Take Two: Ginger and Old Favorites

This month's menu:

Chili Con Carne
Asian Chicken
Roast Beef Sandwiches Au Jus
Grilled Fish
Ginger Beef (modified)
BBQ Pulled Pork
Sweet and Hot Pasta Sauce
Baked Herb Fish
Aztec Quiche
Spiced Citrus Chicken
Honey Sesame Chicken
Sweet and Sour Ginger Chicken
Sloppy Joes

Yesterday, I started cooking a little after 11 am again (this seems to be when I get really moving on a Saturday), and was totally done by about 3 pm. Not all of this time was cooking, as I made a point to take a break and put my feet up for about 5 minutes every hour.

This month I also tried many more family favorite recipes. Last time, I just did what the book told me. This time, I used some recipes from the same book as last month (the fish recipes, sloppy joes, roast beef au jus, and aztec quiche). The rest are linked to the source, except BBQ pulled pork which is so easy I don't use a recipe. Just roast the roast in a slow cooker, drain and shred, and mix in as much barbeque sauce as it takes to make it a good texture.

I was somewhat less prepared this month than last month, but here is a step by step of my preparation:
1. Defrost 16 chicken breasts in microwave. (Should have taken them out and put them in the fridge a couple days before cook day... but this worked fine.)
2. Put them into 2 roasters and cook 50 minutes at 375*F.

3. Defrost 2 lb hamburger in microwave. Brown in frying pan.
4. Chop all veggies - 1 head broccoli, 3 carrots, 3 inches ginger. Juice lime. Separate 13 cloves of garlic.
5. Defrost round steak. Slice.
6. Assemble Beef recipes:
Chili - put together first, simmer in saucepan.
Sloppy Joes - assemble in frying pan beef was cooked in, simmer 10 min

Ginger Beef - cook steak slices, cook veggies (undercook slightly), assemble sauce. Froze this in 3 separate bags.
7. Assemble Chicken recipes:
Cube all chicken and divide into 4 containers.
Mix up each sauce, dump into one container. Label and freeze.
8. Assemble Pasta Sauce recipe. Simmer while doing fish recipes.
9. Assemble Fish recipes:
Put marinade or coating in bag. Freeze near fish.
10. Make sure everything is packaged and ready to be frozen!

The major gains of OAMC are in the things that are shared - cooking 4 meals of chicken at once, then splitting. Cooking the hamburger together and splitting saves dishes and time. Using the garlic press all day, then washing it at the end. Slicing a big chunk of ginger up all at once.

This month's menu is a little light on vegetable content, but veggies are easy to serve as a side. I typically microwave frozen veggies or microwave steam fresh veggies - either way, they take less than 5 minutes. Typical starchy sides will be potatoes (also often microwaved), rice (brown or white or a mixture), buns (the triangle ones from Costco), and whole-wheat pasta.