OAMC- what in the world you ask?

Food for real people (also known as food p0rn! ^_^
Welcome, get your taste buds bubbling, your bib wrapped (to catch the drool) and the spatulas out cuz we are going for a ride! On this page, you'll find recipes I've recently (or not so recently) tried, (aka, tried and true and edible and makeable by anyone!) along with pics (and the actual recipes and tips). I warmly welcome comments and tips, and changes too, if you have any. If there is a recipe you'd like ME to try, why not message me or email me. I hope this page fills up big time! So far, we have a few of them... I'm new at these page things, so bear with me k? ^_^ Enjoy, and remember, all good things in moderation (except cheese and tiramisu!)

Note that the recipes that freeze well will be noted as such... :)


OAMC- what in the world you ask?

I thought I'd get all fancy and prancy and dancy and "invent" this NEW thing. Turns out, someone outfacied, prancied AND dancied me long ago! OAMC stands for Once a month cooking! (duh Cyn!) ^_^ And you know what? it works. See, I was tired of paying good money, for frozen meals that 9/10 times, would make me sick, as I'd react to something in the ingredients. Lets face it, nowadays, who knows WHAT is in our pre-cooked pre-made foods? I have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), a pre-cursor to Crohns. NOT a happy thing, and so I need to watch what I eat. I know 75% of the stuff that "gets me goin'" and the rest is still hit and miss! All this to say, I also wanted to be able to just take something out of the freezer, and pop it in the oven, and go play on the puter or whatever. I thought about my mom-friends, and how maybe this would help them too, imagine cooking ONE day a month, and then having full meals ready to go, and you get that extra 1-2 hours, to spend with your (fur) or non-furry kids!


So far, I've made: (these are full complete meals, including potatoes/rice/veggies and of course, meat)

Shepherd's pie
Salisbury steak (uh, not too sure the success on that one, twas more like a flat meatloaf.)
Meatloaf
Meatballs, normal and giant sized
Pasta Arrabiata
My fave? the pasta. that thing is just amazing, and oh so versatile!

It takes me on average, 4-8 hours of prepping, cooking, packaging (includes cooling time) etc. Of course, if I had a normal food processor, it would save me a HUGE amount of time, but patience is a virtue, and money something that is in short supply. I can still use my arms, and sharpen my knife (skills) (pun intended!).

During the month of February, I made my first full batch of meals, it was Shepherd's pie and meatloaf. It rocked! Especially when, at the end of the month, I was slammed with the nastiest flu/sinus infection all rolled into one I've ever had! I wanted to die! I was so weak, and so not hungry... I would literally walk to the fridge (actually, shuffle would be a better word), open fridge door. close. open freezer. close. open fridge door. slam it shut, go back to bed. Then, one day, in my stupor, I saw SHEPHERD's PIE! If you cook it, you will eat it! It was like a dream. I took it out, popped it in the oven, praising whoever had made it (seriously! it was that bad lol), and somehow, managed NOT to burn the house down, and had piping hot filling FOOD, REAL FOOD! Oh my gosh, it was so good, well, whatever my tastebuds could taste. And my SPies are the large round foil containers, so I had a good 4 meals out of it. That perked me up. I went back to this miraculous freezer that contained prepared food, almost ready to make it an offering, and saw, MEATLOAF! woah! this was getting scary! So, popped it in the oven, went to nap, woke up to another piping hot meal. I was on a roll! Call me butter!

So, for March, I decided, you know what? Lets try this again. My only mistake was, doubling the batch of ground meat I cooked for the Spie, and meatloaf/meatballs. I used too much Celery Seeds, (I can't stand celery/celery seeds), and so it does not agree with me. I found takers, for about 15 full meals. :( BUT! the meatballs, oh my goodness, they were NOT hockey pucks! WOOHOO! they were moist, and tender, and I wanted to eat them all there and then! I had used celery seeds in my Feb. batch, but only 5 seeds (I'm totally serious). This time, since I had double the meat, I used more. Hard lesson to learn. Also, I will never EVER buy frozen corn from a certain store in a certain town again. It tasted... perfumy. (gross!)

I will post, shortly, how I go about doing my once a month cooking. I would strongly suggest you try this. And if you have kids, here's an idea! Gang up with a friend, stick the kids, dogs, and cats in the same room, duct tape room shut (just kidding), and with TWO people working it up, it'll take less time. Since I'm single, say I were to gang up with someone, I'd only need a little bit of the cooked food (if any!) and besides, you can chat and catch up on the news, while driving the fur and furless kids nuts with all the good smells!

I'll see you soon, I hope! (and please, I refuse to be too serious about anything. Laugh is short and sometimes miserable! Laugh it UP!)