Cook Once and Eat Twice Weekly Menu

The cook once and eat twice method of cooking is quickly becoming a favorite for many busy cooks. This will be the first weekly menu in a four part series. To see the basic guidelines for this cooking plan, see the article,'How to Cook Once and Eat Twice,' at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/753769/how_to_cook_once_and_eat_twice.html?cat=22 .

This will be a dinner menu, however, you can apply the cook once and eat twice method for breakfast and lunch, too. Keep in mind this is what my family likes to eat. You may need to make some adjustments to suit your family. Since this is being written in the summer, I've tried to keep the meals versatile. Most of the main dishes can be either cooked inside, or out on the grill. Recipes for this menu can be found in an article titled, ' Cook Once and Eat Twice Weekly Recipes, Part One.'

Sunday's Menu: Baked Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese, Green Salad with tomatoes, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Rolls

1) Season and bake two whole chickens or one ten pound bag of hindquarters. You may cook the chicken on the grill, if desired. You may even want to make Tuesday's and Wednesday's meat now, if you have enough room on your grill.

2) Wash and pierce enough russet potatoes to feed your family for two meals. Bake in the oven, or put on the grill beside chicken. Check potatoes after 30 minutes to determine doneness. If you don't have enough room on the grill, you can cook the potatoes in the microwave.

3) If using fresh broccoli, chop enough for two meals. If you are using frozen, you may want to prepare only enough for this meal, or you can go ahead and cook enough for both meals. Make two batches of cheese sauce.

4) When making the rolls, double the batch and freeze half, or buy enough for two meals and freeze half.

5) Make extra salad. This will be the base of tomorrow's meal.

One chicken (or some hindquarters) will be served whole tonight. The rest should be deboned and put in three zipper freezer bags. Refrigerate one bag and freeze the other two. Use the drippings in the pan to make gravy.

As the potatoes become cool enough to handle, peel the skins off enough for tonight's meal. Place the peeled potatoes in a bowl and proceed with your favorite mashed potato recipe. Refrigerate unpeeled potatoes.

Monday's Menu: Chicken Chef Salad, Crackers, Canned Soup, if desired

1) Add your favorite salad ingredients to yesterday's extra green salad.

Some suggestions are: sliced bell peppers, red onions, olives, mushrooms, shredded cheese, cucumbers, salad dressing, bacon bits, and croutons.

Mix in the chicken from the zipper bag in the fridge. You may use it warmed or cold. Serve with crackers and soup, if desired.

Tuesday's Menu: Pork chops, broccoli, cheese and rice casserole, mixed veggies

1) Grill or saute' enough pork chops for two meals. Divide and refrigerate or freeze extra. You will use the extra pork chops on Saturday. (Since that is four days away, I would freeze them. As a general rule, I freeze anything that will be left in the icebox longer than three days.) You may want to grill tomorrow's meat today, to save even more time!

2) Cook double the amount of rice your family will eat for one meal. Store half in the fridge. Mix hot rice with reserved broccoli and cheese from Sunday. You may top this with French fried onions, if desired.

3) Add favorite seasonings to canned, frozen, or fresh mixed veggies and heat in the microwave.

Wednesday's Menu: BBQ Beef Ribs, Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Whole Kernel Corn

1) Grill enough boneless ribs for two meals. Do not put barbeque sauce on half of the ribs. Freeze the half without sauce.

2) Peel reserved potatoes from Sunday. Make potato salad.

3) If making homemade baked beans, double and freeze half. If you are using canned, then you will only need enough for this meal.

4) You may choose to cook extra or frozen or canned corn today, or wait until Saturday to prepare the extra.

Thursday's Menu: Pinto or lentil burritos (with all the trimmings) and Spanish Rice

1) Cook pintos in the crockpot (enough for three meals). Lentils take less than an hour to cook, so I always cook them on the stovetop. You will need to triple them if you choose to use them. Make whichever your family prefers. Divide and freeze two portions.

2) Chop extra tomatoes and lettuce for tomorrow's meal.

3) Add any other extra's your family enjoys on burritos. My family likes onions, salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

4) Use Tuesday's reserved rice to make Spanish rice.

Friday's Menu: Nacho Supremes

1) Heat up a can of your favorite chili. Sprinkle over tortilla chips along with the extra burrito topping from yesterday.

Saturday Menu: Glazed Pork Chops, Cream Cheese Corn, Company's Comin' Green Beans, Rolls

1) Thaw pork chops from Tuesday. Heat in skillet with apricot or peach jelly.

2) Use reserved corn from Wednesday to make cream cheese corn.

3) Make a double batch of Company's Comin' Green Beans. Refrigerate half.

4) Thaw and warm rolls.

At the end of this week, you will have the following extras left:

2 packages frozen chicken

2 packages frozen pintos or lentils

1 batch Company's Comin' Green Beans

Some of these will be used for the Cook Once and Eat Twice Weekly Menu, Part Two.

As a quick reminder, you can find the recipes for this menu in the article ,"Cook Once and Eat Twice Weekly Recipes, Part One'.

To review the guidelines for this cooking method, read 'How to Cook Once and Eat Twice,' at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/753769/how_to_cook_once_and_eat_twice.html?cat=22 .