OAMC

OAMC stands for "Once A Month Cooking". The premise is that you cook 30 meals over a 2 day period with shopping and prep on day 1 and cooking on day 2. I have always this was a great idea but I have never had the best freezer space. Well now I have a large freezer and I have been thinking of trying it. As I was talking to my friend, Cristina, about it, she told me that she has done it before, however, she and a friend did it together to cut down on the work. Instantly I knew that doing OAMC with a friend was the better way to go, so we made a plan to do so. Picking out the recipes was the most fun. Some recipes we chose included: beef chimichangas, apricot chicken, pizza rolls, chicken enchilada casserole, shredded barbecue pork, and hawaiian chicken. We decided only to do 22-24 meals the first time to ease into it and I am glad we limited it. OAMC is one of those things that become easier every time you do it. I did manage to do my 22 meals, although one meal was a bust and I had to throw it out. The cooking day was long although not as hard as I thought.

It was all worth it though. When I open my freezer and see all the foil trays lined up with healthy, homemade from scratch dinners, I get a little giddy. I even have each dinner marked on the calendar (I love love love iMac's calendar program!) so I don't have think about it. All I have to do is just look at the calendar, pull out the correct meal the night before, thaw and reheat in the oven. I will use 5 meals each week and the other two nights we will have a meatless dinner such as spaghetti, rice and beans, bean burritos, pizza, etc. 4 weeks of no dinner hassle, that rocks!