Once a month cooking--month 2

We had some great meals last month with our first attempt at cooking for a month. But I have to admit that I think this month is going to be even better. From the research we've done, the prepping should only take us one day....but with several small children underfoot (including TWO sets of twins) it took us two full days this month. We don't mind, though. We love to cook and we get to spend lots of time chatting and solving the world's problems :-)

Things we learned....
*shop the sales. We did that this time and saved a boat load on meat
*have the butcher prep the meat for us. GENIUS! This saved us so much time. We had him cut the sirloin "fajita style" for the stroganoff and it was perfect. We also had him run some of the chicken through the meat tenderizer to flatten it (no pounding)!
*prep meat first
*freeze flat so the meals are not in the shape of balls
*freeze with cardboard between so there is no sticking

Here is what we prepared this month with almost all recipes coming from the book, "Don't Panic, Dinners in the Freezer," a book I won at MOPS 2 years ago.
1. Broccoli Cheese Soup with chicken (I tasted this and decided I couldn't wait, we are having it tonight)!
2. Taco Soup
3. Beef Pita Taco's
4. Beef Stroganoff
5. Honey Pecan Chicken with cream sauce
6. Lemon-Glazed Chicken
7. Chicken Cattitore
8. Black Bean Chili (Annmarie)
9. Italian Crescent Pie from Pillsbury (repeat from last month at our families request)
10. Chicken Pot Pie (Annmarie)
11. Manicotti
12. Sweet Potato Stew with chicken (Rebecca S)

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