Getting started with OAMC or bulk cooking is up to you and is a highly personal decision. The meals that take the bulk of our time are main dishes for dinner so I always recommend that a person start with them and add side dishes, breakfast meals or baked goods later.

How to approach once a month cooking is also an important decision. The way you cook needs to fit in with your family and your schedule. There are many people who enjoy the convenience of bulk cooking but don't have the time or energy to invest in a true once a month session. There are many ways to bulk cook here are a few:

1) Cook 23 different recipes and have 20 different meals frozen (some are side dishes). I am not a fan of this method because I don't get the time savings that I can get with other methods. However, the variety in this method is the greatest. You will find this method in the Once a Month Cookbook by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Langerborg

2) Prepare Master Mixes and then complete a minimal amount of cooking on the night you serve the dish. You will find this method in the Make A Mix and More Make A Mix cookbooks by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward & Madeline Westover

3) Cook large batches of a few recipes resulting in many meals in the freezer but not a lot of variety. This is my favorite method. I find that it doesn't take me very much longer to make 6 batches of spaghetti sauce than it takes to make ONE batch of spaghetti sauce. By making marinara sauce, lasagna, mashed potatoes, casseroles and other things in batches of 6 I can REALLY stock up the freezer in a short period of time. Batch cooking is also a great way to shop at warehouse clubs and make sure that you use all of the groceries you purchased before they go bad if you have a small family. For example, my family of three would never be able to consume a #10 can of mushrooms before it goes bad but if I make white sauce with mushrooms and marinara sauce with mushrooms I can use the entire can of mushrooms save money and not have any waste. Bulk cooking also allows you to stock up on an item on sale and then plan a meal around it and freeze several batches of the meal for a great money savings. If top sirloin is on sale and I buy 3 pounds of it and we eat two dinners, we have saved money. However, if I buy 20 pounds of top sirloin and make Crock Pot Swiss Steak with it we can eat 14 meals with the sale meat and save MORE money. Of course, we will want to space out these meals over a period of several months so we don't get tired of a certain meal. Bulk cooking is an especially good way to take advantage of meat that is on sale.

4) Cooking week is another method that I have used with great success. I will plan on the first day, shop on the second day and then on day 3-7 I cook a large batch (6) of one recipe each day. At the end of the week I have 6 batches of the 5 meals= 30 meals in the freezer. This is a great method to use for dishes that require marinara sauce or white sauce as a base. The first day you make your base sauce and then on the subsequent days you assemble each dish that uses the sauce. For example marinara sauce is cooked on day one and some is bagged for veal parmesan, spaghetti and pizza, day two make lasagna, day three manicotti, day four cannelloni and at the end you will have 6 batches of each of the 6 meals or 26 meals with only four days of cooking.

5) Never make a single meal. This is a very easy way for beginner's to get started and to experiment. If you are unsure if a recipe will freeze, simply make a double batch- eat one that night for dinner and then freeze the second. Leave it in the freezer for at least two weeks and then see if you think it makes an OK freezer meal. There are some meals that do not lend themselves to freezer cooking and you will not want to double or triple them, however when you are making a meal that will freeze well ALWAYS make a double, triple or quadruple batch and freeze the extras. You will cut down on your cooking time and always have a full freezer.

6) Precook meat in meal size batches. Having browned ground beef, cooked chicken and cubed ham ready in the freezer allows you to toss together a quick meal at a moments notice. 

6) Combine the methods listed above and supplement them by grilling, crock pot cooking, soup or stew night, chain cooking and others....