Cooking Marathon

I received several new cookbooks for Christmas, so we've been trying out all kinds of new recipes. We had a great steak taco-type of thing right after Christmas from my Fix-It-and-Forget-It cookbook and it was phenomenal.

One of the other cookbooks I received was Once-A-Month Cooking. The premise of this cookbook is that you can spend an entire day cooking, but the meals you make and freeze after cooking day will last you for a month. Now, I don't relish the thought of spending all day in the kitchen, but if that provides enough meals that you can pretty much slack off the rest of the month, well, than you've got my attention.

The book offers a full-month cycle, which gives you 28-30 meals to prepare and freeze. It also offers some 2-week cycles that have 14 meals. This may come as a shock, but we do not eat a home-cooked meal in the comfort of our house every night of the week. Especially during basketball season. Between road games and radio shows, we eat lots of sandwiches and leftovers. So, 14 meals will last us far longer than 2 weeks.
Eager to take on a new challenge, Sunday was marathon cooking day for me. I started out with just a 2-week plan instead of an entire month. In theory, the 2-week cycle only takes a half-day to prepare. So, here's the report:

Shopping was definitely a little more involved, but the cookbook includes a handy-dandy shopping list, so it's already. It's just a matter of getting everything you need. Not hard, but the weekly grocery bill was quite a bit higher than usual.

The prep and cooking wasn't that bad. And when this book says it takes a half day to prepare everything, they mean a half day! I was in the kitchen for 6 hours and 15 minutes (yes, I timed it) on Sunday. My legs were TIRED after all of that. I can't imagine doing a full-month cycle where you spend 12 hours in the kitchen--that's too much for me.

So, what do I have to show marathon cooking day, you ask? Well, for the next 3 weeks or so, we have the following meals to eat:
Southwestern Egg Casserole (this will be a dish for just me!)
Four Seasons Pizza
Macaroni & Cheese w/chicken
Upside-Down Fettuccini Bake
Coronation Chicken
Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken Durango
Chicken Scampi
Texas-Style Lasagna
Beef Pot Roast
Hamburgers Teriyaki
George Romney Meatballs
Vegetable Soup with Meatballs
Baked Mediterranean Fish

The first dish we tried was George Romney meatballs on Monday night. It was kind of like Beef Stroganoff, but with meatballs. I thought it was really good. Brian wasn't a big fun, but only because it had sour cream in it. That dish was meant to serve 6, so I had plenty of leftovers for lunch for the remainder of the week.

The meatballs for that dish were phenomenal. And homemade! I made microwave ground turkey meatballs on Saturday and they turned out great. Little B-man just loves meatballs, so this recipe will be appearing quite frequently in our house now.

And that's it! The women played on the road, so the B-man and I stayed home. I'll keep you updated on how all of the dishes turn out and how long this lasts us. I think we may only go through one dish this week, so this cooking marathon might last us for quite awhile. And the best part? All I have to worry about for supper is a side dish or salad to go with it. Otherwise, it's already done!!!

Got any questions? Let me know; I'd be happy to answer them.