This is my favorite recipe from the Once a Month Cookbook that I mentioned yesterday. The Once a Month cooking concept is this: work hard in the kitchen one day, doing lots of prep cooking, chopping, and freezing so that the rest of the month the workload is minimal in the kitchen. This is a VERY efficient concept, and can save lots of time. If you are interested in the idea, I definitely recommend the book.
The positives to this approach are probably obvious, but I will briefly bullet point some of my thoughts:
-Gets the planning of meals knocked out for an entire month.
-Saves you money by not having to run to the store over and over again all month. (every time you go to the store you buy more than you anticipated)
-Find a sitter for a few hours one day so you can plug away at all the prep work, and not be so frazzled at dinner time the rest of the month if you are a mom with little kids who start nagging a lot around 4:30 each day. 🙂
Negative, from my opinion:
-There are lots of meals planned out in the book. Some are great; some not so great. If you are not a picky eater, and your family is open to eating whatever you set in front of them, this may be a great option for you. The chances, though, that you family would like all of the recipes on any given month long plan in the book is quite slim…which would require you to tweek each list, and meal plan outline, requiring more time.
What I do:
I love the concept of chopping, freezing food, and getting it available to use for future recipes. I chop and freeze lots of vegetables when they are a SWEET deal that is too good to pass up. The other week my grocery store had broccoli for 29 cents a pound! I bought 10 pounds of broccoli, steamed it, and froze it in ziploc bags for future recipes. Doing it this way saves money, saves time later, and creates less dishes to clean in the long run. The next time I need broccoli in a recipe, I will just thaw out what I need.
Having said all that, here’s my FAVORITE one that I could eat everyday, if only it were healthy. 🙂
- 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
- 1 (6 -8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon chives, chopped
- 2 tablespoons milk
- salt
- 1/2 cup seasoned croutons, crushed to crumbs
- 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
- 1/4 cup melted margarine
Directions
Mix chicken, cream cheese, chives, milk, and salt in a medium bowl (mixing with hands works best) to make filling, and store in a 1 qt freezer bag.
Put crouton crumbs in another 1 qt bag, attach it to bag of chicken filling, and freeze.
Refrigerate crescent rolls.
To prepare for serving:
Thaw chicken mixture.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Unroll crescent rolls.
Each tube will contain 4 rectangles of dough with a diagonal perforation.
Press dough along each perforation so the rectangle halves will not separate.
Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture into the center of each rectangle.
Fold dough over the filling, and pinch the edges to seal tightly.
Dip each packet in melted margarine, and coat with crouton crumbs.
Place packets on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes 8 packets.
supermom says
i have a recipe similar to this. i was surprised how much i liked it. i love having them in the freezer and then I can pop them out for lunch. they are really good!