Once A Month Cooking: The Big Day
My first Once A Month Cooking Day went very well. To help document the day, I took timed notes on our progress.
7:00 AM – Up with Grace. Why did she have to wake up early today?!? I have a feeling that I need to be fully rested for a day like today! The kitchen still smells like onions! I cut up about 24 cups of onions last night.
8:00 AM – Eating Breakfast
9:00 AM – Mom is here to babysit Grace. Grace is fed and soon ready for her first nap of the day. I’m all packed up and ready to go to Donna’s house!
9:45 AM – At Donna’s and getting started! Donna has everything all organized. Bless her heart!
11:10 AM – Enchiladas are done. Dishes are cleaned up. Next step is chicken pot pie – Ohio style! (Not this strange PA style chicken pot pie!)
12:15 PM – Mom called to say Grace won’t take the bottle. 🙁 What is wrong with my daughter!??! I am not happy. Repeat: NOT HAPPY!
12:45 PM – A Pizza roll for lunch! Yummy! Notice the two missing pizza rolls. 🙂
1:00 PM – Donna’s little girl came home from her play date. Donna says that is when chaos started, but it didn’t bother me any.
2:00 PM – Donna declares that we are in the final stages. I have my doubts about that! We wanted to take a picture where we looked exhausted, but we looked terrible. We went back to the standard smile.
2:15 PM – Mom calls to get directions to Donna’s house. Here comes cranky Grace!
2:45 PM – Grace is here! I get to sit down to feed the cranky one and Mom takes over my dish washing duties. God bless you, Mom!
3:45 PM – DONE!! We are packing up the car!
4:20 PM – Home Sweet Home! But wait!! I have more work to do…
4:40 PM – Finally finished! Everything is unpacked and put in the freezer. I came home with:
Fruit & Grain Bars – 2 quart size bags
Fruit N’ Juice Breakfast Shake – 4 servings
Pizza Rolls – 2 meals
Chicken Nuggets – 2 meals
Chicken Pot Pie – 2 meals of 4 mini pot pies
Sweet & Sour Chicken – 2 meals
Mini Meatloaves – 2 meals of 4 mini meatloaves
Buffalo Shrimp – 2 meals
Enchiladas – 2 meals
Ravioli Lasagna – 2 meals
5:30 PM – Sitting down to eat a wonderful home cooked meal made by my mother! Thank goodness! After all that work, I didn’t want to cook anything!
Final Thoughts: This whole process is a lot of work and planning. Thankfully Once A Month Mom does a ton of that work for you. I don’t think I could even begin to think about doing it with out her site! I certainly don’t want to do this every month, but I would enjoy doing it again.
My regular cooking club is much more manageable. I make multiple batches of one freezer friendly recipe and then swap it with other women from my church. I make one thing and come home with up to 6 different freezer meals! Sadly, my regular cooking club hasn’t been very active lately. Once A Month Cooking definitely puts more food in my freezer. Each has its pros and cons.
Visit Donna’s blog to see our video diary!
Rebekah, you did such a great job tracking the entire day! It was so much fun to do this with you! Now go put up your feet; you deserve a rest!
Great job! I wish I had a cooking buddy that didn’t think freezer cooking was “strange”! 🙂 You got a lot accomplished, and I’m sure you were exhausted!
Rebekah:
I had your chicken Marsala recipe for the freezer but lost it. Is thee any change you would be willing to email me a copy of the great recipe. We have had it in the past and absolutely loved it.