Once-A-Month Cooking

In tightening the belt on finances many families are reviewing and changing how they spend their budgeted food money. This is one of the few categories of our budget that is really flexible enough to make a major difference in our spending. Part of this process is revisiting the economical benefits of good old fashioned home cooking. And, as we by necessity need to limit time in the malls there is more time for cooking. After a hard days work it is difficult to rev up the enthusiasm to get in the kitchen for a couple hours regardless of how much money it might save.

While contemplating this I remembered my good old cookbook called Once-a-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. Since my copy is more than 20 years old I decided to do us all a favor and see if there was any still available on Amazon before making a pitch for it. And much to my surprise there is a new edition so here's the link. (You can order it while you are making your purchase of In The Trenches :)

What's exciting about Once-a Month Cooking is that not only is it economical but you do not have to spend everyday in the kitchen! Let me give you an example of how it works: Instead of making a meal size pot of spaghetti sauce you make a HUGE pot of spaghetti sauce. You then can use this sauce to make spaghetti, lasagna, Spanish rice, sloppy joes, or a last minute company dinner. These dishes can be assembled at the time you want to eat them or as the book recommends they can be assembled ahead of time and frozen for use. Having a seal a meal is a very useful tool to be able to do this because the bags can be microwaved or heated in a pot of boiling water to defrost. Frozen lasagna can be popped right into the oven.

The book is well written, easy to follow, and has all the recipes and menus ready for you to follow. It even gives a grocery list. All you have to do is do the cooking. Once-a-Month Cooking.