It is always helpful to get an idea what a cooking session is like, before you jump head first into trying a once-a-month cooking session. I’ve already shared what it is like to prepare for one in the upcoming days prior. I have also already given you a peek into what the start of the day looks like, so now it is time to get a bit deeper and really start cooking.
After I have gathered everything, and prepared the early stages (such as hamburger meat, chicken breasts, ham, etc.) it is time to get it ready for each recipe.
All pans, plastic freezer bags and containers should already be out and ready to accept their contents.
Separate the ingredients for each recipe and each dish of the recipe you plan to make. For instance, if you plan to make four Spaghetti Casseroles, and each recipe calls for 2 cups of hamburger meat, you are going to want to separate the 8 total cups of hamburger into 4 smaller portions. If your recipe is for a layered type of dish, you can begin putting the ingredients directly into the freezer container you will place it in. I honestly do not recommend making any more than about four of each recipe you plan to make or your family will get very tired of that meal quickly.
More than likely you will probably need about an hour of cooking and preparation time per recipe if you stick to the four dish per recipe rule. Most dishes will require less time, but if you want an approximate, I recommend setting aside an hour per recipe.
Before you close up a dish, stir a dish or in any way consider it finished, make note of whether you included each ingredient you were supposed to use. If you had everything ready to go at the start, you will quickly be able to see if something was forgotten, because there will be something left over that should be inside one of your dishes.
When you have completely prepared everything and then assembled every meal you wanted to make, it is time to get them into the freezer. But first, label every single thing that you made with the name of the meal and the date. The cooking times do not need to be included because you have that information in your recipe binder that you should be able to grab at a moments notice when you are ready to make the meal.
When you stack the freezer meals in your freezer, do not place all of the Ham and Cheese Souffles together and all of the Chicken Kiev’s together. Try to put them in the freezer in the order you plan to eat them with the earliest meal at the top. This makes it much easier to get to your meals when you are looking for something.
The worst part of a OAMC session is the clean-up and is certainly my least favorite part. However, it is time to do that now. Should take you about a half an hour to get things back where they go, clean and scrub large pots and put everything else in the dishwasher.
Your day is complete and you can rest easy that you now have a couple of weeks or a months worth of meals. Enjoy!
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