Once-A-Month Cooking the Nourishing Traditions Way.

Pass the Pepper: 1940 from Shorpy

I love this picture. Meals during my childhood usually consisted of me sitting on the couch by myself watching reruns of Night Court and gobbling down a Souper Combo. (Random Reb fact: When I was nine, my dad and I were interviewed by Jane Pauley for her show, Real Life with Jane Pauley, and part of the segment shows me doing this very thing….eating a tv dinner while my dad sits upstairs and I zone out in front of the TV). I really don’t want that to be a memory for B, so this is sort of an iconic image for me….it’s what I picture for our family. I hope we’re able to give that to him.

Along that vein…..August is almost over and with a new month there usually comes a new Once a Month Mom (OAMM) menu. I haven’t done this in several months as either time or just general laziness have kept me from it, but I still always check out the menus to see if I suddenly feel inspired to sacrifice a Saturday for a smorgasbord of make-ahead meal cooking. A few days ago, they made the announcement that they’re going to start charging for their recipe cards, lists, and instructions which makes complete sense to me as the service they have provided has to take a lot of time and effort. I’m amazed it’s been free this long.

At any rate, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing my own make-ahead menu for a while. While the recipes OAMM has provided are, for the most part, tasty and easy, sometimes the ingredients suggested aren’t in line with our way of eating and I can’t find suitable alternatives…or they’re heavy on grains or legumes, two things we try not to eat a lot of, or I just don’t like the sound of them. So in September, I’m going to wade into the once-a-month-cooking waters yet again, but this time with no water wings. I’m going to attempt to make my own grocery list, chopping list, and cook-day instructions. I’ve already begun this process and I can’t emphasize enough that I have a lot of respect for the OAMM cooks. I honestly don’t know how they do it.

I’m going to start small. OAMM usually has quite a few meals for each month, but I’m a little wary of doing this on my own so I’m only going to do six meals the first time:

Breakfast

Lunch

Supper

Obviously I’m using the term “once-a-month” loosely. But this will, hopefully, be at least a start! I’ll let you know how it goes.

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