Tag: Food

Planning Ahead

The menu challenge became really difficult this week. As in, couldn’t pull together a menu in advance, difficult.

There were so many tasks crammed into each day that I resorted to my old habit of planning one meal at a time. Even when I knew this would be the kind of week where a planned menu would have been helpful and possibly even save me from some stress. I commit to doing better next week.

Despite this momentary lapse on my part, there is still activity happening at the Farm toward future meal prep.

Gardening is the ultimate planning ahead.

Donna has been squeezing early spring vegetable planting into every spare moment of her day. Not that there are a lot of those spare moments, but because of her foresight, we have a tender green salad waiting in the refrigerator.

But that isn’t all.

Snap peas, radishes and spinach seeds, in addition to the leaf lettuce seeds, are nestled into dark rich soil. Tomatoes, peppers and herbs are growing in the greenhouse, just waiting for the threat of frost to pass. We will see the fruits of her labor on the table soon.

Taking a lesson about planning for the future, I believe I’ll start working on next week’s menu now.

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Challenge is the Key Word

Have you found it challenging to plan meals in advance?

A couple of weeks ago, I issued a challenge on this blog and our social media accounts. I challenged our fans to follow along as I plan on Sunday for meals during the week ahead.

The first week found me in the kitchen making snack boxes and salad lunches. Each evening meal was designed in advance and posted on the kitchen wall. Everything was perfect.

Until it wasn’t.

Life happened. I changed some of the days around and one evening we just ate at a restaurant because of circumstances beyond our control.

This past Sunday, I did not plan as much ahead. I did not make cute snack boxes and salad lunches. I did post a menu for a “world tour” week of evening meals, each night with a different cuisine.

Life happened again.

Monday evening, I fixed Wednesday’s menu. Tuesday evening, I did just fine sticking to the plan. Wednesday should have hosted Monday’s meal, but I went off the rails with scrambled eggs and potato cakes.

How did that happen? Three days into the week and the plan is shot.

It’s all in the planning or lack thereof. I didn’t make a thoughtful shopping trip. I realized at the last minute I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make the Instapot Butter Chicken.

But you know what? It’s fine. I am giving myself grace and trying again tomorrow.

The menu challenge and planning ahead is worthwhile and fun. Let’s keep trying together. It may not always work out the way you hope. That’s ok.

Above all, be kind to yourself.

Week 1 of the Menu Challenge

Last week I issued a challenge to myself to plan the week’s meals in advance. Many of you joined me in this challenge. Thank you to everyone who posted your menus and ideas. Here’s what I learned in this very first week.

Start Earlier

I did a lot of thinking about my plan but I didn’t actually put anything into practice until Sunday evening. It was 3:30 PM before I went to the store and began prepping ingredients. That created a bottleneck in supper preparations and getting everything done that I wanted to do. (Yes, we do call the evening meal supper around here.) After 2-1/2 hours everything was cleaned, packaged and planned for the week. A refrigerator full of prepared lunches and snacks ready to grab and go. I have a written menu plan so I know exactly what we will eat each evening. The planning and pareparation was worth the effort.

Be Flexible

The menu is posted not only on social media, but also prominently displayed in the kitchen. Monday and Tuesday went according to plan. I walked in from work, glanced at the menu and within a half hour, supper was on the table.

Wednesday found us with an unexpected change in schedule. We could not get home in time for a home cooked meal, so ended up eating at a restaurant. I hereby give us all permission to vary from our plan when the need arises. There are things you just cannot control and when that happens, adjust.

Refrigerator Betrayal

On Sunday, I started this adventure with a thorough cleaning of the refrigerator. I purged the contents, removed all of the shelves and wiped down all surfaces. It gleamed. I was so proud of my efforts.

Tuesday morning, we awoke to a strange rattle coming from the fridge. The motor sounded as if it were attempting to grind something into submission. Inside the refrigerator compartment, items were still cool, but not cold. The freezer had been malfunctioning long enough to turn ice cream into soup and thaw meat. We quickly moved all contents to the spare refrigerator in the garage and began planning to repair or replace.

The next couple of days may find slight adjustments to the posted menu in order not to waste a few things that were thawed. Thankfully, we caught it early enough that no major losses occured.

Next Week

My menu challenge theme for next week is A World Tour….each evening will feature a dish from a different culture or cuisine.

Will you join next week’s challenge?

Menu Planning Challenge

Last week, I described our focus on food, taking on the “foodie” label. Growing, preserving, eating and selling food drives much of what we do here at the Farm. With all this abundance, meal planning should be a breeze. There is no reason to plod from refrigerator to freezer, to the pantry and back again trying to decide what to eat. I always come up with something, finding that any one meal is easy to produce, but my desire is to have a full week of perfectly planned menus. In this fantasy, I see myself spending a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon prepping ingredients, writing out the week’s menu including snacks and posting it prominently in the kitchen.

Here’s what actually happens:

I stall and procrastinate until Sunday is over. All the good ideas for balanced meals that take advantage of preparing ingredients in advance drift away. Every evening finds me scurrying  around at the last minute while hunger gnaws, to throw something together just before mealtime.

Planning for lunch happens the same way; throw a few things in a lunch bag, hoping it will be tasty enough to ward off the temptation to go through a drive through. Clearly we have been surviving for a few decades this way and our meals are nutritious and frequently fresh; but this is not the way I really want to manage the kitchen.

It’s time to try an experiment.

I commit to establishing our weekly menu in advance for a month, prepping ingredients ahead when possible and including nutritious snacks. I’ll post updates on my efforts, so keep checking back on this blog.

Will you take the menu planning challenge with me? Would you be interested in seeing my weekly menu plan?