Once a Month Cooking

Have you ever done Once-a-Month cooking? The idea is that you do all your dinner cooking/prepping in one day and freeze it all. Then you have ready-to-go meals the rest of the month. It saves time and money, and it's healthier than store-bought freezer meals. I've decided to give it a try. During winter I do a lot of crock pot cooking anyway.

I'm kind of a picky eater (thankfully my kids aren't), and can't always find recipes we will all like. Over on Pinterest I have pinned a bunch of crock-pot and freezer meal sites and recipes. I sifted through them and found 24 recipes that I wanted to do, including ones I do already. 2 of the recipes even made double, so at the end of the day I had 26 meals ready to go.

On Friday, with only 2 of my kids shopping with me, I bought what I needed. And on Saturday I prepped and cooked. I spent about 2 hours prepping/cooking and $180 on ingredients (thank you Winco). I got freezer bags and pans at our local dollar store, and labeled them with masking tape and a sharpie. The labels have the recipe name and cooking instructions.

Here is what I made (recipes linked):

For crockpot

Mongolian Beef

Teriyaki Chicken

Garlic Bread Chicken

Hawaiian Pork

Honey Sesame Chicken

Beef Stew

Butter Chicken (mine)

Ranch House Pork Chops

Beef Tips & Gravy

Quick Chick

Chicken and Dumplings

Hawaiian Haystacks

Pot Roast

Curry (mine)…no link yet

For Oven

Cheese Lasagna (basic)…no link

Baked Macaroni & Cheese (mine)…no link yet

Island Chicken

Chicken Pot Pie

Garlic Ranch Chicken

Chicken Fajitas

Funeral Potatoes

Pesto Chicken Alfredo

Cornflake Chicken Tenders

Chicken Shish-Kabobs

And a bonus link! There are a few recipes in here that call for a 'cream of --' soup. Instead of using a canned soup, I used this recipe, and will add water at the time of cooking.

Cream of "something" soup recipe

Butter Chicken Recipe

My husband is Indian and over the years I have had lots of practice making Indian food. I don't make it 'like mom' (my family prefers less spicy), but he likes it anyway, and the kids like it too. So, here is my recipe for Butter Chicken.

 
Butter Chicken

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ginger, finely chopped

1 Tbl oil

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp coriander

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

1 can coconut milk

1 cup plain yogurt

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks

2 Tbl butter

In large skillet, heat oil. Add onion, garlic, and ginger. Stir often while cooking, until onion is translucent (about 4-5 minutes).

Stir in curry powder, chili powder, coriander and cardamom. Cook for another minute.

Add tomato paste, coconut milk and yogurt. Stir until mixture is smooth and simmering.

Add chicken and stir. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until chicken is cooked.

Cut butter into chunks and add to the sauce. Stir until melted.

Serve with rice.

*Could be made in crock pot. After frying onions, garlic and ginger, add it and all other ingredients to a crock pot. Stir gently. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours.