How We Cook From Scratch All Week With Minimal Effort

The world of meal making is always interesting to me as the keeper of the home. It is a very important part of a homemaker's day yet it certainly is one of many responsibilities we have in the home. Moving onto a homestead, I found that the time to prepare meals was threatened by the added work load of an old-fashioned farm. In order to keep the household running smoothly, I had to adopt certain measures to make cooking from scratch less time intensive. I don't do normal menu planning for a few reasons (shared here). Since I am always curious how other women do things, I thought to share our flexible and frugal system with you.

To begin, I prepare a large batch of a "foundation" food each week. The categories are usually pinto beans, quinoa, black beans, soup or whatever is harvested that week. We eat a lot of vegetarian meals and will break them up once a week or so with a nice "meaty" meal in the middle (to be explained further down)*. This is usually done on a Wednesday. Friday night is always pizza night for some extra weekend fun. On Sunday afternoon, if there is no fellowship, we enjoy potatoes and eggs as a family. If we are hosting fellowship, I prepare a large batch of soup.

* As we eat only the meat that we raise and slaughter ourselves, we try and make it stretch and appreciate every morsel! We raise chickens, sheep, goats and beef for food.

Now, back to the "foundation" food of the week. For instance, on Monday I will prepare a large batch of pinto beans. For the duration of the week, I will make meals based off of them. This would include menus like beans over rice, tostadas, chili cheese fries, eight layer bean dip, taco salad, bean burritos, etc. The "base" of the recipe is already made for me (the pinto beans) so this creates a simple system of food preparation with much flexibility during the week.

{For our pinto bean inspired menu, visit here.}

The following week, I will prepare a large batch of soup (though in the summer it would be large seasonal salads). What is wonderful about our recipe is that it works with whatever we have growing at the time. Flexibility is key when you live on a farm. To change up the daily meals with this soup, I will serve different side dishes to go with it. One day it will be hard boiled eggs and marinated vegetables, another day I will serve the soup with grilled cheese sandwiches while angeled eggs and a green salad would be another variation.

{For our "End of the Garden Soup" recipe, visit here.}

The third week rotation will bring us back to beans. But this time, I will prepare a large batch of black beans (see this post here). Some menu ideas will include black bean quesadillas, black bean salad, taco soup with cornbread, black bean burgers and taco casserole (to name a few).

{For our black bean inspired menu, visit here.}

Quinoa is rather new to our weekly rotation and I have yet to write a post on our favorite collection of recipes (but it is coming). However, for the sake of this article, I will include a few. My sister-in-law got us hooked on these quinoa patties. Served with ranch, they are out of this world and so flavorful (this is a great "get your feet wet" with quinoa recipe)! We also make a delicious quinoa casserole and a tasty cold quinoa salad. When we have had our fill of it, this decadent chocolate cake will use the excess and it is amazing (and freezes well in cupcake form)! You wouldn't know that it was a gluten-free and a quinoa-based cake! (And let me say, that says a lot around here!)

Our weekly rotation will often include the "famous" food of the week that is getting harvested like crazy in our garden. For instance, during the summer, there is zucchini season! We will make zucchini patties, quiche, stir fry, grilled zucchini, zucchini sauce for pasta, etc. You will find our zucchini meal making inspiration here. During the winter it might be using up our butternut squash surplus (some ideas are here). I think you get the idea! Whatever is growing in abundance becomes our meal focus!

Regarding the in-between "insert" meals"

• On Wednesday nights, it is usually an old stand-by like tacos or some sort of "meat" meal featuring chicken, lamb or beef. Tacos don't require much planning (and tortilla shells freeze well) and I could usually come up with seasonal toppings depending on what is growing. For instance, it is either lettuce, spinach or cabbage that will get sprinkled on top depending on the garden. In the summer we have fresh tomatoes while in the colder months I will serve canned salsa with them. Shredded cheese is always in the freezer as we buy in bulk and bag it up in smaller amounts. Thus, tacos is an easy impromptu meal to keep the menu different.

• When we prepare meat, we often make a large amount at once. For instance, my hubby will debone a batch of chickens, I will marinate them and he will grill them (as we sip some coffee together). Then, I bag them up in smaller amounts and freeze the excess. This way we can conveniently make chicken soft tacos, chicken sandwiches, chicken with grilled vegetables and so forth. 

• Eggs are also an excellent standby as we always have dozens to work with. We make egg casseroles, angeled eggs, hash browns and eggs, popovers, quiches, etc. When in doubt, we usually serve eggs!

• Friday night is always pizza night so there is not much planning to be done there. I usually make a large batch of dough, divide it and freeze the excess in bags for future Friday meals to make it easy.

• If we are planning on having company on a weekend, my hubby will take the time to BBQ some meat (and add some seasonal veggies to the grill) and I will usually come up with some other garden goodies to go with it which makes it very easy. 

An alternative to this plan would be to create a large batch of pinto beans, black beans, quinoa and/or soup, etc., (choose one to do each week) and freeze them into smaller family-sized portions. This will give you a variety of part-made meals during the course of the month that can be prepared conveniently. Some husbands may prefer this. My husband isn't picky in this area as long as I vary the recipes. As his goal is for his garden to feed us, I find him quite flexible :)

Recap:

Monday ~ "foundation food of the week" meal (i.e., pinto beans, black beans, quinoa, soup, etc.)

Tuesday ~ "foundation food of the week" meal

Wednesday ~ "insert meat meal" such as tacos or something else with meat on the menu

Thursday ~ "foundation food of the week" meal

Friday ~ "pizza night" (we usually have prepared dough in the freezer for convenience)

Saturday ~ finish up the fridge "leftovers" or BBQ meat if having company

Sunday ~ "eggs and potatoes" if just our family, or Sabbath Soup if hosting a fellowship

This is just a basic idea of how we eat. Obviously, things change, cravings happen and so forth. This is simply a way to cook that keeps everything somewhat frugal, flexible and easy. Do you have some sort of meal making system? I would love to hear it!

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