The big thing I have noticed is many feel overwhelmed as to where to start. I understand that, since I was in your shoes a little over 2 years ago. Two Losing It Kids needing my attention all the time and one more on the way, I needed to find a way to get food on the table, at a reasonable cost, and allow me to eat WITH my family.
I came across once a month cooking as a substitute for coupon shopping in order to save money. This spoke volumes to me. I was a huge coupon shopper but found our meals were starting to become a mess of over processed junk because of it . The OAMC method offered me the ability to make healthy meals that could be quick but also cost effective.
My first cooking session was not a smashing success and it took a few months before I attempted it again. When I first started, I took the suggestion of cooking one day for an entire month and ran with it. I grabbed as many recipes as I thought our family would like and headed to the grocery store . I think I started with 15 recipes to make on that one day. No plan of action at all. This is where the great "Stuffed Shells Ban" was created. I made 7 pans of stuffed shells that we sorta liked. It took me 45 minutes to make them and after 2 years I still haven't lived down how awful they were to suffer through for the next 4 months. The taste of them re-heated was bland and the constancy was a bit of a mushy, watery mess. I think I ended up giving in and throwing 2 pans away. I learned a few things that day. I am not made to be in the kitchen for more than 8 hours, make a meal that you know your family will enjoy and more than 4 meals of one recipe is too much.
When I tried to freezer cook again, a few months later, I took the idea of cooking for one day and spread the recipes out over 4 days. I also only chose to make 5 breakfast meals and 5 dinners. This worked out wonderfully and has been the way I have done it ever since. I have added more breakfast and dinner recipes over time but stick to no more than 2-3 hours of cooking a session.
This evolution hasn't stopped though. This month I have been trying to add 3 recipes to the freezer a week. My hope is I will still keep the freezer stocked of good, quick meals but I won't have to set aside a whole week to accomplish a good stock. So far this week I have added some muffins, cupcakes and 3 ways to make chicken. The one thing with doing it this way is I have to keep good records on my food so they don't end up in the frozen wasteland. This means each meal has a date, is tracked on an inventory list and is rotated when new items are placed in the freezer.
So how can YOU start?
Think about what your family wants when it is 5 minutes to dinner and you have no plan. Do they choose Mexican? Chinese? Pizza? You may see a few trends develop that you can work recipes around.
Create a dinner discussion about what kind of recipes you have made that they liked or disliked. Don't take the criticism personally, no sense in making stuffed shells if they don't really like them. Find 3 dishes to make and spend an hour one Saturday morning making them for the next week. That will give you 3 nights you don't have to cook (YAY!). Once you have your bearings you can add a few more recipes each week.
Double a few recipes that you are making this week for 2 weeks away. You will have forgotten about that chicken dish 14 days later and it will taste wonderful all over again. Even more so because you didn't have to do so much prep/ clean-up for it.
If you are unsure if the item will freeze well, let me tell you most do. If you still are unsure or want to know some recipes we have tried, I am working on getting our family recipe cookbook online. I have a few posted on Wanna See My Freezer? but have many, many more in our book.
I hope you have success in trying cooking for your freezer and I look forward to sharing many more tips with you.
