Around our house evenings get hectic when school is in session. By the time your kids get their homework done, and you run them to all their extra evening activities, it’s a challenge to put a healthy meal on the table. I like to try to be prepared ahead of time, so dinner preparation during the week can be a quick process.

Here are a few things I do to make our week nights a little easier:

Break out the crock pot. In the fall when the weather starts to get a little chillier I enjoy soups  and meals I can throw …read more

Beef and linguine casserole makes a great freezer meal! You can double, triple, or whatever this recipe so that one is ready tonight and more are ready for another day The basics of Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) can be found at the link, and I’ve got other great OAMC recipes here.
Beef and Linguine Casserole
8 oz cottage cheese
1 c plain yogurt
8 oz cream cheese
1-1/2 lb ground beef
Green pepper, chopped
Onion, chopped
Salt
15 oz can of tomato sauce
16 oz linguine
1/4 to 1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
To make and serve immediately:
Mix the cottage cheese, yogurt, and cream cheese …read more

This stew is so amazing that you won’t care that it takes awhile to make! The preparation time can be cut down considerably by doing once a week food preparation, but even if you have to chop and cook everything same day, this recipe makes a stew worth waiting for. I usually cook and simmer mine in a large stock pot, but you can brown and cook the first few ingredients in a skillet, and then dump them into a crock pot to slow cook all day.

Beef Burgundy Stew
1-1/2 lb stew beef, floured
Olive oil
1/2 t thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay …read more

Asian casserole is a hot dish of comfort food! It has lots of familiar tastes if you grew up before the time that we’d discovered a lot of now-common ethnic cuisines. This was about as exotic as my family got, back in the day, and of course we called it “Oriental Casserole” back then
The casserole is an easy thirty minute meal, and can also be made as a Once-A-Month-Cooking dish. Make a double batch, and you can have one tonight and save another for later in your freezer!
Asian Casserole
1 lb ground beef
1 stalk of …read more

Cooking Light has a special feature on their website with the recipes for seven amazing reader-tested slow cooked dishes.  I’m particularly looking forward to trying the recipe for the Char Siu Pork, shown below.

Char siu is a Chinese version of barbecue. Serve with sticky or long-grain white rice and a steamed or stir-fried medley of bell peppers, carrots, snow peas, sliced baby corn, and water chestnuts.
Yield
8 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork and 1/4 cup sauce)
Ingredients
* 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
* 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
* 3 tablespoons ketchup
* 3 tablespoons honey
* 2 …read more

Delicious delicious vindaloo sauce! The spicy tomato sauce described below can be used with chicken, pork, and lamb as well as with vegetables. We particularly love it with just vegetables, though, and as one of our vegetarian meals for the week, we don’t even miss the meat!If you do decide to add meat to the dish, you can add a cinnamon stick
If you’ve done once a week food preparation, this meal will go together really quickly, but it needs to simmer for a long time in a crock pot to be its best. It’s a great make-ahead …read more

Here’s a super-easy Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) recipe that you can throw in the crock pot this morning and eat tonight, or that you can prepare really easily and freeze for future meals. To make this for a freezer meal, pre-cook the tenderloin in a minimal amount of water in your crock.
Slow Cooked Pork Tenderloin
1 – 2 lb pork tenderloin
2 – 3 c apple juice or cider
1 – 2 c cranberry sauce
Sesame seeds (optional, to add before serving)
To make as a freezer meal, combine the pre-cooked tenderloin with the juice and sauce in a freezer container and freeze. …read more

This is a great Once-A-Month-Cooking recipe that you can double, triple, or quadruple very easily. For extra speed in preparation, you can use one of those 1.25 oz packages of taco seasoning and a can of prepared chili. Usually, I would prefer that these things be homemade, but sometimes for OAMC recipes, we’ll make an exception!
Even if you don’t get into OAMC, this is a great recipe to make ahead, either early in the day or even a couple of days ahead.
Taco Soup
2 – 15 oz cans chicken broth
15 oz can diced tomatoes
15 oz can black beans, drained …read more

Do you have turkey for Christmas as well as for Thanksgiving?  Apparently lots of people do, while others indulge in prime rib, ham, lasagna, or all of the above    So, here’s something you can do with the double scads of turkey that you now have sitting in your freezer: make this great turkey mole, which you can double or triple and freeze for later.  This is a great Once A Month Cooking recipe: simply reheat in the oven or a skillet, and serve it over rice with chopped scallions for garnish.
Don’t forget the list of Leftover Turkey …read more

Guest authors: Acme Burger Company, Salt Lake City
Website: Acme Burger Company

 
Bison Chili:
1 ea yellow onion med dice
6ea cloves garlic sliced thin
4 ea dried chipotle
1 ea dried ancho chile
3 ea cascabel dried chile
4 tbs dark chili powder
6 lbs ground bison
1 #10 can tomatoes
4 c black beans, cooked

Bring your pan up to a medium heat. Add about two ounces of olive oil and add onions.
Sauté onions until translucent.
Once onions are translucent, add garlic, and all of your chili peppers. Stir occasionally and cook for 5 minutes.
Add chili …read more