I still smell like onions... but it's the aroma of accomplishment!

About 3 weeks ago I was reading a friends post on Facebook about how she had cooked 1 months worth of meals in a day.  Naturally, it caught my eye and I started asking questions and snooping around on her page some more.  She had used a website that breaks it all down in multiple steps and does most of the hard work for you. http://onceamonthmom.com/

I read, then kinda forgot about it.  Then continued with juggling my life of mother, wife, vinyl sign professional, taxi driver, laundress, grocery shopper, poop cleaner, homework corrector, dish-washer, dog groomer, novice runner, and all the other hats that the world has me putting on at a moments notice.  I must admit that I do have plenty of help with these things, especially my husband.  He makes one cute stay-at-home daddy.  I think he needs one of those frilly aprons to polish off the look though.

So after another good, but busy week, I remembered that website and decided to take it a little more seriously.  I realized that on this site, they had it set up for 2 people to do the the cooking together.  They had a grocery list already written out, and step-by-step instructions on what recipe to cook and in what order to make it the most efficient.  The other thing that I appreciated was that the recipes for each month correlate to what is usually in season at that time and/or what is probably on sale. 

So I called my friend up and talked it up and manipulated convinced her to do it with me.  I agreed to do all the shopping and she did all the organizing and printing of recipes and labels (they even have labels ready to print out to put on your finished meals with cooking instructions).  It took me two shopping trips to get everything.  My first was a ginormous WinCo trip that lasted a few hours.  And while their prices were cheap, I had forgotten until the end that I was the one responsible for bagging the couple hundred pounds of canned stuff I had bought.  =)  I appreciate cashiers.

The night before D day, the instructions suggested that we chop up most of our vegetables.  I chose to give my prego friend a break and took on the job of chopping up the 30 onions.  But I had a terrible cold, and about 5 or so in, I couldn't see, and my nose was flooding.  My amazing husband came to the rescue and finished the job.  Everyone in the house was in tears though, and I thought it was kinda funny. 

We decided that D day should start bright and early.  And it did! We started cooking at exactly 8:30 that morning.  And with just a couple of food breaks, and kid breaks, we cooked all through the day, and finished right around 8:30 that night.  That included clean-up too.  But in the end, we each had close to 22 (we chose to not do a couple recipes and I think they assume you wont be eating at home every single night of the month) meals to put in our freezers. And as for cost, I think it equaled about $8/meal.  And it should be less, as this time we had to buy a lot of essentials that we will be able to continue to reuse for quite a few months.  Considering we are both feeding families of 5 and 6 people, I think that's pretty good!



It's been about 2 weeks now, and I truly feel that I can still smell onion in some of my clothes, but I haven't cooked once.  And even though some of the meals haven't been my absolute favorite, I still said that it tasted great, because I didn't have to cook that night!

 And the best part?  I have more time to wear some more enjoyable hats; available friend, kid cuddler, family story-time reader, adoring wife, relaxing mommy.  So I may smell like onions, but I think it's worth it if I can stop and smell the roses.

This doesn't show the entire fridge filled to the brim

Starting bright and early

Cutting up pork-butt.  It was late and I was getting a little tired!