you should find the Raspberry and cream rollups listed in step 14 to prepare. Hopefully that helps. I’m glad to hear last month went well. Let us know how this month goes!
[...] Traditional Menu [...]
I just found this site this month and want to say thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into it. I did my first OAMC session yesterday, woohoo! It feels good to have a freezer full of yummy food. I wanted to give you a heads up on the Raspberry and Cream Pancake Rolls it doesn’t tell you to add the milk into the mixture. It is listed as an ingredient on the card, but when I followed the recipe I got more of a doughy mixture instead of a batter. I didn’t realize what I left out until I went to your listing of it on the site (http://onceamonthmom.com/raspberry-and-cream-pancake-rolls/. Also, it doesn’t tell you what to do with the other half of the raspberry sauce. I ended up pouring them into ice cube trays to freeze and put in a quart ziplock bag.
I am new here and I downloaded the recipes but I am unable to locate
the grocery list for August 2012 (Traditional). Is the list located somewhere else? Or how do I access it?
Hi Robin, about halfway down the post you should find the link to the grocery list. Here is the link just in case- http://onceamonthmom.com/grocery-list-august-2012-traditional-menu/
I am having a problem printing tonight – the recipes are just printing the top three lines and the 3-4 blank pages. A couple I get a few more lines on the second page and a few printed the whole recipe card! My chopping directions were the same goofy thing too. Has anyone ever experienced this before? I’m not new to OAMM and I’ve never had this happen before. Help!
Kelly, did you ever get it to work? I’ve been trying and it works fine for me. Maybe it was a glitch? Let me know if you are still having problems.
The raspberries were prohibitively expensive ($3 for a small container, and I would have needed over 3 containers for my family!). I thought menus were in-season? Very frustrating!
I just bought strawberries instead, but I can see I’m going to have to adjust a few things to get it right.
Julie, raspberries have been expensive in my area as well lately even though they are in season. Substituting strawberries in the pancakes will work great though- I’ve used a variety of berries in them.
I also made it with blueberries after my family gobbled up all of the raspberry ones! (We found the raspberries for $1.49 for a 6 oz. container and blueberries for $1.19 a container at Aldi). For the blueberry ones, I used two cups of blueberries (for a family of 4 calculation) and added all of it to the cream cheese mixture. It was perfectly purply and even I liked them, and am NOT a fan of blueberries! These were a huge hit in our house.
Good to know!
[...] some research, I decided to go with Once A Month Mom’s free menu plans. I chose the August 2012 Traditional menu. It looked to be the easiest and most likely to be accepted by my [...]
Thanks for sharing these quick and easy ideas and menus. I would like to feature you on my recipe site at Recipe for Life deborah-bateman.blogspot.com Contact me if you are interested. Blessings, Deborah H. Bateman-Author
Deborah – you are certainly welcome to link to one of our recipes! Please let us know if you do. If you have any questions please feel free to email me directly – lisa at onceamonthmom.com
Hi! I am new to this and so very excited. I am in the process of printing everything and I’m having a hard time printing the recipe cards?? Since it’s in excel the pages run over, if that makes sense. Also the directions don’t fully show up unless I double click in the box but need to know how to print them. Thanks!!!
Thanks again for all this … it is incredible!!
Hi Kim and welcome! Try reading through this post first and let me know if you’re still having trouble http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/
Thanks so much! I had seen/read that page before. But I had to read over it about 20 times before it clicked! :) I had saved everything in Excel not being sure about the google docs?? Still unsure, but I’ll just look back at this each month if I forget! Thanks again for all your help!
BTW are all the issues listed about with the recipes fixed now with current printables??
We try to fix things as we go along, if they need fixed, and usually don’t approve comments until we have made those fixes. (That is why it takes some time to get comments approved).
Where does one find wonton wrappers for the taco bites?
In the produce section or specialty foods section of your grocer. If you can’t find them, just ask, someone will likely be able to point you in the right direction.
The link for rattlesnake rolls actually takes you to a recipe for stuffed crescents.
The freezable recipe instructions for it can be found in the “Printable recipe cards” found in this post.
I am in the middle of the August Traditional cooking day. I just sauteed 2 lbs of mushrooms but can’t find what recipe to put them in. I am pretty tired… Help?
Pepperoni Grilled Cheese.
I just did my big shopping trip for the August Traditional cooking day tomorrow. My store, Dillons (Kroger) did not carry the wonton wrappers. I had two employees looking for them with no luck. Is there an alternative to do other than use the wraps?
Is there another grocery store near by? I’m not really sure of an alternative. :(
[...] everything we’ve eaten from the OAMC freezer stash has been great! I especially like the Orange Teriyaki pork chops. The day I made those, not counting defrost time – dinner was made in SIX [...]
I’ve been messing around with freezer cooking and decided to use your site, so organized its almost scary but I’m excited to learn how to use it. One problem I have though is we buy our meat from local small farms and it comes frozen. Is it unsafe to though, cook and then freeze again? Thank you for all the work you put into this site
sorry, just saw my answer
Hello! The Lemon Raspeberry Yogurt Muffins brings me to the Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf receipe. Do you have the link so I can make it? Thank you!! :)
They are an adaption from the loaf. If you click on the “printable recipe cards” you will get all of the recipes in this menu that you can adjust for your family size and complete start to finish cooking and freezing directions.
Thank you! I ended up figuring it out, my bad! Can’t wait to finish cooking them!!
Hello – I did your August OAMC traditional menu and we love it so far! When will you post September’s recipes?
HI Tammy and welcome! All of our main larger menus come out on the first of every month!
This is my first time doing freezer cooking. The link for the Orange Teriyaki Pork takes me to Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, but her recipe calls for chicken thighs. When I went to print the menu in Google Docs the menu asked me to buy pork chops. Was there a reason why pork chops are being used instead of the chicken? Does pork freeze better than chicken? Thank for the help!
Kristen, pork chops and chicken will freeze the same so if you prefer chicken, absolutely make the adjustment. We chose pork chops to have some variety in the menu and not too many chicken recipes. Hope that helps!
Hi!
This is my second time doing OaMM, and I am loving it so far. However, I am a little confused by the Bubble Up Pizza recipe. Possibly it’s because I’m a Canadian who lives in a city where they don’t have “frozen biscuit dough.” I wouldn’t know that if it jumped up and bit me in the nose. Is there a way of making this myself, if I can’t find it?
Also, the directions are a bit perplexing for me. They read: “Cut each biscuit in quarters and then combine in a large bowl combine with sauce, seasoning, cheese, and toppings.”
So apart from the “combine” happening twice, I don’t get it. Am I supposed to actively mix the ingredients into the dough? If so, why am I splitting the dough beforehand? If not, what am I “combining,” exactly? I looked at the recipe link you provided, and while I feel like an idiot, I still don’t get it.
Can you help? :)
Hi Daphne, if you can’t find frozen biscuit dough, you could always use refrigerated biscuit dough. Cutting the biscuits beforehand makes it mix better with the rest of the ingrediants and not have big clumps of bread and no toppings. So, to answer your second question- yes, combine the dough with the rest of the ingrediants. Hope that helps! And welcome!
Super, thank you! I will have to go look for this mysterious “biscuit dough” that I’ve never seen before. Doubtless it’s there, but I just never looked for it. This happens to me all the time. ;)
Hey there! This was my first month trying the OAMM cooking and I was very pleased. It took me quite sometime preparing (almost as much time on the cooking day) but seriously a few hours in two days cut my cooking time a TON for the last few weeks! I LOVE the spreadsheet that calculates how much I need for my family of 2.5 (1/2 for my 1 year old who eats everything we do but in a smaller portion). I loved the Tomato Bisque soup, I’ve never had it before and it was super easy! I would say one of my favorites of this menu was the Mongolian Beef. I made the meatballs too, which we enjoyed but we probably should have made TWICE the amount of sauce because it barely covered them and a pasta (or whatever type of accompaniment you chose, I guess). Thank you for putting this together. I will definitely continue to check in to see what’s new, but I especially LOVE the spreadsheets that accommodate my family size. (ahem, its really hard to cook for less than 4 on the majority of websites’ recipes). So THANK YOU!
Hi Lori, congrats on finishing your first big cooking day! Welcome to the site and please let us know if you have questions along the way.
I was ready to go buy my groceries for the August 2012 menu when I realized you started charging a monthly fee! Is the grocery list available for the August menu without a fee?
Chris yes we announced on Monday please refer to this post. http://onceamonthmom.com/once-a-month-mom-fall-2012-changes/
I am trying to do the recipe cards, but everytime I try, it just says “trying to reach Google.com” and it doesn’t ever connect? What is going on?
That sounds like a Google issue. You might try using another browser, that sometimes helps.
I am new to freezer cooking. I was searching some of the menus for the month of August and noticed that some of the recipes do not give reference to freezing. Is that because those certain recipes are to made when wanting to eat or am I missing something? An example would be the Rattlesnake rolls and the Orange Teriyaki Pork.
Hi Stacey, we give freezing directions for all of the recipes in the Recipe Cards once you become a member. And welcome!