Monumental cooking

Many months ago the mentor moms at my MOPS group introduced me to "once a month cooking." The idea is to get 3 or 4 friends together, purchase ingredients in bulk, and work together to prepare and freeze 30 meals for each of you. You could do it on your own, but it's much more fun together. This weekend I have gathered with some girlfriends from college and we have decided to give this project a go. We didn't quite make it to 30 meals, but we did tackle eleven. After one day of mega shopping and nearly three days of cooking, the four of us each have at least eleven meals to take home. Our delectable treats include beef taco bake, chicken casserole, vegetable soup, lasagna, sundried tomato chicken pasta, homemade spaghetti sauce, sausage balls, pizza dough, meatloaf, squash casserole, and spaghetti pie. After doing the math, this project cost each of us $68, and breaks down to about $6 per meal. For our small families, each "meal" will feed us for dinner and even offer up a leftover meal or two.

I feel like the ultimate hunter gatherer for my family! My freezer will be full and I will be prepared to whip out a full meal with virtually no preparation...well, at least eleven times.

a freezer full of yummy meals

I have to say that I think our first go round at massive cooking went pretty well, but we have learned a few tricks that will make things a little smoother next time...we need a deeper dish for the lasagna, stacking the lasagna pans before they're frozen will likely lead to leakage, print extra and more extra labels, and the host freezer needs to be cleaned out and space maximized before the big weekend. Other than that, it was a great success and we will be doing it again.

In addition to endless hours of cooking, I have enjoyed painting my toenails, cheering on the Auburn Tigers, watching chick flicks and sleeping late, thanks to my mom enjoying Haley for the weekend. All in all, it's been a great few days away from reality and responsibilities and catching up with old friends...now I'm ready to head home refreshed and ready for the holidays!