Once a Month Cooking

Have you ever heard of Once a Month Cooking (OAMC)? It means just what it says, and it is rather interesting. I checked into it many years ago and have been intrigued with it ever since. Unfortunately, I have not done anything about it :)

Essentially, it takes 2-3 days per month to do.

The first day is a planning day - figure out what you have on hand, what recipes you want to create, and what additional supplies you will need.
The second day is a shopping day - (although if you coupon hopefully you have most of the items on hand) - on shopping day, you will need to purchase the additional supplies that you don't already have on hand.
The third day is the actual cooking day - and if you are definitely cooking for the whole month, you will need the whole day. After you prepare each dish, you package them for freezing so that all you have to do is pull out a meal from the freezer and heat it up. Simple!

One great thing about this idea is you can do it with friends in different ways to share the work. Everyone knows work is faster and easier and more fun when it is done with friends. You can plan the cooking day to be at one person's home and everyone participating converges there to cook together and share the work. Or... if you and your friend like similar recipes, you can each split the recipes you both like and double what you would normally cook for the month. Then package it up and trade out. It is always easier to do assembly line when the item doesn't change.

You don't have to do it all Once a Month - you can do Twice a Month or even Once a Week Cooking. You can work it into your schedule to cook as often or as seldom as necessary.

I am doing more research on it, again, and there are some great websites and a Yahoo group out there, hopefully I can get started on it finally once I get my hectic schedule settled.

Here are some sites to get you started (and don't forget there are a few books out there about this subject, too):

http://www.once-a-month-cookingworld.com/
http://www.frugalmom.net/once_a_month_cooking.htm
http://www.cookofthemonth.com/
http://members.aol.com/OAMCLoop/
http://www.cookofthemonth.com/

I recommend this book:
Once-A-Month Cooking
by Mimi Wilson, Marilyn S. Wilson, Mary Beth Lagerborg

Have fun checking it out! Let me know what you think.

If you already do Once a Month Cooking, tell me about it? Pros and Cons?