Adventures in Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) August 2007

The freezer-cooking marathon is done! I've done freezer cooking sessions before, but had never planned to do so much in one day. Things didn't go quite as planned, but I learned a lot. My husband had one Friday off of work and I was supposed to have that day to myself to do the bulk of the cooking. But the plan changed last minute, and my husband was away for most of that day. So I had to do most of it during an evening, which didn't work too well. I think in the future I will plan to do mini-sessions here and there instead of a whole day marathon.

A couple of my meals didn't work so well in the freezer, so I won't be putting the recipes on here. The enchiladas turned out soggy and the veggies in the chicken veggie packets turned out rubbery and undercooked. So I will only be including the recipes for things that I've had success with.

It's handy to have an empty trash-can nearby for easy clean-up:

I enjoyed chopping the onions and green peppers in my new chopper contraption:

A couple of helpers sped things along (yeah, right! Oh well, they were cute and had nice helpful attitudes so I didn't want to discourage that! In the original plan my DH was supposed to have the kids. I didn't make much progress in between changing a yucky diaper... then washing my hands for five minutes and making sure they didn't dump the whole salt shaker out!)

Fully assembled Noodle Heaven:

Cooking the chopped up onions and peppers for Mexicalli Pie:

Add the browned ground beef:

Next comes the cheese:

Two fully assembled Mexicalli Pies:

The marinade for 2 large batches of Grilled Marinated Pork Chops:

The Grilled Marinated Pork Chops after the raw chops have been added in. I freeze it at this point. When I'm ready to cook them, I thaw and broil them like the original recipe says:

My progress so far:

On to the chicken recipes. Here's the Cashew Chicken base. This is the only part I cook and freeze as I stir-fry the veggies fresh when serving for better results.

Pan-frying the coated chicken nuggets in some olive oil:

The Chicken Nuggets are done! These heat up so quick and well in the oven later on and are WAY better for you than fast-food nuggets!

I forgot to take pictures of the meatballs, meatloaf and a couple of other things since I had to finish them up later due to the change in plans.

Here are the recipes:

1) Noodle Heaven (x 4)

2) Easy Cabbage Roll Casserole (x2)

3) Mexicalli Pie (x2)

4) Meatballs x2

5) Chicken Nuggets (x2)

6) Cashew Chicken Base (x2)

7) Turkey Meatloaf w/ Mashed Potatoes (x2- doubled recipe can be split into 3 parts)

8) Grilled Marinated Pork Chops (x2)

Misc.

1) Cooked Sliced Chicken for Salads

2) Cooked Crumbled Bacon for Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad