TRADITIONAL February 2012 Menu
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When I was getting ready to post this menu I realized it’s the FOURTH February menu, which means Once a Month Mom is celebrating three years of freezer cooking! I (Pam) have been on the OAMM team for a year now, and it’s been so exciting to see the growth of the site, introduction of new menus, and the enthusiasm of YOU, our readers. Your success stories are really what encourage us and keep us going. So thank you, and please — have a piece of cake on us!
In February, most places are still in the depths of winter, so this menu continues to feature cold weather favorites such as hearty soup and comforting casseroles.
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!
**Stay tuned on the 5th (5 Day Mini Menu) and 10th (10 Day Mini Menu) of February as we have accompanying Traditional Mini Menus coming out that you might enjoy if you are looking for a lighter cooking day or are just getting started with freezer cooking.
Instant Oatmeal Packets
Breakfasts
Lunches
Dinners
- Easy Ranch Chicken*
- Chili Verde
- Chicken Parmesan Bake*
- Stirfry Veggie and Rice Packets*
- Taco Pasta
- Chicken Broccoli Bake
- Beef Enchiladas
- Vegetable Beef Soup
**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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Grocery List
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Instructions
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Instructions
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Labels
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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 February 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.
Facebook Fan Party:
OAMM Facebook Fan Page Party – February 12th 2012, 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. This is a great way to meet fellow Once A Month Mom’s or get your questions answered as you get started.
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! If you are interested in test cook, feel free to volunteer. Here is a little bit about this month’s test cooks:
- Debbie Klement - I’m a Canadian, married, 49 yr old mom, with Relapsing/Remitting MS who still has a 20 yr old daughter living at home. Fiber artist, amateur author, hobby chef who se adult children still like to come home to eat. Having meals in the freezer is a necessity of life for me.
- Christine Kelichner – I am a very happy, busy and blessed 43 year-old, married to my prince charming after kissing a lot of frogs! I have a daughter and son in college (18 and 20) and then started over, so we also have a little girl in preschool (3). In addition to that crazy chaos, I work full-time as a Human Resources manager for a 24/7 manufacturing company in Northern California, so I really need OAMM!!!
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 February 2009‘s, February 2010′s or February 2011‘s menus if you are looking for something different!
Hello! I am soooo excited to beign OAMM! I have been waiting since the beginning of January to start and so I have probably frequented your site daily since dreaming of what I was going to cook come February! Well, yay for me … February is here! I got online yesterday and printed everything off and now I’m ready for my first month. If you don’t mind, I will be commenting along the way on my journey. Cheers!
For a family of 5, I completed my grocery shopping with my husband and 4 month old while my daughter was at dance. It took me approx. 1.5 hours to get everything and after price matching, it all came up to $230.00! I work full time in HR and don’t have the time to cut coupons, and a lot of the time, I noticed the generic version was cheaper than the name brand with the coupon.
That is a great report. So glad you are doing it and can’t wait to see your final results.
Comment away! And welcome!
One thing I noticed on the recipe cards – Chopping Amounts tab, it says under ground beef “until chicken is cooked through.” My question is: Does the ground beef need a cup of water as well? Also, for my 5 servings, I have to do 9 lbs of beef … is that still 1 cup of water or should I adjust that. It’s at home right now in the crockpot, so hopefully 1 cup was enough! Thanks in advance!
1 cup should be enough but you can add more if it seems to be getting low.
I am having problems with the quantity amounts on the print outs (my math is horrible). Is there an easier way to convert the amounts?
You shouldn’t have to do any math yourself – you should be looking at the printable recipe cards and then follow these directions for changing the servings – http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/
Alright I had my big cooking day last night! I cooked from 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM (8 hours) with only taking 1 break to nurse my 4 month old! It was a little overwhelming I must admit but I’m looking forward to reaping the rewards in the days to come. I had my husband order pizza for himself and the kids … I have a smaller kitchen and needed all the space I could get! The kids were super excited when they were “allowed” to eat in the front room! Hahah … I think that is the first time since we moved in 3 years ago! By the time I was finished, I was exhausted! My legs even ached in the middle of the night when I woke to nurse the LO! But I can’t wait to be able to go home after work today and throw it in the oven. However, since today is Chinese New Year, I want to do the stir fry … so that will require some more cooking … but not as much. I obviously didn’t get to clean the kitchen last night … so maybe I can enlist the hubby to do it! If he wants dinner, he better! Hehe
Yes, I say it is like labor; you never ask if a woman will have another until she has some time to heal and enjoy the fruits of her labor. :) By the end of next week you will be convinced it was all worth it! ;)
Review of Coffee Cake Muffins – These are delicious, but turned out a little different than what I expected. The hubby even said the kids were fighting over them this morning! I didn’t quite have enough for 10 servings with the first batch, so I made 2. You might want to look at that? And they sort of turned out like upside down coffee cakes! Make sure you do not fill to the top, that made it hard for me to get out of the pan and I needed it again for the shepherds pies. Overall they were a thumbs up make again at my home : )
Review of Mini Ham & Egg Cups – This was our breakfast today and it is loved by all including the kiddos! Yay because it’s healthy too!
Review of Chile Verde – Chile Verde is my favorite mexican food and now it might just be my family’s favorite! The kids were skeptical because of the color, but they LOVED it!
Awesome!
Thank you for such a wonderful menu. The ham and egg cups were awesome. The pizzadillas came out wonderful! Last night I came home from work and did not feel like cooking so I threw in a chicken and broccoli bake in the oven (which I had in fridge defrosted) and it wasn’t too long we were all eating. I had time to relax with my children. I love the freezer cooking idea. Definately gonna be doing more of it. I made just about everything except for the ranch chicken and the chicken parma bake. Those I will make this weekend. Thanks again!!! :)
Awesome. It is definitely wonderful to have more time for family!
Review of Taco Pasta – This had mixed reviews. The girls liked it, my husband and I thought it was okay and my boy didn’t care for it. I think it would have been different if served fresh. I also don’t think that I put enough water in, so when I reheat the next batch … I will add some water.
Tried the mini shepards pies last night – yum! Having enchiladas tomorrow. Can’t wait!!
Argh! Day one on OAMC and I cannot figure out why the recipes cards download but the directions do not. All I see for directions is ########## no matter what I do with formatting, merging cells or enlarging them. Anyone else have the problem? I’m on Excel 2002 :(
When you convert to Excel it messes with the directions. If you change the cell to “normal” or “text” you should be able to see the instructions. This problem is fixed starting with new cards we created that will be used in March/April.
Thank you Tricia!
I completed feb 2012 menu on thursday! This is my first time doing once a month cooking. I cannot wait to dig in and start trying my freezer full of dinners! I was a long day of cooking (with a 3 year old helper!) but I think it was well worth it!
My family’s been eating Pizzadillas for ages. We’ve always loved them, but I’ve never frozen them, didn’t know you could! But they only take a few minutes to make on a George Foreman.
I love the instant oatmeal idea. We all love oatmeal, but I always hate waiting for the water to boil with a 2 year old tugging on my PJs. I think I’m going to have to make up a whole bunch of these and just keep them on hand. Thanks for making bleary eyed mornings that much easier. :)
Quick question, DH is kinda worried about the chili. How spicy is it? I have a mild man on my hands.
Is the coffee cake muffin formula messed up? I have a 10 in the box and nothing changed, it still reads as a 1-serving.
No it has a ceiling formula so that you don’t have a partial egg. You will be fine if you cook it as stated.
Thanks! I didn’t see this earlier so I posted again below. So sorry! I put a ten in the box and it still calls for the same amount of ingredients, though. Just one egg for ten servings? Doesn’t seem right. I appreciate everything you all do!
I posted a question but don’t see it here anymore. Maybe it got deleted? Anyways, I am prepping for our cooking day, and the coffee cake muffins formula isn’t adjusting when I put a different number in the yellow box. The ziploc bags at the bottom change but the food measurements stay the same. I need to have a 10 in the box, and i manually multiplied all of the original ingredients by 10, but now it seems like a huge batch. Not sure what I need to do. Help! :-) Thanks!
Finished our OAMC day yesterday. We started around 9:30 and ended at 4:30 including clean up, a break for lunch and a toddler imposed 30 minute break (while she went down for a nap). So we were cooking for about 6ish hours. Not bad. And it was only our 2nd OAMC day. I’m sure we could have done it in only 5 hours if all of our chicken and pork had been done before hand…but that’s the way life goes.
There are 3 of us cooking and it worked really well for 2 to be doing the actual cooking while the 3rd cleaned up and packaged stuff. And let’s not forget my hubby who kept an eye on the toddler while we cooked (he’s not used to that job).
The 3 cooks all loved the recipies this time and agreed that if there’s a month that we don’t really like what’s offered (a couple picky eaters in the bunch) then we’ll fall back to this month! Tricia, you girls rock! Thank you for all your hard work.
Why thank you! So glad you all loved it! Thanks for keeping us updated. We LOVE testimonials.
[...] chicken parm bake for dinner [...]
This may be a silly question, but for example the Ranch chicken. Do you freeze the chicken without it being cooked and then cook when you are ready to eat it or is it to be cooked before frozen? I guess will the ingredients say cooked beef or cooked chicken if it is supposed to be cooked otherwise just freeze it raw?
You have that right! All the recipes have freezing instructions with them – you should have opened the printable recipe cards – those have all the instructions you need to do your cooking. The links are just there for you to see the recipes.
I have been trying and trying for over an hour to print out the recipe cards it doesn’t all fit on the page. It prints out three pages that look like I’d have to cut the paper and tape them together, annoying.
The main problem is with the lil tabs down at the bottom, each is a recipe… Do I print out each one individually or is there something to click to print them all out for me?
http://i44.tinypic.com/k33szo.png
This is what I’m talking about… Where the dotted line is it prints out one page for the left side, and then another page for the right side of that dotted line. I dunno what to move to get that thing to select everything.
Elizabeth – have you tried the suggestions in this post (http://onceamonthmom.com/all-menus-saving-printing-google-document-grocery-lists-recipe-cards-instructions/)? If you are having A LOT of trouble I would suggest not importing into Excel and just using Google Docs itself. I am most familiar with their print features – through Google Docs you can print all of them out and choose “print on one page”. Let us know if you continue to have problems.
So I tried this menu for my 1st month…. Took me about 3 hours to shop ( store was under remodel and SO confusing) and I spent around $300 but that also included fruit, juice, snacks, and veggies for kids lunches. I split my cooking day between 3 days cause I was so busy and spent around 8 hours total :) So far So good!!
That’s great Nikki! Can’t wait to hear more.