Avoiding the grocery store: Plan Your Pantry Series #1

When Wiggle was born, I didn’t go to the grocery store for months. Honestly, I didn’t leave the house unless it was for a doctor’s appointment. It was such a production to get myself, my newborn, and my 14-month old into and out of the car that it just wasn’t worth the effort. I think that the first time we went anywhere that wasn’t medically necessary was when the baby was 7 weeks old. Anyway, I digress. The point of this story is really this: I didn’t go to the grocery store for months.

Now, we were so fortunate to have friends feed us several times a week for the first few weeks. A kind friend set up a meal calendar for me at www.Takethemameal.com. But those meals weren’t enough to feed us 21 homemade meals per week, plus non-bagged snacks. So how do you do it? How can you avoid the grocery store and still provide fresh, homemade, delicious food?

The secret to success, Gentle Reader, is actually simple: Plan Your Pantry, NOT YOUR WEEKLY MEALS! You can (and I argue, should) set yourself up for success by buying, making and properly storing a strategic variety of homemade frozen foods, frozen ingredients, shelf-stable foods and ingredients, and refrigerated or cold storage ingredients. This combination is what you should consider your pantry. From your pantry selection, you will easily be able to implement three meals a day, plus snacks, with a minimum of driving and while maximizing your efforts. Should you need or want to discontinue shopping for a period of time, like I did after Wiggle’s birth and still do frequently, you will be able to sustain your family healthfully for whatever period of time for which you have prepared. So long as you continue to (eventually) resupply your items used, this is a perpetual cycle that will ultimately help you to save time and money, and become more efficient.

Note that this practice is useful in any challenging situation, not just as a new parent. Perhaps you are snowed in, or there has been a hurricane. What if you lose your job, or have an accident? Maybe someone in your family has the flu for a week straight. For these and any other “what if” scenarios, having a well-stocked pantry is a comfort and a safety net.

All of my kitchen practices have evolved based on my philosophies, or priorities. If you start getting bogged down in your practices, try writing down your own kitchen philosophies first to make sure your practices line up with your priorities. As a general overview, my kitchen philosophies are as follows.

1. Spend your money and time on what is important to you. If you don’t care that your apples are conventionally raised but value grass fed meat, don’t worry about the apples. Focus your energy and dollars ONLY on what you value. Don’t feel guilty about your choices. Authenticity is, in my opinion, the key to contentment.
2. For the items you have placed on high priority, buy the best quality you can afford or find. This does NOT mean that you should become a food snob and only shop at Whole Foods or some other high-end store. Frequently, frozen produce or meat is of better quality or “fresher” when prepared than thawed or never-been-frozen items, due to travel time, seasonality, or sourcing.
3. Maximize output, minimize input. Cook extra and freeze the rest for later. Chop all of the vegetables you will need for several meals at once and refrigerate, or buy them in bulk to chop and freeze for later. Whatever action you find yourself doing over and over- write it down and think of ways to streamline or reduce.
4. Set routines in place. These routines are something that you can and should consider frequently, but don’t try to change too much at once. Choose one new routine, or one way to improve your routine, and work on just that until you feel good about the results. Then, tackle something new (while still implementing the last improvement or new routine!).

Over time, your pantry should reflect your kitchen philosophies, which as noted will influence the way that you cook and your food preferences. There are several ways to build your pantry, so let’s get started! The easiest way to start building your pantry from scratch is a meal-based method.

Meal Based Method #1: Meals that are easily frozen

1. Identify one meal that your family likes to eat and plans to eat after your next regularly scheduled shopping trip.
2. Identify ALL of the meal’s ingredients and quantities, as well as any miscellaneous items required to prepare the meal (if any).
3. Purchase enough ingredients/items for at least two preparations of the meal. Don’t forget to look at the required staples… salt, butter, baking soda, etc.
4. Make one meal and store the ingredients for the second meal in your pantry.

Ideally, you would buy enough ingredients for at least FOUR preparations of this meal. If you can afford to purchase this many sets of ingredients, make TWO or THREE preparations. Eat one and freeze two in two different freezer-safe containers (properly labeled with date prepared, item name and reheating instructions). Store the ingredients, uncooked, for your fourth meal preparation.

The benefits here are hard to miss. With one shopping trip and one cooking session, you have fed your family multiple times (we generally have enough for lunch leftovers). Not only that, but the freezer meals are “thaw, heat, serve” which means an absolute minimum amount of energy produced by you on the day of serving.

Strategy #2: Meals that aren’t easily frozen, or are relatively quick or easy to prepare “day of”

1. Identify one meal that your family likes to eat and plans to eat after your next regularly scheduled shopping trip.
2. Identify ALL of the meal’s ingredients and quantities, as well as any miscellaneous items required to prepare the meal (if any).
3. Plan to SUBSTITUTE fresh, quickly deteriorating ingredients for pantry staples.
   • For example, my favorite bean chili recipe (watch for it on the blog soon!) calls for fresh bell pepper and onions. While raw onions cold store or (chopped) freezer store very well, bell pepper doesn’t cold store all that long. So last summer we grew a bunch of bell pepper to store in the freezer. You can also buy frozen chopped bell pepper. Once I substituted this ingredient for frozen, my bean chili recipe can be made for dinner from scratch with just 30 minute’s notice, without a special trip to the grocery store.
4. Purchase enough ingredients and substitute ingredients for at least two meals. Again, don’t forget to look at the required staples.
5. Make one meal and store the ingredients for the second meal in your pantry.

In the example of my favorite bean chili recipe, I actually make two portions at a time, every time. It is a quick meal to make, but I still like fully cooked frozen meals on hand, so I generally make one portion to eat immediately and one to freeze for later. The third set of ingredients is stored in my pantry, which please remember includes your freezer (in the case of the bean chili, for the chopped vegetables) as well as your cupboards.

I am going to end this post for now, as it is extremely long. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss additional pantry building methods, discuss meats, fruit and snacks, talk about routines, and tell you what is in my own pantry. Please contact me (below is my contact box) with any topics you would like me to specifically address or any questions and I will do my best to talk about it in a future post.

Tell me what you think- is this method “old hat” for you? Are there any ideas you could implement from today’s post?