Once-A-Month Cooking: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Every Day

This is a great book to help you organize your meal preparation and save time. I was skeptical because so many similar books have recipes and ingredients my family and I just wouldn't eat. Mom was a from-scratch-only cook and I developed the same snobery - which has made cooking hard for many-a-year.Once A Month Cooking has taken me over the hump, with delicious and nutritious recipes. Each recipe section offers plenty of variety, so you're not eating chicken or hamburger for 30 days. The master ingredients list cut grocery shopping to 70 minutes. The easy to follow cooking plan and simple recipes, put hot home-cooked food on the table nightly with a minimum amount of preparation and fuss. Hallaleuah!I'm so happy with this book that I've shared it with 3 friends. We are planning a cook-for-a-month day together to supply 3 families with meals. One of them said, "If you ever get depressed, you can cheer yourself up by thinking 'I have a whole month worth of meals in the freezer.'"

I originally found this book in my local library. I checked it out, did a 2 week plan with my sister and we loved it so much I bought the book. The recipes are tasty, quick and not your normal frozen dinner. We have found double check the quantities to the recipes. Like 9 pounds of chicken might not be the right amount of breasts when it comes to the recipe. Either way we love it because this saves me from the dreaded question.... "What's for dinner?" This book also has some great side dishes and I loved the table conversation ideas. This book is worth every penny!

My daughter gave me this book for Christmas because I don't like to cook but need to restrict sodium and fat and therefore have to cook. I'm 66 yrs old and have been cooking since I was 8. I like the explanation of the process and of how to vary it. I started with the 2-wk low fat series. Since I am now a family of one, I had to cut most of the recipes in half or even thirds. With the help of a photocopy of the master shopping list for that cycle, I had no problem deleting the items for recipes I didn't like and adding items for my own preferences--mainly more fish and vegetarian meals. Even so, I got more than a month's worth of meals, with considerable repetition, which I don't mind. It has also inspired me to measure out baking mixes for both quick breads and my bread machine, also portions for hot cereals that I need to eat for the fiber.I am now working on refining this technique for another cycle with more heart healthy recipes. It's not the solution for everyone but, with some thought can help both the busy person who has to cook for a family (which I once was) and for others who need to control both their diet and their budget. Warning: this isn't a "money-saving" plan per se. It helps because there is less waste and, with thought, can be more economical.

I did a 2 week cooking session and was not sure if we would enjoy all the meals. We are ale to stretch this into 4 weeks with other quick and easy family favorite meals (tacos, chinese) once a week and a weekly left over clean up night. Well I have to tell you so far everything we have had my family really enjoys. The Mexican stroganoff was fantastic. The best part is now we pick what we want the night before and pull from the freezer. I can come home, warm dinner, read have a glass wine waiting for the timer to go off. Clean up is a snap. So far the only family complaint I have had was there was not more to have as left overs.

I purchased the first edition of this book about 20 years ago when I was a nursing student. I cooked during school breaks and fed my family inexpensive and healthy meals all semester. I have used the Once-Month system since college. My old copy is battered and well used.I recently purchased the current edition. I am very happy with the new recipes. We especially like the Baked Jambalaya and the Twelve Boy Curry.

We started out with a two week plan. So far, the meals have come out delicious! We spent the whole day cooking, and the grocery list provided was pretty much perfect, unlike others have suggested.. we ended up with very few "left over" ingredients. This book saved us lots of money on groceries and lots of time and effort figuring out what was for dinner. Since there are only two of us, we actually got nearly an entire month of food out of a two week plan!! Definitely worth the $$ spent on the cook book.

I have used this book 6 or 7 times - I would not recommend it to some one cooking for the 1st time - tons of errors - If you are doing a whole menu it is OK but if you don't like fish or something else it is difficult to edit the shopping list - We have found 10 to 15 meals that we love - I cook them x 3,4,or 5 - last time I did the Sopa de Maiz 6x It is always a crowd favorite - My 2,4 and 8 year old love it. I used 3 containers of it for our play-off party last weekend. So all in all good recipes and good concept - just be prepared that it does make you think and be on your toes, and hey w/ all the left over ingredients you can come up w/ your own recipe.

It was in good shape and came quickly

I love the monthly plans but could do with blank monthly meal plans. I love the monthly shopping needed for that month. All the menus were so easy to follow. Well worth buying if, like me, you want easy meals to cook in one slow cooker

Die Rezepte sind für mich nicht so gut umsetzbar, zu amerikanisch. Allerdings haben die Hinweise zu Lagerhaltung und der Art des Einfrierens mir sehr viel gebracht, ich verborge das Buch laufend. So simpel all diese Ideen sind, im meinem Umfeld ist noch niemand draufgekommen. Man spart damit viel Zeit und Mühe- und es ist erstaunlich, was man alles einfrieren kann und wie viel man auch in einem kleinen Gefrierfach unterbringen kann1

this book is realy rubbish! i bought it for starting out doing freezer meals. found it useless! found better books!

Love this recipe book but it was not in great condition.

Think there could be simpler recipes. Some of the ingredients were expensive.Tried several menusand decieded to make my own.It WAS a learning experience..