I’m beginning to go through my file of questions that readers have asked and many, many of you have asked for once a month cooking recipes. We cook with 4 other families and we cook for two months at a time. I’ve posted some more details about our mega bulk cooking previously as well as pictures from one of our cook days . Here I explain how we bulk cook with a group.
These beef recipes all serve about 8 people:
Calico Beans
1/4 lb dry light red kidney beans
1 cans pork-n-beans
1/4 lb dry pinto beans
1 cups brown sugar
2 lb beef cook
1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1/3 cups ketchup
1 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
1 TBS yellow mustard
Before cook day prep:
Cook and drain all dry beans.
Cook day:
Combine all ingredients
Eat day:
Heat and eat. We serve this with brown rice so that it stretches farther.
Burger Cups
2 lb beef raw
0.5 lb sausage raw
3 tsp salt
1.5 tsp pepper
1 onion fresh onion
3 egg
1.5 cup oatmeal
1.5 can tom sauce
0.1 cup water
1 bag bell pepper
1 can french green beans
0.5 pkg almond sliver
1 can golden mushroom soup (Campbell’s brand, can be hard to find, but worth it. We don’t care for this recipe with regular cream of mush)
Before cook day prep:
Mince onion. If using fresh green bell pepper chop.
Cook day:
Combine first 10 ingredients. Form into serving sized balls and make a well in the center to form a cup type shape. Mix last 3 ingredients. Fill the center of each burger cup with the bean/golden mushroom soup mixture. Fully cook at 350 degrees.
Eat day:
Heat and eat.
Beef Brisket
4 lb beef brisket
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp rosemary sprigs
1/4 cups olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
4 each carrots 3′ chunks
3 each celery stalks 3″chunks
4 onion red onion
16 oz red wine dry
1 can tom diced
1 tsp parsely leaves fresh
3 each bay leaves
1 tbs flour
Before cook day prep:
Wash and chop veggies.
Cook day:
Combine ingredients and pour over meat.
Eat day:
Thaw. Cook in crock pot on low 6-8 hours.
Balkan Meatballs
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup oats
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 lb g. turkey raw
1 lb beef raw
1/2 cup fresh onion
Before cook day prep:
chop onion
Cook day:
Combine all ingredients and shape into meatballs. Cook at 350 until done. (For our specific mulit-family cook day we have a specific number of meatballs that goes on each baking sheet. Each family gets one tray of meatballs to take home. This makes it much easier than counting meatballs when it’s time to divide for each family. Any extra meatballs we divide evenly.)
Eat day:
Heat and eat. Use your imagination. Meatball subs, spaghetti, etc.
African Beef and Rice
3 lb round steak
1 leaf bay leaf
1 tsp salt
0.125 tsp c.red pepper
1 pep green pepper
1 onion fresh onion
0.75 tsp curry
0.25 tsp pepper
1 cup water
Before cook day prep:
Chop onion
Cook day:
Place meat in bag and dump all spices on top
Eat day:
Thaw. Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice.
More recipes to come.
So how many of you once a month cook or do some variation on that idea?
Related posts:
Thank you, can’t wait to try some of these!
[Reply]
Your calico beans recipe looks so good! I will for sure be trying that one!
Kelly
[Reply]
Thanks for the effort of posting these. They all sound great!
[Reply]
Thanks you
[Reply]
Thank you so much for sharing these receipes. I will be trying them out.
[Reply]
OOh OOh!!! Thanks for posting your meal list! The smell of beef is still bothering me but hopefully, I can make a beef rotation in the next month or so! Those Burger cups sound great!
[Reply]
Kimberly @ Raising Olives Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I also have a group of chicken, another of pork and other meat and several meatless recipes to post over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
How is your cooking going?
[Reply]
I am just getting materials gathered to make some of these this week – they sound yummy.
Thanks for posting them!
P.S. I think the first I’ll try is burger cups.
[Reply]
Thank you for posting these. I have used one of these recipes before, but the others seem to be new ones for me and I am hoping I can substitute venison for the beef.
We have used many recipes from the 30 Day Gourmet Cookbook (many of these recipes are available for free at their website) and a few from one of Sue Gregg’s cookbooks, too. I am not as “organized” about doing once a month cooking as I used to be. I used to purchase meats during sales and then make up about 20 meals at once, eating one that night and putting 1 or 2 in the refrigerator for the following day while the rest went to the freezer. I do less of this now.
One factor is our busy schedule; another is that now much of the meat we use is venison, which when we pick it up at the processor’s is usually already frozen. So now I often thaw a few days of meat at once in the bottom of my refrigerator. Last night I started a big pot of Sue Gregg’s Best Burrito Beans, and I will add a 1.5 lb. package of cooked, seasoned ground venison to that to make a large batch of burritos this week.
I still do buy chicken at Sam’s Club and use a number of marinades for it (see the 30 Day Gourmet website for a few good free ones) and in nice, summer weather we often grill chicken for 2-3 meals at a time and then refrigerate the leftovers.
I believe we have saved lots of money and a great deal of time with bulk cooking.
[Reply]
Kimberly @ Raising Olives Reply:
January 19th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I think you’re right about saving money and time. We love Sue Gregg, but haven’t used her recipes for OAMC. I do use them for breakfast and lunch though.
[Reply]
I love the idea of cooking with a group and then freezing them. I do have two questions for you. 1. What do you freeze the meals in; pans, bags?? 2. You said, in a previous post, that you use a program to multiply the ingredients to the number of families you’re making these for, and that it gives you a simplified shopping list. What program do you use that can do this?
Thank you for all the in depth info. This is great!
[Reply]