How to Start Once-A-Month Cooking (2024)

What is Once a Month Cooking?

Once-a-month cooking, or OAMC, has been gaining traction as a life-changing strategy for busy families everywhere. The concept is simple: dedicate one day each month to cooking and preparing a bulk of your meals, then freeze them for use throughout the month. For parents juggling work, family, and countless other responsibilities, OAMC can be a game-changer.

What You Will Need:

1. Freezer Space - Make sure you have enough space in your freezer for the amount of food you plan to store a chest freezer is a popular option for OAMC veterans.
2. Freezer Bags/ Freezer Safe Storage Containers
3. A Good Knife Set
4. Wet & DryMeasuring Cups/Spoons
5. Mixing Bowls and Spoons
6. Colander- This over the sink option is especially handy.
7. Muffin Tins - We recommend silicone muffin tins as they are great for freezing pre-portioned servings.
8. Sheet Pans& Cooling Racks
9. Spatulas
10. Stockpots & Saucepans
11. Skillets

What You Might Want:

1. Vacuum Sealer
2. Food Processor
3. Slow Cooker- You'll definitely want a few of these!
4. Rice Cooker- Rice cookers are extremely versatile. If you're going to buy multiple slow cookers, we recommend replacing one with a rice cooker.
5. Folding Table- For extra counter space.
6. Anti-Fatigue Mat
7. Label Maker

Getting Started:

1. Know what works. Certain foods do not freeze well or need to be frozen a certain way. Using recipes created specifically to go in the freezer is a great way to get some hands on learning experience!
2. Create a repository of freezer friendly meals that suit you and your family. You can save them to a Pinterest board, create a spreadsheet, print them out, etc.. It makes it so much less overwhelming to meal plan when you already have a list of recipes that you can pull from. You can check out our OAMC recipe Pinterest board here.
3. Create your plan. Now that you have your own little recipe book, it’s time to actually start planning. For complete coverage you’ll need 30 servings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner per person = 90 servings per person + two snacks per day = 150 per person. Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry! The trick here is to prioritize recipes with overlapping ingredients. An example would be planning chili, tacos, and lasagna; all with ground beef as a key ingredient.
   Now you only need to make a big batch of ground beef and you’ve got the protein for three meals done and dusted! And remember, the goal of once-a-month cooking is to make life simpler and more enjoyable, so feel free to start small and adapt the process to fit your family's needs.

Some things to take into account when planning is:

• How many times and how often can I get away with having the same meal? Its helpful to have a dedicated calendar/planner, so you can visually space out your meals (you can get our free printable here. No sign ups or email shenanigans 😉).
• Will this work with our schedule? Ideally you would be able to block out 1-3 whole days to dedicate to cooking. It might be best to start with cooking for 1-2 weeks at a time first.
• Where am I able to buy in bulk or at a discount? Oftentimes OAMC is vastly more cost effective as you can buy things at bulk prices or stock up on sale items, but a months worth of food is still most likely going to cost more than your run of the mill grocery trip.
  And if you can’t find many of the things you need in bulk or discounted, then it’s going to be a lot to spend at once. Be sure to scope out your local shops to see what's available and what sales you can take advantage of.
  If buying locally doesn’t work out for you, there are many bulk food supply stores online to check out.
• Are there days I will want to cook something new or eat out? If you eat out every Friday or make pancakes as a family every Sunday morning, then you may not need to cook for every meal of the month. If time or space is an issue, this is good to take note of.

4. Now its time to get shopping. Considering, the amount of food you’ll be purchasing you might want to make a day of it and invite friends or family to join.

5. Then, set aside a day (or two!) for cooking and enlist the help of family members to make the process faster and more fun. We recommend having a day for prep work and a day for cooking, especially when you’re just starting out or making unfamiliar recipes.

Some (very) helpful tips:

• Clean as you go! Load dirty dishes right into the dishwasher, throw containers, food trash, paper towels away, clean up spills right after they happen. It may seem counterintuitive when you’re trying to get things done, but I promise it makes a world of difference in cleanup, time saved, and overall stress levels (especially if you have multiple hands helping).
• Labeling freezer bags or containers with the dish name, reheating instructions, and date will make it easy to keep track of your meals. We also recommend having a master list of every meal with dates to put on the freezer door, so you know exactly what you have left at a glance.
• Another helpful tip is to let your food hang out in the fridge for a bit before freezing, it helps preserve the texture in meals that are a little more veggie heavy. With a bit of practice, you'll soon be reaping the many benefits of this smart, time-saving approach to meal planning.

Recommended Reading

• Prevention's Low-Fat, Low-Cost Freezer Cookbook - An oldie, but a goodie. There are helpful kitchen tips on every page, including things like how to freeze herbs. This book really focuses on nutritious meals (with nutrient info for each one) without using preprocessed foods keeping costs low.