16 Meals

This weekend I got to try out Once-A-Month cooking with my dear friend Mandi and her good friend Jen (with whom I also went to college!). I'd been turned off to it for some time for two very good reasons, I thought. 1.) My mom tried it when I was a kid, and we all hated the recipes. It seemed like way too much work for what we got, and 2.) I love to cook, and didn't want to give up my favorite recipes. Well, Mandi ain't no fool, and she and Jen do 16 freezer meals (8 meals twice for each family) every 2-3 months, and just pull out a few meals each week. BRILLIANT, I thought, and signed on the dotted line. For $120, I got 16 meals that serve 4 people--two of those meals are salmon, by the way. I was really impressed at how organized they were, but also how easy the day really was to cook. Remember those awful group projects from college? Well, this is like my reward for that. Three women working together, eager to pull her own weight and get the job done well. I highly recommend this, though I do need to reserve judgement until we've eaten the meals. They all looked really good, though, and I think it's going to be a keeper for us. They use Recipezaar.com, by the way, if you are interested.

Here was our menu:
Farmer's Casserole (eggs, ham, potatoes--we used tater tots)
Sweet Salsa Chicken (for use in tacos or over rice)
Beef Noodle Bake (looks really yummy, a bit like a stroganoff)
Creamy Chicken Noodles (with broccoli)
Tortilla Casserole
Orange Chicken (apparently just like Panda Express's Orange Chicken)
Baked Ziti (always a fav of mine)
Honey Ginger Salmon

Not bad, eh? Some of them do have some night-of prep, but not more than a few minutes, really. Most you thaw, stick in the oven, and throw a vegetable on the side. BIG kudos to Mandi and Jen for all their work getting so good at this.


*Note: Not a meal made on Saturday