Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumMeal planning
One thing the pandemic did for me was to turn me into a meal planner. There are only two of us, so Id never planned meals ahead before, but if you only shop curbside pickup once a week and dont eat out, you need to do some planning ahead. Some things Ive learned:
Its best to make larger batches of foods that can be frozen for future meals or eaten as leftovers. Its easier to cook larger amounts and we dont always feel like cooking every night, so its nice to have food already made.
Meal kits are okay, but still involve actually cooking a meal and that meal isnt going to give you good leftovers for when you dont feel like cooking. Ditto for recipes that serve two.
Theres a certain comfort in knowing what youll be eating every night and knowing that you have the right ingredients on hand and thawed. There are no longer those evenings where you have lots of ingredients, but no idea what to make.
If you have a plan and ingredients, its easier and cheaper to cook than order out.
We have less food waste and fewer things expiring in the pantry.
Heres my dinner plan for the next few days:
Tonight I made paneer spinach with basmati rice with enough left over for lunch tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have chili from the freezeralready thawing in the fridge.
Wednesday is pot roast in the slow cooker with baked potatoes and a vegetable from the freezer to be decided. Its a big roast, so most will be portioned out and frozen for future reference.
Thursday is chicken burritos made from chicken thighs that I will have remembered to thaw ahead of time. Extra burritos go into the freezer.
Friday is pizza made from frozen dough, again thawed ahead of time because I know Ill be making pizza.
captain queeg
(10,281 posts)Im really bad, most everything I eat only gets one pan dirty.
MontanaMama
(23,366 posts)I keep a notebook for the year of my meal plans. Its kind of like a diary. If I dont plan meals a week ahead it really adds to my daily stress so I almost never skip doing this.
Every Saturday morning I head to the freezer to see what needs to be used
typically protein, and make a short list of those. From there I plan entrees and veggies and other sides and make a shopping list for anything I dont have. I try really hard not to overbuy fruits and vegetables because they dont keep and I hate waste. I buy only enough for the week. It keeps my fridge neater and things are easier to find not to mention saves money because Im not buying food I will not use.
Every morning I see whats on my menu. I pull food out of the freezer
and I know what Ive got to do to get lunches in lunch boxes and an evening meal on the table.
Heres our menu this week:
Monday ~ pecan crusted pork cutlets, green salad, mashed potatoes
Tuesday ~ Carne Asada baked potatoes (made with leftover flank steak), guacamole and homemade salsa verde
Wednesday ~ Grilled halibut with compound herb butter, green beans in a miso glaze, toasted baguette with garlic confit butter
Thursday ~ Roasted tomato soup (our garden is overflowing with tomatoes), grilled turkey, havarti and poblano sandwiches
Friday ~ Baby back ribs in the instant pots and finished on the grill, grilled creamer potatoes with pesto and a caprese salad
Saturday~Pizza on the grill
Ill make dough on Friday night and let it sit until Saturday, big green salad
Your menu nudged me to put burritos on my menu next week. Sounds so good.
trof
(54,256 posts)Or...Repeats. Sometimes 3peats.
Most meals we cook enough for at least two meals.
The day off from the kitchen is nice.
BigmanPigman
(51,649 posts)I eat better. I can eat what I want, when I want and how much I want. I wish I had more freezer space though. A 500 sq ft apt with one small closet doesn't allow too much buying in large quantities....my oven is used for food storage. I do not ever have leftovers since I have no problem eating the same thing for a few days, therefore I don't waste money. Also, I buy food that is close to expiration date (meat, fish, fruit and veggies). I have always lived on a tight budget and I am able to "do without" quite easily. I also love to cook creatively.
Lars39
(26,117 posts)This week I ordered but didnt receive zucchini. Hard to believe, but no zucchinis to be had.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Just put the sealed food in the water bath. For leftovers, I usually have the temp set to 140 and it's ready to eat once everything comes up to temp. I figure on about 1 hour of thawing time for an inch of thickness. 2 inches might take 3 hours. Thawing times aren't linear per thickness so for really thick things it might take several hours for things that would take days in the fridge.
spinbaby
(15,092 posts)But it never occurred to me to use it to thaw frozen food. Ive been pretty good about getting food out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge.