Wednesday, February 29, 2012

[Real] Fast Food

God's Fast Food - Fruit. Pre-washed to invite flyby snackers
The hard part about cooking whole foods in a traditional way is that when you walk over to the pantry and open the door, you're staring at ingredients, not food. Well, technically the ingredients are food, but it's a real bummer to go looking for a snack and come out with flour and dry beans. If I go looking for a last-minute supper, it can be really tough if I haven't planned ahead!


Chicken taco soup and chicken and rice soup in the fridge.

I really like to have soup in the fridge and freezer. Not only is it a great way to get some bone broth into my day, add a warmed tortilla, slice of bread, or English muffin and I have a satisfying and swift lunch. It also came in really handy the other day. I had to take my dad to the airport since my mom was sick, and I brought her two jars of different soups, one jar of plain stock, and some fresh fruit. I know she thinks I'm nutty with my broth obsession, but she was thankful for the soup! And it was nice to be able to take her 3 meals on really short notice.

This is just one small part of my freezer stash.

I make a menu plan every two weeks, and generally I try to stick to that when I'm cooking. But sometimes (often times) I switch it up based on how I'm feeling or what happened that day or how many leftovers we have. A menu plan for 2 weeks ends up taking me 2.5 or 3 weeks to get through, which is nice. If I don't want to think about supper, like tonight, I just do the menu. If, like last night, I need to switch it up - I can do that too. About once a week when I'm dead tired or having a bad or busy day I pull from the freezer stash.


80 pounds of chicken, sprouted and cooked beans, homemade meatballs, meatloaf, crocodile nuggets, etc
I love my chest freezer. It was a gift from my grandparents, aunt and parents. I am not kidding about love. I have true affection for this thing. It makes my life so much easier. I know that looks like a ton of food but we actually go through that pretty quickly. I keep it organized and try to rotate old items to the top. Tomorrow I'm going to make baked beans with those bags on top.


This is part of my snack tonight. Mmm. Fresh sourdough cinnamon swirl bread. Who wants to come by tomorrow for a cup of tea and a slice of this beauty before it's gone?

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry about the mess!

2 comments:

  1. Love all of your "fast food" ideas. It's so helpful to have already made items in the freezer. I've run out of mine lately and need to restock! I also absolutely LOVE my chest freezer. My hubby thought I was joking when I suggested we get one and put it in the corner of our living room (we live in a 640 sq ft condo without a garage). I was completely serious! I can't imagine going back to not having one at this point.

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    Replies
    1. lol! It is good to hear you don't have a lot of space either. We live in a second floor apartment, 990 sq ft. And we both have serious book addictions. It's...cozy. :)

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