OAMC Big Day Report

There’s always a first for everything!

I decided, last minute, to go ahead with the Once a Month Mom Cook-off! JD had to work which meant that I had all 3 kids to myself in the midst of trying to do all this cooking by myself. The smart person would have cut everything in half, but evidently I am not one of those people. The big event took place February 27 & 28, 2010.

I started out with grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon; The first trip home to unload was at around 3:30 p.m. This was the trip to Sam’s to buy in bulk. At that trip I was stopped on my way out and asked to answer a survey and in return I would receive a gift card. The gift card was only for $5 but I could use it at Sam’s or at Wal-Mart and since I was headed to Wal-Mart next I was plenty happy with that! Five dollars isn’t much, but it’s still money.

It only took me about an hour at Sam’s, not including the survey, but it took me almost 2 hours at Wal-Mart. I hate shopping on Saturdays, especially in the afternoon when everyone else is there too.

The damage? $661.86! That seems like a lot but for us, that’s pretty good for getting us through almost the whole month. I had plans of making 2 additional menu items but those plans have yet to come to fruition. I also bought other food that we will need this month outside of OAMC, as well as personal care and household items. I did buy a food processor for $35 but I’m not thrilled with it so I’ll be saving up my money for a better one down the road.

So for 53 “meals” (I counted the stuffed pancake cupcakes as 8 breakfasts because it made 32 of them; and I counted the granola as 6 breakfasts) I spent $313.96 with tax. I know some spent less, even up to half, but I am really excited about this! That comes out to $5.92 per meal and approximately $1.47 per serving. WOW! This was totally worth it for us. You can see how much I spent on what here. If there is no price listed that means I already had it.

On the other hand, I wish that I had checked the food stock instead of asking my husband to do it because I still bought stuff that we already had. Oh well, it just means that I won’t have to buy the stuff next month… See there’s always a silver lining.

I put everything that didn't have to be refrigerated or frozen on the kitchen table (which is where everything is still sitting).

At 11 p.m. I began. It was very late but I’m a night owl. I cooked 12 lbs of ground meat (I used 2 lbs of ground turkey that I already had). I’m really anal about things so I busted out the kitchen scale to measure out exactly the amount of meat I needed and cooked each recipe’s requirement out separately then bagged and labeled it to use the next day. I cut up all the onions and half of the carrots. I then cleaned up after myself and went to bed around 2:30 a.m. after starting 7 lbs of chicken in the Crock-Pot. My Crock-Pot has a timer and I put it on low for 8 hours but just in case, I put the digital thermometer in too.

Sunday morning, I got up about 9 a.m., showered, and got started about 9:45 a.m. JD had to go to the office and left around 11 a.m. I peeled, chopped, sautéed, cooked, cut, minced, smashed, browned, baked, and shredded until I could no longer stand, at 1:30 p.m. :D

Actually, I had to stop to feed the kids and myself some lunch. We ordered Domino’s pizza, which was FANTASTIC! *If you haven’t had their pizza since they stepped-up their game, you need to go to the phone right now and order some, NOW!* I have Celiac and am not supposed to be eating things that have gluten in them but my condition is very, very mild and I was dying to eat and it smelled soooo good; not to mention that I knew the kids would never eat it all…

After lunch, it was nap time for the kids. This was a huge relief for me because I was dying for a little peace and quiet. Thankfully JD had made a playlist for me that I had going all day which kept me a little saner than I would have been without it.

The rest of the afternoon flew by. Because I only had 1 Crock-Pot I just served the Hamburger Soup that I was making in it for dinner. I closed up shop about 10 p.m. and was exhausted. I threw out a lot of stuff from the deep freeze that was several years old so that I could get the new food in there. JD did help me clean up and then gave me a neck, back and foot massage afterwards.

All in all, I’m fairly satisfied with what I did and I’m looking forward to March 21 when I do it all over, but with a partner this time!

Modifications:

I couldn’t find any 8x8 aluminum pans so I bought caterer’s half-steam sizes, which are 10 x 12 or something.

In Crystal’s Lazy Granola I added ½ cup sunflower seeds and about 2 cups raisins.

I have not yet made the Banana Buttermilk Pancakes.

I did make the filling for the Beef Empanadas they have not been filled yet. I’m going to make a gluten-free version for the crust.

The Easy Taco Bake only made enough for 3 of my pans.

I haven’t made any pizza crust because I will make gluten-free crust when I need to. I added 2 or 3 cups of the chopped broccoli to the chicken mix for the pizza.

I burned the milk for the Tuna Noodle Casserole (alone with the kids; ‘nuf said) so that didn’t happen. JD was relieved as he H.A.T.E.S. fish.

I can’t wait for March’s big day!

More pictures from my big day:

Before the food... 

After the food!

My freezer was already really full and I hadn't even put anything in it yet! Where was it all supposed to go? 

That was a lot of onions. I hate onions. Yuck.

That was a lot of broccoli, too. I like how the food processor chopped it up though: little teensie-tiny bits almost like a seasoning.

The food processor mashed the carrots more than it sliced. I figured it probably didn't matter too much since they were just going into the soups.

Hamburger soup! Yummy!

The granola smelled so wonderful. It made a lot of granola. I'm glad that

I couldn't wait to eat some on my yogurt!