Cook Day

Getting back in the swing of things and trying to make my life easier, I have for the second time this year had friends over to do a big cook day. The last time I had four friends over and we spent 3 hours and each went home with 14 meals for the freezer. This time our group was for 3 families, though only two of us were here. (My friend Alyssa had surgery this week and couldn't participate, but Jenny and I made her meals for her). We assembled 18 meals for each family. I think I am getting the process pretty well perfected. It took us just over 3 hours today. Here is a picture of what that looks like just for 2 of the families.

That is actually 36 dinners in the pictures.

Today we made the following:

Stove Top Barbecue Chicken
Fiesta Taco Casserole
Chicken Cordon Blue and Noodle Casserole
Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Chicken Enchiladas
Rigatoni
Ham & Potatoes Au Gratin
Quick Pork Stir Fry
Shepherds' Pie
Sloppy Joes
Open Face Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Mock Enchiladas
Meatball Sandwiches
Sweet & Sour Chicken
Marinated Chicken Breasts
Marinated Pork Chops
Pork Roast
Costa Vida Pork Burritos

I have loved Once-a-Month cooking since I started doing it for my family about 6 years ago. But, I love doing it with my friends even more. This set of 18 meals ended up costing only $130 per family and I got to visit with a friend while I worked. That cost includes everything for the main dish, so we will have a bit more expense for the sides, breads, and salads depending on what we are having. I have found however if I can do this process for our meals it saves me a bunch of money on the overall food budget, but the best part is the savings of time. On a daily basis, we can have a home cooked meal and it only takes very minimal prep time. Yippee! It feels so good to have a freezer full of meals.

We are already going to start planning our next cook day in a little over a month. Perhaps we will try a few more meals the next time too, and I already have a 4th person to join us next time around as well. Yeah!!