Once a month cooking

I blogged last week about attending a session at a meal prep store where I prepared about a dozen meals for my husband and I. Actually, since the meals are 4-6 servings a piece it was more like I prepared about two dozen meals that I now have stored nicely away in our deep freezer.

Spending the morning preparing meals got my brain spinning at the possibility of once a month cooking and what that would do for our home. Have all of our meals ready to cook and serve already prepared for the month would be such a time saver... not to mention a money saver, since we wouldn't have to resort to fast food as we do on plenty of occasions now. So I have been working on a menu and diligently working on finding foods that we like that will make for good freezeable meals.

So today I have been grocery shopping and I have purchased just about everything that I need to cook both today and tomorrow in order to fully stock our freezer. Most meals should be good for 2-3 months so I don't feel that this is overkill by any means. I am doubling up on all of the recipes, and many of the casseroles and dishes are already enough for us to eat one meal and then a night of leftovers. So in fact we should have about 4 nights worth of meals for each recipe I am using. Can we say "Hasta La Vista Taco Bell"?

Here is a rundown of the meals I have chosen to prepare:

BEEF RECIPES...
Lasagna Casserole
Cheeseburger Casserole
Pizza Casserole
Taco/Burrito Filling

CHICKEN RECIPES...
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Touch of the Orient Chicken
Cheesy Chicken Casserole
Poppyseed Chicken
South of the Border Chicken Bake

Today I preparing all of the beef recipes and so far things are going smoothly with this process. I may get to start some of the chicken recipes today as well, but if not I will work on them Wednesday and Thursday during nap time. I'm feeling like I've tackled a mountain today!

For more inspiration check out this blog.