Meet Kimberly

I’ve been with OAMM since way back when it was called “Once A Month Mom,” in 2011.  As a matter of fact, I still say “Once A Month Mom” in my head when I read “OAMM.” I stumbled on the website while looking for the perfect baby shower gift for my new friend and got hooked on the freezer cooking idea.

I was living in New Jersey at the time and was really lonesome for my Louisiana home.  I met a girl at church who was pregnant with her first baby.  I had two winter babies and my newest was born in Delaware on a chilly January morning just a few months before.  Our family was pretty fresh on what you REALLY need with a newborn in the winter.  Grocery shopping is a hassle (to put it lightly) and cooking is a luxury you just don’t have the time or energy to do for a while. Really eager to make a friend and give a practical shower gift, I decided to dive into OAMC.

The blessing to our family was two-fold.  Not only did we give a really loving gift to welcome baby and make new lifetime friends, we also had delicious meals stowed away in our own freezer.  Since all the recipes were doubled, we got to try the same meals our friends were enjoying. I’ll never forget the day I told my friend we had frozen enough breakfast, lunch and dinner to last her family two weeks after the baby comes.  She was so surprised and grateful that she couldn’t choke back the tears.  It turned out to be a greater help than either of us had imagined when she got really sick at the end of her pregnancy.  She was able to use the meals then and allow herself the time to get the rest her body needed to get well before the baby arrived.  We enjoyed chatting about which recipes we’d tried and which ones were a hit with our families.  I still believe it was the best gift we could have given.

Without a doubt, the Easy Assembly filter is my favorite feature!  We make goat milk soap, teach art classes and operate our growing business out of our home.  We also have five sweet children ages 13, 12, 8, 4 and 8 weeks old.  Oh, and we homeschool!  By now I’m sure you can see why I love easy assembly meals! Just last week I was able to put 10 meals in my freezer by noon, all while homeschooling and taking care of the baby. It is so convenient to have a place to run and grab a recipe I know will be quick and easy to put together for dinner or the freezer or both!

Here’s the kicker: we’ve managed to squeeze all our lovely children and our booming little business into a 3 bedroom trailer home. And no, it’s not a double wide. My kitchen is what you would call “modest” for sure.  Counter space is limited to say the least. We use a regular old refrigerator/freezer and no, it’s not the “side by side” kind.  Now, all that may sound a little ungrateful, but I’m actually really proud of us for being able to do as well as we have in such a tight space. We don’t have room for things we don’t need, which simplifies life for us. I have a blender and a hand-me-down food processor my mom gave me that was a wedding gift to her almost 30 years ago!  Why don’t they make kitchen gadgets like that anymore?  Anyway, that’s it for my appliances unless you count the toaster and coffee pot.  I use magnets to hold my cooking day instructions on the hood of the stove and keep my recipe stack on the counter to the right. I use the counter space to the left of the stove to keep all my chopped ingredients in bowls so I can just dip out what I need for each recipe with my measuring cups.  I use the dinner table to keep the freezer bags, pans, foil, plastic wrap and sharpie within arms reach.  It forms a nice little triangular workspace.  As soon as a meal gets bagged it goes into the freezer.  I may have to rearrange things a little when I’m finished, but at least I don’t have more out than I need while I’m bustling about in the kitchen.

READ THE STUFF!  Don’t you dare try to do a full cooking day without doing your homework first!  You’ll be in tears at 2:00 AM when you’re trying to finish up and the baby wakes to be fed…again.  Can you tell I’ve learned the hard way?  When I first started we didn’t have this genius e-mail series to get you off on the right foot.  There were great articles with virtually all the same information, but it wasn’t handed to me like the email guides are now.  Did I do my research? Did I read over the steps and recipes? Obviously not!  I ended up with cabbage that wouldn’t roll because I didn’t read ahead to know it needed to be frozen and thawed first.  Whew, my first attempt was a doozy, but I got it done and learned a few things in the process and it only cost a couple hours sleep and some less-than-perfect cabbage rolls.

Well, the above-mentioned fail happened on my very first OAMC day.  You would think I’d have the hang of it now.  Truth be told, history tends to repeat itself.  Just last week, I was working on a mini menu and somehow (sleep deprivation?) browned ALL the ground beef instead of just the one pound it called for.  So, then I had three pounds of cooked meat and no way to form burger patties from that.  I was pretty bummed about having to make another trip to the grocery store to finish the menu, but decided to not let that ruin my day.  The menu also included a crockpot chicken enchilada soup, so I thought it would be just as good as a beef enchilada soup and subbed in some of the browned meat.  That left just less than a pound of cooked meat so I put it in it’s own little freezer bag for a taco salad later in the week. Then I finished my menu up to the burger patties, cleaned the kitchen and ran into town and bought more ground beef. I also picked up some buns and we had half of the patties for dinner that night.  No biggie!

My children are almost always underfoot and wanting to help.  I try to find little jobs they can do like picking the menu, shopping, counting out bags, cutting out labels, eating the bell peppers as I slice them. While it doesn’t always feel like help, I think it’s super important to use life’s teachable moments as valuable learning opportunities.  One of my favorite things to do with my family is gifting meals.  My grandma came for a visit recently, and we were able to send her home with some of that scrumptious “beef” enchilada soup.  It felt so good to be able to give a meal to someone who is always giving to us.  We also like to give meals to families with new babies, friends recovering from sickness or surgery and residents of a local women’s shelter.

The hardest part is the actual cooking day.  For me, doing anything without interruptions is virtually impossible.  The phone is ringing, the baby is crying, someone needs help with their math assignment and the UPS guy is at the door needing a signature all while the onions are sautéing and the beef is browning. Whew!  Sometimes I feel like I need to be Elasti-girl to do the level of multitasking necessary.  I made a joke recently that I feel like I’m doing the job of three people.  Then I needed a babysitter while I taught the monthly “Painting in the Park” class and my mom shows up with two other family members to help.  I guess that wasn’t really a joke after all!  But, when it’s done and the meals are tucked away neatly in the freezer and the kitchen is clean again (for a minute), I sit back and smile and feel so very accomplished!  Then for weeks I, don’t have to worry about what’s for dinner or menu planning. The best part is my kitchen doesn’t get messy every evening!  I can throw together a quick side and voila! Dinner is served! The children LOVE taking turns picking what’s for dinner each night, and since they pick the menus they are excited to try the meals that initially caught their eye.  My husband loves it too! He is like a kid in a candy store when he can browse our freezer snack stash in his midnight kitchen raid.  An added bonus is he isn’t as tempted to bring home pizza when I’ve already thawed dinner for the night!

These are all quick and easy to throw together, absolutely delicious, and always result in cleaned plates at our table.  Plus, they have fewer ingredients to juggle and two of them are crockpot friendly (hello Sunday dinners).  I included the granola bites because my husband really enjoys having snacks handy and the whole family likes to pick through the snack stash in the freezer.  I feel so much better having homemade treats available for them instead of processed ones.

If you don’t feel like committing to a full month cooking day, DON’T! You can pick a couple meals to go in your regular menu plan or meal rotation for the week.  Then as you’re making dinner each night, make double and freeze half!  Even if you only do this twice a week, you’ll build up a freezer supply pretty quickly.  Then when you come home late, have ball practice or want a stress free Sunday dinner you’ll be ready!