Winter Eating on the Farm

Our detailed winter meal plan using stored, dried, frozen & preserved food

Roasted red pepper & tomato soup - Sauté 1 Tbs minced garlic, 1/2 onion in 1 Tbs olive oil for 5 min. Add 1C preserved roasted red peppers and 2 x 8oz jars/cans of strained diced tomatoes. Simmer 30-45 minutes. Blend in blender and return to pot. Add kosher salt to taste, top with parsley flakes.

Winter Meal Planning:

I have a confession. Our family likes freezer meals, but we don’t love them. Please don’t shoot.

There are three main reasons.  First, they take a lot of time, ingredients, and work to plan out, and then I promptly forget about them in the depths of the deep freeze. Second, our freezer space is precious, especially during late fall when we stock up on meat for the year. And lastly, they tend to be heavier meals or comfort-based foods that our family only reserves for special occasions.      

This is problematic for someone trying to meal plan around what we have on hand during any season.  So a couple years ago, I set out on a mission. To meal plan based on fresh, frozen, dried, and preserved (canned) foods. This fits our family, and I hope that you glean a little inspiration from it.

Our meals are planned a month at a time and documented (in pencil) on a monthly hanging calendar in the kitchen. During the last week of each month, I walk around our home, peek in the freezer, check the pantry, take stock of the dried goods, and venture down to the walk in refrigerator. I first take stock of everything that will go bad in the next week or two, and write that down. If we are running low on whole chickens but stocked up on roast, I write that down. If inventory of black beans or beef broth or carrots are low, I write that down to restock.

Everyone has a different style, but this is my basic approach to meal planning.

1. Be realistic – I had to set some ground rules for meal planning to ensure that I don’t go bat crazy trying to control all of the things and feel total disappointment when it doesn’t go to plan.  Here are these rules:

• Supper - Only plan to cook 4 sit down family suppers per week + 1 night of something pre-made for grab and go  – Everyone is busy, and inevitably something comes up that wasn’t expected. One supper is always some form of popcorn, apples, carrot sticks, sliced cheese, cured sausage, and/or crackers.  The kids enjoy making popcorn and this usually coincides with a family movie night. We always leave Saturday night open as that is the evening we intentionally set aside to share with friends and meals are based on dietary preferences and whatever sounds yummy.   

• Breakfast - Meal plan for breakfast on Saturday & Sunday only.  That’s it. For weekday breakfasts we typically keep some mixture of the following on hand: homemade granola, granola bars, homemade biscotti, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, eggs, cheese, day old bread for toast, homemade jam, peanut butter and pear/apple sauce. Occasionally I will make a bunch of pancakes or biscuits or english muffins or homemade bagels on Sunday morning that can be eaten for the next couple days. Scratch made food does not last as long as store bought so I only choose one per week and leave it on the counter for easy to grab breakfast.

• Lunch – No meal planning for lunches… ever. For our family, lunch is typically some combination of two of the following:  salad, soup, baked potato, homemade bread, leftovers, and whatever fruits/veggies are in the fridge.  I make big batches of salad dressing on Sunday that we use throughout the week.

Everyday 3 hour bread - Mix 3C flour, 2 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp instant yeast. Then add 1.5C warm water, stir until combined. Let rise on counter 2 hours. Heat cast iron skillet to 450F in oven. Dump dough onto parchment paper, place inside hot dutch oven. Bake 30 minutes @ 450F with lid on. Remove lid and bake additional 5 minutes until golden brown.

2. Find inspiration – Each month, I dig through my embarrassingly large cookbook collection, and choose one book that is inspiring me. Only one book per month is allowed.  I mark several recipes I’d like to try and stash that on my kitchen counter. The purpose for this restriction is simplicity. I found it stressful to write down recipe ideas from several books, then to later find myself digging through 20 books trying to go back and locate them.  The chosen cookbook is kept on my kitchen counter for that month and referenced when needed, then put away at the end of the month.

3. One step at a time - Organizing a meal plan is usually done in several steps.

- I start by writing down all activities that are scheduled for the month. Our daughter has dance on Tuesdays, and we have church on Wednesdays, and the in-laws are coming to visit the second weekend, etc.

- Next, I pencil in suppers, leaving 2 days open, typically Wednesday and Saturday for us.

- Proteins are written down first and planned a week at a time, then vegetables and grains are added. The vegetables get changed frequently based on what we have on hand and what is about to go bad.

SUPPER-

a. Proteins:

- As a general rule, I cook larger proteins on Sunday afternoons, and use that in 3-4 different recipes for the coming week.

- One night per week is typically vegetarian. For us, this includes homemade pasta or ravioli, homemade pizza, veggie quesadillas, vegetable fried rice, panini grilled cheese, tomato soup, mushroom risotto, etc.

- Below is an example of 2 weeks of meal plans. One week with chicken as the primary protein, and one week with roast.  

Example: