Meet OAMM member Karen! She is a veteran of freezer cooking who decided to try out OAMM after a 5 month hiatus.
Karen says, “Even though I consider myself a seasoned veteran of freezer cooking, I still learned valuable tips and strategies from your website and emails. Those emails leading up to my cooking day were so encouraging and engaging, making me feel like I am part of a community of brave (insane?) people rather than just one woman taking on a huge project by herself.” Come hang out with Karen in her kitchen and learn some of the tips and tricks she has learned over the years.
How long have you been once a month cooking? How did you discover OAMM?
I have been cooking this way for about five years now. I discovered OAMM (back when the last “M” stood for Mom) simply by doing a web search for freezer cooking recipes. I decided to become a OAMM member recently after having taken a break from freezer cooking (and why I ever took that break is beyond me – my family basically had cereal and tater tots for dinner for five months). I have used your website as a resource for recipes in the past, but never took advantage of your other planning materials until now.
What circumstance pushed you to give once a month cooking a try? How has choosing to OAMC benefited you and your family?
I started once a month cooking when I had my second child and quit my job in order to be a stay-at-home-mom. My husband was in nursing school at the time, and I was attracted to the frugality 
of freezer cooking as well as the way it allowed me to adapt cooking to our family’s schedule. I have even taught classes on freezer cooking from time to time. I am no chef – I cannot just whip meals together with ingredients I have on hand – but I can follow a recipe, and I do well with a plan in place. Bottom line: without OAMC, dinner sneaks up on me every night, and we end up eating something unhealthy or dining out. With OAMC, I am a domestic rock star who has a well-planned dinner on the table every night. (Yeah! Who wants to be a “domestic rock star?”)
What is your favorite OAMM menu?
I have been working really hard this year to lose weight and get in shape. I love the Diet menus because not only do they all taste wonderful, they are also low in calories. When you’re counting every calorie, you really appreciate being able to have a meal that is filling and delicious.
Give us a brief introduction to your kitchen.
I am lucky to have a large kitchen. I have lots of counter space, plus a breakfast table which I commandeer for my cooking day to lay out all my non-perishable ingredients.
The two most important pieces of equipment I use on a cooking day are 1. my food processor – the first few times I did OAMC I did not have one, and it took FOREVER to chop everything by hand – and 2. a stereo in the kitchen so I can listen to music while I cook. The day goes so much faster, and I am so much less grumpy that way. Go figure.
What is the number one tip that you would give to a first timer?
Understand that it is a LOT OF WORK to do a cooking day, but it is SO WORTH IT for the convenience and ease it gives you for the rest of the month. I have taught freezer cooking classes to several different groups, and I would say that only about 10% of the people who took my class actually do OAMC on a regular basis. The thing that turns people off is the amount of work to do on the cooking day. First time cooks should understand that they will have to do much more work on a cooking day than they’re used to, but the key is to focus on how easy your life is going to be with all those meals on hand.
Tell us about a time when you experienced an OAMC or cooking fail.
The worst thing I ever made was a recipe called Funeral Potatoes (I can’t remember if it was from OAMM or another website). It was a hash brown casserole sort of thing that apparently is popular to bring to potlucks because it is such great comfort food. The recipe called for shredded potatoes and, thinking to save some money, I bought fresh potatoes and shredded them instead of buying frozen hash browns. I didn’t know that pre-frozen potatoes have a preservative added to them to maintain their color. When I thawed out my Funeral Potatoes I discovered that the entire casserole had turned black. It looked like it was dressed for its own funeral. It was horrifying and no one would eat it. The worst part of it was that I had made three of those casseroles. I had to throw them all away uneaten.
Do you involve other people when you OAMC?
I have cooked with a friend on a couple of occasions, but I’m mostly a solo cooker. There were a couple of times when family members paid me to cook for them. I selected recipes with them, then I bought all the ingredients, cooked in their kitchens, and they paid me back my expenses plus some money for my time.
How is OAMC hard? How does it make your life easy?
One of the challenges I have faced with OAMC is with budgeting. My husband is paid every two weeks, but I cook for at least a month at a time, so I have had to figure out how to time my shopping so that I actually have $200-$300 for groceries. With my OAMM membership, my cooking day went so smoothly that I finished up in record time – cooking only took me 7.5 hours from start to finish – and under my usual budget – $200 for all ingredients and materials. The prep work instructions are so thorough and the order of tasks on cooking day are organized so well that this is by far the easiest cooking day I have ever had.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of OAMC is the sense of pride I get from it. As I mentioned before, if I don’t have freezer meals on hand I tend to forget to plan meals at all, and I’m no good at creating something on my own. Being a SAHM, I feel like it’s my job to be doing domestic things like cooking meals, and when I can’t pull it together I feel kind of lame. With OAMC, I not only have something planned for dinner, but it’s always something really great (“real cooking” instead of making something from a box or a bag).
**Do you have a unique membership story or use OAMM in an unusual way? We would love to hear about it! Send it to info @ onceamonthmeals.com with the subject: I am OAMM. Talk to you soon!**