Once-a-month cooking. Frozen assets. OAMC. Meal assembly. Whatever you call it, cooking many meals in a single session banks home-cooked meals--and precious family time--for busy home managers.

What's not to like about freezer cooking? Economies of scale speed cooking chores. Buying in bulk saves money. Home preparation fosters good nutrition. New options like "meal assembly franchises" help home cooks build frozen assets quickly.

Whether you cook once and eat for a month, sneak up on freezer cooking, or fill the freezer fast from the meal preparation storefront, get ready to feed the family--fast!

A freezer can be a powerful kitchen friend for food storage, menu planning and convenience, but to use the freezer to best advantage, you have to know what's inside.

Okay, so our free printable freezer inventory form isn't for everybody.

Check out this clever freezer inventory solution from blogger Lunch In A Box: refrigerator magnets.

Using magnetic freebies, color photos from the weekly food ads and a bit of creative inspiration, she's created a simple, visual reminder system to keep track of freezer contents:

Magnets To Track Freezer Inventory

Printers ready? Here's a super resource for freezer cooking: printable labels for frozen foods. They've got that Martha style, but come with a super innovation: an embedded calendar to make it easy to mark the "frozen on" date.

Martha advises using a full-page label paper to create stick-on labels, but it's simpler and cheaper to print on inkjet paper and slide the label between double freezer bags.

The printable is in .pdf format, so you'll need the free Adobe Reader to print:

Freezer Labels to Print

So, what do you eat if you're trying freezer cooking?

Take heart! Many favorite recipes adapt well to freezer cooking--and it's not all casseroles and lasagne.

These family recipes have been specially adapted for freezer cooking. They include a range of entrees, side dishes and desserts.

Familiar favorites, these recipes illustrate how to adapt cooking methods for freezer storage:

You've heard about bulk freezer cooking. Whether you know it as once-a-month cooking, freezer assets, OAMC or freezer cooking, the idea sounds intriguing. In a single day, cook and freeze dinner entrees for a month--or more.

But the work! Loaded down with toddlers or balancing a full-time job, you can't imagine devoting two full days a month to shopping, preparing and cooking all those meals.

Take heart! Freezer cooking is not just for the energetic. Try these strategies to build your frozen assets:

• what is freezer cooking?
• what are the benefits of freezer cooking?
• isn't freezer cooking a lot of work?
• what if my family doesn't like the recipes?
• my freezer is too small to store 30 entrees!
• how do I start?

what is freezer cooking?

Computers and cookbooks are a tasty combination! Today's cooking software makes meal planning--even planning once for a month's worth of dinner entrees--nearly effortless. Improved import-export capabilities permit capture of recipes from on-line services or text files; software menu plan and shopping list functions spell an end to tedious hours of sifting, sorting and listing. Recipe junkies are in food heaven as the Internet shares thousands of recipes available for the downloading.

Game plan in hand, you're ready to shop and cook. Try the following sample game plan for your freezer cooking session:

Shopping Day:

To begin, you'll need to create a freezer cooking plan. It's your road map to an easy, efficient freezer cooking session. Find a large table, spread out and get comfortable! Planning your freezer cooking session should be fun!

First things first: time. You'll need two days--one partial, for shopping, one total, for cooking--to fill your freezer with a month's worth of meals. Before you devote the time, you'll need a plan. Ready? The first step is to create a freezer cooking game plan: the menus, shopping lists and recipes you'll need for your freezer cooking session.