Once A Month Cooking

Today we got our local grocery ads. I was totally befuddled. Of course we all know prices are going up, but I guess that means its time to start more cooking from scratch.

So what did I do today? I made a list of Twenty meals and some side dishes. Eight Chicken meals and Twelve Beef, all of which require very few convenient components. (Tortillas is the main one that I have yet to make from scratch) I also came up with a few sides that can be made ahead (twice baked Potatoes, potato wedges, Tater skins, hash brown casserole, Broccoli casserole) most of the rest of our sides are Rice or steamed veggies or salads or Pasta sides, none of which taste good if pre-made)

Now, I do not actually do technical once a month cooking, but I will do Cooking Kits.
I precook ground beef with onions and garlic to be used in things like, Tater Tot Casserole, Chimichangas, Burritos, Tacos (yes, we eat A LOT of Mexican foods), stroganoff and spaghetti Sauce. Altogether, I fry up 8 1/2 lbs of the ground beef for those meals and package another 1 1/2 lbs of meat into patties for hamburgers. I use quite a bit of meat in my spaghetti sauce because its a Huge batch. I use the recipe my grandpa used to make to feed their family of eight two meals, but it feeds my family closer to six meals.

Grandpa's Spaghetti Sauce (my version)
3lbs Ground Beef
1 large diced Onion
1/2 a head of Garlic Crushed and sliced
2 Quarts Diced Tomatoes
1 15 ounce can tomato Sauce
1 6 ounce can of Tomato Paste
1 8 ounce can mushroom drained (optional)
2 packets store brand spaghetti seasoning (looking for a substitute ore homemade version of this)

Brown Beef, Onion, and Garlic til no longer pink. Drain, add Tomatoes, sauce, Paste, mushrooms and seasoning. Simmer 30 minutes, adjust seasonings (to me, that means Add LOTS of Oregano, Basil and Dehydrated Garlic)
Reduce heat to low, simmer 2 and a half hours. stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

after 2 1/2 hours, begin water for Spaghetti (always first nights meal from the sauce) come back in 20 minutes, add spaghetti and cook ten minutes)
Put away leftover sauce into quart bags or prepare 2 batches (9 inch square) lasagna, and put the rest into bags each holding 3 cups or so) I usually end up with 5 quarts of sauce leftover.

When I use the leftover sauce, I thin each bag with 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce.