February OAMC Day Recap

Man, did it feel great to be back in the Once A Month Cooking saddle again!  After a few months of waiting for my sister to get an extra freezer, she and I planned another large cooking day to cook breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the majority of February/March.  Compared to our first two tries at bulk cooking, this third go-round went incredibly smoothly.  Below is a short list of things we did differently or changed up a bit:

 - We made sure to chop most of the vegetables/potatoes the night before our big cooking day.  This really helped to cut down time spent in the kitchen.  Trust me, if you save all of the chopping for your cooking day, you will have to allow at least two hours for that.

 -  We called in reinforcements.  Our mom and grandma volunteered to come by for a bit to help lighten our dirty dish load and actually ended up getting into the 'cooking spirit' so much they assembled a few meals for us before they left.  We estimated that the 2 hours they were there saved us the same amount of cooking time.
 -  We changed the menu a bit to suit our needs and our families' needs.  My sister really, really.... REALLY liked the Blueberry/Banana smoothies from a previous OAMM menu, so we added those in, as well as Mom's Enchiladas.  In return, we omited  the recipes for Crystal's Lazy Granola and Mexican Style Beef & Lentil Stew. 
 -  We made sure that we took opportunities throughout the day to feed ourselves and sit down and rest.  I cannot tell you how important this is to avoid getting burnt out and too drained. :)  I even took 5 minutes at the beginning of the day to make myself a delicious caramel macciato - it really jump started me and put me in the right frame of mind.

 -  I borrowed my husband's apron to avoid coming home not only smelling like everything that I cooked in the kitchen that day... but also looking like it.  Yes, I am well aware that I might need to fix this no-apron issue. 

To our delight, our third time participating in a OAMC day ended before dinner time.  Yup, we were finished by 6:00pm!  It is so true that the more experience you gain with once a month cooking, the more efficiently and smoothly your big cooking day gets.  It was such a relief to be able to load all of my goodies into the car and prop my aching sore feet up on the couch before the kids were in bed!  My sister and I spent $128 per person and now have a ton of breakfasts, lunches and dinners to show for it - such a great feeling knowing that will save time and money in March food-wise.... and that is what always attracts me to once a month cooking.

Below are a few more pictures from this month's big cooking day.

If you would like to view more February Once A Month cooking stories, visit OnceAMonthMom.com.

Most of the ingredients - Hollie (sis) always does a great job of laying them out on the table the night before so they're ready to go.

Items I brought to get us through the big day - caramel macciatos, gummi worms and chocolate. 

Hollie peeled most of the pears with a potato peeler; it actually worked really well!

Black Bean Salsa Chicken assembled, labeled and ready for the freezer.  (My family had this recipe for Sunday's lunch by the way... and it was amazing!)

Ahhhh...... a freezer full of meals. :)