Once a Month Cooking the solution to shopping and cooking with kids..I think! EDITED with reviews of meals

So, if you can remember back a long time ago I started "Menu Monday" HAve you seen a "Menu Monday" post in a while? The answer is no. It is very frustrating to me how much time, money, and food we waste on groceries and eating out. When we did the Menu Monday thing it was great, but that soon wore off. While being on unpaid maternity leave I have kept a closer watch on our finance and I would be embarrassed at our grocery bill and even more embarrassed by our eating out bill.

I really like to cook but I hate cooking for an hour, then cleaning up for an hour when I would rather spend that time with my family. I also hate shopping with kids in tow. I can get it done if I have to but I feel like it is a divide and conquer mission and I have gotten lazy and often head to the store without a list and without coupons. Its just poor planning all around.

When we first had Mckenzie everyone brought us meals. It was so nice just to warm something up or pop something in the oven and have little cleanup and our family had a nice meal. So, that got me to thinking about freezer meals so I started the freezer meal group which is AWESOME. I am really loving that a lot.

While looking for good freezer meal recipes I have come across a lot of "once a month cooking" blogs and really got to reading about how to go about doing this. There are a lot of them out there some that even have it down to grocery lists. For example this site she has everything layed out. It is great she has done all the work for you but 1/2 of the meals do not sound like things that my family would eat. So, with a little thought and advice from other blogs I have embarked on the mission on my own. I spent all day (on and of between naps, etc.) forming my plan. I looked at the once a month mom blog that I mentioned above and followed her template for the grocery list and even took a few recipes from there. I read on another blog that it is best to pick 2 meats and try to make all your meals from there. I basically did that with a few exceptions. I figured if I could come up with 15 meals to make for my freezer in one day that would be a good goal to begin with. I figure I will have those 15 plus 5 more from my freezer group. I ended up picking 8 different recipes. 7 of those are really for like 8 people so I am making the full batch but then seperating it to freeze it to have 2 different times in the month. Hey, we have been eating so many tacos and spaghetti that I figure we can have a good meal twice in a month!

So, here is what is for dinner for the next month. I linked the recipe website if I have it in case any of you are interested. Some of them I haven't tried but they sound good. I also made a deatailed shopping list and will be shopping soon and then cooking over a day or two.

1) Cream Cheese Chicken (Going to be 2 meals) Very good. I like it over rice and trever likes it over noodles. Over noodles it is like Chicken Tetrazeni with Candied Carrots Yummy and I am not a carrot eater
2)Cheesy Chicken Fajitas (I am going to alter recipe and serve on tortillas) Going to be 2 meals THis was pretty good but nothing to right home about.
3)Porcupine Meatballs with Pasta Salad (I have a box mix that I bought a while back and of course have not used) Yucky! Did not care for them at ALL! :(
4)Easy CHicken Cordon Bleu (Going to alter and but bacon that I need for other recipes instead of the ham. Also going to double for 2 meals) Really good. Although I am not sure it would be a favorite with kiddos. Bailey passed it up with Twice Baked Potatoes (Going to put some bacon on those too!) Yummy! I even heated them up in the microwave instead of baking and they were good
5) Meat Loaf with green beans that are already in the pantry. Going to be 2 meals as well. A nice twist on meatloaf. We had this the night I made it and still have left overs in the fridge. I am wondering if it is going to be better now.
6) Breakfast Burritos - I figure we might have it for breakfast on the weekend or maybe breakfast for dinner one night . Going to be 2 meals I have just been eating these in the morning here or there. I froze them in small portions. Makes a nice filling breakfast.
7) Fiesta - This is something I got from Trev's family. Basically you make taco meat and then serve it with tomatos, fritos, coconut, sour cream, lettuce, olives, rice, and pecans and pile it all together. It is an easy quick meal so I think I may just freeze the beef and then cook it on the fly or I may cook and season it and then freeze it. I haven't decided yet. Its going to be 2 meals.
8) Lasagna with Bacon and Red wine Going to be 2 meals. THis meal is a lot of work but really good. I made it for my freezer group this month.

So, that is the plan my people. I am hoping to make only one big trip to the store a month. I know I will have to go for some staples like bread and milk but I am hoping to cut down the wasting of food and money. I am also going to start clipping and using coupons again. I am not going to be able to use coupons on this big trip but hope to use them next month. I will let you all know how it turns out! Wish me luck!