I started the weekend with what I wanted to work my way through jotted down on the fridge memo board. It’s a simple set-up, not a real meal planning set up. I have a dry-erase magnetic sheet on the freezer door of my dorm-size fridge. I also have three dry erase markers of different colors and an eraser, each with a magnet, and a magnetized paper sheet of to-do lists the size of the shopping list pads. It’s super basic. The whole thing cost maybe $10.00. And I am able to jot things down as I think of or notice them.
That to-do list is helping me to organize the projects for my kitchen corner and I am keeping that list where I can quickly look at it when I have time to do something. It’s super convenient, and after I mark things as done, I can throw the top sheet into the recycling and move onto a new one.
The dry erase sheet usually has three sections. The first for single-serve foods in the freezer I want to use up soon and leftovers in the fridge. The second for other foods and condiments I need to use up. And the third is for my ideas for meals I might want to make. Whether those are the meals I end up making or not is questionable. But at least I have an idea of what I can pull off each weekend.
That’s all there is to my system and, so far, it is working for me. I live alone, so I only have to worry about feeding myself.
All I do is pay attention to leftovers I have created or brought home, noting them on the sheet. And, as I am going through my week, I note anything that I find that needs to be used up or has only a little left. Sometimes I will throw things in the freezer, extending the time I have to use it. I check my freezer on Friday or Saturday and note what I need to use that’s in there. And through the week, I write in any ideas I might have for meals. On Sunday, I decide what I will actually be making.
I don’t have a regular shopping day, but I do try to get my groceries on Wednesday or Thursday when I can. I also don’t necessarily shop every week. I plan to add a farmer’s market day, which is Saturday in my area. If it’s not raining, I will take my Saturday morning walks to the steam plant parking lot and see what is fresh and what might go well with my meals.
Sunday was a busy day as I had to catch up on some things before I could do my meal prep for the week. Once I got going, I made soft-boiled eggs and strawberries and cream to go along with my meal packs for work. I decided to use the strawberry tops to make strawberry vinegar, which is now sitting on my shelf waiting to be strained in about a week.
Once the meal packs were covered, and in the fridge, and the vinegar settling on the shelf, I moved onto the main meal for home this week. It’s another chili, but I stretched this meal with a package of ground turkey along with the pound of ground beef. Ground beef was $5.86, but ground turkey was only $1.98. Generally, I do not like ground turkey. However, I thought if I made a chili using a good amount of seasonings, I might be able to eat it. It might cancel out the flavor of the ground turkey. I was right! I couldn’t even tell there was ground turkey in this dish. I saved $3.88 by using the turkey rather than a second package of ground beef. This may not seem exciting to you but, the way I have to eat and not having a lot I can stretch meals with that won’t add carbs, it is for me. I also used a celery mix I made in this chili. Not a lot. About an ice cubes amount. It does have a very strong aroma, but the overall taste of the chili was very good and I couldn’t smell the aroma after it was cooked. I did adjust the amount of garlic I put into the chili because the celery mix has garlic in it already, hence the strong aroma..
All I did was, after cutting up the celery for my work meals, take the leaves of the celery, a good size garlic clove, grape tomatoes, some avocado oil, and a little water and blend it all up. The rest went into an ice cube tray to freeze, then transferred to a disposable zipper freezer storage bag for future meals. Some of you are aware that I’m trying to lessen the amount of food waste I generate. This is one way I am meeting that goal.
I will eat most of the chili this week, and whatever is left will go into the freezer in single-serve portions for later use.
I did notice accouple of things while shopping. Cucumbers went up in price from .79 to .84, and they are smaller now and certainly less fresh. I actually had to eat the cucumber over the weekend so it wouldn’t go bad, rather than use it in my meal packs for work. And the small avocados I paid .70 each for the previous week are now priced at .88, even though they were less fresh and needed to be handled more quickly over the weekend as well. I diced the these and added them to the other freezer bag of avocados. Those were the only two things I noticed had gone up in price this week, but I also didn’t do a full shopping trip, keeping the actual grocery cost at under $30.
What I needed to use up were a few grape tomatoes, the celery leaves, and the strawberry tops, which I already told you about. Some cream cheese from the freezer was used, as well as a chunk of mild cheddar. I put them in the chili, along with more of the nutritional yeast. I also did use the last can of diced tomato and need to stock back up. I also used the last can of coconut cream and added that to my shopping list. And I used up some of the tiny bottle of vanilla extract.
Let me just say that I had my doubts about nutritional yeast, but I am glad I have it. It really isn’t ruining the taste of anything and is really good in my meals I use it for.
I did enjoy a few of the single-serve meals I had in the freezer over the weekend. I heated the goulash with parsley, chives, onion and garlic powders, sea salt and pepper, as well as mozzarella cheese, mild cheddar, and Nutrional yeast. I had the chili on tortillas with nutritional yeast, mozzarella and mild cheddar, as well as lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. That was the last of the mozzarella. And I did enjoy the last of that corned beef meal with nutritional yeast, parsley, and chives. It was all very good. I did have leftover clams, and mashed potatoes with gravy, from a meal ordered in. I had a smoothie from the freezer on Sunday before I got to cooking. The leftover tomato paste not used in the chili went into the freezer. And the last meal pack from the previous week was eaten on Friday when I was too tired to cook.
Also used up this weekend were the last of a jar of ChocZero hot cocoa mix, as well as some of the chai mix, and some ChocZero white chocolate and vanilla syrups. I know it’s expensive, but I am so happy I have found replacements for the sugar laden products for hot cocoas, and even a few things to fancy this treat up. I did also eat three donuts this weekend that my parents had made. These donuts are not overly sweet. They are old-fashioned ones and are only made once a year. This is another real treat I get to have.
For snacks this week I have celery with peanut butter, and the extra veg I had left over from prepping my meal packs for work. I didn’t buy much at the grocery store, but I am by no means going hungry.
I gave my neighbor a single-serve thing of syrup I won’t eat, rather than throwing it out. He appreciates getting things I won’t use, unless I try to give him fresh produce.
I did open a new jar of hot cocoa mix. The last jar until late next fall. With this I made a chai hot cocoa mix.
And I made a collagen and fiber mix, both of which I’m trying to use up. It’s a half-and-half mix of unflavored collagen powder that I don’t like the taste of, and an orange flavored fiber mix which I will never by again because I don’t like the added ingredients. I will use both up because they are expensive. I just can’t understand why it is so difficult sometimes to get a fiber supplement that is just psyllium husk and the gel cap. If you have a good bulk source for this, please share!
~ Shannon
