Making Extra Time in my Day!

Hello Everyone!  I hope ya’ll are doing well! I am enjoying the spring weather and hoping that it lasts.

I wanted to thank everyone for the great response that I received on my last post. Just to give an update, I am thoroughly enjoying this new lifestyle. I haven’t been to the store since my monthly trip and it is wonderful not having to wonder what I am going to cook each meal.

I’ve had several people tell me that they like the idea of monthly grocery shopping but don’t think that they can do it because they don’t know what to do about all of the fresh produce and the large amount of space needed. So, I decided to show you how I handle that issue.

 I have a small kitchen and I also use a lot of vegetables. Some of you might not know that my husband is from India, so although (thankfully) he is not vegetarian (I love the food, but am not very good at cooking it), we do eat quite a lot of vegetables.  I also refuse to waste food. Therefore, I have learned how to make the most of the vegetables that I buy and use them completely.

 I admit, when you first bring all of the groceries in, it is rather daunting.  But, it needn’t be. I start by putting away all of my frozen and refrigerated food. Then I put away my canned goods.  I try not to buy many canned vegetables, usually just tomato products and occasionally English Peas or canned Great Northern Beans. Why do I not buy canned vegetables? Because, frozen usually tastes better and I can cook all or part of a package. This allows me to buy large packages of frozen vegetables that can be stacked in the freezer and take up less room.  I buy beans dry and cook them from scratch. I can buy a pound of dry beans for around the same price as a can of beans.

After putting up my canned goods, I start on my meats.  I buy what is on sale, usually family packs. Since there are only 2 of us, I go ahead and divide my meat up into a serving size for 2 people and put in the freezer.

Next comes the produce. I have discovered that cutting up vegetables is the most time consuming part of preparing a meal. Also, I hate crying over chopped onions every night while I fix dinner. So, I chop all of my vegetables ahead of time and put them in Ziploc bags in the freezer. I usually leave a few onions whole in case I decide to make tuna salad or something where fresh onions with crunch are needed, but the rest go into the freezer. Then whenever I cook, I reach into the freezer, pull out the amount of chopped vegetables needed and cook them. I do not chop my potatoes, ginger, cilantro, or chilies.

As I chop the vegetables, I place all of the scraps from the vegetables into a stockpot. After I am done chopping, I cover all of the scraps with water and boil.  After cooking, I strain the vegetables and keep the liquid. I end up with the most wonderful vegetable stock! There is usually enough for 2 meals. I consider this free food! I use the stock to make homemade potato soup or tomato basil soup!

The strained vegetables go in the compost pile for the summer vegetable garden. I hope this has answered some of your questions!  Until next time!

Simplifying Meals

Hello everyone! Sorry that it has been so long since I caught up with you but things have been hectic! However, it is hectic in a GOOD way for a change!

I started going to the office with Shank this week and I am learning how the insurance business runs.  I plan to help out when they are short staffed and to act as Shank’s personal assistant! All I can say is….. I have a lot to learn.  I am having fun though. I have also started going to several different community and business meetings that he attends including Chamber of Commerce,  and BNI meetings and I have met some wonderful people.

The other thing that I have been working on is how to simplify my life at home.  I decided to try a new concept of food planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. I am now into the second month of my plan and I wanted to share with you what I am doing and hopefully get your feedback and input on how to improve.

I have decided that I spend way too much time and money buying groceries and trying to figure out what to cook after I get home with these groceries. Sometimes I get home and wonder why I had to buy groceries at all with all of the stuff in my pantry. This bothers me on so many levels. There are so many people who don’t have anything to eat and here I am looking at so much and can’t put a meal together!

So, after doing some serious thinking and meditating about this I decided that I would inventory my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, make a meal plan, then implement it. You may be asking what is so different about this? Here it is…. I am only going to the grocery store once a month. Yep, once a month!

Here is what I did: I inventoried everything in my kitchen. I admit the first month took a while. I wrote down EVERYTHING in my pantry and refrigerator. I bet if you aren’t already doing this, you would be shocked at what you look blindly at everyday and never notice.

Next, I grabbed a calendar and started planning. I took the ingredients that I had inventoried and began making meals out of them. On the calendar, I planned out 3 meals for everyday of the month. When I got to the place where I had ingredients with nothing to put with them, I pulled out cookbooks and searched the Internet to find recipes to use these ingredients. I am determined to use everything in my pantry and to not waste any food. Listed below are 2 sites that take your ingredients and turn them into recipes for you!

http://www.recipekey.com/#main

http://www.recipematcher.com/

Once I had 3 meals for every day of the month, I made a grocery list. I planned for 3 meals because I cook breakfast every day and we take our lunches to work with us.  I have to admit, the grocery list for a month looked daunting. However, I went to the store (actually I usually go to 4 stores, I like to get the best prices available) and I bought groceries.  I stuck to the list, if it wasn’t on the list, I did not buy it! I was extremely worried….how much would this cost? But would you believe that I spent the same amount for the month that I usually spend in 2 weeks? I only spent $250.00. I brought it home and started the plan.

So here I am on my second month and I have to say, it works! I have learned some things. I don’t always cook what I have on the calendar for that day. Let’s be honest, some days, I don’t want what is listed for that day, or the meal is just too labor intensive. So, I pick another meal on the calendar. As long as I remember to cross out what I’ve cooked, I can go back and pick up the available meals later in the month.  Also, I had meals left over at the end of the month. Why? Because I did not take into account the days when there were leftovers.

So at the beginning of my second month, I was again a little anxious. My pantry was almost depleted and I did not know how to estimate how much the grocery bill would be. I started by adding the 11 meals that I had left from my first month to the calendar, and then I took a new inventory, planned my meals and set out to the store again. And guess what? This month, I spent $273.00!  Thirty-one days in the month with 3 meals a day for 2 people! 93 meals!!!!! I am extremely pleased with the outcome!

Also, I am ecstatic over the fact that I DO NOT have to darken the door of a grocery store or put up groceries again for a month!!!!!!!!

Please let me know what you think and any suggestions on how to make it better!

Talk to you soon!

 http://www.recipematcher.com/