Hi! Can I just bring a little practical to this crazy time? I don't believe in spreading fear and panic. They spread just fine on their own fed by anything unknown. Here's what I do know, a lot of us stocked up on food so that we could keep others and ourselves safe by limiting contact. But now, how do we use up that food and keep it from all going bad?! We need a plan. (Planning happens to be my love language!)
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| No, I'm serious...planning makes everything right in my world! |
Since you just did all that shopping, you are at an advantage because you know what you bought. (Unless you were like me and were shopping with small children and were completely unprepared for everyone else to be at Costco on a Thursday night when you usually have the store all to yourself. Then you may have come home with a few surprises. :D )
Here's the fresh produce you're going to want to use up first:
Salad mix & pre-packaged lettuce
Berries (unless they are frozen)
Asparagus
Bananas (unless they are still green ;) )
Cucumbers
Start by planning some meals around these items (if you have them) using some of the other things you purchased like fresh meats, cheeses and breads. You don't need anything fancy to plan. Grab a piece of paper and fold it in thirds if you want (one column for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner). Or find a printable on Pinterest and use it. You just need to write this down. I usually just write dinners in on my monthly calendar and then weekly I add side dishes and whatnot to the menu planner on the fridge.
For example: For a dinner in the next few days you might roast some asparagus with some fresh chicken breasts you just bought and make mashed potatoes.
After those things, these are most likely to go bad next:
Avocados (put them in the fridge and just take out to ripen a few days before you need them)
Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green beans
Grapes
Melons
Pineapple
Spinach
Tomatoes
Plan the rest of the week's meals using these things.
The things that will last the longest if stored properly are:
Oranges & Citrus fruits
Pears (refrigerate them and leave just a few on the counter to ripen at a time)
Apples
Cabbage & brussels sprouts
Carrots
Celery
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Onions
Save meals using these things for next week or later.
After you have planned out your meals for the week, decide what fresh meat items you will need. Those you can keep in the refrigerator. Portion out the rest as you will need them and stick them in the freezer. If you bought a 5 pound package of ground beef and you know you want it all cooked up, you could go ahead and brown all of it at once and freeze what you won't be using right away.
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These are actually steaks from our farm.
One benefit of buying directly from a farmer is that you usually have a pretty
good supply already in your freezer.
You can find our farm on Facebook @thefamilyfarmculver.
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Remember, most leftovers are fine in the fridge for about a week. If you find yourself with tons of something leftover, freeze it. I had a big batch of risotto that we just weren't eating fast enough. I put it in sandwich zipper bags, wrote "RISOTTO" on the front along with "3/20" and popped it in the freezer. I freeze them flat and once frozen they stand up in the door of my freezer where they are easy to find. I'll pull them out at some point when I don't have time to make a starchy side.
If you can't use your bell peppers fast enough, just slice or dice them and stick them in a baggie in the freezer. They will be perfect cooked in any dish that needs them. You can do the same thing with apples. Then they are ready for an apple pie, crisp, oatmeal, or Dutch Apple Pancakes (which are soooo yummy!). If your bananas are beyond what you can fathom eating, peel them, break them into chunks and stick them in a baggie in the freezer. They can be pulled out for banana bread, smoothies, or in the summer for chocolate/peanut butter/banana shakes. Spinach can also be frozen if you aren't getting through the bag. I just rinse and pat dry and then fill a sandwich bag full. I find that this size holds about as much as I need for my recipes. Or add your banana, spinach and any berries you can't eat to a baggie and you have a smoothie pack. Just empty in a blender, add milk, yogurt and/or juice of your choice, and blend.
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I realize these bananas are beyond their life expectancy for some of you.
But these represent just 2 days worth of bananas at our house if I ration them.
We rarely get to stick bananas in the freezer anymore!
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If you bought extra milk, freeze the gallons that you don't need right now. I just set mine in the sink the night before and it's usually mostly defrosted by morning. Then just shake it up to remix the cream and milk and it's good to go. I also freeze my bags of shredded cheese and just keep one in the fridge. If you freeze a block of cheese, it will change the consistency and become crumbly and not very good for slicing. Frozen cream cheese also works fine in sauces and mixed in with things but is not very good for bagels.
Stick your extra loaves of bread and your rolls in the freezer right now so they don't go bad before you get to them. Go ahead, I'll wait...…………………….
Now, you have a plan for getting through all that food without everything going bad at once. Food waste is already a huge problem in America. I didn't want us throwing all our money away just because we didn't have a plan. Your food is stored, you have a meal plan for two or more weeks and you are ready to work the plan. Plus, it's going to save you that question that comes up around here every.single.day about 4 o'clock: "What's for dinner?!"
Did I miss anything? How do you make sure your food doesn't go bad before you get to it? Are you wondering about storing something? Just ask in the comments. I read them all. :)
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