Meal Planning

i cannot lament enough about the amount of food i've wasted over the years because of lack of planning.  i've always wanted to plan ahead our weekly meals but never got to successfully do so.

Since the week i finally organized our ref, i have been able to make an inventory of all the perishables we have and have gotten around to using up the still edible ones at each meal, an example: couscous bought in cdo MANY years ago.

i found some printable meal planners and freezer/pantry inventory forms after some online research. Thinking about my own experience, it is so much easier to plan meals before buying your ingredients.  i have a freezer full of stuff right now so the last 2 weeks of meals had to be designed around what i already have and it was kinda difficult to get creative because i had to limit myself with what was on hand.

so, to avoid this time-consuming problem, i have started mapping out our meals for the month of october.  then, i will break them down weekly so i can make a list of things i need to buy for the week or the day i plan to cook a certain recipe.

to keep meals interesting, i scanned for new but easy to prepare dishes in the food magazines i bought [finally!] and the recipes i came across with online.  then i wrote them all down in my monthly menu planner, 1 recipe per day.

having concretely planned our meals for two weeks now, i've successfully avoided any food wastage.  to be honest, i did not follow the plan to the letter because i had to make room for left-overs and the times when we dined-out.  but i find this okay because it's ridiculous to strictly follow it.  the planners are just to be used as a guide.  when i have to skip over a recipe, i simply use it on the next meal plan.  i also sometimes switched-up menus depending on which ingredients must be used first.  like if my tomatoes all ripened at the same time, then i prepared the recipes which needed them first.

and i don't work myself up over if i feel too tired to cook.  i simply order for take-out or delivery.  the only rule i strictly adhere to is when it involves spoilage of food or available ingredients.  no newly cooked meals when there are enough left-overs, no dining out or ordering in if there are wilting veggies in the crisper.

this new practice has proven effective for the past two weeks but the hubby is arriving tomorrow and i might need to tweak my plans a bit.

go check out the printable forms here and if you're the type who does NOT like keeping it simple, click here.

some tips:

• to avoid too many left-overs, plan only for 1 main meal per day, if the need arises, you can use the menu you skipped over or jump ahead to the next day's.
• ensure proper nutrition by keeping a container of salad greens to pair with vegetable-less main meals
• try to keep pork/beef recipes at a maximum of 2 to 3 per week, chicken and seafood at an equal number.
• keep rest days from cooking at a maximum of once or twice a week, ordering in or dining out can put a serious dent on your budget.
• keep breakfast staples on hand: bread, jams, cereals, oatmeal, eggs, left-over rice, pre-marinated meat [if possible make your own to avoid buying processed meats and ready-to-cook options which have too much salt and preservatives in them]

A Revamped Ref

So i finished my weekend project today, and it isn't even sunday yet, yipee!  you will be proud of what i've accomplished.  plus, i've also managed to replenish my inventory which i think will be enough to last us a week.  i used to hoard food, thinking it would be better than going back to the supermarket all the time to restock.  but i realized that i still ended up going to the supermarket weekly for one thing or the other, once per week at the very least, so now i just buy what is urgently needed[read: needed within the week].  this strategy alone has slashed a few thousand pesos off my monthly supermarket bill.

my goal now is to produce zero-waste or at least keep it to the barest minimum.  i so hate to be wasteful.  money should be spent wisely and not thrown into the trashcan. =P

so this is what i did:

i cleaned out the ref and freezer in increments just in case i couldn't finish it in one go.  i did the freezer first, emptied it and washed all the removable shelves and noted down items that needed to be used first.  i had to throw out some old root beer popsicles that had been sitting there for far too long.

the freezer looks almost empty because i refused to buy any uncooked meat until i use up what i already have, this resolve forces me to be creative in my recipes, and is a nifty money-saver trick too.  oh, and that is not ice cream in the big brown box over there, it's raw marinated tilapia.  ice cream containers are made for freezers, so keep one or two of them for uses like these.

i also put the same things together, like pre-marinated meat in one tray, unseasoned meat in the other, and ice-cream and frozen sweets at the corners.  i put all the deli meats, as well as the nuts and the ginger. on the freezer door.

Rachel Ray said that it is best to keep ginger in the freezer, where they will keep indefinitely,  i've been doing this for a while now and i love how they sort of just soften up as they melt,  you don't have to mash it, it easily infuses into whatever you are cooking with aromatic spice!
side note:  i know it doesn't seem to look organized but in this way i can just take a look and i'll have a mental picture of what i already have so i don't unnecessarily buy the same things when i go to the supermarket.

with the freezer done, i tackled the ref door on my next free time.  i found plenty of gunk to get rid of.  i had probably a shelf-full of expired opened, half-used bottles, soup packets, and unopened sauces.  i've amassed quite a bit of them mostly from take-outs.  i promise never to take home unopened packets of ketchup, mayo or chili sauce ever again.

i also put the chocolate milk and juice bottles on the door for easier access, this way my kids don't have to go through all the breakables just to get at them.  i took note of all the half-used condiments, fruit preserves and relishes so i can plan recipes where i can use them up by next week.

i read somewhere that you are not supposed to keep eggs on the egg tray at the ref door, and that to keep them fresh longer, you store them in their original packaging in one of the shelves.  but i always put them on the egg tray as there is no need to store them for long.  we are an egg-loving family, so we consume eggs as fast as we buy them.

i did the main ref last when i did not have to hurry while doing it as it had many parts which were detachable and therefore washable.  i decided to experiment by removing a shelf to give the adult beverages more room to stand tall, lol.  i figured i didn't need the extra shelf because it used to hold junk i've been keeping for years! [you read that right!]  i got rid of the junk, took note of the ones which were usable so i can include them in my recipes next week. 

the chiller holds the cheeses, butter and opened deli meats.  i keep the kiddie vitamins and medicines in a tray in the ref and keep a list of the expiry dates in their babybooks.  the bread go into the veggie crisper, it's quite roomy now because unless i'm going to cook it on the same day, i don't buy leafy greens.  left over food and 'reheatables' ALL stay TOGETHER on the bottom shelf for easy reference.  i made a new rule that we don't cook anything new unless there is room on the bottom shelf to take in new arrivals.

i'm devising a new way to plan weekly recipes which will enable me to save on my food expenses and more importantly, help me not let anything go to waste.  i will post them as soon as i finish.  now, why don't you go check your ref out for possible monsters hiding in it. =P

The Refrigerator

Does this happen to you?

you get hungry and you open the ref to find something to eat.  you have to suddenly catch something falling because you ref is so full that the contents jump at you when you so much as slightly open the door.  then you rummage through all the plastic containers, half-filled bottles things you don't recognize.  you end up closing the ref door with nothing.  absolutely nothing.

so you cook up a batch of whatever it is you have in the freezer or the pantry and you actually prepare more than what you can consume [that's hunger making you do that], which ultimately ends deep inside in the ref, which will later be forgotten, and after a few days, unrecognizable.

it's a vicious cycle, and until we cut the problem at its root, it will happen again and again and again.  more often than not, you throw away half of what you buy.  and that is why things must change from now on.

these pictures show what my ref and freezer look like on good days.  it has become this roomy because i stopped buying food that needs to be prepped for about two weeks now.  so you can imagine how it would look if i continued with my old shopping habits.

i've sworn to refrain from buying anything until the time i clear out all the left-overs, junk, and probable gunk inside the ref.  i hope to achieve this by the weekend so i can present you with a really gorgeous after shot that will make you all run to revamp your refs. =D