Once-A-Month Cooking (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Mary Wilson (Author) "What's for dinner? is the perennial, pesky question that draws you to this book..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this homemaker's equivalent to The One-Minute Manager, the authors set out a system whereby a month's worth of family dinners can be cooked and frozen in one day, ready to microwave or reheat in a conventional oven whenever needed. Their step-by-step advice on assembling a shopping list, consolidating tasks such as chopping vegetables, grating cheese, browning meat, etc., undoubtedly saves time in making the stews, casseroles, chili and ham loaves with which they illustrate their points. But then the reader has side dishes to consider, as well as the inconvenience of flipping back and forth between what are essentially ho-hum recipes. All in all, this is an unimaginative parry at kitchen efficiency. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selections.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

The perfect book for busy people who need to spend less time in the kitchen, yet don't want to sacrifice quality meals, whose authors provide two different, complete plans for cooking an entire months meals in a single day.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (January 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312584784
• ISBN-13: 978-0312584788
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,323,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book revolutionized this busy working mom's life!!, October 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Once-A-Month Cooking: A Time-Saving, Budget-Stretching Plan to Prepare Delicious Meals (Paperback)

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.

204 of 219 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea, Not a Great Book, January 15, 2002

By	Kelly "kelly-lcce" (Kennesaw, GA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Once-A-Month Cooking: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Everyday (Paperback)

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].

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love to cook, you must read this book!, June 20, 1999

By	[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once-A-Month Cooking, Revised Edition: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Every Day (Paperback)

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!