How to plan and prep for meals
October 11, 2024 4:38 PM Subscribe
My freezer, refrigerator, and pantry are filled to the brim.
What's the best way to take inventory? To plan meals? To prep meals in advance?
Taking inventory - I want an easy(ish) way to figure out exactly what I have on hand. I wasn't the one who put everything away, and he didn't make a list while he was doing it. I have 4 cabinets overflowing with canned goods, pasta, beans rice, etc. My fridge and freezer are in the same condition. Ideally, I'd have a spreadsheet with the initial count, then drop the number as I use a can or frozen meat etc.
The last time I made a meal plan was in high school. I'd give my mother a list of ingredients, and she'd go shopping for the ones we didn't have. Currently, my options are limited to the ingredients I already have.
For meal prep, I want to know, between the inventory and meal plan, how to prep for this week's meals (and those that also go in other meals in the future.)
For example, I have red bell peppers. I need one cut in a large dice. I need one in strips, and one finely diced. The strips can go in fajitas this week, the large dice in jambalaya, and the fine dice for a quinoa salad. Those aren't all in the same week, but if I'm hacking up peppers, I might as well do all the cutting and put it in ziploc bags. I already (mostly) separate meat into single portions, for example, one chicken breast, one pound of ground turkey, etc.
And I need all of this to be as simple as possible. I've been going to the food bank twice a week, but I don't have a ride to get there for the next several weeks. So I have to use what I have on hand. (I'm applying for food stamps, but haven't got all the documents I need together yet.)
Key points: I don't own a microwave. I do have a crockpot. I'm missing some key ingredients like butter, other baking items, and some herbs and spices.
Please help me, oh great hive mind!
Taking inventory - I want an easy(ish) way to figure out exactly what I have on hand. I wasn't the one who put everything away, and he didn't make a list while he was doing it. I have 4 cabinets overflowing with canned goods, pasta, beans rice, etc. My fridge and freezer are in the same condition. Ideally, I'd have a spreadsheet with the initial count, then drop the number as I use a can or frozen meat etc.
The last time I made a meal plan was in high school. I'd give my mother a list of ingredients, and she'd go shopping for the ones we didn't have. Currently, my options are limited to the ingredients I already have.
For meal prep, I want to know, between the inventory and meal plan, how to prep for this week's meals (and those that also go in other meals in the future.)
For example, I have red bell peppers. I need one cut in a large dice. I need one in strips, and one finely diced. The strips can go in fajitas this week, the large dice in jambalaya, and the fine dice for a quinoa salad. Those aren't all in the same week, but if I'm hacking up peppers, I might as well do all the cutting and put it in ziploc bags. I already (mostly) separate meat into single portions, for example, one chicken breast, one pound of ground turkey, etc.
And I need all of this to be as simple as possible. I've been going to the food bank twice a week, but I don't have a ride to get there for the next several weeks. So I have to use what I have on hand. (I'm applying for food stamps, but haven't got all the documents I need together yet.)
Key points: I don't own a microwave. I do have a crockpot. I'm missing some key ingredients like butter, other baking items, and some herbs and spices.
Please help me, oh great hive mind!
I do not find doing or keeping inventory to be a good use of my time. And if you share a kitchen, you also will find it challenging, because other people will not tell you when they use things. What I do instead is pick things that I know need to be used this week or things that seem to have been gathering dust for a while and plan meals around those. I find Supercook, which is a search engine that lets you input the ingredients you have and spits back recipes, to be incredibly helpful.
I currently plan my meals on a three day horizon and just jot down what additional ingredients I need. But when I planned them on a longer horizon, I found Plan to Eat to be a very easy to use and intuitive meal planner.
posted by moosetracks at 6:48 PM on October 11 [9 favorites]
I currently plan my meals on a three day horizon and just jot down what additional ingredients I need. But when I planned them on a longer horizon, I found Plan to Eat to be a very easy to use and intuitive meal planner.
posted by moosetracks at 6:48 PM on October 11 [9 favorites]
It's not entirely clear what problem you are trying to solve here exactly, but the simplest algorithm is just to take stock of the perishable items and figure out what you need to use up. So it sounds like you should simply make a list of what is in the fridge and needs to be used up first and then figure out what you can make with the top priority items from the fridge by incorporating items from the pantry or freezer, which you can also survey visually.
Does having a list of exactly how many cans of beans you have in stock help you in some way that simply looking in the cupboard to see how many cans of beans you have doesn't? When it comes to prep, is it really more efficient to plan ahead and cut up multiple peppers for multiple meals then storing those in ziploc bags versus just cutting up what you need for each meal when you prepare it? Or are you trying to use up significant amounts of fresh produce that you can't eat before it goes bad?
In general, there is much more efficiency to be found in making multiple servings of the same dish to eat on different days (or to freeze for later) than there is in trying to prep for multiple different meals at once.
But if there are particular constraints on your time or energy or particular dietary constraints that make this kind of planning essential, maybe you can share what those constraints are here so that people can help you?
posted by ssg at 9:13 PM on October 11 [5 favorites]
Does having a list of exactly how many cans of beans you have in stock help you in some way that simply looking in the cupboard to see how many cans of beans you have doesn't? When it comes to prep, is it really more efficient to plan ahead and cut up multiple peppers for multiple meals then storing those in ziploc bags versus just cutting up what you need for each meal when you prepare it? Or are you trying to use up significant amounts of fresh produce that you can't eat before it goes bad?
In general, there is much more efficiency to be found in making multiple servings of the same dish to eat on different days (or to freeze for later) than there is in trying to prep for multiple different meals at once.
But if there are particular constraints on your time or energy or particular dietary constraints that make this kind of planning essential, maybe you can share what those constraints are here so that people can help you?
posted by ssg at 9:13 PM on October 11 [5 favorites]
I was looking for a similar app once, for much the same reasons. And the bad news is, no matter what system you ultimately find works for you, what really is going to do the trick is to actually physically go through your whole pantry and see what's in there. That's going to have to be the first step no matter what.
For me, a DIY approach worked best. I cleared off one afternoon on a weekend and methodically went through everything - I pulled each and every thing out of each cupboard, fridge shelf, and freezer, one by one, and wrote it down on an Excel spreadsheet. I grouped foods into some general categories (produce, meat, baking supplies, canned things, pastas/grains, "misc."), and noted how much I had, and where I had it (because I had both fresh and frozen produce, so it helped to know that I had 3 ears of corn AND a bag of frozen corn). I also made note of any prepared food I had ("chili - 3 cups - fridge, minestrone - 4 cups - fridge"). I highlight the stuff that needs using up first, like fresh produce, meat, and any leftovers. The one and only thing I didn't track was spices and salt and pepper because you use such scant amounts of them at a time it didn't seem to matter. I still have that and keep track of my food on that.
The good news is, the act of pulling everything out on the counter and looking at it will start suggesting some initial plans of attack for meals ("okay, I have a half a package of frozen meatballs and some ricotta, plus that pasta sauce that needs using up....oh, hang on, I bet I could make a meatball pasta bake out of that").
In terms of meal planning, I have a notebook for meal planning every week. (For me, analog just works better.) Once a week, I have a look at the pantry inventory and then plot out the weeks' meals from that. I try to use up the perishable stuff and leftovers first; leftovers are good work lunches, and sometimes they're good options for "I am exhausted from work and don't want to cook" dinners. During the week itself, I do generally stick to the plan, but I also have a couple of options in my back pocket for "screw it, I'm too tired and want something easy" things I can throw together even when brain dead.
Another bit of good news is - once you get over that initial "pull everything out and take stock" phase, the rest is actually not very time-consuming at all. I think my "weekly meal planning" takes about a half hour at most each week. It sounds like you have a partner who does a lot of their own food shopping too, though - so this may be something you both need to work on together in terms of the inventory and planning. Which leads me to a third bit of good news - the fringe benefit I discovered after I started doing this is that your grocery bills start to go down pretty considerably. I went from having extensive shopping lists where I bought up a whole lot of stuff and crammed it into my cupboard to having a weekly shopping list that was just, like, "pasta, ground beef, a can of tomatoes and some Goldish crackers for lunch snacks".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 AM on October 12 [4 favorites]
For me, a DIY approach worked best. I cleared off one afternoon on a weekend and methodically went through everything - I pulled each and every thing out of each cupboard, fridge shelf, and freezer, one by one, and wrote it down on an Excel spreadsheet. I grouped foods into some general categories (produce, meat, baking supplies, canned things, pastas/grains, "misc."), and noted how much I had, and where I had it (because I had both fresh and frozen produce, so it helped to know that I had 3 ears of corn AND a bag of frozen corn). I also made note of any prepared food I had ("chili - 3 cups - fridge, minestrone - 4 cups - fridge"). I highlight the stuff that needs using up first, like fresh produce, meat, and any leftovers. The one and only thing I didn't track was spices and salt and pepper because you use such scant amounts of them at a time it didn't seem to matter. I still have that and keep track of my food on that.
The good news is, the act of pulling everything out on the counter and looking at it will start suggesting some initial plans of attack for meals ("okay, I have a half a package of frozen meatballs and some ricotta, plus that pasta sauce that needs using up....oh, hang on, I bet I could make a meatball pasta bake out of that").
In terms of meal planning, I have a notebook for meal planning every week. (For me, analog just works better.) Once a week, I have a look at the pantry inventory and then plot out the weeks' meals from that. I try to use up the perishable stuff and leftovers first; leftovers are good work lunches, and sometimes they're good options for "I am exhausted from work and don't want to cook" dinners. During the week itself, I do generally stick to the plan, but I also have a couple of options in my back pocket for "screw it, I'm too tired and want something easy" things I can throw together even when brain dead.
Another bit of good news is - once you get over that initial "pull everything out and take stock" phase, the rest is actually not very time-consuming at all. I think my "weekly meal planning" takes about a half hour at most each week. It sounds like you have a partner who does a lot of their own food shopping too, though - so this may be something you both need to work on together in terms of the inventory and planning. Which leads me to a third bit of good news - the fringe benefit I discovered after I started doing this is that your grocery bills start to go down pretty considerably. I went from having extensive shopping lists where I bought up a whole lot of stuff and crammed it into my cupboard to having a weekly shopping list that was just, like, "pasta, ground beef, a can of tomatoes and some Goldish crackers for lunch snacks".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 AM on October 12 [4 favorites]
I agree with some people here that keeping an accurate, real time inventory isn't particularly useful--it takes a lot of time and effort to manage and I personally only have so much energy to devote to feeding myself.
General strategies:
1. I think it's worth cleaning up your pantry, fridge, and freezer every quarter or so to refresh your memory of what's available and thin out expired items.
2. I meal plan once a week. I glance through my pantry, fridge, and freezer and develop a list of meals that will utilize items I already have, then add the necessary fresh and pantry items to my list. There are some pantry items I try always keep on hand (grains, pastas, legumes, bullion cubes/concentrates, canned tomatoes), though I realize this may be less doable when shopping via food pantries. If you don't have pantry recipes already you can easily find lists via google search. Don't sleep on vegan/vegetarian recipes, either--you can get some great, cheap, comforting meals if you're willing to use pantry proteins.
3. To reduce waste I manage my food storage visually. I move things that need to be consumed sooner rather than later to the front of the fridge/freezer/pantry and I label everything I freeze with a date and useful identifier. I have moved my fridge shelves around so that my top shelf is leftovers that need to be eaten (or frozen) before making new things.
4. I prep as necessary. On shopping day the most I will do for veg and fruit is to prepare and/or store it in a way that it will keep as long as possible, and otherwise I prep as I go. So if I am eating 3 things with red peppers that week I prep all the peppers when I make the first thing with peppers. I do this because washing and chopping veg and fruit starts the countdown clock to spoilage unless the thing I am prepping is freezable *and* because it's exhausting to prep an entire week of veg and fruit all at once and I would find myself putting off prep because of a dependence on all-or-nothing approaches.
5. If I make a meal I like I add it to my recipe organizer, which is currently Paprika. I have a folder in there that is dedicated to "pantry only" meals leftover from the covid lockdown days but I still find useful for days where I just want to dump a bunch of cans and rice into my rice cooker or crockpot and walk away.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 8:21 AM on October 12 [2 favorites]
General strategies:
1. I think it's worth cleaning up your pantry, fridge, and freezer every quarter or so to refresh your memory of what's available and thin out expired items.
2. I meal plan once a week. I glance through my pantry, fridge, and freezer and develop a list of meals that will utilize items I already have, then add the necessary fresh and pantry items to my list. There are some pantry items I try always keep on hand (grains, pastas, legumes, bullion cubes/concentrates, canned tomatoes), though I realize this may be less doable when shopping via food pantries. If you don't have pantry recipes already you can easily find lists via google search. Don't sleep on vegan/vegetarian recipes, either--you can get some great, cheap, comforting meals if you're willing to use pantry proteins.
3. To reduce waste I manage my food storage visually. I move things that need to be consumed sooner rather than later to the front of the fridge/freezer/pantry and I label everything I freeze with a date and useful identifier. I have moved my fridge shelves around so that my top shelf is leftovers that need to be eaten (or frozen) before making new things.
4. I prep as necessary. On shopping day the most I will do for veg and fruit is to prepare and/or store it in a way that it will keep as long as possible, and otherwise I prep as I go. So if I am eating 3 things with red peppers that week I prep all the peppers when I make the first thing with peppers. I do this because washing and chopping veg and fruit starts the countdown clock to spoilage unless the thing I am prepping is freezable *and* because it's exhausting to prep an entire week of veg and fruit all at once and I would find myself putting off prep because of a dependence on all-or-nothing approaches.
5. If I make a meal I like I add it to my recipe organizer, which is currently Paprika. I have a folder in there that is dedicated to "pantry only" meals leftover from the covid lockdown days but I still find useful for days where I just want to dump a bunch of cans and rice into my rice cooker or crockpot and walk away.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 8:21 AM on October 12 [2 favorites]
I also used to be pretty good at this and then got very bad at it during lockdown and am still clawing my way back. My strategy is, forget long-term strategies- just go through right now and write down a list of everything you have in the fridge, the freezer, and the pantry. I like to do it on paper but a typed list also works. Then just look at it and think, ok, what canI make with the things I have? Start with anything perishable and just start putting things together- ok I have a bag of shredded cheese that’s gonna get moldy if I don’t use it soon so let’s use the onion and peppers with that, maybe do eggs or fajitas, etc - then cross those things off the list once you’ve “used” them.
Try to start by combining things into meals you already have all the ingredients for, then meals you have all but one or two ingredients for and the missing ingredient goes on your shopping list, etc.
I agree that keeping a REAL-TIME inventory isn’t a great use of time, but if you do this process weekly you won’t need to, because you’re crossing things off the list once every week or two when you mealplan, not every day when you use an ingredient.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:09 AM on October 12
Try to start by combining things into meals you already have all the ingredients for, then meals you have all but one or two ingredients for and the missing ingredient goes on your shopping list, etc.
I agree that keeping a REAL-TIME inventory isn’t a great use of time, but if you do this process weekly you won’t need to, because you’re crossing things off the list once every week or two when you mealplan, not every day when you use an ingredient.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:09 AM on October 12
The fact that you mention both spices and lack of microwave made me think maybe you’re not a very confident cook. But the fact that your current supply of food will have to sustain you a while makes me think there is some crisis or concern beyond lack of experience in pantry management. If you have to live of what you have for x weeks that is a different challenge to being a bit overwhelmed by kitchen chaos.
If you have to make your current supply last x time there is a lot to be said for taking a proper inventory. And there is no way to do that, that doesn’t entail pulling it all out and checking. Ideally that also gives you a chance to impose some kind of order when you put things back. Knowing what you have and being able to plot that into meals may allow you to worry a bit less.
Assuming you have a freezer available to you the single most efficient thing you can do is cook batches of things and put what you can’t eat in the next three days in the freezer. This also includes prepped ingredients like peppers or onions. It is also worth remembering that you can use coarsely chopped peppers in all three of the dishes you mention. May not be the ideal size/texture for each dish but also, who cares. It will still taste nice. Alternatively, cut up as much pepper as you need and place the remaining piece in the fridge for the next meal.
Today, inspired by the meat sauce question, I was going to cook spaghetti bolognaise. I got frozen beef out to defrost and a bag of finely diced carrots, leeks and celery (I can buy frozen here). After an hr, it occurred to me that I had been thinking about chilli and that that would use a lot of veg needs using and some tins of beans I have decided are a batch that was undercooked. It would also freeze well because I have to go out of town for a couple of days next week and it won’t result in my stuffing my face with pasta which is not good for the diet. So I got some frozen peppers out and returned the other veg to the freezer for another day. Both would have been fine options and tasty. But chilli was a better use of perishable ingredients, sub-optimal beans and gets closer to achieving eating goals. Beans also stretch the pound of beef into quite a few more meals for the same effort in terms of cooking. So the best approach also very much depend on what you are trying to optimise.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:20 AM on October 12
If you have to make your current supply last x time there is a lot to be said for taking a proper inventory. And there is no way to do that, that doesn’t entail pulling it all out and checking. Ideally that also gives you a chance to impose some kind of order when you put things back. Knowing what you have and being able to plot that into meals may allow you to worry a bit less.
Assuming you have a freezer available to you the single most efficient thing you can do is cook batches of things and put what you can’t eat in the next three days in the freezer. This also includes prepped ingredients like peppers or onions. It is also worth remembering that you can use coarsely chopped peppers in all three of the dishes you mention. May not be the ideal size/texture for each dish but also, who cares. It will still taste nice. Alternatively, cut up as much pepper as you need and place the remaining piece in the fridge for the next meal.
Today, inspired by the meat sauce question, I was going to cook spaghetti bolognaise. I got frozen beef out to defrost and a bag of finely diced carrots, leeks and celery (I can buy frozen here). After an hr, it occurred to me that I had been thinking about chilli and that that would use a lot of veg needs using and some tins of beans I have decided are a batch that was undercooked. It would also freeze well because I have to go out of town for a couple of days next week and it won’t result in my stuffing my face with pasta which is not good for the diet. So I got some frozen peppers out and returned the other veg to the freezer for another day. Both would have been fine options and tasty. But chilli was a better use of perishable ingredients, sub-optimal beans and gets closer to achieving eating goals. Beans also stretch the pound of beef into quite a few more meals for the same effort in terms of cooking. So the best approach also very much depend on what you are trying to optimise.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:20 AM on October 12
Response by poster: To answer some questions...
I'm a very confident cook. I may not be the best, and I certainly don't have too many of my recipes memorized, but I can hold my own. I typically don't have anyone in my kitchen except me. I live alone.
Long story short, my best friend was staying with me after major surgery. He went out of state for a work gig, and was going to be back Monday to make sure I was back to a decent level of doing it all myself. Instead, he wound up having emergency surgery to amputate part of his foot, where an infection had grown into his bones.
He's my only reliable transportation to get to the food bank. Last time I asked, he said it would probably be 4-6 weeks before he'd be cleared to drive home. So I need to make what I have last at least that long.
I do have perishable produce that's going to rot on me if I don't chop it up and toss it in the freezer.
I have energy and stamina challenges. It is vastly easier for me to get everything prepped at once, than to hack things up day after day.
Thank you all for your answers this far!
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:56 PM on October 12
I'm a very confident cook. I may not be the best, and I certainly don't have too many of my recipes memorized, but I can hold my own. I typically don't have anyone in my kitchen except me. I live alone.
Long story short, my best friend was staying with me after major surgery. He went out of state for a work gig, and was going to be back Monday to make sure I was back to a decent level of doing it all myself. Instead, he wound up having emergency surgery to amputate part of his foot, where an infection had grown into his bones.
He's my only reliable transportation to get to the food bank. Last time I asked, he said it would probably be 4-6 weeks before he'd be cleared to drive home. So I need to make what I have last at least that long.
I do have perishable produce that's going to rot on me if I don't chop it up and toss it in the freezer.
I have energy and stamina challenges. It is vastly easier for me to get everything prepped at once, than to hack things up day after day.
Thank you all for your answers this far!
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 5:56 PM on October 12
A couple new suggestions after your update above:
I do have perishable produce that's going to rot on me if I don't chop it up and toss it in the freezer. I have energy and stamina challenges. It is vastly easier for me to get everything prepped at once, than to hack things up day after day.
I have a couple new ideas for you for this.
Chopping produce up and tossing it in the freezer is totally something I do as well. For some of the produce, though, you may also want to blanch it first: that will just involve dumping it in boiling water for about a minute and then draining, and running it under cold water for another couple minutes. THEN you freeze it. That gives you a head start on cooking it JUST enough so that it can withstand being frozen without going mushy when you thaw it. I do this for all greens, summer squashes, chopped zucchini, green beans, and peas. Sometimes I do it for carrots - but I've also frozen chopped carrots raw and they've been fine. Some other vegetables I freeze raw are chopped scallion, chopped bell pepper, and corn (I get a lot of corn from my CSA and sometimes I just cut the kernels off the cobs and freeze them that way). I've also grated zucchini and frozen that raw; I use that for zucchini bread. (Freezing that raw makes it way easier to squeeze out the water after it's thawed - you have to do that for zucchini bread anyway, and thawing out the frozen grated zucchini also "melts" some of the water out of it way easier, so it's easier to squeeze the excess water out.)
A lot of online advice for freezing produce suggests that you spread everything out on a cookie sheet in the freezer first, and THEN pack it into a bag, so it doesn't freeze all in a huge lump. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't have enough ROOM in my freezer for that. So instead I use those small "Snack-size" ziploc baggies - I pack the things I'm freezing into those, since each one holds about a cup. And then I seal those and put them into a larger freezer-safe ziplog bag. That makes it easy to fish out just a cup of whatever I need and leave the rest in the freezer, instead of freezing things in a huge lump and having to hack of just the amount I need.
And if there are things that are frequently used together, I often freeze them together. A lot of soup recipes use both carrots and celery, so some of those freezer baggies have a mix of chopped carrot and celery. I also have chopped onion and pepper in some baggies together, since that often goes into chilis.
Finally: you may also want to do a search for "freezer meals" or "freezer food prep". There are a TON of food bloggers whose thing is a once-a-month meal prep, where they either batch cook a whole bunch of meals and freeze them, or they prepare a months' worth of freezer baggies with all the ingredients you need for a stew, and then they pull one out and dump everything in a slow cooker in the morning and they're good to go. A lot of these also skew "cheap and easy" to boot. You will likely have to scale the portions down a bit, since many of them are also serving families of four or six; but that will also work to your advantage, since one recipe will go a long way. And while a number of these recipes will also skew "rib-sticking meat and potatoes" kinds of dishes, you will also find a number of recipes that are vegan, produce-heavy and healthy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:30 AM on October 13
I do have perishable produce that's going to rot on me if I don't chop it up and toss it in the freezer. I have energy and stamina challenges. It is vastly easier for me to get everything prepped at once, than to hack things up day after day.
I have a couple new ideas for you for this.
Chopping produce up and tossing it in the freezer is totally something I do as well. For some of the produce, though, you may also want to blanch it first: that will just involve dumping it in boiling water for about a minute and then draining, and running it under cold water for another couple minutes. THEN you freeze it. That gives you a head start on cooking it JUST enough so that it can withstand being frozen without going mushy when you thaw it. I do this for all greens, summer squashes, chopped zucchini, green beans, and peas. Sometimes I do it for carrots - but I've also frozen chopped carrots raw and they've been fine. Some other vegetables I freeze raw are chopped scallion, chopped bell pepper, and corn (I get a lot of corn from my CSA and sometimes I just cut the kernels off the cobs and freeze them that way). I've also grated zucchini and frozen that raw; I use that for zucchini bread. (Freezing that raw makes it way easier to squeeze out the water after it's thawed - you have to do that for zucchini bread anyway, and thawing out the frozen grated zucchini also "melts" some of the water out of it way easier, so it's easier to squeeze the excess water out.)
A lot of online advice for freezing produce suggests that you spread everything out on a cookie sheet in the freezer first, and THEN pack it into a bag, so it doesn't freeze all in a huge lump. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't have enough ROOM in my freezer for that. So instead I use those small "Snack-size" ziploc baggies - I pack the things I'm freezing into those, since each one holds about a cup. And then I seal those and put them into a larger freezer-safe ziplog bag. That makes it easy to fish out just a cup of whatever I need and leave the rest in the freezer, instead of freezing things in a huge lump and having to hack of just the amount I need.
And if there are things that are frequently used together, I often freeze them together. A lot of soup recipes use both carrots and celery, so some of those freezer baggies have a mix of chopped carrot and celery. I also have chopped onion and pepper in some baggies together, since that often goes into chilis.
Finally: you may also want to do a search for "freezer meals" or "freezer food prep". There are a TON of food bloggers whose thing is a once-a-month meal prep, where they either batch cook a whole bunch of meals and freeze them, or they prepare a months' worth of freezer baggies with all the ingredients you need for a stew, and then they pull one out and dump everything in a slow cooker in the morning and they're good to go. A lot of these also skew "cheap and easy" to boot. You will likely have to scale the portions down a bit, since many of them are also serving families of four or six; but that will also work to your advantage, since one recipe will go a long way. And while a number of these recipes will also skew "rib-sticking meat and potatoes" kinds of dishes, you will also find a number of recipes that are vegan, produce-heavy and healthy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:30 AM on October 13
Whoops - forgot to say, memail me if you want to compare notes on other "freezer prep as a single eater" ideas. I even have ideas about how to solve the problem for where the recipe you have serves four people, but it calls for a can of cream-of-something soup, and you don't know how to scale that down.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:33 AM on October 13
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:33 AM on October 13
I have a magnetic whiteboard stuck on the freezer, with pens & an eraser right there. It’s easy to see at a glance what is in there. It’s also much more likely to be kept up to date than an app or spreadsheet you have to open. It would take a bit of time to do your 1st inventory, but then you just cross off or change the item count when you take something out.
posted by cantthinkofagoodname at 11:20 AM on October 13
posted by cantthinkofagoodname at 11:20 AM on October 13
I am wondering, does your local food pantry have delivery options? My local food pantry has delivery options from volunteers for situations like yours.
I don't do anything except take photos of what I see in my fridge and freezer and pantry -- when I am that sick and in recovery, writing all of that down doesn't make sense. When I do write, I just focus on what I am gonna make that day and for the week.
posted by yueliang at 1:34 PM on October 15
I don't do anything except take photos of what I see in my fridge and freezer and pantry -- when I am that sick and in recovery, writing all of that down doesn't make sense. When I do write, I just focus on what I am gonna make that day and for the week.
posted by yueliang at 1:34 PM on October 15
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posted by koroshiya at 5:08 PM on October 11