Meet Once a Month Meals member Lindsay, wife of an E.R. physician and mom to 6 (and one on the way!) Come join them in the kitchen and see how all 8 of them help OAMC.
Earlier in the summer, Lindsay created our 10,000th custom menu in Menu Builder. For helping us hit such a huge milestone, we rewarded her with a one-year Membership. We loved chatting with her about how she and her family cook together, and we thought you would enjoy hearing their story as well!
The Hoangs, including their 2 precious girls adopted from Africa. The children are currently 9,7,5,3,2, and 2.
How long have you been once a month cooking? How did you discover OAMM?
We have been using once a month cooking for 3 years, right after the birth of our 4th son. I discovered OAMM during a Google search two years ago. I was seeking more creative and interesting recipes. After we adopted our two daughters, almost 2 years ago I knew we had to be consistent with our once a month cooking. I needed accountability with planning and fewer trips to the grocery store. OAMC has given us creative recipes so we aren’t bored with repetitive meals.
Welcome to the Hoang Kitchen.
Give us a brief introduction to your kitchen. Do you involve other people when you OAMC?
We have a large farmhouse kitchen, and our entire family is involved in cooking day. My husband and I get a babysitter the day before and go to the store alone. The night before we gather all of our supplies and go over our list of steps to begin recipes. If we’re not too tired, we begin chopping vegetables. The following morning we begin cooking, and our children gather all the foil tins and help cut out labels. The older one’s brown ground beef or help assemble casseroles, get out ingredients, etc.
Lindsay’s husband and children are all involved in their big cooking days.
What is the number one tip that you would give to a first timer?
My advice to a family starting out with OAMC is to be patient and realize it will become easier as you continue each month. You will learn ways to be efficient with your time and money. Cooking day is an exhausting day, but it is so worth it when you’re not in the kitchen cooking day after day.
What is your favorite OAMM resource?
I love the labels and automatic steps that are ordered based on an efficiency of time. In addition, I love the ability to swap recipes and make my own menu based on a variety of recipes.We pick between the whole foods and traditional menus. We make a variety of casseroles as well as meals to go in the crockpot. We usually make around 35 hamburger patties each month. We pick 9 servings for each recipe, which ends up giving us about 3 meals of each recipe. 
How is OAMC hard? How does it make your life easy?
Once a Month Cooking has been a huge blessing to our family. We have definitely learned how to be more effective in our time. We started off buying a binder to store all recipes and list of the steps. During cooking day we make notes to the recipes and possible substitutions we made to ingredients. As the month progresses, and we eat the meals, I make notes on which recipes we really enjoyed or which ones we might not make again. Because we are a family of 8, soon to be 9, we make about 3 meals with each recipe. OAMC has allowed us to enjoy more time together out of the kitchen, but also given us time to make homemade desserts or bread to go with each meal. We are very grateful for OAMM and plan to continue our membership as long as its available.
(We really appreciate Lindsay welcoming us into her kitchen even during this busy season of life for their family. We wish them well as they welcome another little one into their busy kitchen!)
**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!**