March 29, 2012
Don’t you hate it when food goes bad? Well, I do. It literally makes me happy when Ben or I finish off food that is about to go bad. So you can imagine the panic that arises when we get called to a storm and there is a bunch of food in the refrigerator that cannot possibly all be SHOVED into the freezer! (So PANIC is a bit extreme, and it really hasn’t been a big deal for us so far… but for dramatic effect it is panic that sets in).
So typically the way it works when we get called is that we have literally NO warning that we are leaving ahead of time; we get a call, we pack and we leave. However, when Ben went to his work conference a few weeks ago, he let me know about 3 days ahead of time that we were heading to Dallas once the conference ended. So I figured I would scrounge around and make meals with whatever we had in our refrigerator, that way we could bring those along to eat in the hotels. It was a win-win situation… no food went bad AND we had some homemade meals to take along to the hotels with us! Well, it worked out GREAT! I cooked the meals, packed them in Tupperware in a cooler and we headed to Dallas! We had meals for about a week while in Dallas, and although we love chicken sausages… having them EVERY night is a bit excessive and not nearly as exciting as homemade meals. And when I asked Ben what he wanted for dinner he actually had OPTIONS to choose fromJ!
Well, this sparked a new idea in my head… pre-made homemade meals for Ben and I! This is what my plan was: I would plan about 5-6 meals for the week, (which since there is only two of us eating ends up lasting us about 2 weeks) we would buy groceries for the meals, and then I would take a day (or less) to cook all of the meals. That way if we got sent out to a storm we could just pack up the meals and take them with us and not have to waste food or worry about trying to stay up all night cooking before we head out for the storm (which has never actually happened, we just shove everything in the freezer, bring whatever we can with us, and hope that everything we leave behind is non-perishable since we never know when we will be back!).
This idea worked VERY well for us. The nice thing was that we had a variety of different meals to choose from each night, it was all homemade, and I didn’t have to spend a bunch of time each night cooking!
I decided this might be what I try to do when we have kids… (I also might decide that I was CRAZY to even try this idea once we have kids) but I love cooking and having home cooked meals not only because it saves money, but they also taste SO much better! I also realize that if I am cooking every single day I will miss out on quality time spent with Ben and our kids. It seems like it would be such a time saver to have all the meals already cooked! So this is my idea for all the mom’s/ dad’s/cooks out there to try:
Try taking just one day out of the week (get someone to watch the kids for the day if you have them) and cooking about 5 or 6 meals. Sure, it does sound like a lot of cooking in one day but the benefits far outway that negative: The rest of the week you get to just relax, hang out with your family, and when it comes to dinner time you just pop the prepared food in the microwave, on the stove or in the oven to heat it up and it’s ready in 5 minutes! Sounds like a pre-bought microwave dinner doesn’t it? YES… BUT it’s homemade, it’s allergy safe, it’s healthier and you know EXACTLY what is in it! PLUS you don’t have to cook EVERY DAY and you still get homemade meals every night. Having dinner as a family is one of the most important things you can do as a parent and spouse and what better way than to have delicious home cooked food your family LOVES?!
So my plan is to post the weekly meal plans that I am planning each week and give you feedback for how the food was and what changes I would make. (However, when Ben and I are on the road the options are obviously MUCH more limited… so we will see what happens during that time). Feel free to try some of them out, make all the same meals or pick and choose the ones that sound good to you!
TIPS for how to begin this meal planning:
1. Make sure you look at what is on sale before you meal plan! If there are sale items, use those to cook with… make meals based off of the meats and items that are cheaper that week.
2. Cook things that have similar ingredients. For instance, the meals I will be sharing with you for this week have kielbasa sausage in them. Costco sells the sausage in about a 3lb. package, so I made three VERY different and unique meals and used all of the kielbasa. You don’t want to buy a bunch of groceries and only end up using SOME of each of them! Then you get into the big problem we have already talked about… WASTE.
3. Be creative and use what you already have! If you notice something is on the brink of going bad… try to find a recipe that you could whip up quickly and put it to use! There is always something you can make and the people around you won’t be upset that you are experimenting and making more delicious meals for them to enjoy!:) Food goes bad faster than you think! It is so easy to forget about it as it gets slowly shoved back in the refrigerator and then you begin to smell something funky every time you open the refrigerator and realize it is coming from the green thing that used to be food in the way back. Wasted food= wasted money that could have been saved or better spent… so make sure to be smart and save that money!
4. Don’t be afraid if something doesn’t turn out! I am speaking to myself on this one, and Ben can testify to its truth! Sometimes I get so flustered, frustrated or worried thinking that what I am making is not going to turn out. The fact is that it’s going to happen on occasion and that is ok, it is all part of cooking and learning! It’s ok if something does not turn out how you’d hoped; you can learn from it and either fix the mistakes for next time, or decide that maybe that recipe is one that you were not very fond of.
5. Try things that you have never tried before. Mix it up, you may pleasantly surprise yourself! Some of the things that have tasted the best are the things that I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out or was afraid that it was going to taste horrible.
6. Set aside a time for cooking and enjoy that time! Whether you set aside an entire day, or just a few hours… use it and soak up every moment. I don’t know if cooking relaxes you, flusters you, stresses you out, etc. But try to make it a time that you take for yourself and a time that even relaxes you. I like to turn on some music when I’m cooking in the kitchen. Do whatever YOU enjoy doing to make that a time to re-energize and motivate yourself! Sometimes praying or talking with God as you cook, even asking him for help (maybe you don’t really know how to cook and you feel like it NEVER turns out the way you hoped; God can walk you through it and give you the confidence to achieve and succeed. Talk to him as you cook, ask him questions… it may sound silly, but he is always right there with us, he ENJOYS spending time with you, and he loves to help you even in the little minor things that may seem silly!) You may feel like you are so busy to set aside a chunk of time, but in the end it will be about the same amount as you would have spent if you had cooked every night for dinner.
7. Ask friends for ideas and recipes they’ve tried and loved! You don’t have to stress yourself out trying to search and come up with different recipes all the time! That is what recipe books, friends, and GOOGLE can be used for! Many of the recipes I have tried have come from searching on Google, which usually eventually takes me to allrecipes.com (so you could skip a step and go straight there. You just search exactly what you want to make and it will give you a list of different ways to make it and reviews from the people who have made it already).
8. Watch cooking shows! I have to admit, I am not much of a T.V. watcher… I highly prefer the T.V. to be off most of the time. However, cooking shows really do help teach you more about cooking and gives you great ideas! If you don’t have a schedule that allows you to watch cooking shows you enjoy, I found a website www.laurainthekitchen.com and it is great! She has a HUGE variety of recipes on her website and no commercials! Most of her shows are between 10-20 minutes. You just click to view all recipes and then almost all of her recipes come with a video link to youtube and you can watch her make the recipe any time you want. Her cooking is simple, easy to follow, and delicious!
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