Bake Once Eat Twice

I am sitting here and thinking about cooking again. Ok, I've been cooking ever since I left my parent's house - which was many years ago. So, what's there to think about? Well, cooking has not been one of my favorite tasks. I cook because I need to feed my family. In my heart, though, I wish I like it. I do desire to be a better cook, for my family's sake and besides, they are my main "customers". Therefore, it is important for me to cook to their taste (well, not always but most of the time).


Next to cooking, the biggest challenge for me is to come up with a dinner menu (or method).


I heard about this "once a month" cooking method - I know someone who does (or did - haven't talked to her lately) that. However, when I suggested it to Robert, he was not as thrilled as I thought he would be. He likes freshly cooked meal. So that idea went out the window.


But since we started our Total Money Make Over, I had to think of ways to cut back. One of them was the usage of oven cooking (to save on the gas bill). I decided to try the Bake Once Eat Twice method. It seemed to work out fine. So far I've only tried the up-side-down meat loaf and the enchilada casserole. I doubled the recipes on Monday but eat them on Tuesdays* and Sundays (I l.o.v.e the no cooking Tuesdays and Sundays now!) :) This also takes care of 8 days of the month's menu planning!
* I am changing it to Tuesday's dinner because I want to take advantage of the oven heat for a roasted chicken or baked potatoes. I also noticed the meat loaf and the casserole some how tasted better after a day or more in the freezer. I suppose it gave them more time to "soak in" the flavor.

Oven Roasted chicken, another family favorite - I am planning on making this hearty dish twice a month - on Monday nights, before baking the meat loaves or casseroles. Potato bar or Chicken Pot Pie are on the two alternated Mondays.

Wednesday nights are usually very hectic so I always try to make something very simple to save the day! Ha! This is when I will make taco dinner or BBQ chicken (marinated the night before) and mashed potatoes with an easy green salad.


Every other Thursday will be seafood day - fish or shrimp with a hearty salad.


The other Thursdays are Spaghetti and meat balls with bread sticks!

We all love home made hamburgers and French fries, We eat them every other Fridays - when Robert is off work because he likes to grill the burgers himself.

On the other Fridays I will make a Chinese meal.

Saturday will be Pizza day! The kids never seemed to be tired of eating pizza! I usually make two kinds of pizzas, one with Italian sausages and the other - you guessed it! - CHEESE! :)


To keep things simple and within the budget, this will be our dinner menu for a while.



Jenny's roasted chicken (during marination - I will try to take a finished picture next time. :))


Saving Dinner's Baked Rigatoni.


Sakaida's Low sodium Chicken Pot pie!