Backstory: When my husband and I got married, he did most of the cooking. Mainly, because he knew how to and I did not nor did I really have the interest in learning. We both worked crazy schedules (he was a state trooper and I ran a homeless shelter) but his  schedule always allowed a better window of time for cooking.

Fast forward 8 years and we both are fortunate to have different jobs. My schedule became the one that was much more flexible. I felt like it was time for me to take some of this burden from him.

I HATED COOKING!!! It put me in a bad mood while I was doing it and then we would all sit down for dinner and my daughter would announce that it was disgusting and she wasn’t eating that night. I was done!

Then God literally sent this Angel to my small group who said that she doesn’t cook every night but does once a month cooking. I politely told her that was nice but there was no way I could fix fancy meals in one day. She assured me that this was an easy process and would show me how.

To this day, I am so thankful for Trish and for her patience in teaching me how to cook but more importantly, how to have fun in the kitchen (since I only have to be in there once a month or sometimes once every other month!)

With that being said, this is what I now do:

Sit down with all of your cookbooks and/or recipes that you like
I like to pick recipes that have some of the similar ingredients so that when I go grocery shopping, I am not getting tons of different things. I only pick 5 recipes or so and then double each one so I am making at least 10 meals.

Decide what meals you want to cook and write them out on a monthly sheet 
I write mine in my planner. I also usually only fix 2 meals a week and we alternate between them each night. I also go ahead and make some weekly menus.

Make out a grocery list

Go shopping (or ClickList)
Kroger’s ClickList has changed my life!! I find that we have actually SAVED money using this. You simply go online and add groceries to your shopping cart and then select a time to pick it up. They will then bring the groceries to your car at your pick up time! WHAT?!?!

The reason it has helped save us money is because I see exactly how much I am spending. If I have only $100 to spend for the rest of the month, I pick wisely!

Also – 2 kids in a grocery store…..NO! I have learned that lesson (it ended in yelling, and screaming…oh…and my kids too!)

Day Before you cook:

Prepare all of your meat how you want it
I fix a lot of chicken!!! So the night before, I usually beg my husband to cut and flattened all of the chicken. I end up cutting most chicken breasts into thirds because they are so big. Side note: I buy my chicken in bulk at Sam’s. It is $1.49/lb. which is the cheapest I have found it anywhere else.

Cut it in the serving sizes that your family would eat!

Day of Cooking: 

Lay out ingredients and have recipes ready
Always start with everything out that way you are fumbling around your kitchen. Also, start with the most complicated recipe first (if it calls for any cooking, start with that one because you will need to let things cool before freezing)

Turn up the music
Remember, this is to be FUN too! I like to dance around to worship music when I am cooking!

Label Freezer Ziplock Bags
Make sure you label it with the name of the recipe, the date, and I like to include what page number it is in my cookbook. If it is a new recipe I am trying, then I write the thawing and heating instructions on the bag.

Mix and Dump
Most of my recipes just require you to add everything together and place in a bag! Those are the best kinds! I have also found that these make things so much easier:

I ordered them off Amazon HERE:

Freeze
Take all those beautiful meals to the freezer and forget about them for a few weeks!!! Here is a picture of just 4 meals I did before I sent them to the freezer:

Clean up
Cleaning up is the longest part of this for me. BUT I have to keep in mind that I am only really doing this part once a month too so that makes it more bearable!

Order food 🙂 
The worst thing is cooking all day and then having to cook dinner for that night! We either go out to eat or order something!