Food Storage, Meal Planning, and Quick/Easy Dinners--how do you cope?

[moolie]

I'm feeling challenged by Joel's recent thread about lurking vs. contributing, so I want to start a conversation about how to better deal with meal planning and food storage.

I'm a busy Mom of two teens who are super involved with sports/band/Girl Guides (one of whom also has a part-time job) and I'm a small-business owner so although I'm home all day, a good portion of my day is taken up with my business.

I do several things to try to streamline meals for my busy family, but I'm wondering what others do?

I do have lots of food in storage around my home in the form of grain buckets/home canned foods/home dehydrated foods/and cold storage foods ("root cellar", fridge, and freezer), and I've been reading along on a blog called foodstoragemadeeasy.net for a couple of years now (that was great when I first found it, but now seems to be a sales site for various pre-packaged food companies). I also do a sort of "once a month cooking" where I freeze various meals for quick heating later. And some of my home-canned food is "convenience" foods like heat n eat homemade soups/stews/chilis and home canned meats (ground, chunks) that are easy to dump into a quick dinner dish.

I think my biggest areas for improvement are better planning ahead when I need to bake bread (sometimes we run out and I have to make a quick soda bread loaf or tortillas) or when I need to soak and cook dry beans for a particular dish (I do can some and try to keep them on hand, but they get used as needed). We try to buy fresh/local/organic as much as possible and this can be a challenge when our diet gets "boring" during the winter months.

What do you do that works well for getting a dinner on the table quickly for your family?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Unfortunately, I'm not nearly as organized as you are!

It's just me and DH here. Sometimes I plan a real meal, and sometimes we just scrounge for ourselves. But, when I do cook, I cook big. I like to do something like make a turkey and use it for several different dishes. I'm real good about putting stuff in the freezer - but I'm not nearly as good as using it.

However - when the garden is in full production I do plan a lot better. I absolutey hate to waste anything so I'm forced to be much more organized. That carries over to meal planning, canning, dehydrating and freezing.

 

[baymule]

When stuff is ready in the garden, that makes what's for supper much easier. Stir-fry with whatever is picked in the garden is quick and easy. Baking a ham and using it to make supper with until it runs out is another way to make easy suppers. Ham omlettes, ham mac n' cheese, fried ham slices, and ham bone and beans.

In southeast Texas, I can garden year around. In winter, I grow broccoli, cauliflower, onions, mustard greens, collard greens, turnips, brussel sprouts, cabbage and lettuce. In spring/summer I grow potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, English peas, tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn. I buy purple hull peas and okra to put in the freezer. I pick black berries and blueberries and freeze them. I make a quick berry cobbler for deserts with them.

I make dinner rolls and triple the recipe. Without letting the dough rise, I cut the rolls out and freeze on a cookie sheet. Then I bag them up and use as wanted. I put the frozen rolls in a greased pan, cover with plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator the night before or put them on the counter that morning.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's a great idea for rolls! I will definitely remember that one.

 

[Marianne]

I do some of what everyone else has posted so far, including not using what's in the freezer. :/ That has been a project of mine since Thanksgiving and I'm amazed at how much older stuff I still have in there. I thawed a piece of mystery meat last week that ended up being a really nice little beef roast. Thankfully I switched to using freezer paper so I'm forced to label. It's amazing how the very obvious things all look the same or different after some time in the freezer.

But it's just DH and me - like frustratedearthmother, sometimes we have a big meal, other times we just scrounge. I try to have some kind of soup, beans, whatever thawed in the frig so he has something to choose from.

Frittatas and paninis are something quick and easy. I use my knock off George Forman countertop grilling machine (what are those called??) to make panini. Basically a fancy name for any kind of grilled sandwich, and a good way to use up some bread that's getting kind of dry. You can use practically any kind of leftover bits of pasta, meat, veggies, potatoes, cheese to make a frittata - as long as you have eggs. About.com has tons of frittata recipes.

I am starting to tap dance a bit with all the stuff in the freezer, though. A few years ago I would have it pretty much emptied out by April or May, clean it and it would be ready for garden harvest. I truly am thankful for all the bounty that's currently there, but I have been stocking up a bit too much. I also have committed to half a pig and half a beef this fall - and I don't want to buy another freezer.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Marianne, i found myself in that same position when we got ready to butcher the pigs. It forced me to clean out what I had. I am ashamed and embarrassed to say that I had frozen veggies that were 5 years old in the big outside freezer...

Cleaning it out and tossing that stuff to the chickens made me vow to do better. I labled every package of pork that we froze this time and I'm not randomly buying just to 'stock up' when I know(hope) that the garden will provide more veggies that will need to be processed.

I wish I were as organized as some of you guys, but if it hasn't happened in the last 57 years, it's probably not gonna happen in the next, lol. I will admit that in my old age I may be forced to become more organized just so I don't spend an hour at a time walking through the house looking for my cup of coffee, lol!

 

[Marianne]

I hear you loud and clear!! BUT I was in my late 20's when I wandered all over the house looking for my coffee that I KNEW I had put in the microwave to warm it up. I found it hours later in the refrigerator. I'm 61 now, and still occasionally have to hunt for my coffee cup.

 

[cheepo]

it is just me and my hubby, but i do still cook big..a lot of crock potting and pressure cooking....then after our meal i portion out in quart canning jars,(usually get 3 meals for every one meal i cook) and then i leave out on the counter to ping..and then freeze.it is thease quick easy heat ups that my hubby raves about...and all i do is a quick side dish....

I hear about the freezer..issue.i did get a nice stand up...and that gets stuffed with every day stuff,
My hubby(not always romantic but supportive) offered to get me a freezer as an aniversary gift...My son declared...
You don't need another freezer...you need to eat up whats in your freezer...(cheeky but right)

baymule..am very jealous...of your winter gardening...we are zone 5...bearly get in one season..
.what i am working on is developing the perenial garden...kales, onions ect..swiss chard ect...plant once enjoy always
am jealous of those with garden fields, our crop is limited...

 

[Wannabefree]

cheepo, our crop space is pretty limited as well, so this year we're growing "up" with our vining plants, and condensing the cucumber and squash areas of the garden with trellising in order to get more crop in smaller space. Also going with bush beans rather than pole beans, and replacing those with pepper plants when the beans are gone. The peppers will stay in the greenhouse as long as possible till the beans are spent. We're trying to rotate more crops, rather than plant everything at once. We're also doing more moveable containers this year. Several types of plants will go into containers that can be tucked out of the way here and there as we get ready for more plants. We're taking advantage of shady areas with shade tolerant plants, and just trying to squeeze in as many productive varieties of everything as possible. At this point it's an active experiment that is still just in my head rather than in action.... I'll let ya know how it goes

 

[cheepo]

those are very good tips wanabee..
.i turned an unused patio space to greenhouse..it takes up about 3/4 of the patio.last year this time..was still a greenhouse dream...so this year, i am really excited to finally have it..... .i started plants inside though under the heat light,
now almost everything is up and out...my hubby is oh i can see why they call it a green house...am feeling overloaded but plant blessed...it is my plan now to extend out the balcony space...2 1/2 feet..over the edge .not the same threat of slugs.and the best heat
the idea of vertical gardening is a good one...I thought i might have vines just growing over the edge...
might have a bit of a problem though for my granddaughter..i planted some big max pumpkin seed...and they all grew and are up a foot...ohh no(obviously those vines wont be placed there
lets hope they don't turn out to big of a sucess...
good luck hope your great garden planning pays off..