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Once-a-month Cooking (OAMC) – there are hundreds of web sites, groups and books that talk about OAMC – recipes & plans to live this way always. Ask your friends, family, people at Church for referrals, or do a web search.
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Grocery shop and stock up on basics to keep in the pantry – pasta, pasta sauce, boxed meals, bread mixes, canned food, soup, cereal, food bars – food that is easy to prepare. It may be a while before you feel up to grocery shopping again.
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Grocery shop for frozen food items, already prepared – frozen meals, meat, bread, vegetables, fruit, desserts, breakfast items, crock pot meals.
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Costco & Sam’s Club – check out the many wonderful prepared food items they have in stock, buy several of the ones that look good to you.
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Crock pot meals – any meal that is started, put together, seasoned, ready to stick in the crock pot to cook. OAMC web sites have great recipes for crock pot meals. You can also now buy frozen crock pot meals, all ingredients in a bag, at the grocery store – simply open bag & dump in crock pot.
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Find out if your grocery store delivers – if not, there is probably one near by that does. Most have an option of placing an order online, and having it delivered.
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Milk delivery – your dairy delivery company probably delivers more than just milk – you can use this service to get weekly delivers of milk, eggs, cheese, bread, butter, cottage cheese, juice and more. Some even deliver fresh produce and cookie dough!
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Cash – if your room has budget to spare, have a stash of cash – and when you need help with a meal, ask a family member or friend to pick up take-out food for you, or order from a restaurant that deliveries.
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Farmer’s market – if you have a friend or family member that visits a farmers market on a regular basis, plan ahead to have them pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables on their visit. Then you can having something healthy (and easy) to eat or snack on.
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Rice – purchase a rice cooker and large bag of rice. Rice only takes a few minutes to get ready to cook. You can then serve whatever you have in your freezer, fridge or pantry with the freshly cooked rice.
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Hamburger meat – cook ground hamburger meat & freeze in separate bags – enough for one meal for your family in each bag. These are easy to pull out & easily add to spaghetti, tacos, lasagna, taco soup, sloppy joes, chili, pizza, casseroles, soups, burritos, enchiladas, and more.
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Hamburger Helper - Now that you have cooked your hamburger meat, life couldn't be easier than Hamburger Helper. You can stock up on Hamburger Helper boxes, often on sale for $1 each. Then simply pull out your pre-cooked hamburger meat from the freezer. Okay, so maybe you wouldn’t want to eat like this forever, but occasionally during a busy time, it is quick & easy.
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Soups – prepare your favorite soup recipe, and then freeze it. (don’t use pasta or potatoes, try barley instead … or cook rice the day you actually eat the soup, and serve the soup over the rice. Pasta will continue to absorb the liquid of the soup, and turn everything into mush).
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Chicken – cook large quantities of chicken in a stock pot. Freeze, and pull out for meals later – salads, tacos, wraps, pasta, rice, and more.
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Marinated meat – you can simply put raw meat in a freezer zip-loc bag, with a marinade that you like, and then freeze. Do several bags at once. Later, you pull out one bag, and stick it in the crock pot to cook.
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Double or triple-batch cook – for the month or two before the big event – cook double or triple of everything when you cook your daily meals, and then freeze half of the meal immediately for later.
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Stock up on protein shakes, protein bars, meal replacement bars, granola bars and snack food that you can easily eat when you are hungry, but don’t have the energy or time to even warm a meal up.
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Meals on Wheels - see if you qualify to have meals on wheels delivered to your home (check out senior citizen centers in your area for leads).
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Personal chef - find a chef to come in once a week and prepare enough meals for the week.
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Hire a Mom - find a stay-at-home Mom in your neighborhood or Church, and pay her to cook for you - have her double her own cooking each day, bringing a new meal to your home each day.
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Adapt your own favorite recipes - cook ahead & freeze.
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Check out recipes from the following web sites & try out a few once-a-month recipes:
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