Once A Month Cooking
November 30, 2006 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Food and Drink
Just in case our “Easy Health Tip #12: Cut Prep” wasn’t extreme enough for you. There’s a whole Wikipedia entry dedicated to taking this concept to the next next level:
The concept of Once a month cooking, or OAMC, is to spend a set time cooking, be it a day or two, but with an end result of having enough meals to last through the whole month. OAMC recipes usually involve freezing (either before or after cooking) until the dish is needed.
The primary advantage to this method of cooking is to save time over the course of the month by buying groceries in bulk on the cook date. There are some other substantial advantages, however:
- Saved food resources: buying what is needed and preparing it into a finished dish right away rather than losing track of it or losing it to spoilage
- Saved energy: cooking several dishes at once means less pre-heat time and better use of the energy that is being consumed
- Saved money: having a ready supply of finished meals makes it less tempting to eat out because “you’re just too tired to cook”
Naturally, as with any home cooking, it is best to cook dishes that are diverse when one practices OAMC. It is important not only to vary the flavors of these dishes but also to consider the nutritional value of each dish. Since these dishes are going to largely comprise the eater’s diet, it is essential that the different dishes allow for all the nutrients that the eater needs. Therefore, the preparer of the dishes should have some rudimentary nutritional training else the eater could be consuming only starches and quickly become anemic or have some other vitamin/nutritional deficiency.
The benefits are attractive, but it would take some serious planning and definitely an extra freezer around my house to do a project like this.
[tags] cooking, OAMC, once a month, planning, meals [/tags]
