Second Go at Slow Cooker Monthly Meals

I finished my second night of Once a Month Cooking last night.  This time around, rather than using a menu that was set up by someone else for their family, I searched through the internet and some cookbooks to customize a menu for us.  The result:  4 weeks of meals (plus two weeks of lunches and some snacks and breakfast items) for $194.32.  I feel really pleased.

I tailored the menu to foods that I knew we would eat, with a few new recipes I wanted to try.  Last time, all of the recipes were new, and honestly, it was too much.  Every night was sort of a gamble, and while we did like a lot of them, particularly the Thai Coconut Chicken, it was kind of like playing dinner roulette.  I prefer to know that, at least 5 nights out of seven, we will for sure like what we're having.

One of the new recipes we tried

That said, here is our menu for dinners:

--Turkey Chili with Apples
--Creamy Chicken Stew
--Slow Cooker Jambalaya
--Saucy Pork Chops
--Beef Fajitas
--Pizza (this is not done in the slow cooker, we make dough in the bread machine)
--Breakfast for Supper
--Chicken and Dressing Casserole
--Island Pork
--Hashbrown Casserole
--Italian Stew
--Tacos
--Spaghetti

Each of these recipes were doubled so that we could eat them twice in the month.  We had our first new recipe this evening, and it was super good!  You can find the recipe here.  It is so autumn-y and filling!

Turkey Chili with Butternut Squash and Apples---Yum!

In my next blog entry, I'm going to make a list of things I wish someone had told me before I started Once a Month Cooking.  I'm sure as I go along I will think of a million more!