Save time, money cooking once a month

It's not easy to save time and money when feeding your family. But through "once-a-month cooking," Nancy Baca has saved up to $300 a month in groceries and as a bonus, usually doesn't have to worry about cooking dinner when she comes home from work.

Instead, the public relations manager can spend time with her grandchildren, experiment with new side dishes or just put her feet up and relax.

Baca is able to do so because she cooks about a month's worth of family dinners in one day and freezes them, then uses the time-bake feature on her oven to bake them while she is at work.

She started "once-a-month cooking" 17 years ago after her husband Lawrence purchased a how-to book that he had heard about on the radio. The idea appealed to her because she was trying to balance a busy schedule with raising three children.

"We were going to home-school the kids, so that meant we were going to be extremely busy," Baca says. "With my part-time job driving a bus, I would get up in the morning and take off, he would feed the kids breakfast and go to work, the kids would do chores and when I would come home we would do the school work.

"So we thought `Well, when are we going to cook?' He heard about a book called "Once-a-Month Cooking" on the radio and said `Let's look into it.' At first, I thought `Oh my gosh, how am I going to do it?' "

As she found, it wasn't that difficult.

Once-a-month cooking entails preparing several dinner entrees, such as King Ranch chicken, meatloaf and cheesy corn casserole in one day. To prepare for the big day, Baca chooses the recipes, makes a shopping list for every ingredient needed, then "shops" for items she may already have in her kitchen before browsing various dollar stores, Big Lots and Walmart for the best prices on products that she needs to purchase.

"When you see the big list, you think `Wow, I can't afford this,' but you don't have to buy it all at one time," Baca says. "You can also shop way ahead of time when the items are on sale, then plan your cooking day a month down the road after you've bought everything."

Once she has all of her ingredients, Baca schedules a day to cook from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (with a couple of breaks and lunch included). While she prefers to bulk cook all in one day, she says that there are other options.

"You can cook ahead for just two weeks rather than a whole month or you can do shortcuts, like preparing all of the meat for your dinners," Baca says. "That way you will at least have the meat ready for dinner and don't have to cook it that same day, which is usually the most time-consuming part of preparation."

Baca also separates some ingredients into serving sizes for recipes. For example, she has two-cup portions of shredded cheese stored in her freezer. She also makes hamburger patties and freezes them on a baking sheet so that she can easily heat them up for barbecues or parties.

There are also ways to make the day of bulk cooking easier, according to Baca. "Before you cook, put on comfortable shoes, get an empty trashcan and keep the sink full of water and wash dishes as you go," she says. "If you wash up as you go, it makes a big difference because you can use the same bowl over and over again instead of having eight different bowls.

"And do things in groups. If you have six dishes that need browned beef, brown all the beef at one time and make those dinners first."

Once all the dinners are cooled, labeled and ready to freeze, Baca makes a list of dishes that she has prepared to keep inventory of her freezer. She also stores some items, like lasagna, in disposable containers so that she can take dishes to parties and give some as gifts to sick friends.

People with smaller freezers can store some food in heavy-duty freezer bags to store food more compactly, she says. There are other storage options for single people or couples.

"People who don't have a large family, but who are still interested in doing this, can halve the dinner. I don't mean halve the recipe, I mean halve the dish," Baca says. "Get two smaller dishes and put some of the dinner in one and half in the other, so that you have actually made two dinners out of one."

Baca usually freezes items for up to two months, though she doesn't freeze all types of food. Through experience, she has discovered that onions, potatoes and spaghetti don't freeze well. She also waits to do some finishing touches, such as topping a casserole with cheese, for the day that she will eat it.

"There are some things you don't do. For instance, it might say `Top with cheese and bake for 15 minutes,' but obviously you're not going to freeze it with the cheese melted then cook it again for a long time," Baca says. "So instead, time the dinner for 15 minutes from when you expect to be home, so that when you get home you just sprinkle it on."

Now that Baca's three children are out of the house and with kids of their own, she only bulk cooks once every other month for her and her husband, and occasionally for her children's families. As an avid gardener and active church and community member, Baca still enjoys the ease of cooking ahead of time. She says that it is not only more convenient, but that it is also healthier than eating take-out or at a restaurant and it lacks the preservatives usually found in store-bought frozen dinners.

"In this day and age, everyone needs to feed their kids healthy food, have time to do it and save money," Baca says. "If you just take the time, you can budget and do what you want to do."

Here are some of Baca's own recipes:

Cheesy Corn Casserole

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 (17-ounce) can corn, drained or 2 cups frozen corn

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup small-curd cottage cheese, drained

1 tablespoon flour

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In skillet, brown beef and drain off fat; reserve. Spread corn in bottom of 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking dish. Combine eggs and cottage cheese; spread mixture over corn. Stir flour into browned beef; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add tomato sauce and garlic to meat mixture. Layer meat mixture on top of cottage cheese and egg mixture.

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Serves 6.

Per serving: 460 calories (56.3 percent calories from fat), 28 g fat, 165 mg cholesterol, 820 mg sodium, 15 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, 33 g protein.

Chicken and Rice Pilaf

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Paprika, to taste

1 1/4 cups chicken broth or water

1 cup raw rice

1/2 envelope dry onion soup mix (about 1/4 cup)

1 (10.75-ounce) can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup

2 tablespoons pimentos (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper and paprika. Mix chicken broth, uncooked rice, onion soup mix, undiluted soup and pimentos, if using, together. Pour mixture into an 11-by-7-by-1 1/2-inch baking dish.

Place chicken breasts on top of the rice mixture. Bake, covered, 60-75 minutes or until chicken and rice are tender.

To prepare ahead: Cover with foil and freeze. Thaw chicken dish. Bake uncovered in a preheated 375-degree oven for 60-75 minutes or until chicken and rice are tender. Serves 4.

Per serving: 390 calories (17.6 percent calories from fat), 7 g fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 1,250 mg sodium, 48 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 31 g protein.

Taco Pie

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

(3 1/4 cups browned)

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles, drained

1 cup biscuit baking mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 tomatoes, sliced

1 cup grated mild cheddar cheese

1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream

1 tomato, chopped

Shredded lettuce for garnish

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, cook and stir ground beef and onion until beef is brown, about 20 minutes; drain. Combine beef with taco seasoning mix and spread in a 10-inch pie pan. Sprinkle with chiles. Beat biscuit baking mix, eggs and milk until smooth. Pour milk mixture over beef. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Top with sliced tomatoes; sprinkle with cheese. Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Top with sour cream, chopped tomato and shredded lettuce; cut into slices and serve.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Per serving (based on 8): 450 calories (62.1 percent calories from fat), 30 g fat, 150 mg cholesterol, 720 mg sodium, 18 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, 24 g protein.

White Chili

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast

Salt, to taste plus 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided use

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup chopped onion

1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), undrained

1 can Great northern beans, undrained

2 cans diced green chiles, undrained

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Shredded cheese your choice

Tortilla chips, for serving

Boil chicken in 3 cups of water with salt, approximately 20-25 minutes; reserve broth.

Cut cooked chicken into 1-inch cubes. Heat olive oil in Dutch oven; saute garlic and onion until tender; stir in chicken, beans, chiles, cilantro, cumin, remaining salt and cayenne pepper. Add enough of the reserved chicken broth to reach desired consistency; heat through.

Serve topped with shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

Serves 6.

Per serving: 270 calories (14.2 percent calories from fat), 4.5 g fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 990 mg sodium, 26 g carbohydrates, 8 g dietary fiber, 33 g protein.