Monthly Cooking Attempt: Take 2

I wondered last time if this monthly cooking thing would work or not. I was excited, but a little nervous, but so far so good! Its kind of fun! We've learned a lot since the last time around.

1. Zucchini does not freeze well. It just becomes rubbery, and yucky.

2. We needed a lot more containers.

3. As we've cooked new things throughout the month, we've made bigger batches and froze them as well.

4. Sautéing veggies and portioning them out is the best time saver!

Since last time we have added

*More chili

*Chicken Casserole & Hamburger Casserole (for the non vegetarians in the family, aka not me.)

*Basic Pasta with Marinara sauce. Easy as can be and so very nice.

*Vegetable Lasagna

*More Apple Bean Bake (So amazing!)

*and Nacho Sauce

We've also added a new addition

This is our lovely new fridge that Dave and Mike helped us finally get into the house this weekend. We're in love. After living with the one that was already here when we moved in for a few months we really needed something new because it was tiny. Hopefully this week our plumber (and my bishop) Bishop Dispain will have time to come by and hook up the water so we can finally have water and ice in the door again. We had that in the old house, and have very much missed it since moving here.

Today's cooking was smaller in some respects, but is giving us more variety.

One thing that isn't different is the sautéing of veggies. Mmm...so yummy!

We also used up the last of our sautéed veggies from last time to make two kinds of potato cheese soup. One basic potato cheese with velveeta cheese.

The other a spicy potato cheese soup I invented one fast sunday up in Logan. I didn't have any cheese wiz or velveeta, but I wanted potato cheese soup, so I threw in my Salsa Con Queso that I had in the fridge. It turned out just lovely, and has become a staple in this house hold.

We had some bananas going ultra ripe, beyond edibility, so we also made some amazing banana bread. :)

And our last big project this time around was homemade whole wheat bread. We ground our own wheat flour and everything. It's lovely and the house smells HEAVENLY!!!

We're only a month in, but so far I am loving this once a month cooking. We spend a little more on groceries when we actually do this cooking, but it has cut my average weekly bill from $45 down to $15. I like that aspect a lot.

Definitely planning on keeping this up, because it has been awesome.