Keeping a well-stocked pantry is an common homemaking practice that is, unfortunately, at risk of being lost in many homes today. You see, for generations upon generations families’ have understood the importance of buying and storing food when it’s on sale and during the peak of harvest. They didn’t do it necessarily based on a specific meal plan or in preparation for an emergency…they did it as a means of survival and because it made economic sense.
So here’s a confession for ya…I don’t meal plan (gasp)!
Well, I do, but perhaps not the way it is commonly understood. I find it counterproductive to decide first what meals I will prepare and then go out searching for the ingredients for several reasons:
- It costs more. I always ended up spending more money on foodstuffs because my plan inevitably contained items that weren’t on sale or seasonal.
- The waste issue. Long range meal planning — i.e. weeks in advance — seemed to produce more waste due to unused leftovers and rotting perishable items.
- The pressure of the list. Having a list of meals for specific days didn’t allow for very much flexibility.
I have the sense that meal planning in general came about as an answer for the “stop by the store” and “take-out for dinner” issues. Yet I fear that it’s not helping our problem, primarily because it has caused many of us to abandon the well-stocked pantry — as evidenced by the rush on the grocery stores at the threat of bad weather or crisis.
With that said, I much prefer meal planning to the “what the heck should I cook tonight” method, but it’s far from the most effective option.
The Pantry Principle
In our home we use the pantry principle instead of long range meal planning (I first heard about this concept while reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn). Basically, I focus my efforts on keeping our pantry — note: by pantry I mean freezer, closets, kitchen cabinets, and the space under the beds — stocked with staple foods purchased in bulk, in season, or on sale.
My only goal when grocery shopping is to restock the pantry, not to buy specific ingredients to make specific meals.
Practically this looks like:
1. Buying 40 pounds of organic broccoli from my farmer because it’s peak harvest time and he’s selling it for $0.50/pound.
2. Picking up another 25 pound bag of quinoa from the co-op because it’s 50% off this month — even though we have about 15 pounds left.
3. Flowing with the seasons and learning to cook all of the fresh produce items in my weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.
4. Buying pastured meats directly from the farmer in bulk once every 6 weeks.
5. Looking at the ads and hitting the store only when the staples are on sale.
Sure there are times when we run out of certain things like chicken, ground beef, fresh produce and the like. But instead of running to the store and spending tons of extra time and money, we just make due with the others items we have stored.
Yes, I love to feed my family fresh veggies and fruits, but I also recognize that it’s not going to harm us if we have to go a few days without it between farm pick-ups. Note: A great benefit to growing your own is having fresh produce available right in your backyard!
I remember my great-grandmother telling me how, as a child, she would long for the spring and the emerging wild greens that would appear. They lived solely off of the land and the food they grew or raised…there were no trips to the store for fresh produce. Do you know that that beautiful woman lived to be 97 years old! And she did so without ever eating a single salad during the dead of winter.
My Meal Plan
In my kitchen, meals are planned 24 hours in advance — usually in the evening once the children are asleep for the night — and they are based on:
- what grains, beans, or meat we have a lot of
- what leftovers we have that need to be used before spoilage
- what meals we’re in the mood for
- what the weather will be like
- what fresh veggies we have from the CSA or backyard garden
- what the next day’s schedule is like
Planning 24 hours in advance allows me to thaw the meat or soak the grains and beans, and generally speaking, it has helped us to dramatically reduce our waste.
In focusing my efforts on keeping a stocked pantry, I have found a rhythm, peace in the kitchen, and simplicity.
Do you keep a stocked pantry? Share your thoughts on the pantry principle and 24 hour meal planning?
It’s so nice to know that I am not the only one who does this. I’ve tried the weekly meal plan thing a couple of times and it always cost way more than I could afford on a tight budget. Not to mention the food spoilage. I normally work by the “what’s for dinner, it’s almost too late to cook” method (usually making dinner very late and not always as tasty as I would like). I’m definitely going to try the 24 hour plan, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Thanks for sharing.
You’re not alone JJ 🙂 For me the 24 hour plan is super functional and very practical…especially when you have a well-stocked pantry! It’s all there waiting. I truly hope it works well for you.
Pantry Principle: definitely the way to go! I do the 24-hour ahead-of-time thing when I’m doing the cooking myself. But I also have my sons cook once each week. They’re not yet as versatile as I am, so I have to do a bit more advance planning for them. For example, one son can make a mean stroganoff all by himself, but that means I need to make sure he’ll have sour cream (and that means someone needs to make a trip to the store).
I LOVE that you have your sons cook once a week! And what you do is perfect, thank you so much for sharing it with us 🙂
Miser Mom – How old are your sons?
They are 12, 13, and 15. The 13-year-old is the one who makes stroganoff. He himself just joined our family last year — we adopted him out of foster care. So I’m extra proud of all that he’s learned about making food from scratch. — Miser Mom.
Cottage cheese makes wonderful sour cream. I love cottage cheese and buy it in the large containers at Sam’s Club. I seldom use sour cream, so I have a recipe that allows me to make sour cream out of cottage cheese. It is wonderful and not had any problems using it in recipes.
• Dips: 1 cup cottage cheese plus 1/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk, briefly whirled in a blender. (Even though this says for dips, I used it in regular recipes.)
I used the substitution for buttermilk made with milk and lemon juice.
Here is a site where you can find many substitutions for sour cream……based on specific needs.
http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodequivalents/a/sourcreamequivs.htm
NOTE: Store your cottage cheese in the refrigerator upside down; it will last longer……past its due date. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE LID ON SECURELY.
Wow! I loved what you said. It is so true! I never thought about it like that but I actually feel the same way. I don’t really enjoy cooking, but then again I do. I just don’t do well with the planned out menu! I don’t like the pressure; and we have tons of leftovers that end up going to the chickens because we didn’t eat them! And you are sooooo right. It does cost more! Here I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t really get our food budget down, and you nailed it on the head! I’ve been trying to plan meals based on what is on sale at the stores. We don’t have a winter garden, but are going to try and put something up this year so we can. But I’ve definitely got to check out the CSA for my area and if we even have one! Thank you for sharing!
I don’t like the pressure of a meal plan either Sandi 🙂 The pantry principle definitely fits my personality! btw…Good luck with your garden this year. And head over to http://www.localharvest.org to see if there are CSA’s in your area.
I actually do try, generally, to do a weekly plan. This is flexible and it gets shifted around a bit, depending on what happens through the week. However, I find it definitely saves us money because I take stock of what is in the pantry and what is on sale BEFORE I plan the meals, so I guess for me a combination of both principles works best. 🙂
Yes! You got it Rosalyn.
I’m with you Rosalyn! I do a combination of both. I just recently began meal planning, but always take stock of what’s in the pantry and freezer FIRST, before even touching the grocery list. But at the same time, I found that the grocery budget hasn’t shrunk at all.
So thank you, Andrea. You hit it right on the head. I need to pay more attention to keeping that pantry stocked with the essentials that we use on a regular basis, and the rest will fall into place 🙂
Rosalyn I am with you too. I enjoy meal plans because I am fairly new to all of this, and am easily overwhelmed when trying o figure out what to cook. But I think after reading this I will start to make more of an effort to keep a stocked pantry. I am sure I will end up spending less in the end. Thanks!!
Focusing your grocery shopping on keeping a stocked pantry is a small adjustment in thinking that makes such a huge difference! Giselle, I can almost guarentee that you see your grocery budget go down significantly 🙂 I wish you all the best!
We sort of do a hybrid of all of the methods you mentioned. We have a well-stocked pantry of nuts, grains, and staple produce (carrots, broccoli, lettuces, avocados, tomatoes, cauliflower, apples, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, potatoes, onions). We also have eggs and whole wheat flour on hand, as well as legumes and dried beans. The basic dairy, such as milk, butter, sour cream, and a strong cheese and a mild cheese, are usually on hand as well. We buy locally raised meats, and wild-caught fish about once a month or less, and we budget more for that week’s groceries and freeze it. We are finding that we use less and less meat as time goes by, so that helps monetarily too. This spring will be our first year with a CSA and we’re really looking forward to it. We plan meals for the week on Saturday or Sunday, taking into consideration the schedule and weather, just like you said. Then we get our staples on Sunday. If we find produce on sale or in season, we adjust our staple list to exclude one usual item and substitute the sale item. In 3 months of stocking and cooking this way, we haven’t had more than 2 or 3 vegetables go bad on us the whole time, because we only buy enough for the week. When it gets toward the end of the week, we’ll have a “buffet” night and bring out any leftovers, so those don’t go bad either. Thanks for the great post! I LOVE your blog.
That’s awesome Muriel! What I love about your plan is that you know what works for your family and you’re doing it 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing! You are an encouragment to others.
I keep a stocked pantry (although i’m still working on balancing the fresh produce so that it doesn’t go bad!). My husband and I separated for a year. During that time he told me he lasted over 4 months simply buying a few staples and living off the food I already had in the house.
Now that we are back together. I’m working on REstocking the pantry with enough food. He laughs that we have 4 jars of pasta sauce and more than enough noodles for that sauce. But when it comes down to it and money is tight or we have nothing in the house to eat, there is always spaghetti!!!
I kind of do both. Really, I plan about three days in advance, especially during the week. I keep a stocked pantry, and only buy produce in-season. Because we’re in Europe, milk and bread don’t last as long as in the States, so I do go to the store more often, but I only go to buy what needs to be restocked, rather than buying everything I need for a meal. This makes a big difference in our budget, and it also means that I’m not in a pickle if I can’t leave the house for some reason (like when my daughter was ill in bed for five days straight).
I do the same thing! I just could not wrap my brain around the weekly menu! Our schedules are so odd, that it just didn’t make sense! I turned a rarely (if never) used small bathroom into a pantry in our small house! Loving the extra space to store all of my purchased goods that were on Sale! Good to hear I’m not the only one that does this…and that the meal is planned the night before. 🙂
I try to plan for a week or even two but only for my staples, meats, veggies, and so on. But my planning only means I have the items to “make” no set menu or what day for what. Usually in the evenings I’ll talk with my son and my roomie and see what they might want if they don’t care.. it’s my choice, LOL. My son usually cooks 2 nights a week, more if he isn’t working. Both my sons learned to cook early on, it was always a time that we had together as I was a working mom and had rotating shifts. My youngest son had one favorite meal he could fix all by himself, it was hot dogs, baked beans (from a can but seasoned by him) and mac and cheese (the blue box).
i keep a stocked pantry but I also menu plan. I dont “assign” a day unless there’s something I need on a certain day(like a crockpot meal) due to a game or something
Keeping a well stocked cupboard is essential for me! Even though there’s just myself and my partner, it’s tricky as he’s an omni and I’m vegan! Although he will eat vegan with me about 50% of the time, that’s the limit, so by keeping a stock of pasta, rice, beans, veg etc I can make flexible meals which I can adapt for either of us.
I keep little ones and have three children. If I wait to the last minute I am normally too tired to wing it. I do two week plans that are flexible. Then I thaw meat and have meal plans for two to three days in advance. At the beginning of the week I prep a salad for flexiblity and I do a soup before produce gets bad at the end of week. I try to work meal plans so things are interchangeable between meals. My husband packs left overs for lunch. I make baby food for the little ones I keep so I can incorperate left overs into their food too. I have just started buying in bulk and love the difference it makes in shopping stress! Thanks for all the great info you share!
I’m in my 50’s (so I’ve been cooking for a lot of years) and I’ve never once used the weekly menu plan idea. I suppose I’m blessed in that I can pull just about any food items from my fridge/freezer/pantry, and whip up a tasty meal without a recipe (got this knack from my grandmother, my mother HATES cooking and always has). Now that our family follows a paleo/primal diet, I rarely shop at grocery stores. I have several different farms nearby that I buy all of my eggs, meats, and dairy items from. I also have access to 2, year round farmers markets (one is only open on Tuesdays and the other only on Fridays). From those I buy my produce, some meats, spices, and various other foods like pickles, sauerkraut, nuts, etc. I order some food items online (such as canned coconut milk, specialty oils, dark chocolate, nut flours, etc.) All of this makes up the bulk of what my family eats, so there’s very little need to step foot in the grocery stores anymore. I don’t have huge stockpiles of food in my home; because of the area I live in I have access to so much fresh food that I’m able to shop week to week. I do always look for a bargain though, and if the farmers are having a sale I take advantage of it and stock up my freezer.
My husband thinks I am crazy because I do this. (I call my self a grocery-shop-aholic) There is something uneasy when my pantry goes bare. I have always been this way, since I was 14 or 15 years old. When I was in my early 20’s out on my own, I lost my job. It was such a relief to have a stocked pantry. Eating, was not an issue. My grocery does buy one, get one free, so I always take full advantage of this. I am 140 miles from the nearest bulk store, so when I do make it there, I stock up. My biggest complaint is not having enough storage, esp freezer space. My husband thinks it is expensive to run multiple freezers. If I could only get him to go shopping, he may change his views.
It generally costs $28 a year to run a full size freezer ( give or take $5 due to premiums, and variance. ) My father is an electrical engineer, and helped me to figure out how much energy (electricity and thus gas for a generator for the appropriate amount of time during storm power outages… and also if there is some sort of social collapse ) all of my appliances use. I would not be surprised if the newer models are even more energy efficient!
-Good luck with your husband. I am certain that the deals that you can garner would be over $28 in savings if you are a bargain shopper!
-Nicole
I would love to see some recipes using quinoa. Just started to enjoy it.
Hi Janelle! I don’t necessarily have specific recipes for quinoa. I just substitute it for rice in everything. If your recipe calls for rice…use quinoa! Love this grain!
Can you substitute quinoa for rice in the same proportion? Meaning 1cup of rice equals 1 cup of quinoa? I just bought this and wondered how to start using it.
That’s exactly what I do 🙂
Do you know if it keeps for a while, in the pantry?
From what I know by way of the owners of my co-op, it will keep in a sealed, air-tight container for 25 years (we have a few buckets sealed with 25 lbs of quinoa stored in this manner). In the pantry, in a air-tight container (i.e. glass mason jar) it should keep for about 3 years.
This is how I menu plan too! I found I wasted a lot of food when I plan a menu too far in advance. A well stocked pantry can keep me out of the grocery store for weeks (milk is delivered weekly).
I’d love to have milk delivered weekly 🙂
I am so glad to read this post! Meal-planning is my absolute worst thing. I don’t enjoy cooking, and the planning of meals becomes a daily burden that I almost resent because it takes me away form other activities and duties I find more satisfying. Weekly meal-planning works well for me when I do it (incorporating those things I have on hand plus a few purchases), but I can’t seem to maintain the habit more than a few weeks. Anyway, this post helps assuage the stress of feeling like I MUST plan, or I SHOULD be planning. I do keep a stocked pantry, as well as a garden, so always have food available, and I do take advantage of sales and such. Even so, when it gets to be dinner time and I have no idea what I am going to come up with, that all-too-familiar panic starts to rise up. The 24-hour idea sounds workable ~ that way the pressure is off, but I don’t have to think about more than one day at a time. I’ll give it a try! Thank you so much ~ love this site!
We don’t have a pantry yet. Small apartment. But we’re getting ready to close on a house, and I’m going to start a pantry and start a garden. I’m so excited! Don’t know if we’ll get a freezer this year, but we’re planning on getting one eventually.
That is super exciting Mandy!!! I wish you all the best in your new home 🙂
I plan two weeks at a time, but I consider first what I have in my pantry, and second what’s on sale. And sometimes depending on prices I adjust my plan later. If I see a great sale on something we love I’ll pick some up. It has worked really well for us, because we get to eat things we like, but I also make use of what I have — and restock a few times a year (I hit Amish country for the best prices). We’re looking into wild crafting now as another way to stretch the budget!
I’ve always had the general perception of meal planning like “Ugh. Planning a meal. Really? Like I need another thing to plan.” and thus, though I love to cook, everything is pretty serendipitous(luckily) but 24 hours ahead is just smart. I love this list of smart things to do. It’s a good check list for when I feel like I don’t have any food, but really I’m just not being creative enough, to help me think of what else I can do better. Now, if only I could find a CSA in my area! So sad. Which is why I’m thinking of starting one next year. Thank You for thinking for me!
Andrea
thisrednecklife.blogspot.com
This is exactly how we do things! Our schedules are so sporadic, planning and cooking a meal and then sitting down to eat alone or with just two out of four of us got old! And planning/shopping ahead didn’t always work because no one was in the mood for that menu or something else would come up!
When our kids were little I kept enough in the pantry for a week of meals that they enjoyed. I canned all my tomatoes, green beans, beets, carrots and jams. Now that they are out of the house. I am able to keep a pantry full for 3 months at a time. Sure is easier on the pocket book than it used to be.
I so love your blog! I keep a well-stocked pantry, BUT I also do a 30-day plan, because I am a bit OCD and I am into planning ahead for everything. So, to satisfy my need for planning, what I do is take an inventory of what I have in the pantry and freezer, and then jot down all of the meals that I can make with it. The I plug them loosely into a calendar, because I know I need crockpot meals on certain days of the week, etc. This makes me feel secure in having a plan, and it utilizes our stored/stocked up food at the same time. LOVE your blog, and all of your fabulous self-sufficient recipes and ideas. God Bless!
I love having a stocked pantry. We started our own little homestead about four years ago. We have chickens and a goat. I love having all the fresh hands on stuff from the animals and from our garden. I started all this for my family because I will not have processed foods in my house. We get all our stuff local (as much as humanly possible). We make our own cheeses and grind our own flour. I am continuing to learn as I go. I love your blog and all the ideas! thanks
Every week I go through the store ads and make a list of what’s on sale. Then I go through our pantry/freezer and make a list of what we have. Then between those two lists I figure out meals for the week. I don’t plan which meals we’re having on which day, its more of here’s what we have and whats on sale, and here’s 7 meals we could make with that, with leftovers being lunches. Since we’ve started buying stuff in bulk, our grocery bill has gone down, since our shopping trips really only consist of buying to restock the freezer/pantry, the perishables we use on a weekly basis (milk, butter, eggs, some produce, etc.). It works for us, and our grocery bill has gone way down once we switched to this method from the “just go to the store and buy a bunch of stuff and figure out meals later, and usually have to make several trips to the store to pick up other ingredients” method.
I like a weekly meal plan I’ve made up by looking through what I have on hand. I write down what meals I can make with what I have but don’t always use them on the days I’ve planned out. It’s nice to look on the clipboard and see the possibilities. I used to just pretend dinner wasn’t going to happen but it still does each day!
I like to keep a stockpile of food and household goods as well, it sure saves a lot of our $$$ not taking that trip to the store for one item 🙂
THANK YOU! I have never liked meal planning much for the same reasons you mentioned. And every time I would try it, my hubby wouldn’t be in the “mood’ for what I was making at some point lol, it was so frustrating. So now we pretty much do what you said, a day or so in advance. I usually have a general idea of what we can have for the week or so, but nothing is ever in stone anymore. I am glad to find someone else like minded! Oh and I have the Complete Tightwad Gazette as well, has been a great help in the last few years!
The biggest help for me on this front was moving to the mountains, where the local grocery is pretty small and about 20 min away. No more running to the store for one ingredient. We’ve learned to be more flexible in our meals, and use every last scrap. Back in the city, we’d have yummy leftovers but end up ordering in or going out for dinner instead of eating them. Too many temptations!
Of course, now we also have chickens and two dogs who will scarf up anything and everything. And the goats love any wilted veggies that don’t get tossed into a soup or stock. There truly is no waste on a farm!!
I’m still working to get to where you are, and haven’t found a really good bulk grain or veggie option yet. We’re CSA members, and buy bulk meat to put in our freezer though. And it’s fabulous!!
One step at a time. 🙂
This will be me this summer, I am moving from the biggest city in my state to the mountains, I will be 30 minutes to the next city. We have huge plans for getting chickens, An animal for milk, whether that be a minature cow, a goat.. depending on the amount of acerage I get. It will be a huge change. Take for instance I have 3 walmarts, 10 fast food and 6 grocery stores less than 10 minutes from my house. For lunch today I took my 3 year old driving around to sonics, burger king and McDonalds until he found a happy meal toy suitable to his liking. When I was finished it struck me as ridiculous.
Now to redeem myself – We do however eat fully Whole Foods meals for breakfast and Dinner and on the weekends, its just that I was trying to get him to take some medicine today and the other 4 memebers of the household were at school and work. What I do with meal planning is that I keep a fully stocked pantry of dried goods, (pasta, beans, rice, quinnia, nuts, oats, etc. I dry my own dried bananannas, strawberries, kiwis and jerkeys when they are rock bottom and in season, and I use those in muffins or for snacks. the jerkeys i make from meat that are at the freeze by date at the grocery.
I keep the pantry and the freezer stocked (organic frozen veggies from costco in bulk theres nothing local cause im in a tourist capital, nothing farmy around here) And I will make a list of 6-7 meals that I have the ingredients in the house for and as things are thawed we cook the meals one at a time crossing them off the list without assigning them a specific days. Some days Ill write the meal and just say “with beans” or “with veggies” and we will just grab what we have.
So I do bulk organic shopping, Keep a stocked pantry and plan meals but not meal plans LOL.
Soooo Looking forward to moving to a place where I can produce my own foods and have access to local stuff. Like collards out of a truck on the side of a road LOL
It’s a huge change, but SO much fun. We don’t regret it for a second. Our dairy goat is due in May, so soon we’ll have fresh milk to add to the eggs. No judgement on the fast food, sometimes it’s just the easiest solution… I’m jealous of places like Boulder, CO that have fast food drive thrus that use quality, local ingredients!! Good luck on the new adventure!
I am an avid meal planner because it helps me save time at the grocery store, though not really anywhere else. We did this so that we would spend less on food if I shopped less than once per week. Planning a meal list and grocery list to absolute accuracy takes hours and is a chore that I LOATHE! I also find that when we do not “feel” like having a meal that was planned for that week, then we just don’t eat it and those fresh veggies go to waste. I love the freedom in the stocked pantry (and for us Canadians, a stocked freezer since we don’t get anything fresh and local between November and June)! Thank you for writing this since last night I did not take the hours to write my Monday lists and do NOT plan to this week! So inspired 🙂 Really hoping to save money too since my husband is switching careers for what he loves meaning less income!
This is the way I have always done it. It was the way I learned as a kid and have always continued this. I see my girls doing this to a lesser degree, but none the less, trying. I was so happy 5 yrs ago when we had a huge ice storm and we lived without any power for 21 days….I could still cook on the woodstove and the Weber kettle and have almost everything I needed right there. I did use canned milk but otherwise we just made do. It worked great.
I love this! I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants cooker, but I never fly to the store to get something. I always use what I already have in my pantry, food storage, and produce from my CSA. I cannot plan weeks advance, it feels too restrictive to me! 😉 I think I will start planning the night before like you do.
This does sound much more reasonable than planning a weekly meal menu. My husband and I always find some way to mess up planned meals- but with only planning 24 hours ahead, we know more what our next day will look like. This is very good- thanks!
Thanks for the practical posts! I am an older Mom,and am also a CSA Farmer’s Wife (see http://www.colvinfamilyfarm.com). I’ve been working the stocked pantry method for over 30 years as a necessity as we live 35 minutes from the nearest grocery store. When I first came to this rural mountain as a bride the “old time” women taught me to live on what you have on hand. They had a wealth of practical country wisdom that young women need today. I was very blessed to garden, quilt, and work alongside them.
Someone mentioned storing grains in the posts…well, this is a great way to begin your stocked pantry. Today I went to pick up my grain order for the next few months. 250 lbs. of wheat for bread, 100 lbs. cane juice crystals (raw sugar), 80 lb.s brown rice, etc. All of these staples get stored in buckets in my basement. I keep one bucket of each of the most used staples in the pantry along with large Tupperwear containers of other grains and legumes. There are also many different kinds of grains in the basement. I didn’t buy them all at once, but after a while you have a wide variety to choose from. They last as long as your storage method allows them. (That would make a good post.) Then when I shop at the local stores (one is fondly called the “used food store” as it specializes in dents, almost out of dates, and over runs) I buy by the case the staples. During the summer and fall I can, freeze, and dry our bounty for winter eating. We raise chickens for meat and eggs, and also hogs to freeze along with venison.
I mix your planning methods as I need the flexibility of meals made ahead. Before the busy season (in the next couple of weeks or before I have a baby) I make LOTS of freezer meals that I store in one of our large freezers. When I know I’ll be busy all day I’ll pull one meal out that I feel like eating. That’s my weakness with menus…I want to eat what we feel like eating and that’s hard to plan ahead. With a well stocked pantry I can make meals ahead of time with what I’ve stocked during the sales. When I try and go out and buy a month’s meat and dairy ahead of time it breaks the budget! Beware of all the “gourmet” recipes on the net…stick to recipes that call for the basics. It’s amazing what you can do with what the Lord puts in your pantry!
Get to know your local farmer and his wife. We have lots of extras that are not perfect looking (we call them seconds) and they’d love to barter with you or plain just share them with you!
It takes a lot of creativity to serve our family meals. With my large family it is a daily challenge…thank you for your ideas that keep me learning!
Val Colvin
The Farmer’s Wife
This is a similar plan to what I do, too. I try to keep a stocked pantry, with canned (single or 2-ingredient foods–no processed ‘meals’) and lots of dry goods. I’m building my pantry now since I have had very little storage area till recently, and just added another cupboard for foodstuff. We’re getting bulk flour, raw and organic sugar, beans and rice…I’m working on the whole grains, but still need to add that grinder to my kitchen.
This year, I plan to do a lot of my own canning so the canned goods will be mine rather than store-bought. We also dehydrate some fruits and vegetables to ensure we have storable foods–and the dried stuff keeps practically forever. I base what I dehydrate on what soups, stews, and fruit treats I want to be able to make in the fall and winter months–like peach cobbler in December and apple pie in March and April.
I also do the Once-A-Month cooking for things like lasagnas, enchiladas, chili and such. I do 6-8 trays or containers of a meal and they are frozen and vacuum packed, ready to pull out on a night when I don’t feel like cooking a full meal on the spot. I always stock up on the required meats from the clearance bins and sales, then put the time aside to do all the hamburger stuff in one standing, the chicken stuff another day, the pork and whole chunks of beef another. We barbeque in bulk–spareribs, chicken parts, half chickens and turkeys, beef ribs and roasts, and freeze in meal-sized protions… all in one day (usually 8-9 hours worth!)
Wish we had a local farmer or 2–but the ‘burbs of our town don’t have such a thing…ours are WAY out there….Working on that too–getting out every couple of months and getting local meats. The farmers’ markets are just now starting to bring in ‘local’ meats, and we have some ranchers who are raising grass-fed, organic animals. ‘Bout time!..
I always thought I was falling down on the job because I don’t plan my meals before shopping. Now I find that I am indeed planning meals, but by a different method. Thanks for this knowledge, you don’t know how this has lifted a load, really it has. I have gotten out of the habit of stocking up on meat because the grocery where we shop doesn’t have many sales. Apparently they feel their prices are so low they don’t need to.
I definiately will be rethinking how we eat and what my pantry holds. You’ve given me much to think about. Thanks for the post.
This post really resonated with me and made me feel much more content with the way I cook. I have tended to turn my inability to plan into a *personal failure* issue but when I think about it, what it really is is an innate personality issue. I am in my fifties and honestly, I have never planned meals. I am NOT a naturally organized, OCD, over-achiever, type-A or whatever that personality is that can create plans and stick to them. What I AM is: random, creative, flexible, intuitive, food loving, playful and really good at making things happen in the eleventh hour! I don’t like to cook… I LOVE to cook and I love to eat really good food. Not to say I *always* love to cook, but that’s where flexibility and intuition come into play.
Along with a well stocked pantry and the ability to transform any given available ingredients into something tasty or even spectacular it is really helpful to have a go-to list (mine, of course is in my head) of meals that work for those times when I am just too stretched in time, energy or inclination. Like one of your readers above, there’s always spaghetti! But beyond spaghetti there is also always: eggs (omelets, or even simpler, scrambled eggs, with toast, or in a tortilla or fried on top of a bed of sauteed greens, or beaten with a little cream, cinnamon and vanilla and soaked up by some slabs of sourdough and fried in butter or coconut oil and transformed into French toast); grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, nachos (loaded or plain) with salsa, or one of our family’s favorites: a green salad with whatever already cooked protein food we have in the fridge (steak, burger patties, chicken, salmon, hard boiled eggs) chopped up and thrown on top. Or I sometimes take that protein food, grab some bone broth from the freezer and turn whatever vegetables are loitering in the fridge into a sort of *stone soup*. My husband loves really spicy salsa and if he’s cooking he will make tacos… out of anything. Just so he can eat it with salsa. Salsa, or the ingredients for salsa, is obviously a staple in our house.
I guess that leads to another thing that makes eleventh hour pantry cooking easier: the ability to make a good sauce. Seriously. Sauce is the bomb. Here’s a favorite in our house: tomato basil cream sauce. Tomatoes (fresh if we have them, but usually canned), cream (which is a staple food in our house and a mortal sin to not keep stocked!), salt, pepper and basil (fresh basil is another staple food around here, we adore it, but we don’t always have it so dried works too). Combine those ingredients and my children will eat it on anything (or nothing but a spoon!). It is especially good on pasta (cupboard) or chunks of spicy Italian sausage (freezer) but it really goes with just about anything (salmon, chopped up chicken thighs fried with garlic or even buttered sourdough toast). There’s also coconut curry which can be either a sauce or a soup.
So based on what I just shared I guess I’d say it’s important to keep the pantry stocked with a good selection of herbs and spices, basic canned goods that can transform into a sauce which can be the basis for a meal, like fire roasted diced tomatoes and full fat coconut milk
See? This is what I mean about random… I realized I needed to go let the dogs and chickens out and while I was there I gathered a few warm eggs. When I brought the eggs to the kitchen I saw that I still needed to unload the dishwasher and make lunch for Grandma (she and I are the only ones home today). When I finally came back to finish up on my computer I somehow thought I had finished that last comment so I hit the publish button… oops. Well, I’ll take it as a sign.
I’m just getting into a raw food diet with Vitamix. Economical, nutritious, delecious. I try to buy in bulk to save money, but I am running into a problem with spoilage. I can’t buy 40 pounds of broccoli and freeze it: no room in freezer. Storing in fridge leads to minimal shelf life. Any ideas on this? Please share.
Thank you, Stuart
A dehydrator would prevent spoilage but I don’t know what you are using your broccoli for. I have a couple raw food *cook*books and there are many recipes that call for dehydrating (crackers, chips and other snacky things) so you will probably eventually want one if you decide to stick with that plan.
I spend all of the summer and fall canning fruits and veggies from our garden. Instead of plain qts of tomatoes, I use a lot of my tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. I add onions that I’ve sauteed in a little olive oil and all the herbs that I normally use when making spaghetti sauce. I also sneak in some chopped zucchini or cooked spaghetti sauce so that my family gets more vegetables than they would voluntarily eat. I then pressure can it. With this sauce I can make any recipe that calls for bottled spaghetti sauce.
I’ve also found a use for old jars of canned fruit – I drain the fruit, blend it up and then spread on the plastic rounds that fit in my dehydrator. The result is almost instant fruit leather. My oldest daughter who normally avoids most of my dehydrated experiments loves this and her favorite is pear leather.
I keep a very well-stocked pantry (actually 2 of them, a cold room, and bedroom closets and under beds). I generally don’t plan my evening meal until the morning of. I look at what is in the fridge first to determine if anything needs to be used up. Then I move on to the freezer and grab either meat that is already cooked and vacuum sealed (depending on the evening schedule) or I try to pull some meat out that is the oldest and use that. If I need a quick thaw, I shove it down into water still vacuum sealed. I cook a lot with a pressure cooker, so time is not much of an issue there. I also throw a lot out on an electric smoker during the day for an evening meal. I freeze, I can (meats as well as veggies and homemade stock), and I dehydrate. I used to do a lot of this in the ’70s when the kids were young and I was a stay at home mom, now in my early ’60s and newly retired and back into this. We live in the burbs and have 3 gardens in our yard, as well as container plants on the deck in the summer. I just keep expanding and learning. Next lesson I hope to learn is how to grind the berries and groats that I have in the cold room storage and make my own breads and such. I do watch for sales and purchase in bulk when items are on sale and in season.
One last note, I try not to waste anything. I will take the tough ends of the asparagus and dry it in my dehydrator and grind it to powder then vacuum seal in jars. It is great to add flavoring to soups. I also go through my refrigerator and look for things that are starting to not be the freshest (celery and such) and dry those and do the same with them as I do with the asparagus.
I just stumbled on dehydrating vegetables and pulverising them for soups and stocks by mistake. I was making stock and once I strained the stock from the vegie (peelings) and bones, I usualy feed it to the dog. But this time there was far to much for a few meals for the dog, so I thought I freeze the rest but the freezer was full, so it went into the dehydrator (after pureing it in the blender). Well the end result was good enough to eat as vegie chips, but we kept some for the dog too. Blended it into powder and mixed it into his homemade dog musli. I have tht one down pack! From there I got the idea that I could dehydrate soups so when needed all I had to do was add boiling water. It works mint and is especially good for when I work a day in the office.
I do a little of both. I buy to stock my pantry…. but I buy it on sale. I meal plan…. with what is in my pantry and normally just 24-48 hours in advance.
I buy my meat ONLY when it is on rock bottom sale prices and I buy as much as my budget allows for that week. For example when chicken is on sale for $1.99, I buy as much as I can with my food budget. Some weeks there is only one type of meat as well as a couple of staples on sale at a great price. That’s what I buy using my entire budget. So there are times when there is a lot of chicken and hamburger in the freezer and no pork, roasts, steak, etc. We eat what is in our food storage. I only stock my pantry with what we will eat.
When I meal plan, it’s usually 24 hours in advance and with what we have on hand.
I’ve been stocking and eating from the pantry long enough now, it’s getting easier knowing what we need and watching for the sales. There are times when I run out of something and I wait. Like right now I have a half a bag of macaroni and no spaghetti. There will be no meals made using these ingredients until I can purchase them on sale. One bag of macaroni in my area is $2.75. They will get my money when it’s on sale for .99 a bag. I will buy SEVERAL bags at that time.
I was raised to make a general meal plan for the week and then go to the store and purchase what was needed for those meals for the week. It didnt matter what the price of those items was. You bought it and complained about the price. The pantry was close to empty by the end of the week and you were broke. If a storm was coming, you rushed to the grocery store and paid for over priced food to make sure you had what you needed. I no longer do that.
I like getting the most for my money AND having a well stocked pantry.
When I first became a “housewife” I moved from working at a VERY VERY expensive and famous catering business to , well- being a housewife, And the first few years I felt it was my duty to make nice meals for dinner every night. Thats what wives do right? this is how you cook right? I sat down on the internet and made a plan of 7 really great meals and a shopping list and shopped for it and thats what I had learned on how to cook.
Needless to say, 4 kids later I am using the bulk organic Costco and the pantry/deep freezer method!!
Lots of really great ideas… can’t wait to try some of them! I seem to meal plan a bit different from most in that I go thru the grocery flyer when I need to grocery shop (about every ten days or so) making a list of what we like, or need, that is on sale, then organize 7 meals based upon what is in the flyer and using up any leftovers for the other meals in between. Usually I choose one of those already organized meals the night before or in the morning, then it is leftovers every third or fourth evening so nothing goes bad and gets wasted. Since I began doing this we not only have quite a wide variety of meals, depending upon what is on sale, but we are saving a lot more on groceries than we ever did before with more conventional meal planning. We also try to ensure we have at least one root vegetable, but usually it is a few, along with whatever apples are the best price at the time and we never end up going a day without having fruit or veggies despite how long we go between shopping trips.
You all have some fantastic ideas, but here is my problem. I am single & not sure how to do this for just one person. I have a full basement, so dry storage is not a problem & I am getting ready to buy a small freezer. Where do I go from here? I am trying to avoid most canned or processed foods, and do not eat much in the way of pasta. I also work 2 jobs so I don’t have a lot of time. I feel I waste too much time and money at the grocery store just running in to grab something for dinner. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!!
This is such a timely post for me. I’m headed to the store later this morning with this specific goal in mind – to come home with the things I need for a well stocked pantry. I am working on cooking more from scratch as well as using up leftovers instead cooking new food when leftovers are available. Thank you for sharing this post.
It’s so refreshing to hear someone else dismiss meal planning and praise the stocked pantry and freezer. I too buy in bulk and stock up when items are in-season or on sale. It saves considerably on shopping time, and I always have something healthy to cook for dinner!
I made a pilaf of sorts using rice and quinoa and barley and some chopped onion and garlic powder. It was pretty tasty, and got good reviews from my husband and adult boys.
I have been teaching cooking one day a week at a girls school. We prepare a nice lunch for 12 each week (girls are 7-11) from SCRATCH and serve it!
I was shocked when we did around the world cooking, as the meals ranged from 2.50-5.00 per person!
I am a pantry person, primarily. I know what I regularly use, and go from there.
What do you typically stock in your pantry…I am trying to refine mine…
This is exactly what I needed to read! I’ve been trying and trying to meal plan, but it never works for me. I use to do Pantry Principal and didn’t even know the term, it’s just what worked for me. I then have been trying to switch to meal planning, but I’m wasting more time, food, and money. It also seems so labor intensive that I’ve gotten burned out on just the idea of cooking when I use to LOVE the creative freedom of it. I’ll be switching back. 🙂
It’s good to know I’m not the only one that doesn’t meal plan. I tried it for a while and it just got boring for me. Also when I tried to meal plan we wouldn’t be in the mood for a certain meal then we would end up doing take out or having something completely different and the ingredients would go to waste. I love cooking and meal planning took the fun out of it.
If I am in a rut or if I have a crazy busy week I will try to plan some meals out. Normally though I come up with something based on what I have on hand. I have tried strict menu planning off and on over the years and ended up not liking it very much. Stocking the pantry well means you have the ingredients to make whatever you want whenever you want.
I’m with you Jennifer! Having a stocked pantry is such a blessing. It’s like having the grocery store in your own home 🙂
I just love this post! This is one thing that I’ve learned to do and it works so well for me now that I work full time as a Naturopath. You learn to eat what is in season as well, which both saves money and maximizes fresh produce. In my Pantry Makeover eBook, I give the option to either plan out meals or stock your pantry well….both accomplish the same thing. Stocking my pantry is my preferred method, since I don’t always have time to sit down and write up menu plans.
Thanks for sharing your tips on how you do it!
You got it Becky! I will say that learning to eat seasonally has totally transformed our food budget and health! It’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.
My meal planning style has evolved over the past several years. First married, I’d go to the store and shop for a few meals that sounded good. Several years ago, I was introduced to two-week or monthly menu planning and did that for awhile. It was actually a pretty good plan for us at the time because we lived 30 miles from where we did our primary shopping. As we got more into organic and local eating, it made sense to buy in bulk for the savings, so we have gone to The Pantry Principle as you mentioned. I pretty much try to keep stocked up on everything we use regularly so at any given time I can make most meals we eat. There are exceptions, of course, holiday meals and the like, but overall it works. When I shop, it’s for produce, butter, cheese, etc…, and to replenish pantry items we’ve used. I do sometimes make a weekly menu plan based on what I have and now our produce basket (doing the Bountiful Basket co-op), as well as our schedule for the week. Simply to know what I need to thaw meat-wise each day. Great topic!
I’ve changed my meal planning also! I used to plan great meals and then go buy all the ingredients. Now, I keep a pantry stocked with basics and shop the sales. I make a list of meals I can make from what is in the house, and go from there. Big money saver. I miss the fancy meals sometimes, but we just can’t afford them. We never starve, and what we eat does actually taste good!
When i was a child i used to hide in my grandparents pantry, lol..
We don’t seem to have them any more, with our fitted & open plan kitchens. I do have a cupboard stocked up with dried foods etc. But its not the same, and not as much fun 🙂
I often buy meat that is close to its sale by date, and put it in the freezer, and i do the 24hr plan, by getting it out the night before so it can defrost, then i just put what veg i have with it the next day.. The only thing that i waste these days is bread, as living alone i cant seem to get that right. It always goes off half way thru the loaf?
Rebecca, about the bread. It freezes fine for up to 3 months. Save a bread bag or use a zip lock baggy. When you buy a loaf, split it up and freeze half or 2/3 of it, defrosting it as needed. If you do not like frozen bread for sandwiches, you can always use it for toast, french toast, home-made croutons, stuffing, etc. At least, it is not wasted.
I did freeze bread, but it tastes weird after being defrosted. It seems a lot tougher even for toast.. lol.. But you have given me an idea with the zip lock bags.. As i think they would stay fresh for longer if no air gets to it.. Good one Peg.. Thanks 🙂
I store my bread in those stay cold bags they sell at the grocery store. No freezer burn yet, and I store 3 loaves of store bought bread at a time. Works for a family of 2. I always have the fixings for pbj sandwiches.
First .. I LOVE Amy Dacyzyn (sp) I do a modified version of both the pantry and the week plan… I do try to have a cpl of ideas of things we want for dinners just to make sure I get/have all the ingredients.. but I do go every week for things we want to buy fresh for the week.. and to stock up on sales
Wow.. You sound like my spirit sister or something! I so enjoyed reading this.. it’s so me.. or it’s so what I strive to be and do.. It’s what makes me happy.. it’s time well spent. My favorite thing to do is go to the Farmer’s Market early on a weekend morning and see what calls my name… I never know what I’m gonna get.. but it’s healthy and cheap.. so you just can’t beat that!
I do menu plan, but only for protein. Almost all our meat is purchased in bulk and frozen, so I glance over my freezer inventory sheet on Saturday or Sunday and see what I have a lot of, then I jot down primary protein components based on what is in the freezer. There is always a seafood item like salmon so we get our omega-3s. 😉
Then I pull all the week’s meat out of the deep freeze and transfer it to the fridge. In this way I avoid opening the deep freeze more than necessary. Once the meat is in the fridge, my planning looks more or less like yours: what’s in the garden? what’s in the pantry? what leftovers need repurposing?
At the risk of shameless promotion, downloadable copies of my freezer inventory chart and menu planning sheet are available free on my blog under the “Downloadables” tab.
I agree with the combination of 24 hour meal planning and weekly planning. It just depends on what is going on how meals happen. I generally look in the pantry to plan 2-3 meals but those meals don’t necessarily get cooked on the days intended.
More and more I find myself grocery shopping less and less. When you cook from scratch, I find that there are very few ingredients and grocery things that you actually need. Who knew?!
I have also started making a point to go to farmer’s markets rather than buy from a store. I really like the quality of the food, but it is slightly frustrating that you can’t get the vegi that you really want… waiting is difficult for me. The farmers are great and give me an idea of what they will have next. I am making chicken stock tonight and some of the vegis I added to the broth were the leaves that customers didn’t want–they just gave them to me. Love it.
Granny, I do one major shopping trip and one day of cooking for the whole month! I preground my hamburger and add onions, peppers and such to it, then divide it into meal portions and add the suaces then freeze it…I thaw the next nights meal which still in the bag, but in a bowl in the fridge. If it is chicken meals, I prebake or boil and make the meal but freeze it. The only thing I have to run to the store for here and there, is milk and bread..and I am making more of my bread at home, but hubby and kids likes the store bought for their sandwhiches! I only have to make pasta that night or mix up a salad! I preboil rice usually but sometimes have to boil that..but makes it easy for both a Mom and Grandma who works full time, goes to school full time and volunteers as an EMT and firefighter! I feed a family of 6 on this for about $200 or less a month! on the same day I cook, my kids mix cookie mixes and cake mixes and what is not for that week goes into the freezer, packed into week ata time portions! I bake my hamburger instead of frying it and it goes by much quicker! Of course in the summer I have a huge garden and can it, freeze it, or eat it fresh…in the winter we eat what I canned during the summer! This really works good for us…because I already know that I need 30 breakfast, lunch and dinner meals and then our basics…nothing more…nothing less! Istarted doing this because we were spending over $2000 a month on groceries. I bet my hubby that if I could do it under $500 a month that he would have to take us on a cruise! It worked ….and we all go on a two week cruise, VIP in the best suites they have each year! 🙂 Each month I put what I don’t spend from the $2000. into a special savings account. Anytime I get a refund, rebate, use coupons, or get any customer loyalty checks, I put that money in there too! We always have left over from our vacay and I use that money to prep with!
Mommapreps:
I would love to know more about what you do! I know we spend 2K or more a month on groceries and we don’t need to. I have 7 in the family and dinners are usually made for 8-10 cuz hubby takes it for lunch at work and I can save the rest for our ‘leftover’ day. I sooo wand to know what it is you do to reduce it down like that. I am especially interested in the day you cook, mix the mixes(?) and such. Can you msg me and share? This stay at home homeschooling , just starting a garden, wanting to do more things from scratch mamma is VERY interested! 🙂
Thanks for this post. I had a roomie once that criticized me for having an overly stocked pantry. She made it seem like I was being glutinous, but really it was all dried, pantry friendly foods that dont go bad. I think its a great plan, in case of an emergency, job loss, etc. Between a well stocked pantry and a backyard garden (or CSA!) you really cant go wrong!!
While raising my children I did the same thing. I planned my next days meals while in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner the night before, that allowed my to pull items from the freezer or get a jump start on a certain dish. It was great because I was never scrambling to figure out “whats for dinner?” @ Jen…. My husband use to make fun of me for shopping in bulk, one time I came home with 24 jars of peanut butter because they were on sale and i had coupons for them, I paid 40 cents a jar! He just thought that was the most stupid thing in the world. I had four children to feed and it made no sense to not buy things in bulk when they are on sale.
I have a question; for freezing various food items (besides vacuum pack) what are the best containers? Plastic bags contain PVC, and I’m just trying to avoid plastic containers overall for health reasons. Suggestions?
Glass? I put all my homemade stock, sauces and marinades in glass jars and freeze them, just make sure you leave a couple of inches headspace or the jar will crack as the stock expands with freezing (I’ve only had one do that and because it was pretty much frozen there wasn’t a mess thankfully :)). I also do freezer jam in glass jars and never had an issue. HTH!
Great post 🙂
Before baby #3 arrived I sat down and sorted out a variety of meals – 4 chicken, 2 sausage, 4 crockpot, 3 soups, 4 mince, 3 vegetarian, 2 fish, 3 ‘leftovers’ (i.e using leftover stew to make a pie using pie crust I’ve frozen) and 3 fakeaways. They’re all well-balanced, quick to make, popular in our house meals and the best part is that they all have the same basic ingredients. I do a bulk order every 5-6 months of grains, bulk herbs every 3 months, we get our veges delivered every week as we aren’t able to have a garden ATM and theres no fresh veges at all where we live (our vege boxes come from the other side of the island) and the supermarket run is just dairy and pet food basically. I stock up on meat when it comes on special – usually once a month, though we can go up to 2 months ATM and I plan on extending that even more.
With a newly 5yo, a 2.5yo and a just 3mo and a husband who works shift so isn’t around at all when hes working I semi OAMC simply for the ease (trying to breastfeed, get dinner sorted and get through witching hour all at the same time with no hubs is a rotten combo! :)). I break up the mince and brown it all with seasonings then I chuck together our fave shepherds pie recipe x2, enough meat patties for atleast one lot of burgers and bag the rest of the mince for spag bolognese, etc. I buy whole chickens for the most part and roast them then strip the meat off and make a couple of chicken enchilada dishes, bag the rest with different seasonings/marinades and pop the bones straight into the crockpot with the vege ends. I precook the sausages then just bag them and freeze, make and precook the pizza bases then bag them as well as all the diced toppings, freeze the fish in marinade, etc.
Having the ‘menu plan’ means we can pick and choose what we want to eat when we want to eat it, cooking is quick thanks to prep, shopping is easy since its always the same and I don’t have to think about any of it because its all written down. Theres enough variety to keep us happy – we can go almost a month with no meal double ups if we wanted, but theres an order to it as well which really helps this tired mama. I make our cleaners (buying what I need in bulk once a year) and we use eco-friendly reusable options for our personal products so it all keeps our shopping needs to a minimum and we live on $200 p/mth (we aren’t in the States, we’re down in Australasia).
I’ve been thinking about buying bulk for a while for dry goods. How do you store flour, beans and grains in quantity?
Hi there, I found you through Rhonda at the Down To Earth blog.
I do love to meal plan. Have done so for about 16 years now. First starting when I was a single mother on a pension.
I do find it cheaper as as many say I’m not going to the shops numerous times a week and picking up more than intended, plus counting in the fuel to do so.
My meals are planned around what I have in stockpile, to use in the fridge/freezer, what is on special at the butchers and also what is in season.
When you get into the habit you learn when things are in season and when they aren’t. For instance right now (in Australia) I would be mad to make a meal from pumpkin or tomato as they are really expensive right now. However I can substitute the pumpkin for sweet potato as that’s reasonably cheap here.
I meal plan for a whole fortnight, as that is how we are paid. That includes buy fruit and veg for the fortnight too. With careful food storage and using up leftovers by either freezing them for easy meals, having them for lunch or planning them into the meal plan I find I rarely have food spoilage.
It’s a matter of being careful and sensible.
That being said you do what works for you and if you just can’t get your head around ‘traditional’ meal planning then so what? The world isn’t going to end 🙂
I’m another blow in from Down to Earth. Hi! 🙂
I sure do admire your organisation. I really do need to practice what I read and agree with.
Absolutely BANG ON! I’ve shrunk our monthly grocery bill by nearly HALF by building a stockpile and shopping to stock it. I prepare meals based on what needs using up from the pantry, freezer and fridge. Great post!
Amy Dacyczan says that she plans her next night dinner while she is doing the dishes in the evening and she bases it on what is available in her pantry. I have a well-stocked pantry but I dont hoard and I feel this causes shortages and is not a good thing.
It is not “make due” it’s make do!
I have a well stocked pantry and three freezers full of vegetables and fruit and some meat too. I also have vegetables that will over winter at my four allotments and outside storage boxes with potatoes and apples. I try to shop once a month for basics and I pick up milk when I need it.
I am also a fly by my seater, mostly because my husband often comes home and doesn’t feel like eating the planned meal, but would rather have…xxxx….. Add to the mix that DS and I are gluten/dairy/soy free and hubby loves junk food….
Too many times, I have made a meal, only to have him say he isn’t hungry. Then an hour later, he is hungry ut not for what I have made and he makes something else. Drives me nuts, so I don’t preplan.
I do keep a well stocked pantry, have a meat chest freezer and a fruit/veggie chest freezer. I also can produce from the summer months.
I order our “special foods” once a year online. Several I buy at a kosher for passover online store out of NY, (Like a year supply of marshmallows for my son to have with hot chocolate) and if we run out, then we are out until the next year.
Once a month, I get together with a group of other moms and we make a soup and 6 dump chicken/pork recipes that we then freeze for our mindless meals. That is the extent of our planning.
Thanks for your wonderful article. Whether it is cooking at home, or planning for a party, we need to plan our menu well in advance. Advanced meal planning saves our time on a day to day basis;We save on our budget by pre planning and shopping at one go.
We just need to spend some time in planning, which would be well worth our efforts.
http://www.64kalas.com/menu-planning/
I signed up for the emails but haven’t received the email to confirm. Any ideas?
I am wondering if you have an ongoing pantry list that you use to help you keep it stocked. I have been going to the grocery store once a week and shopping based on what we want for dinner the next week. But then my pantry is very rarely stocked so if a storm happens we wont make it very long beyond our planned week. I just went shopping for a month and spent less than I normally spend going weekly and I was able to stock up on a few things that may last more than a month. Now wondering the best way to make sure my pantry stays stocked so I can make our typicals easily throughout the month. (I am still working towards the from scratch thing) I don’t enjoy cooking at all at this point. Trying to get to that point.
Fantastic post! I read it, then every single comment (learned heaps more there!) then had to reread the post again 🙂
I’ve really struggled with meal planning, it totally bores me and I don’t think I’ve ever stuck to one whole week of it! What I hadn’t got my head round was that there was another way which suits me so much better. I already bulk buy dried & tinned food; 25kg sack of bread flour, 5kg bags of dried pasta, sacks of potatoes & onions, baked beans by the tray rather than the can etc (btw we live in a tiny cottage so have become devious re storage!) and being on a farm with 4 freezers and heaps of meat means that I guess this what I already do this, I just hadn’t got it straight in my head.
What I must take away from reading your post is to decide the night before and getting the meat out then (I’ve just got a bag of pulled chicken out for tomorrow night fajita’s 🙂
Brilliant post, thank you
Janie x
I like the idea of going directly to the farm for meat since most think of going to farms just for produce. Buying meat in bulk is great if your freezer can handle it. My freezer has a lot of frozen fruit for smoothies. I wrote some tips on another way of meal planning that saves a bit of time. check it out here: http://msuncommonsense.com/?p=654
One thing I want to share with you that has saved us a lotof $ and given us some secuity in knowing we have a good supply is cheese. I learned this from some wine-afficinado friends who age their own cheese and now we’ve been doing this for years. We live in the northwest, and Tilamook cheese in wax is abundant and affordable at the grocery store. It ages beautifully in a cold pantry or cellar as long as the wax isn’t broken. So we put away a few 2 lb. blocks of cheese and pull them out after several months (up to 14 months) and it is a lovely aged cheddar for which you’d pay 2X as much as the original price. Thebrick will separate some water, and the wax will get sort of bulgie and squishy, this is normal, rinse and dry the cheese when you open it, cut is smaller blocks and wrap in plastic or foil. We have done this with gouda that comes in small rounds completely covered in wax. Another option is to store the cheese, unbroken wax, in the frig so that it ages much slower. Then, if power is lost, the cheese would be moved to the cold pantry where it will continue to age and provide our family with a treat in hard times, and a good source of protein too. Right now we have over 20 lbs. of cheese in our stores and that gives me some relief. Also, I love your blurb about your great grandmother, my grammy continues to teach me about frugality and doing with what you have.
Did not know this! I am going to try this. I also live int he PNW and purchase Tillamook cheese.
I have to tel, you, I do make a menu for about 2 weeks at a time. Everything is made from scratch (save pasta and bread) I however only plan for 10 of the 14 days though. I only buy meat once month, unless there is great price. I keep a full stock of grains and beans anx use my preassure cooker a lot too. We almost never have any produce go bad either. I also dont stick to the day of the week we eat _______. I just have to remeber that I have certain ingredients that have to be eaten too. I aso freeze and can justabout everything too. I have to saythat I admire your ability to not have a meal plan. I think I would go nuts with out one.
I think there is an art to meal planning and it mostly includes being flexible. On the weeks i make a menu i will plan for 5 or 6 meals and tuesdays are always left over days (and if no left overs then something simple. it’s garbage day so we clean out the fridge that day). but we do not eat them on specific days i just cross them off once i make it. and i only plan for a week at a time. if we only needed 4 meals one week due to more left overs than planned, the not used meals rotate to the next week. My kids are in swim this month so i have been planning meals the night before since 2 nights a week they have to be something we can eat in the car on the way there.
that being said. i keep a well stocked pantry. we have a freezer for venison (my husbands) and 1 for veggies/fruit (the one i am in charge of). We can and freeze as much as we can and i plan the produce for the week by what is on sale/season most of the time. fish is bought in frozen bulk and we grind our own chicken. with farm stands so plentifully i fill my fridge once or twice a week and then i don’t really have to worry about anything. we have a freezer of venison for the protein and i grab what ever produce sounds good that day for sides.
Thanks for sharing. I too, try to have a well stocked pantry. Never have done meal planning. We put out a big garden and I can a lot of it too. Can most of my stuff, don’t hardly freeze much anymore. Meat for my family (not me I don’t eat it) , saves time when cooking a meal too. Potatoes are a real time saver too, when canned. God Bless
I don’t stock my pantry other than with beans, tomato paste, broths, etc. Eating processed foods is detrimental to my body and I’m trying to heal – so I do plan but at the same time I am trying to cook several meals within a couple of days and freeze them so that I only have to pull out my entree from the freezer when we are ready to have it. Fresh veggies are purchased weekly and beans and such are purchased as needed in bulk (did you know that if using dried beans, you should use them within 6 months and store them in a container – not the bag? I didn’t know that until two weeks ago. learn something new everyday!) Wish we could grow our own veggies here but I live in the desert and water is being rationed. Our growing season is very short since it gets really (really) hot in May.
Great article! I enjoyed this very much. I think it is important to pass this way of shopping and planning down to the next generation. I have always shopped in this manner and now at age 63 I do so more than ever. My grandparents ate this way and always had a large home garden. I have known the feeling of opening up a cupboard and finding it lacking of even the basics, my Mom divorced when I was a teen and if we did have money we did not eat. To this day, since being on my own, I keep a stocked pantry and almost panic if it is not. It has been said I can make something from nothing….while funny…it is not actually true….I have a well stocked pantry that we can eat well out of. I do a lot from scratch of course and we now try to eat organic non gmo as much as possible. I keep jars and jars of dried beans, quinoa, rice, grains, cane sugar, dried fruits etc. I have good veggies in the freezer and buy a lot of fresh. We have a low fixed income but we can make it work because we stock up. I prefer real non hormone butter and stock up anytime it is on sale. I make ghee and all our meals do not require meat. though we do eat meat, If we have venison we are happy happy. Great way to look at the issue of homekeeping. When we were hit with near financial ruin when the clinic I worked for closed, we were able to cut our expenses because of the stock pile, and while we diminished it, we are now building it back up and it saved us. Again thank you for this article.
I started doing a weekly menu plan to get a hold of our budget and it has helped tremendously. I don’t enjoy being in the kitchen and I am not very good at thinking out a meal based on what I have on hand. I am going to try to teach myself to switch mind fears and think stock pantry vs solely meal planning. Because normally we don’t necessarily have a lot of food on hand.
I buy food on sale and freeze or store and we buy meat once a year from a local person. I freeze veggies from the summer. I grew up on a farm, so the storing mentality is what I am used to. I groc. shop weekly for produce,dairy and sale items. Meal planning for me is a flexible week meal plan. Some days just don’t work to make what I planned, so I switch up my week when I need to or if an item needs to be used up I plan it into the menu or change my plan. Meal planning for a week works the best if you are flexible and think about what you have on hand or need to use up.
I meal plan, but based on what is in my freezer, and what is on sale at the grocery store. we also dehydrate, can, and garden. The day before payday, I inventory my freezer, and sit down with that list, the weather forecast, and the family activity calender. we rarely have leftovers, and when we do, they are actually “planned overs”, with a purpose. last week, we had crock pot pulled pork one night, with mashed potatoes and green beans from our garden. leftovers from that went in a container in the freezer. later that week, we had baked chicken, again with appropriate starch and veggies. those leftovers also went in the freezer. grilled ribs are planned for this weekend, then I will pull all the bags of leftovers out, add a few jars of veggies, and we will have Brunswick Stew. plan for your leftovers and you won’t have to throw them out.
we get paid twice a month, and other than the bananas my youngest insists on having for bedtime snack every night, and the occasional carton of milk, I rarely go to the store in between paydays. we go to the farmer’s market in the summer, including the bulk produce auction once a month. one dinner out for our family costs as much as home cooking for a week, so we keep that to a minimum.