Making Life a Little Easier
Posted in The UN-digi | 13 Comments »
13 Comments »
I (Steph) wanted to share a couple of things that, when I use them, make my life less hectic! I fell off the band-wagon awhile ago, but am recommitting myself once again and thought I would bring you along. 
The first one is probably not new to many of you, it’s the concept of “once a month cooking” or oamc. Once a month cooking is basically cooking all of your meals for a month in one day. I love doing this! Whether I just make a double batch of something one night, eat one for dinner and freeze the other OR I do a big cooking session in one day and have a months worth of meals in my freezer, it feels great to know that dinner is pretty much done. It’s so nice not to have to think too hard about our dinner, let alone set aside the time to make it.
I recently found OnceAMonthMom. It’s a GREAT site that has a new menu, recipes, shopping list, instructions, labels AND a podcast each month (for FREE). She has shopping lists for doubling the recipes, trippling, and even quadrupling them! She gathers the recipes from all of the web from people that have tried them and like them (she discusses the origins of the recipes in the Podcast). The site is very organized and easy to find things! You can see October’s Once a Month information HERE.
Most of the time, when I do OAMC, I just take my family’s favorite recipes and double them and then do all of the prep work up to the final cooking and instead freeze them. I do the final cooking the day that we are going to eat the meal. Everything just tastes better to me that way. So, for example, this recipe I make the filling like the instructions say, assemble the enchiladas and then put them in a ziploc bag. Next, I put all of the ingredients for the sauce in a different ziploc and then the extra cheese in a 3rd and final ziploc. You can then either staple the bags together or put all of the bags in a larger bag to keep them together. Now, I know a lot of people say that you shouldn’t freeze dairy products. I have found that if cream cheese is mixed with other things, it freezes and cooks up fine. I have also found that as long as you will be cooking other dairy products, it works perfectly well. I wouldn’t cook anything with sour cream or cream cheese and then just reheat in the microwave, mostly because the texture is pretty gross (can you tell I have tried…haha?). I also go a step further and plan one side dish to go with each of my freezer meals and purchase those items at the same time I do my big shopping, so I don’t have to do as much planning later. For these enchiladas, I would probably just do a Spanish or Mexican rice dish (easy) for my one side (I will also add a fruit and veggie with whatever I have on hand).
Another thing that I love to use in meal preparation is my crockpot or slow cooker! My favorite thing in the world is to combine the freezer meals with the crockpot! take the “Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff” recipe that my family LOVES, I usually just put all of the ingredients on one ziploc bag, freeze it, and then dump it all in my crockpot the day we are going to eat it. Cooking just cannot get any easier than that!! I recently discovered SlowCooker365 and have tried a few of her recipes. I have to say that the Beef Bourguignon really was amazing and everyone in my family liked it…a lot!! She has a very interesting story behind her site as well, so take a few minutes to look around!
The last thing that makes me feel on top of my life is something that I learned about in the forums at DST (isn’t their new site decor cute!?). Motivated Moms really helped me feel like I was getting things done in my house each day without being overwhelmed. I have a tendency to work really hard, but then only see what still needs to get done, which can be discouraging. For some reason having a list that I can check off each day and knowing that everything WILL get cleaned if I just follow the schedule, makes all of the difference in the world to me. Now, I found this site a couple of years ago, but didn’t buy the new calendar for 2009…until a few weeks ago. I have to say that I am so happy to have this back in my life! I forgot what a difference it made! You can see a sample here. When I was trying to decide if this would work for me, I printed the sample and worked through it for a week…it actually only took me a day or two to decide it was what I needed. You can buy the rest of 2009 for $2 at the bottom of this page or 2010 at the top.
So there you have it… A couple of simple things that help ease my stress. What about you? Do you have some resources of your own you can share?
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October 4th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Great post! Organization and cooking — two things I love to do, and want to get better at!
If you’d like a book of recipes that you can make 2, 4 or 8 meals out of (much like OnceAMonthMom), try The Big Cook. I have had it for over a year, and have found the recipes to be kid friendly and easy to prepare.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Cook-Deanna-Siemens/dp/0973961406/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254658425&sr=8-1
I’m having a baby in February and plan on doing a “big cook” in Dec/Jan to see our family through those busy early months.
I found the Motivated Mom calendar a few weeks ago myself — what a coincidence! So far so good — I like checking stuff off lists. To make it work for me (a working mom), I view the entire week of tasks and do them as I have time, rather than trying to do them on a specific day. I will definitely be purchasing this again for 2010.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am a single woman with a busy profession. Spreading time between work, family, boyfriend and my photography/scrapbooking passions, it always seems like household chores around my condo get pushed to last priority. I looked at the samples, and immediately purchased the last three months for 2009. This is exactly what I need: a doable list of daily tasks that will keep me on track to keep a tidy, clean home.
October 4th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Okay, so which one did you buy? I was thinking maybe the Half Size Page Per Day with Bible Reading. I really need to schedule computer working time in there so my day doesn’t get sucked into the computer. Balance is good. And, so are clean floors. Not that I would know anything about that . . .
October 4th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Lots of great info! Thanks Steph, have a fabulous Sunday!!
October 4th, 2009 at 11:47 am
We literally purchased a crockpot yesterday, with no real idea about what to cook with it. Your post couldn’t have been timed better!! So once I have checked out SlowCooker365, I will have a look at the other websites. Thank you.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I recently found (and signed up for) SavingDinner.com . I like the fact that they give you the menu and shopping list. This past week has been great!
October 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Sometimes I think that the American passion for “labels” it’s a little strange. I didn’t know that a OnceAMonth category existed, ready to be applied to several things.
I do a semi OnceAMonths, or better OnceAWeek cooking: when I bring home a fair amount of veggies or meat I cook them all in the same day. Besides I don’t like out of seasons stuff (like fresh tomatoes in january), so I freeze the last tomatoes sauce for the winter in september (I’m Italian so pasta sauce is a must…), or the pumpkin for risotto in november.
Ciao, Ari
October 4th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I’ve been doing OANC for several years. And it really simplifies life. BTW, if someone is unable to do it on a monthly basis, weekly works incredibly well. Over the years I have created my own cookbook of favorite recipes with shopping lists and full meal plans. Those full meals plans can be a life saver when the week/month is going to be hectic.
Here’s my tip for meal prep between Thanksgiving & New Year’s: In November we prepare & freeze full meals, except for perishables, to take us through mid-November through New Year’s. Yes guessed it, the year before we started this we were stressed in getting dinner on the table during the holidays. We drcided things HAD to change. It takes a lot of stress out of the holiday season.
October 4th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I read this post and almost cried! I am American, but living in an Asian city in a stressful job that requires me to be at work around 16 hours a day. I have a full time, live-in maid who does all of what’s on the daily list for me.
But you have no idea what I would give to be able to do all of that and not have to work! I made the decision to not have children and focus on my career. Well, in my late 30s, I now have been promoted as far as I can go, but would love to quit work, have kids and do housework (or keep working an easier job and have kids and do housework). Never thought I would miss it – but I do!
Grass is always greener in someone else’s yard, but I know that if I could, I would change things!
Anyway, it’s 2am on Sunday and I’m still working and thought I would share to maybe encourage everyone that, in a small way, you are blessed to be able to do housework =) I’m jealous!
Take care everyone! And have a great week!
October 4th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Kelleigh: I got the two-days-on-one page – I’m always concerned about my paper output – trying to recycle and all that good stuff.
Janey: I would have loved the SAHM life too, but it never happened for me. I could work 16 hour days too, but I’m lucky enough to be able to choose not to, in my workplace. Don’t get me wrong – I work evenings and weekends as necessary to meet deadlines. But I don’t work 70 and 80 hour weeks regularly, like many others do. There are trade-offs – I don’t get the same raises every year that some others do. But I bet I’m happier than many of them, because I have time for hobbies and family. And I plan to retire in 5 or so more years, if my portfolio will allow. I’m envious of your full-time household help. Unfortunately, it would be far too expensive here in Canada. About 10 years ago, I did have someone come in twice a month to do housework, but let her go eventually. She never put in the full time she was supposed to be, and didn’t do tasks she didn’t like (e.g., scrubbing the shower; moving furniture to vacuum underneath it). Might as well do it myself, I thought. Of course, that assumes it will get done
October 4th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
When my children bring me a book, instead of telling them I am playing a game or in the middle of a blog post, which leads to whining and crying and trying to climb on my keyboard…..I set my laptop aside and read the book! It has made life much less stressful
October 5th, 2009 at 12:32 am
I just bought that Motivated moms calendar, I’ve always wanted to be organized enough to do a little bit every day but it never ends up going that way. Laundry is my enemy, I swear my kids clothing is multiplying in their closet as I type. So thanks for the great tip. I also wanted to let you know I did a layout using the digifiles #8, you can see it here if you like:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=790320&cat=500
October 7th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
LOVE the Once a Month Cooking… I’m thinking about trying it – it sounds right up my alley!
For cleaning, I’ve been following the Fly Lady technique for a couple of years and it has changed the way I look at cleaning and de-cluttering. The site is a bit hard to get used to, and makes my eyes hurt a little (LOL), but I seriously couldn’t live without my FlyLady cleaning plan!
Great post, thanks!