I am an event planner for those of you who don’t know. As I milled around this weekend, trying to hit my reset button, it hit me, good weeks just don’t happen…they are planned.


In an effort to remove the cooking rut that I find myself in often, the man child and I sought out inspiration in the form of the Cooking Channel. It was there that we found the very thing to change it all.

Some of you may recall, last year, I tried Once A Month Cooking. A cooking technique that has you pre-prep and sometimes prepare an entire month’s worth of food for your family. It worked great for a while. But with a deployed husband and a special diet son, the pay off hasn’t been as rewarding these days. Never mind the fact that I have finally accepted, I crave variety!!! On the flip side of my variety craving, I also CRAVE order. So just as much as I need things to be fresh, I need them to have some structure. LOL, quirky huh?

My new found inspiration came from none other than Rachael Ray (not really my favorite cooking star). She has a show called “Week In A Day”, a downsized version of the Once A Month Cooking. Instead of the entire month, you choose one day, and cook for the week. I think I’m leaning towards Saturday; reserving the right to make Sunday’s dinner only, on Sunday. I’m inspired by this idea because not only do you have to set your meals for the week, it also creates your grocery list (allowing you to pull from what you already have and fill in only what you need). This method also allows you to keep a cheat day, which I think is necessary. Even if you don’t want to take on the whole week, 3 days would probably make a drastic difference in the amount of time you spend, thinking, shopping, preparing, and cooking.

One less thing to do EVERYday, in my opinion, is worth the time and energy I must spend in the one day. I’m going to burn the energy anyway. It might as well be on something I want to do. Think about how many more games of Wii, Uno, Checkers, or books read could take place, when your cooking time is cut down to almost nothing. I’m sold…and anything that helps me spend less at the grocery store is always welcome for at least a trial run. So who’s with me?!?

Morning,
I'm proud to announce that I haven't been on a full grocery trip in 2 months. I have been deal finding, a few things here and there, and then there is always milk,eggs, and fresh veggies, but nothing that has really added up. I finally, finally, cut our grocery bill by more than half. I'm so excited and proud of myself! The benefits of couponing has been an amazing journey and now I can just settle into it.

 It's time for the madness that is Once A Month Cooking at my house (a great way to maximize some of your coupon deals). Yes, that's right. It is where to you do your best to prepare about 30 meals over the course of 2-3 days. I'm kind of out of the loop for the next couple of days, so needless to say I recently made it to the grocery store. I'll be perfectly honest, I've only started OAMC in May and don't cook 30 portions because I also thrive on variety. I have to leave room to cook fresh and eat out. But I do love how easy it is to pull something out of the freezer and feed the family in 30 minutes or less. Although it is an insane amount on work, it seems to be a little easier the second time around.



Here's This Month's Menu:
Muffins
Breakfast Burritos (they were soooooo good last month)
*Frittas (a great big maybe)
Chicken Spaghetti
Chicken Fajitas (although I may end up making this one stir-fry)
Pulled BBQ Chicken (for sandwiches)
Honey Mustard Chicken
Cilantro Chicken Enchiladas
Ground Turkey (seasoned for nachos or tacos)
Sloppy Joe (which has become my new favorite food, only after I turned 30,lol)
Turkey & Vegetable Soup
Beef Stroganoff (making the noodles fresh when ready to eat)
Shepard's Pie
Spaghetti (again making the noodles fresh when ready to eat)

It's only 11 meal ideas but for some of the recipes, I'll make more than 1 portion so that it will count for 2 actual meals. If you are thinking about it but not sure if you want to cannon ball into the pool, consider pre-making just 2 meals for your week. You'll find it's worth the time on Saturday to have the night off on Wednesday and Friday. Gotta run.

Wow. It feels good to have finally created a little place for me. It came to me the other day...I have a voice. I have something to share. I have an idea a minute and nowhere to put them. (ahhhh, welcome to my world)
I want to share my coupon deals with family and friends, hoping they can get one too. If it's the only way I can help during hard times, then so be it.

The first thing I have to get off my chest...yesterday I tried my hand at Once A Month Cooking (OAMC). It is an insane effort to prep & prepare all your meals for the month. That's right! Pure Madness. It is a LOT of work, but feel really rewarding. I'm always looking for way to further simplify and un-complicate my life. So I'm always looking for new things to try out. Because I coupon and I already get great deals on things; the two seem to go together. My menu ended up looking something like this...
*Breakfast Burritos
*Orange Baja Chicken
*Lemon Pepper Chicken
*Pulled BBQ Chicken
*Hickory Smoke Chicken
*Herb & Garlic Chicken
*Rosemary Garlic Chicken
*Hickory Mesquite Chicken
*Taco Meat
*Sloppy Joes
*Spaghetti
*Teriyaki Fish
*Turkey Burgers

For the man child and his special needs, not only can he eat most of the items above, I made a few individual meals just for him:
Beanie Weenie
Shrimp & Black Beans (later to be served over rice)
Spaghetti
Chicken Pot Pie
Cherry Pie (which he has renamed the great pie)

So cooking for the rest of this month should be smooth sailing. All I have to do it grab a flavored chicken and add rice and veggies. These meals are in addition to the meals you want to make fresh and hopefully deter me from eating out under the excuse, "I don't feel like cooking." It's already cooked. And now I have another couple of weeks to go find the best deals on next months ingredients. The goal, more meals for less money! For example: I snagged chicken for .99/lb and received $3/off when you buy a McCormick Inspiration Recipe & Zatarains Rice. So for the price of chicken, I got seasoning and rice for FREE (the rice was only $1). Then the McCormick's Grill Mates marinades were on sale for $1/pk and I used a $1/2 coupon making them .50/pack. And finally, Ken's Bottled Marinades were on sale 2/$4. I only got one and used a $1/1 coupon, making that marinade $1.  This month, everyone is eating for about $5/meal, not per person. I think I like it and will try it again next month.

If you guys have any ideas on meals that freeze well. Feel free to share.