Tag: Food

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?

Five Feline Farm Foodies

We are foodies.

Our farm is all about food. Growing food, planning for food, selling food at the Farmer’s Market or our own Mercantile, preserving food, and yes, of course eating food.

During these dark, cold Winter days we continually look for ways to improve our food production. We plan for the growing season and the basement holds hundreds of tiny plants waiting for warmer weather. Tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, rosemary, basil, onions and even flowers for our pollinator friends are beginning their lives in the grow stations.

Our current food supply is sourced as much as possible from the freezer and pantry. Rows of gleaming jars full of home canned sauces, salsas, pickled peppers and broths line the pantry while baggies and containers of frozen fruits and sauces pack the freezer. All of these inspire a multitude of meals.

Once Spring and Summer finally arrive, we will have access to fresh vegetables mere steps from the front door. A short stroll out the back door lies the primary herb garden ready to add an abundance of flavor to any dish. Many of these fresh herbs and vegetables will make it to the Farmer’s Market this summer.

It’s a foodie’s paradise.