beaf12
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Post by beaf12 on Sept 5, 2021 9:37:57 GMT -6
Do I want to know what a doom bin is? A doom bin is that bin where you just shove all the stuff you can't deal with while you're cleaning the house. For me, it's always random junk that doesn't really have a home. Like those Ponchos I bought just in case for our Disney trip in February 2020. They've been at the bottom of a laundry basket in my upper hallway for 2 years. Where does one put those? I'm sure I'll find a place someday, but today is not that day! Those ponchos should live in your car. Do you have an under the trunk compartment or an emergency car bag? They are perfect for pop-up showers, sitting on if the ground is wet or if you are wet and you want to keep the seats dry.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Sept 5, 2021 9:58:45 GMT -6
A doom bin is that bin where you just shove all the stuff you can't deal with while you're cleaning the house. For me, it's always random junk that doesn't really have a home. Like those Ponchos I bought just in case for our Disney trip in February 2020. They've been at the bottom of a laundry basket in my upper hallway for 2 years. Where does one put those? I'm sure I'll find a place someday, but today is not that day! Those ponchos should live in your car. Do you have an under the trunk compartment or an emergency car bag? They are perfect for pop-up showers, sitting on if the ground is wet or if you are wet and you want to keep the seats dry. See, this is a great idea, thank you!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Sept 5, 2021 9:59:04 GMT -6
On this, it depends on the food and on the preparation. The butter chicken would be easy to throw into the IP on serving day, but since it will only become more flavorful over a day or two and reheats well, I'll go ahead and cook it tomorrow and store it for reheating. The chopped Garlic and onion will nearly all get used tomorrow (any extra garlic goes into a small jar with olive oil to make garlic oil, any extra chopped onion gets frozen). The fajita vegetables will be fine to refrigerate and then reheat once, but I wouldn't pre-cook the peas. Those don't reheat super well and they only take 2-3 minutes to make anyway. I make calculations based on available fridge space, how much labor/time/effort goes into a dish and how well it reheats. Do the onions sit in water or just in a bowl? I double lasagna because my recipe is from scratch and time consuming, but delicious. I also double chicken pot pie. Soups and chili are always huge recipes so some gets frozen. I also will freeze sliced, cinnamon apples for apple pie. If DH smokes a pork shoulder for pulled pork, some definitely gets frozen. I just keep the onions in a bowl. They're not sitting out for long.
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Post by enchanted on Sept 5, 2021 10:54:19 GMT -6
How often do you all repeat meals? Some get repeated every couple of weeks (spaghetti or pizza, for example). Others less frequently. I can't think of anything that is weekly unless you want to count "breakfast" but that varies week to week what it is.
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leahcar
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Post by leahcar on Sept 5, 2021 11:09:37 GMT -6
We do themes more than exact meal repeats. We do “taco” Tuesday pretty religiously though we change the fillings. I started making my teens cook once a week and they are quite fond of their own meals on repeat. LOL. If I am not cooking, I don’t mind at all.
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beaf12
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Post by beaf12 on Sept 5, 2021 12:01:39 GMT -6
How often do you all repeat meals? Pizza every Friday. Pasta of some sort 1x/week. I have a friend who works overnight every Sunday, then is switching back to a day schedule on Mondays. So, to make Monday dinners easier, she does some type of breakfast for dinner every Monday. Kids all love it, there no fighting and it’s easy to make.
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Post by gymngemini on Sept 5, 2021 13:13:49 GMT -6
How often do you all repeat meals? I try not to repeat anything more than once every 6-8 weeks. Mostly because I like to have somethings as leftovers but I also want a lot of variety through the weeks. I like to have one big meal each week that can be used for a lunch or two and have some for an option for clean out the fridge night. This week is red beans and rice.
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origami
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Post by origami on Sept 5, 2021 17:05:13 GMT -6
We repeat themes regularly if not exact meals.
It's tomato season here so we have BLTs weekly but once the season is done we won't have them again until next year.
We have Mexican at least once a week but a variety within that culture.
We have a pasta as main weekly, but there's a million of those.
We have a sandwich or quesadilla night every couple weeks. Pizza night every couple weeks. Etc etc and so forth
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Minerva
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Post by Minerva on Sept 5, 2021 18:17:07 GMT -6
We repeat meals fairly often. My kids are picky and there are a few meals that they will always eat that get repeated every 2-3 weeks. BLTs, pasta with meatballs and salad, grilled chicken with zucchini and corn on the cob, tacos, pizza, quesadillas with beans and rice. We mix them up with meals we know the kids probably won’t want (like tonight’s chicken with orzo). They have the option to make themselves chicken nuggets or a pb&j with veggies as long as they try a bite of the main meal.
We are also late eaters (7:30ish), but the kids are night owls, so it isn’t an issue.
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Post by hawkeye2015 on Sept 5, 2021 19:27:10 GMT -6
You guys got me meal planning again finally. I was so in the habit of deciding what to make in the morning and just going to grocery store a few times a week. We've been doing delivery or store pickup since covid started and it doesn't work as well to do that multiple times a week.
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AmyG
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Post by AmyG on Sept 5, 2021 22:48:08 GMT -6
I plan 2-4 weeks of meals. Used to be 2 weeks but with covid its usually 4.
I plan for leftovers always but in repurposed ways. Like giant beef roast with mash potatoes, becomes open faced hot roast beef sandwiches, then beef tacos, bbq beef sandwiches with cole slaw, then vegetable beef soup. If do same with making xl or 2 roasted chickens the next week, and a big roast pork the next, you start to have enough going you always freeze half of the beef and pull out some pork and chicken so 1 week isnt just beef roast and you dont get tired of it.
But we also do lots of things that are half hour or less stovetop or oven etc meals mixed in. Like shakshuka, egg roll in bowl, red or green enchiladas with can sauce, or just pork chops, chicken breast or pan steaks witg minimal prep to eat with an added salad or nuked veggie.
I often chop my own veggies but im not above saving time and buying chopped jar garlic, frozen chopped onions and bell peppers etc.
I have a huge food list of all the things I can make by type of main, beef, chicken, pork, beans, pasta, etc. But I started emailing the family what the plan was without foods on specific days. Theyd reply putting some things in suggested order by busy days or whatever. Id tweak it and then print for the fridge.
The next week id just reply to myself with new stuff at the top. So I can scroll back and see ideas in the past and things that weve eaten toi many times recently and choose to skip them for a while.
I mostly used to shop once every 2 weeks with milk, bread, veggies more often if really needed. Thats how I always kept groc budget below $4-500 a month for 4, all meals except 1 pizza and maybe 1 mexican food restaurant.
Now that I do groc pick up, I always get at order on 1st weds sr shop day for 10% off (dh is over 62). This month I got $300 of food for $200, with sr discount sales and coupons. im now feeding 4 again plus 1 yr old that ate as much lasagne as i did.
When we are out of something or want something we write it on list on fridge. I add it to the next order, and when sale paper comes out every weds i see if theres any really good deals. And decide if we skip a week or 2 before putting in another grocery order.
Managing the household meals is hard work. Work thats never done.
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Post by crimsonandclover on Sept 6, 2021 1:04:09 GMT -6
When I'm feeling stressed, I order more Hello Fresh meals for the next week - 0 planning, 0 shopping, and I love the cooking part. I've always been a meal planner, though, and sit down Sundays to plan for the week. Here the main meal is at lunch, so supper is usually just open-faced sandwiches or leftovers, which makes things much easier. If I'm lucky, the DDs eat hot lunch at kindergarten/school every day and I'm only cooking for DH and me. I also like skinnytaste and browse the net to find interesting crockpot ideas when I'm bored.
Oh, and today beef is on sale and I'm still off work, so I'm going to can beef. So tender, so yummy, so easy for beef stroganoff, beef stew, etc.
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Post by blurnette989 on Sept 6, 2021 2:07:52 GMT -6
Ooooo crimsonandclover what jars do you use for canning? I assume with beef you are pressure canning? I've had trouble finding good canning jars.
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Post by crimsonandclover on Sept 6, 2021 5:29:33 GMT -6
Ooooo crimsonandclover what jars do you use for canning? I assume with beef you are pressure canning? I've had trouble finding good canning jars.
Yes, I pressure can the beef. I use the Ball pint jars, although I also use quart ones for spaghetti sauce with meat. Originally I had a pressure canner with a pressure meter, but I can't get it calibrated over here, so I switched to the weights because botulism scares the crap out of me and I don't want to just hope that my meter is still calibrated correctly.
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Post by blurnette989 on Sept 6, 2021 7:05:17 GMT -6
Ooooo crimsonandclover what jars do you use for canning? I assume with beef you are pressure canning? I've had trouble finding good canning jars.
Yes, I pressure can the beef. I use the Ball pint jars, although I also use quart ones for spaghetti sauce with meat. Originally I had a pressure canner with a pressure meter, but I can't get it calibrated over here, so I switched to the weights because botulism scares the crap out of me and I don't want to just hope that my meter is still calibrated correctly.
where do you find jars and lids then? I found one place that sells ball near here and they are $$$$$$$
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Post by crimsonandclover on Sept 6, 2021 9:04:24 GMT -6
Yes, I pressure can the beef. I use the Ball pint jars, although I also use quart ones for spaghetti sauce with meat. Originally I had a pressure canner with a pressure meter, but I can't get it calibrated over here, so I switched to the weights because botulism scares the crap out of me and I don't want to just hope that my meter is still calibrated correctly.
where do you find jars and lids then? I found one place that sells ball near here and they are $$$$$$$
The way bigger problem currently are the lids because there's been a massive shortage of them for the last year. I still have enough Ball lids to can the beef I'm planning for tomorrow, but I'm debating whether to try out some of the no-name lids. I can't find any on Germany's amazon sites with reviews, so I might order some no-name ones with good reviews from amazon.com and have my mom bring them when she comes over this winter. I shouldn't need them before then. I do a batch of canning once or twice a year and that's it. I once ordered some reusable lids because I liked that idea way better than the one-time metal lids. And when the reusable plastic lids sealed, they were great. The problem was that I only about 50% of them sealed in each batch, so I was having to freeze way more of the processed beef than I wanted to. The whole reason I can is to free up space in my freezer (and because canned beef is so incredibly tender and juicy!).
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beaf12
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Post by beaf12 on Sept 6, 2021 19:59:27 GMT -6
AmyG your meals remind me of my MIL. She said when she was growing up every Sunday they had a big roast of some sort for dinner (beef, chicken, pork) then they have repurposed leftovers the whole week.
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AmyG
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Post by AmyG on Sept 6, 2021 21:08:18 GMT -6
AmyG your meals remind me of my MIL. She said when she was growing up every Sunday they had a big roast of some sort for dinner (beef, chicken, pork) then they have repurposed leftovers the whole week. Well mostly I don't make it a whole week, and it might be a random roast on a Wednesday rather than sunday. No matter what I can never stretch things as far as my mom did feeding a family of 7.
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Sept 7, 2021 8:20:25 GMT -6
We usually eat about 6 and there are very few things I can make without someone needing a modification, so I try to keep things a bit modular. We do Hungryroot boxes part time- which are usually prepared proteins you heat with veggies and a sauce. It's helped me, over time, throw together basic things for dinner and reinvent some ways of having the same thing over and over. DD1 is a part time vegetarian, so we've also been exploring a lot more meatless options (though half of my family refuses beans). My kids would eat spaghetti every day and I am meh on it (mostly because it usually requires making several types of pasta), so I'll eat leftovers. Especially in the summer, I am usually only cooking one "nice meal" on the weekends, but I have to say a bed of greens with fried eggs and some pickled veggies is one of my favorite dinners right now, fancy or not.
I am up for a lot more evening cooking once the weather gets cooler.
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