I have often read with curiousity about women who do OMAC, code for "Once A Month Cooking" or "Oh My Am i Crazy". I really wanted to (ok kinda sorta) start school last week, but I had promised the kids they could have off until Jan 5 - whatever could I do with all this free time? I decided to take the plunge - Andre' almost choked when he saw the grocery bill but I assured him it would carry us till February! We will have to restock fruit, milk and bread - but I should be safe if I stick to the edges of the store !

Cooking for the entire month has always been kinda scary - after all I do not *like* to cook. I cook because we like to eat, not because I enjoy being in the kitchen. My preferred place to be is on the couch with a great novel...but let's get back to the kitchen. I visited "Robbyn's Friendly Freezer", now I do not KNOW Robbyn, but her site intrigued me...cook like a crazy woman for a couple of days and defrost and reheat the rest of the month? Sweet!  I was hesitant because I have a small freezer (and no need or desire for a deep freezer - not to mention no room, though I guess if we let one of the kids sleep in the attic we could put a freezer where a bed is...) there is no way an entire month of dinners will fit in my freezer. At least that is what I thought until Robbyn introduced me to "flat freezing". Fill a freezer safe gallon zip bag with your meal and freeze it flat, when they are frozen they stack beautifully!

I printed out a calander for the month and filled it in with meals to make sure we are not eating the same thing day after day. We had A LOT of leftover turkey from Christmas and were quickly getting tired of turkey sandwiches! I began with a "mini" trial run. The turkey was boiled and deboned. The turkey was transformed into "Viva la Turkey", "Turkey Tetrazzini" and "Turkey Pot Pie" I had enough for 2-3 dinners of each! Yes, I can totally do this! AND I had the bonus of 4 small ziploc bags of rich turkey broth that will be delicious soup one day soon.

After I had my (ok, Robbyn's) recipes, I made my grocery list and headed to Wally World to get the goods and a stock pot (tis about time I get one!) Three hours and nearly $500 later we emerged. We were both dazed and wondering where in the world we would put all this food and Andre' kept asking "Honey are you SURE there is room in the freezer?" Maintaining my excitement and composure I confidently assured him there was plenty of room, while my insides were churning because I was wondering the same thing!

As soon as we got home I washed my wonderful new stock pot and put it to work boiling 10lbs of chicken leg quarters. The next morning I put 5 lbs of ground beef on to cook, put 2 roasts in the oven, 2lbs of redbeans in the crockpot and deboned the chicken. I spent the day chopping veggies and putting together meals. By dinnertime we had the following in the freezer...

20 stuffed bellpeppers, 3 packages of cooked ground beef, 3 packages of roast beef, 2 packages of cooked rice, 2 packages of redbeans, 2 packages of potato soup, lots of chicken stock and all the turkey dinners listed above.

That night for dinner we ate 10 of the stuffed bellpeppers and mashed potatoes (I pulled some of the potatoes from the soup - before it was soup) and coleslaw. Easy peasy - especially since it is Preston's month to clean the kitchen!  He was not happy with me (I did clean as I went, but most of the pots were dirty- and I even washed and reused them all at least once!)

A couple of days later I added 4 packages of chicken noodle soup to our stash. It has been so nice - no question of "What's for dinner?" For years I have made a menu of what I "planned" to cook, but sometimes we would choose to eat out or cook something different because I did not feel like cooking what was on the menu. Now I don't have to "cook" just defrost and reheat add a veggie and dinner is done!

The blessing has *far* outweighed the ordeal of cooking so much in such a few days. I don't think I will ever cook "just tonights dinner" again. After discovering how *easy* it is to double or triple dinner and freeze the rest - I am converted!