Saturday, January 8, 2011

Freezer Cooking/OAMC

I am a big fan of OAMC (Once A Month Cooking).  I love that a few hours work will stock up my freezer with meals, and I love those days when I don't know what to cook and can just pull a meal out of the freezer.  It ends up saving money, too, because I don't go to the grocery store at the last minute looking for a quick and easy meal.
I've been cooking freezer meals for a few years now.  When I first started, I used this book pretty much exclusively. 


It's a great book that I highly recommend, especially if you are just starting out doing OAMC.  Sure, it's easy to double a casserole recipe and freeze one, but this book gives you everything you need - down to the grocery list and step by step instructions.  I still use the book quite a bit for recipes but don't follow their meal plans much.  Instead, I try to go by what is on sale or just what we are hungry for!
My last batch of freezer cooking went a little slower than expected.  Typically I try to do all the work in a day.  This time I spread it out over a few afternoons.  Our refrigerator and freezer broke, so that put a dent into my plans.  We got a new fridge/freezer (that I LOVE) and then I continued on with the meals.
Here's the list of what I made with links to some of the recipes (the ones without links are from the book).  Many of them are new recipes, so fingers crossed they turn out good!

Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork x2
Chicken Fried Rice x4
Meal on the Run Pork Loin (shredded pork for sandwiches)
Beef Taquitos (this one turned out to be a FAIL since my corn tortillas kept breaking.  I scratched the idea and instead just froze the meat for tacos x3).
Denise's Black Beans (my favorite!) x4
Sausage & Spinach Stuffed Shells x2 (we had this earlier this week and it was delish!)
Crabcakes x3

And because every post is better with a picture, check out this beauty....so new it's still wearing the plastic!  (Just don't look too closely at my hideous blue cabinets...eek....but while you are looking, you can check out our new flooring - there have been a lot of changes around here lately!)
While it was a pain to have to buy a new refrigerator, I did have to hide my excitement a little!  In the 6 1/2 years we have been married, we have lived in 2 houses - both came with their (old) appliances.  It has been SUCH a blessing not to have to buy appliances when we moved, but I'm not gonna lie....it was pretty exciting to get a new washer & dryer, and now refrigerator these past 2 months!  (Although I'm hoping all the other old stuff doesn't die too soon!)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I have done some Freezer cooking, I like the 30 Day Gourmet book. They have a new one out I would like to get.
    Check out my blog for the cake I canned. Hannah

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