Once a Month Cooking

Whenever I cook a time-consuming meal, I try to at least double the recipe so I can freeze the other half for a dinner later in the month.  I have been wanting to apply the economies of scale to dinner planning and prep meals on a larger scale to make the most of the time, energy, and money I put into cooking for my family.  I've recently become motivated by a lot of "once a month cooking" posts I have seen on Pinterest and I finally took the plunge this week.   

Three days, 13 hours, 18 recipes, and $308.91 later I have 32 meals in my freezer for my family.  Not bad as that works out to only $9.65 per meal and each meal will include leftovers.  I figure these meals with last us at least 6 weeks or so as I'll probably continue to cook one or two nights a week.  I just need a break from cooking Every. Single. Night.  My only regret is not waiting until the weekend to do my cooking when I could have some help with kids and dishes.  I had a plan for doing all my prep work one day and all the cooking the next.  I ended up just jumping in and my lack of organization (and managing kids and other stuff throughout my days)  added hours to what it could have been.  Next time I do this, I will definitely enlist Scott's help with childcare and dishes....I'm guessing it would have cut about 5 hours off my time. 

In case you are interested in doing something similar, here's what I made... 
(1) All Day Flank Steak
(2,3) Tamale Casserole
(4,5) Crockpot Stroganoff
(6,7) Italian Beef Sandwiches (doubled and will use extra meat for Beef Tacos)
(8,9) Chicken Delicious
(10) Autumn Stew
(11,12) Sausage and Vegetable Stew
(13,14) Cashew Chicken
(15) Chicken Cacciatore
(16,17) Arizona Chili
(18,19) Chicken Waikiki
(20,21,22,23) Tuna Casserole
(24,25) Shepherd's Pie
(26) Marinated Flank Steak
(27,28) Kielbasa and Sauerkraut
(29,30) Pepper Steak
(31) Lasagna
(32) Spanish Rice

Quick Tips:

**Meat is cut more easily when it's partially frozen.  Pop meat in the freezer for a few hours before slicing.

**For crockpot dishes, I labeled the bag with the recipe name, date, and any necessary instructions.  I placed a gallon ziploc in a medium mixing bowl and folded down the edges of the bag so they were inside out (this way any ingredients didn't drip on the outside of the bag when assembling).  I then put all ingredients together in a ziploc bag, closed it up, and layed it flat in the freezer so the contents would freeze that way.  After frozen, you can line it up/stack it up however will best fit best for you.

**For casserole dishes, I prepared the dish as much as needed and then placed in a disposable casserole dish.  I covered with foil, labeled it recipe name, date, and any necessary instructions.  I then wrapped the entire thing in Glad Press N Seal (love.that.stuff!) to seal it up real well. 

**For recipes I will heat up on the stove, I cooked the meal in it's entirety.  I then let it cool and dumped into gallon ziploc bags as I did with the crockpot meals. 

I'm curious if anyone else does this mass cooking in their home.  I'd LOVE for you to share your favorite freezable meals with me.  Most of what I came up with here was because I needed to use up certain items in my pantry or freezer.