OAMC Update

Several of you asked me to report back after my first OAMC session was over. Sorry it took me so long; this rash/allergy business has been sucking my time right up, and combined with my upcoming wedding anniversary (March 8th, baby!) and my trip to South Carolina next week, I just haven't had ANY free time.

Let's elaborate on the South Carolina business. I'll be driving by myself with a 14 month old for 17 hours. I do have a death wish, yes. It's kind of a spur-of-the-moment trip that I just decided on but I think it'll be lots of fun if we actually survive the getting there thing.

So, back to the original point of this post. My first month of OAMC went great, but (and this is a big but), I came in at a $450 grocery budget. This is what I had originally budgeted for, but as you might remember, I assumed I wouldn't spend more than $250 after it was all said and done, giving us $200 extra to put toward debt. Yeah. That didn't really happen. First of all, Tim was out of town. I had these big meals all put together in the freezer but I didn't want to cook them because it just seemed like too big a meal for little ole me. So then I did things like swing by Target for a goat cheese/mozzarella pizza (to-die-for in case you care) and some fancy pasta and other such UNnecessities. And that still wouldn't have put me much over budget. But then the whole allergy debacle happened and I decided we needed to go on an elimination diet. One of the key points to an elimination diet is to shop all organically. Plus, do you know that goat milk is $4 per quart and Ben can drink a quart a day? Needless to say, that all really added up.

I would still call it a huge success, despite making a few mistakes. Having dinner all put together is AWESOME!

I decided to go for round 2 this month. Besides my separate budget for Ben's food (yeah, it's come down to that), I've probably spent $200 on groceries for March. We will have to make a milk run every week and we'll need to get eggs twice this month, but that's it. We have tons of frozen veggies in the freezer and all the supplies I need for bread all month long. Since I'll be gone a big part of the month, I've put together some really simple and basic meals for Tim. This month's menu is NOT fancy.

I'm behind on this whole OAMC business and will just be starting my cooking session here in, oh, five minutes. Hopefully I can get it all knocked out by tomorrow night and relax this weekend before this impending 17-hour drive.

So, the menu:

P Dubz steak bites x 2
Chile Relleno casserole x 2
Weight Watchers lasagna
Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps (minus the lettuce part...we're tortilla fans over here!)
Red Beans & Rice x 4
Spaghetti x 6 (My husband is sort of obsessed with spaghetti and since I'm gone part of March, I'm indulging him in his favorites!)
Weight Watchers meatloaf
Chili x 4
Multigrain blueberry pancakes & eggs x 3
BBQ beef sandwiches x 2
Black beans & rice
Mac 'N Cheese (Sorry to the recipe poster, but we did NOT like this at all. It tasted like cardboard. So this is leftover from last month and I just haven't been able to bring myself to eat it yet).

A few of these things aren't make ahead-able and there's a reason for that. I found that I REALLY enjoy cooking. It's therapeutic and, well, enjoyable. I just don't like to do it every day and I especially don't like to clean up afterward. So I'm thinking my ideal monthly cooking schedule will be twenty prep ahead meals and ten that I get to cook as I go. We'll see!

Anyone else doing OAMC this month?