I just found this program, and was wondering if anyone has it or has used it?? I just bought the cd that combines all 3 on amazon for $30.00...and am very excited to see if it will truly work.

My BFF is having a baby in the next couple of weeks (due Nov. 15) and I'm planning on making her and her DH a bunch of meals they can keep in their deep freezer so she won't have to worry about preparing meals when she's getting settled into having a child and figuring out the breast feeding and everything else. My BFF is 33 and this is her first child, she's been told since she was 14 that she would NEVER have children, and if by some unforseen miracle she was able to conceive she would NEVER be able to carry to full term! Well, God had different plans for her obviously and we are soooooooooooooo excited. Sorry..

Anyhow, does anyone have this program and if so...do you find it helpful?? It looks awesome!

http://www.30mealsinoneday.com/products.php#software

I especially love that it automatically fills in all the little labels with the directions for the recipes you choose (so cool!)

nobody has it??? That's not a good sign........maybe it's not as awesome as I'm thinking

For those of you that don't feel like clicking the link, basically it allows you to choose from over 700 recipes (you can add your own too) and it arranges a grocery list and prints out labels with "finishing instructions" on them and it claims that it will help you to make a whole months worth of food in one day with just a few hours spent cooking and then you won't have to think about dinner again for a month.

My BFF and I are gonna try it out and arrange 1 day a month to get together and cook and then both walk away with a month's worth of food for our families. I have 3 kids and it's just her and her DH, but the program allows you to conform the recipes to the number of servings that you need.

So nobody has any opinions at all?

I had a book like that--I liked the stuff in it.

Now my husband does 90% of the cooking and he can make as many meals as he wants!

I have a book called Once a Month Cooking that shows you how to make a month's worth of dinners and freeze them. It also includes many recipes. I've never done a whole month, but I've made several meals to freeze. I was happy with the results.

I read reviews and they basically said you didn't really need the books since the cd itself has 700+ recipes already on it, so I figured I wouldn't REALLy invest until I figured out whether I'll use it or not.

I freeze ahead every week too...randomly though. Like if I buy a 3 lb. pack of hamburger and I'm making stuffed peppers and say sloppy joes that week, I mix up the meat, stuff the peppers and then freeze them so all I have to do is pop em' in a pan throw on some spag. sauce and put them in the oven. Then the other meat I brown, drain and freeze...so when I have a million cakes I just pull out the frozen sloppy joe meat and put it frozen in a skillet with a can of manwich and dinner is done in like 5 minutes! lol

I haven't ever tackled a month at a time.......hopefully I can handle it. Hopefully my FREEZER can handle adn really hopeful that my CHECKING ACCOUNT can handle buying a months worth of groceries!

Honestly, DH and I both LOVE to cook. We also eat a LOT of really fresh stuff (50% of our grocery shop is always fresh produce). So a program like that just isn't for us.

we're huge produce eaters too, but aside from lettuce most everything else freezes really well! I freeze peppers, onions, brocoli, cauliflower, gr. beans, peas, corn, apples, pineapple, strawberries, canteloupe...it all freezes really well. Actually my kids PREFER to eat frozen fruit over ice cream or even fresh fruit....whatever, easier for me. We pick our own berries and apples when in season and freeze away! Really nice to have fresh pineapple in the middle of winter and know you didn't spend a FORTUNE to get it!

Let me put this in perspective for you about the books versus cds. I don't think cds had been invented when I got this book.

So I'm glad you could have a choice though.

lol @K8! I do like to sit down with a recipe book on the couch though and just look through them (kinda weird like that)........but I figure the cd is what has all the labels and produces the shopping list, etc. (I normally shop 2 weeks at a time anyhow)...the first week we eat fresh produce, the second week it's mostly frozen. I hate grocery shopping, actually I don't like shopping of any kind...so I go as little as possible LOL But it takes me like an hr. to sit down and write out my list (if I don't make a list I'll wind up having to go to the store every day for something I've forgotten BLECK!!)

so that's the part that really has me excited is that I can click on the recipes I want and how many servings of each and it automatically produces my list, and adds up all like ingredients so if I have 3 meals requiring chicken breasts, it will have chicken breast on the list with (12) next to it, to tell me how many I need....soo coool!!!!

It sounds to me that you can do the planning just as well without the book. You get the idea of using the same ingredient in many different ways so I think you could just pick your own fav. foods and if you need help with recipes you can always google and not spend any money.
I am myself terrible at following recipes, but I love leftovers for those days you don't have time (or energy) to cook. What great news for your friend and her husband. I'm sure they are excited to be parents.

That sounds awesome, you'll have to let us know if you get it up an running. Being a full-time mother working outside the home and a hobby caker...something like this appeals to me as well. I never seem to have any extra time on my hands. I never realized how many different ways cakes are used by our society until I started caking. I just do it for family and friends mostly, but I probably do at least 4 cakes a month for different things. Although, I have to admit, I would much rather be caking full-time, then the job I'm doing. Too bad...I don't think I could make a living at it around here. So many other bakeries have tried and failed in this area. Thanks to places like Walmart and our poor economy, people just can't afford to pay a lot for a cake.