Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book a year ago because with two teenagers and a newborn, I just couldn't get dinner on the table at a decent hour and was too pooped to clean up after it got there. This book has been an abolute lifesaver. Too many books tell you to get organized and use a meal plan--but let's face it; if I had time to sit around planning meals, I'd have time to cook in the first place. This book does it all for you. Shopping lists, meal plans, step by step directions for cooking day so that at the end, you've got 14 to 30 meals just by following their directions. And the recipes are delicious--I serve them to company all the time and no one knows that I didn't just spend hours in the kitchen. At the end, clean up is a snap when I throw away the ziploc bag or aluminum pan (which the teenagers love). I'll never go back to cooking one meal at the time!! I only regret that it isn't in print now. Please tell me there will either be a reprint or new edition because about 5 of my friends are waiting for copies.

I love the idea of "once a month cooking" and ordered this book with high hopes. I have to say that it is something of a dissappointment. There IS some useful info in the book [how to prepare for cooking day & freezing tips, etc], but it could all be contained in a 10 page booklet, easily. [Not worth [price]by any stretch of the imagination].

The book begins with a short intro explaining the theory behind OAMC that is pretty helpful and then moves into the "menu cycles", which are highly repetitive [to the extreme]. [The book includes 3 two week cycles and 2 one month cycles]. You get the same "preparation" pages before each cycle, and many of the recipes are repeated two and three times.

The recipes themselves are a problem - most of them are loaded with fat and rely heavily on prepackaged "convenience foods" to cook [ie: velveeta cheese, canned soup, refrigerated biscuit dough, roll dough, pizza dough, jarred salsa, etc] . There is one two week "low fat" cycle included, but even that relies heavily on the convenience foods and most of them don't look very healthy to me. [many of them just substitute "low fat" or "fat free" convenience foods for the regular stuff].

For anyone who would like to have a more healthful diet or who would prefer to cook "real" food from scratch, the recipes are useless.

I am glad I bought this book just in that I now understand the theory and can use it to adapt my own recipes to a 2 week or 30 day cycle, but I really can't recommend that anyone buy this book - check it out of your library and take what is useful to you. It really isn't worth the price. [Or, search on the internet - you could probably find more useful information on OAMC that way for free without even leaving your home].

I stumbled upon this book quite by accident at my public library. Since I have a busy family of 5 kids and homeschool 3 of them, I am always looking for ways to save time.

By following the shopping list, and using my coupons and club cards I saved over $102.00 on my grocery bill! The fact that everything is made in advance means no more last minute trips to the store for one or two things and walking out having spent valuable time in line and an extra $75.00. Now I just run to the dairy for fresh milk and eggs once or twice a week and that's it.

The first time I tried the recipes my daughters helped out in the kitchen and it turned into a fun learning experience and quality family time.

The recipes are easy to follow and well thought out. I didn't have to add anything at all to spice up the flavor.

Most importantly, the kids are hooked to, since they are responsible for kitchen cleanup. There are fewer nightly dishes. No more fighting over who has to scrub the pans.

Our favorites so far are the Pizza Rollups, Chicken Cacciatore, London Broil, and Split Pea Soup.

Once you get hooked, by the CD-Rom version too. There you can modify the quantity based on the number of people you are serving, as well as add your own favorite family recipes.

Now you can have delicious home-cooked meals everynight of the week with much less expense, less time and lower calories. Enjoy!

This book revolutionized the way I approach cooking. I never really enjoyed cooking before, probably due to the drudgery of thinking each day, "what on earth am I going to make for dinner tonight?" This book introduced me to the idea of cooking multiple meals all at the same time, thus reducing trips to the grocery store, reducing nightly meal clean-up (wash all those pots and pans at the same time!!), reducing food prep (ie. chop all veggies at the same time, cook all the beef/chicken at the same time, grate all the cheese at once), and reducing nightly stress!! As someone who enjoys efficient processes, I really got excited about the ideas in Once-a-Month-Cooking. So I tried my first two-week plan about three years ago. It took me two days to make 14 meals that lasted our family about a month. The recipes are far from "gourmet", but they give you great guidelines for the types of foods that can be frozen, and a we've made a couple of the recipes into family staples (the joes to go are GREAT as is the teriyaki chicken). I quickly decided that it wasn't most efficient for me to work with so many different ingredients all at the same time, so I tweaked their ideas into "chicken," "ground beef," and "spaghetti sauce" cooking days (doing this, I can crank out about 14 meals in half a day!). But the greatest part of this cooking technique that Wilson and Lagerborg introduced me to, is that I have discovered that I really do enjoy cooking. Now I cook WHEN I want to, and on the nights when I don't want to cook, I just pull some goodies out of the freezer!

I am not a fan of cooking at all and I have a friend I used to work with who mentioned the idea of cooking ahead to me a few years ago. I stumbled across the book on Amazon.com and I thought I would check it out from the library to "test" it first - I did not believe that any book would make my life easier. I have two children two and under and my husband is taking night classes - life is very hectic and dinner was always the hardest time of day because everyone is tired, the children are cranky, decisions have to be made about what to make, perhaps I then had to go to the store (as you can see we are not the plan ahead types!) This book has changed our lives! I love that someone else has mapped out for me what to buy, prepare, cook and freeze! It is still a challenge to find time to cook ahead, and generally I have to split up my cooking time - because "no interruptions" doesn't occur for moms. I feel so proud of my planning and my cooking. The recipes are easy to follow and they are good, wholesome, non-exotic(you can actually find all the ingredients at your local grocery store!) meals that my family likes. My skepticism is gone and I am buying the book today - my library copy has been returned! This will have a permanent place in my kitchen. Make life easier for yourself. Let this book make dinner decisions for you.

I looked at several once-a-month cooking books before I decided on this one. It has good recipes with a lot of variety. The biggest help is the compiled grocery list and the step-by-step guide to cooking day.

My husband and I are both in graduate school so we usually don't have much time to cook. With one day of cooking, we have a freezer full of good and easy dinners. I used a 2 week menu plan and divided each dish into two for two servings each instead of 4.

I have used and reused the original version of this book. I must say it changed my life and the way I approach meal planning. I found that doing the 30 days all at once just about killed me--it's a lot for 1 person btwn shopping, cooking and cleaning up nor is it recommended but I needed to try. I did enjoy incorporating some of my own recipes which is encouraged. Remember to slightly undercook noodle recipes and don't freeze sour cream recipes--they get watery upon thawing--try to incorporate before reheating and serving if possible. I still use the same basic philosophies a dozen years later planning meals a month in advance and including the 'Eating Out' days as suggested. I'll double and triple up on recipes and cook about 2 weeks at a time. I'm not a slave to the schedule but mix and match as the mood dictates. Now that my kids are teenagers with active schedules, the habits/techniques learned keep complaining and problems to a minimum and we still eat well. I also always have a stash to feed all the teenage boys who are inevitably here. I've thanked Ms. Wilson so many times to myself that it's a pleasure to do so more publicly. I'm looking forward to the new, updated version to sit next to my dog-eared original!

A year ago I picked up a copy of "Table Talk" which is a book written by Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg. It impressed me both with the recipes and the ideas for dinner table activities and family get-togethers. I found it truly an inspiration and it has changed the way my family eats dinner and communicates. In the book "Table Talk" the "Once A Month Cooking" book was referred to. For a year I've looked for it in various bookstores and it wasn't until I became a customer of Amazon.com that I found it. A month ago I ordered this book. This past weekend I cooked for 6 hours and now have 17 meals in my freezer. It is truly a wonderful feeling to be organized an prepared for evening meals. Weekday evenings have become the hardest part of the day in our household due to dual working parents, and busy schedules for all. This method is so logical, efficient, time saving and stressfree - just buying the groceries was easier, even though I bought twice what I normally would. With a pre- written list and virtually no decisions to make at the grocery store itself, I was out of there in half the time! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to put nutritious delicious meals on the table night after night with far less stress. This book is especially helpful for me because it allows me to prepare meals at a time of my choosing, when *I* have the energy to spend doing it, not when I have to pull something together after a tiring and busy day. Thank you thank you to both Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg for this book. By writing this book, and sharing this logical efficient method, you've provided a service that I can now pass on to my children, my husband and others.

This book has a wonderful process for organizing your shopping/dinners for a month. The recipes are both traditional and unique, My family just wonders what wonderful surprise I will pull out next. This is truly a way for the working Mom, or for those like myself- who work at home - to get rid of the "pizza man", Taco Bell, and McDonalds! I have more time, we eat better, and we definately have more quality family time at dinner- and cleanup is a breeze. The recipes do not get old and do not taste the same or boreing. Great Job!

The book is a great idea but there are some flaws with the shopping list and the ingredients that are actually in the recipe. Also, some of the recipes don't make sense in regards to the cooking day assembly schedule. Also, be aware that they say it takes only 4-5 hours of cooking for the 2 week meal plans, but in reality it is more like 8 hours. There is satisifaction having meals (main course only) ahead of time but the work is a big task. Be prepared for getting very thirsty during your massive cooking day. Have been too afraid to try the one month plan.