Is it possible to do this without a lot of cheese and milk? (the classic cassarole?) What do you cook?

I don't, but I wanted to say that I admire all those who do. :D

Val

Funny~ I just googled this yesterday! There are several websites about it and even a Yahoo group (so I've heard). I guess there are a couple cookbooks too. I am very interested in trying it out. I have a friend who did it for awhile and she said her grocery bills went WAY down. I want to stock our freezer up before my new baby is born next Spring :)

Sorry I didn't have an answer to your question about the dairy content~

BTW, if you are buying a book, my favorite is The 30-Day Gourmet. They were the best for really telling you HOW to do it, how to adjust your own recipes, etc. They have several e-books, a website, and a free monthly newsletter.

I am re-adjusting from going off of our GF/CF diet. It took a lot of retraining my brain, and it had just about become automatic, and now I'm not sure where the balance is for what we should be eating. It felt like our former diet was dairy-heavy. I am definitely making plans for freezer stocking before our baby is due in January. I don't know that I will do a full 30 days at once, more likely doubling and tripling of a recipie here and there...But I'd love to get a month's worth of food in the freezer!

Occasionally I have done it. Not super healthy recipes unless you just do chicken or something but you can always add a salad or veggies on the side.

I've wanted too, but that was my problem too, none of it seems very healthy! Same reason I haven't tried one of those "Dinner's Ready" or "Dream Dinners" places.

I HATE cooking, I hate long ingredients lists. I wish I could cook all our meals for the month in one day and have it be healthy. :(

Good luck. I'm still searching for my solution..

2 yahoo groups I am a member of

OAMC (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAMC/)

Freezer Friendly (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Friendly-Freezer/)

I'm dairy free and so this so it can be done. I batch cook which means I triple or quadruple any recipe I'm making and freeze the extra. I love it because I have to only clean up once. I make roast's and gravy, meatloaf, chili, taco meat, chicken tenders and roasted chicken. Spagetti sause is good as well. I totally second the 30 day gourmet. It is a great book. HTH Sarah

I did this while I worked, and it was gorgeous. thescramble.com. You can google "The six o clock scramble."

Aviva Goldberg is the owner, and she is super- nice.

It's a newsletter she sends out each Wednesday. It opens with a menu of five dinners, with sides. It has an essay of some form. Then it has the recipes, with the sides. And then, best of all, it has the shopping list, organized by section- frozen, meat, canned, etc. It is truly a thing of beauty and ease. It has one fish dish per week, two or three vegetarian meals, and two others. The others have vegetarian options. It works out to about $100 per week, the fridge is cleaned out at the end of the week, nothing lingers in the back of the pantry. It's all healthy, most of it is 30 minutes or under.

I loved it. I miss it. My family misses it. I hope to be back on it, at some point.

Oh yeah, it works with weight loss plans, and she includes all the dietary info.

It's five dollars a month, with discounts for long term subscriptions, and it's completely, totally worth every single penny.

ari

i did for a brief while together with mamaxt.

given the two jobs it looks like we are going to be choosing from, i'll be starting it back up probably by the end of this month. it knocked my grocery budget for a family of 5 to about $350/mo, including stock ups of dairy/produce.

xt's family was more veg than mine so we had some things different, she used TVP where i would use meat and such (we have soy allergies so that wasn't an option for us) but overall we blended fairly well until our diets went in different directions after a while.

i'm not so fond of the health factor for the recipes, but for the budget i'm going to do it again for a while...

I don't, but generally each week I make 4 batches of 2 different meals I freeze. They are generally vegan, so no dairy, obviously.

I have a cookbook from the 60s called "Ten Talents". It's pretty preachy in places(Christian) but vegan and lots of great recipes and many of them freeze well or make ahead. It's 'old fashioned' too and not add one can of this, one cake mix, and a jar of this. It's real ingredients and super crunchy ingredients! You can still get it at www.tentalents.net I highly recommend it....if you aren't Christian...just ignore those parts ;) The recipes are good and the advice is great! NO animals products, NO sugars (other than raw honey which doesn't count ;) )

"A COMPLETE NATURAL FOODS VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK AND HEALTH MANUAL EMPHASIZING MAN'S ORIGINAL DIET (Genesis 1:29). A sensible approach to dietary nutrition featuring nutritious cholesterol-free vegetarian recipes containing fruits, grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and herbs. Compiled without animal products or refined sugars, low in fat. Covers foods rich in protein, essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. More than 21 chapters include Glossary of Natural Foods, Daily Food Needs, Baby Foods, Beverages, Breads, Desserts, Fruits, Grains, Herbs, Meatless Main Dishes, Nuts, Seeds & Olives, Salads, Salad Dressings, Sauces, Creams, & Gravies, Soups, Sprouts, Vegetables, Meal Planning, and Miscellaneous. Complete cross-referenced index (dish-main ingredient) plus chapter indexes. You can find just what you want in seconds. Practical tips and information are included. Highly recommended for the novice or the experienced homemaker. "

We do once a week cooking and when I can, I make and freeze extras so I have a few meals in the freezer.

LOL, I actually have that cookbook. Can you tell me what recipies, in particular, you make ahead from it?
Thanks,

I don't do real once a month cooking, but every sunday I'll do two or three double batches of stuff, so that I have a bunch to put in the freezer. The non-dairy that come to mind right away are tomato sauce and meatballs, beef stew, and chicken stew. Some dairy-included but still healthy are veggie lasagna or spinach stuffed shells - those are my kid's favorites!

The stuffed peppers will freeze well though the peppers will definitely be softer then if baked 'fresh'. But, when peppers in season and I can get a bunch of them for cheap at the market, or HFS, I'll make ahead several batches.

Eggplant Parmigiana will also freeze well.

And I used to make the Wheat Gluten ahead to use in lots of recipes...but....I am allergic to wheat now! I should try with spelt flour and see if that works.

Not a recipe in there, but I'll make black soybean and tofu enchiladas in corn shells and freeze those I make a cheese with nut. yeast, raw cashew, and tofu or we use regular cheese if we have it.

I also make many of the salads on a Sunday and we eat on them for most of the week with other things we eat.

Thanks! Sunflower Mama, will you share your vegan meals??
:)

Thanks! Sunflower Mama, will you share your vegan meals??
:)

Right now I'm cooking a lot out of Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, by Lorna Sass.

She has an AWESOME curried chickpea stew with coconut milk that freezes well. I also do Cuban Black Beans, and the Gingered Adzuki-Squash Stew, oh, and black bean chili. We do the frozen stews 2-3x/week, so I'm not doing all meals ahead. Then, I make a big ole pot of brown rice a few times a week and serve the frozen meals over that.

serve with whatever veggies look good and a big salad.