Officially a OAMC-er

These last few weeks have been interesting. We have all been sick and, therefore, I have not wanted to be in the kitchen. I realized that through the week we had ordered pizza or Pita Pit FOUR times! Aack! Not really the best way to get feeling better, is it? We also had started spending way too much on eating out AND we were over budget on our groceries. I had planned once a week meals, but somehow, I just wasn't doing good enough.

I had recently been reading about OAMC (once a month cooking) and I thought, there's absolutely no way I can do it. We don't have a deep freeze and the only way to keep things cold is a teeny tiny freezer, which is normally full anyway. But the more I read about it, the more I wanted to defy all odds and just do it.

This blog post finally pushed me to do it:
http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/2012/03/31-days-to-yumminess-grocery-shopping.html?showComment=1342681248761
She made it look like it was possible! Although she has a deep freeze, I knew I could adjust it to my little apartment kitchen.

So, I started planning. I read all about it, asked friends, got easy recipes together. I kept my budget the same as what it has been, I just spent everything but $50 that day. I wanted to keep some for more milk, which we can only hold so much in our fridge, and produce. I wasn't about to spend it all in one day, and leave nothing for the rest of the month.

I went to bed the night before thinking I was about to run a marathon (and it turns out, I was).

Monkey had a Dr. appointment that morning, which is another post in and of itself, so I wasn't able to get as early of a start as I had wanted. I also didn't really want to wait to do it without the kids, so my kids were able to eat any snack they could get their hands on while I was in the stores.

I got to Sam's club and went to town. I can't believe how much I was able to get, and it was SO MUCH cheaper than buying things once a week. Meat is less inexpensive in bulk and I can't believe how much I was able to get with the same amount of money. I made sure we had enough baggies, toilet paper, and diapers also. I wanted to make sure every little thing was accounted for, this being my first time.

Target was the other place I shopped at for the remaining small items. Again, my kids were with me, so I go to Target over Walmart because the bakery gives out free cookies, which helps mommy ;) Not to mention, our Walmart is awful. My budget was not overspent, and I was still able to save some for later unseen purchases. I was pretty happy about it.

When I had finally gotten home, I brought the kids upstairs, got their lunch ready, plopped them in front of the tv, got my running shoes on, and brought everything to the apartment. I think maybe next time, this is where the hubs would come in handy. We live on the 2nd floor of an apartment and in order to get to our door, we have to walk through a wind and snow swirling vortex of doom. It's horrible. But at least I was able to count it as my workout for the day.

A full pantry! Luckily we have a good sized pantry. **Disclaimer: Fruit Loops is for the hubs. Kids only get this on special occasion.**

I have a friend who told me to keep my running shoes on as I was in the kitchen, and boy she was right! I kept them on and dug right in. I put away all the pantry items, and decided to put the meals together according to their meats. I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I realized how much raw meat I would be dealing with and I got really nervous. I can't count how many times I wiped the sink down and washed my hands. I did the roast/cubed meats first and got the chicken I needed shredded to boil.

 The chicken enchilada casseroles. They will give us 4 nights of food.

I did the first few meals, and paused to get the kiddos in bed for naps. After I did that, I made sure my fridge and freezer was emptied out. Which I should do the night before, I realize now. But I was already pooped and there was a Dreyer's Rocky Road container that just wouldn't fit. So I took a half hour break to finish it off, darn.

My little helper. (And as I'm typing this, she has put about 20 stickers on her face and can't stop giggling. Silly girl)

I got all the chicken recipes done before the hubs got home for dinner. Which ended up being about 19 meals. The next recipe I would make was dinner. We had eaten this recipe before, and we hadn't had it in a while, so I knew I wouldn't be too tired to eat it. Rachael Ray, you are wonderful:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/super-nachos-recipe/index.html

I was able to double the recipe and get 3 meals out of it, so it really did save me some money. We all ate dinner, and I was done for the day. I still had about 4 meals to make, so I had gotten 22 in the first day. I was really pooped but happy knowing that 22 meals sit in the fridge for me, ready to be thrown into the crockpot, oven, or a skillet. I never knew that could feel so good!!

The next day, I made the rest of my ground beef meals, and ended up doubling each, but getting 3 each meal. Instead of 4, I got 6. I had planned for 25 meals, with 2 days of leftovers, and one day of eating out. But I ended up getting 28 meals, with 2 days of leftovers. So, no eating out.

Because of us having a small freezer, I wasn't able to actually make some of the food. For example, the chicken pot pies, I only made the filling and will make the dough later. But that saves me at least an hour of cooking and shredding chicken, boiling veggies, making the gravy from scratch. But with that, I was able to fit it in the freezer. 

Here is the list of meals:
* Chicken enchilada casserole - 2 meals, with 2 days of leftovers
* Pot pies - 4
* Nachos - 3
* Beef Burritos - 2
* Fajitas - 4
* Teriyaki Chicken - 3
* Roast - 2
* Oven porcupines - 2
* Spaghetti sauce - 3
* Taco Rice Skillet - 3

 

And a full freezer and fridge. I'm hoping this will last a while.

I'm sure I have much to learn as I do this, but I feel like I have already learned a lot in just this one time of doing it.

For instance, I will NOT use regular zipper plastic bags. I learned from experience that they pop open when laid down, so I made sure to buy the slider bags. Huge difference.  I also bought the foil containers with lids. I think it was about $11 for a pack of 30. Since my freezer can't hold too much, I only used about 5. I'm thinking those will last a long time too.

My friend had mentioned not to plan on eating anything I was making, because I wouldn't want to eat it. I had already bought the food for everything, and I didn't want to get spend more money than I had already planned, so I decided to have the nachos, because we hadn't had it in so long. However, next time, I will heed that advice.

One thing I'm glad I did was also plan for lunches/breakfasts. I was able to make my own oatmeal packets (18 twice the size of normal packets) and smoothie packets (16). I bought lunch meat, froze half, lots of tuna, and cheese for sandwiches. I will make chicken nuggets from scratch and pigs in a blanket with rolls from scratch. I also don't want to spend money on snacks, or juice. So the kids get one container of juice per week (they were getting 2 before this) and will learn to drink water when they get thirsty.

 

Oatmeal and smoothie packets. Ready to go.

I am also making everything from scratch, if you couldn't tell from before. Tortillas, bread, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, muffins, etc. Any time a fruit is getting bad, it will be thrown into a smoothie or a baked good to be utilized. This way, I'm not buying things I could easily be making. I also won't be spending time in the store as often, and I can even bake while dinner is cooking. It just frees up a lot of time to be able to do that if I want to. I will put baked goods in the freezer as I use meals up.

I made a calendar for all the meals as well. Every meal - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - is listed on that day so all I have to do is look, grab, and quickly put together. All the thinking is done already.

Some of my favorite ingredients (for future reference).
1) Jack's special salsa - this is the BEST one around. My mom always bought this at Costco, which we don't have, so I finally found it at Target. Yay!
2) Yoshida's teriyaki sauce - really good for teriyaki chicken.
3) House of Tsang teriyaki sauce - used in our fajitas.
4) French Vanilla creamer powder- used in oatmeal packets rather than powdered milk (ick!).

I can't believe all that work is already done, and I have noticed a difference even in the first couple of days. No thinking and wondering about what I'm going to do for dinner. Way less energy exerted into making the meals. If I only have to have these "marathon" days once a month, then it was WELL worth it.