Can we have a thread about what the hell to do right now?
🗣️ DISCUSSION 💬
First of all, I'm an idiot when it comes to anything financial. I know many of you aren't. What is the safest thing to do with the money (fiat) that we do have right now? Leave it in our local bank? Credit union? Keep it as cash in my sock drawer? Also, the money in my 401k? Switch it over to bonds or something else I don't fully understand? Any thoughts from someone who's been paying better attention to these things than I?
Your pantry should be your normal food baseline. IOW what you can eat alongside meat & fresh/seasonal produce. This means you need to learn how to cook and meal plan. You should be able to look at your pantry and make a meal based on what you see there and in your fridge. Stock rotation key.
The best way for canned food is take a Sharpie to the label and put the use by date there so you can see it on the shelves. Then the oldest are easily visible when you need to use them. The other thing is "Use By" is really just a suggestion. Most canned goods are good 5+ years (or more) beyond date. Same for pasta, white rice, & grains, that have been kept dry. Taste may be blander and nutritional value less but still safe to eat. Obviously avoid anything that looks bad from the outside (bulged, rusted out cans, strange discoloration, brown rice seepage.)
Excellent information. We keep a sharpie in our prep area too. Husband is in charge of that and he puts the date we purchased the food…that system works for us…Meal planning is important and not as easy as most people think. We go to our cabin in rural Alaska for a month at a time. No stores. I must plan, but have to be flexible. If something freezes that shouldn’t, you have to re-evaluate. That’s what got me to start researching freezing eggs.
Thank you. I didn't get serious about dating until I began evaluating what we had on hand. So many things in the pantry that had been overlooked or just a bad/impulse buy. That was my first clue not to buy what we don't eat. From that I eventually started thinking a week+ out and meal planning came online. I don't do it every week but Sunday night I usually have a rough idea on what we are doing thru Saturday.
You are at a better point than I….At home, I only meal prep for a couple of days at a time - there are only 2 of us - It is hard to pare down meals without having lots of leftovers. My major meal prep is when we go off grid. Interesting timing - this conversation. We had to leave in January soon than we expected. People who said they’d come at Christmas/New Years hadn’t. I didn’t want to bring food back home…no place to put it…So we let most of it freeze. I took inventory though. We are just going back this week. Other than a few fresh things and the makings for a St. Pat’s feast; we are going to eat what we have there…I will need to be creative.
Thanks but if I seem like I have it well sorted it's entirely coincidental.
This biggest impact on our meals was using a crockpot & cocotte (basically same thing for stove top or oven). The other was a rice cooker. I'll do soup, stew, or casseroles because they make leftovers that store well. Usually have a couple different ones and between 3 of us rarely does any get thrown. But, the eaters have to like them so that happens. Some are fresh starts with new ingredients and others make use of leftover meat cuts & older veg that escaped primary use. So far no complaints and we eat well.
In between the leftovers I'll do Thai, Indian, or Mexican with fresh meat & veg as well as using things already have on hand. Cannot recommend highly enough things like curry sauces from the Asian aisle (SB Foods & Maesri). It's no help if you don't like eating that way but we did discover one key point. Much of the "foreign" cooking I do at home is as good and sometimes better than what we've gotten going out. At ~1/3 the price too.