Happy January! And Happy 2024! I decided to switch things up in the kitchen for January and involve my daughters more (they are teens after all) in meal planning and cooking using ingredients we have on hand in the pantry, fridge and freezer.
We started by writing down pantry items (like dried beans, broth, canned veggies and so on), freezer items (like meat and veggies) and fresh veggies in the fridge. We did not write down the staples that we always have on hand like milk, eggs, yogurt, flour, sugar and so on. This is such a good way to use up what we have on hand, especially the freezer stuff! We only have the fridge-freezer, no chest freezer (or deep freezer) so it can get packed with a bunch of stuff and we run out of room quite quickly. This will definitely be helpful! I feel sometimes we may overlook some ingredients like canned chickpeas or things buried in the freezer, so having a list is a good way to use up those items.
I also realized that if we needed an ingredient for a recipe, instead of substituting or planning something else, we would just go buy it so we could make that meal. But that can get expensive running to the store every other day, especially with our rising food costs.
So, I came up with a new plan.
For January, I decided that we would not purchase anything unless we ran out of a staple like milk or eggs. We are learning from our history lessons (part of our homeschooling program), that more often than not, meals were made from ingredients on hand and grocery shopping happened once or twice a month. So, we are doing a bit of an experiment — to shop only once this month (hopefully at the end of January), cook with what we have on hand all month long and no restaurant or fast food meals. It can definitely be tricky, but my girls think this will be fun and who doesn’t love a meal time challenge?!?
My girls divided the days up with ‘L’ planning Monday and Thursday meals while ‘H’ will be planning Tuesday and Friday. I left Wednesday and Saturday for leftovers and Sunday will be meals that perhaps may take longer to cook.
We started this no grocery shopping experiment with groceries leftover from December. We did not purposely go shopping in December to stock up for the month of January. I decided we will give this a try which may cause us to run out of ingredients before the end of the month, but that is totally fine. That is part of this experiment! We will give this an honest effort, stretch meals where needed, which makes soups a wonderful meal (since it is easy to add extra vegetables or water or broth for a full pot of soup), and we will have bread with most meals like they did in the “old days.”
In the 1700’s and 1800’s wheat was quite expensive due to wheat shortages, but in the 1930’s wheat prices were so low that farmers went bankrupt and with low prices into the 1940’s, flour was made affordable once again. Bread was served at nearly every meal because it was cost effective and a frugal way to feed a family, and adds bulk to a meal which helps fill up hungry bellies along side the main meal. Sometimes bread was the main meal! A bowl of soup is made much more filling with a slice of bread or a couple of biscuits! When I was a child, we visited my grandparents every couple of weeks. When my gramma served a meal, bread accompanied every single meal and if my gramma did not put it on the table, my grampa reminded her. He always enjoyed a slice or two of her delicious homemade bread. And I did too! Not only did bread accompany every meal, but often for supper, soup was served first and then the main meal. This definitely helped stretch a roast beef meal among several people! I like serving soup before a main meal as well as a bread of some sort. We will make a variety of fresh homemade breads, buns and biscuits throughout January.
My daughter wrote out the ingredients we have on hand. I went through everything and told her what to write which made it much easier for me. That gave me a chance to nicely organize the cupboards and freezer as well as the fridge, and know what all we have too. As we use up ingredients, the items will be marked off, much like I am sharing here:
I am actually looking forward to doing this no grocery shopping experiment/challenge! Each Sunday, I will share our meals, how the week went and will update as we go along by sharing our weekly post links here, so it is easier for you to find those posts! I divided January a bit differently so my meal plans will run from Monday to Sunday.
As I post each week, the link will be found here:
Week One – January 1 to 7 — January’s No Grocery Shopping Week One
Week Two – January 8 to 14 — January’s No Grocery Shopping Week Two
Week Three – January 15 to 21 — January’s No Grocery Shopping Week Three
Week Four – January 22 to 31 — January’s No Grocery Shopping Week Four
Let us know if you have tried this before and how did you do? What did you find most challenging?
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours
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