A neighborhood market

I’m a busy person. I work 40-60 hours a week with a 1 hour commute each way. I frequently babysit on evenings and weekends. I have 3 cats that I have to care for, not to mention an apartment to clean, errands to run, and oh yeah, I do have friends I like to see and hobbies that do not involve cooking! And yet here I am, talking about preparing food from scratch. How do I make it work? It really isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

I like to do my meal planning Friday evening or Saturday morning. I look at my calendar and see what things I’ll be doing int he coming week, how many dinners I’ll be home for, how tired I might be any particular evenings after work. I look at my goals for the week. I usually try to bake something every week and I try to include some Nourishing Traditions or Weston A. Price style food preparation into every week. I’m also trying to cook my way through some cookbooks, so I might try to incorporate some of those recipes into my week. Finally, since I have an interest in historical food preparation, I might want to use at least one vintage recipe. I’ll look in my cupboards, fridge, and freezer and see what ingredients I already have, think about what I’ll be ordering through my various CSAs and farm delivery services, and then plan my trip to the farmer’s market.

At the farmer’s market, I’ll try to find items I think I’ll want to cook in the coming week, but if something is on special or looks extra delicious, I’ll buy it and work it in. I try my best to eat seasonally.

Saturday and Sunday are frequently big food preparation days. I’ll start a ferment, bake bread, make stock, and so forth. If I have an overabundance of vegetables, I might preserve them. Big all day type of things. Though it doesn’t mean I’m stuck in the kitchen all day. Bread will rise regardless of how closely I watch it. Stock simmers whether or not I’m in the kitchen. So it isn’t as bad as it sounds! I can go clean the house or watch a movie while it cooks.

Then, the rest of the week, I cook and eat from my menu plan. I build into my menu plenty of days when I’m using up leftovers, so I don’t need to cook every day. I’m not afraid to eat frozen veggies occasionally, so that helps cut down prep time as well. I’ll usually keep a bag or two in the fridge for when I run out of fresh or just don’t have the time or patience to prep. Since I like to eat fermented foods (kimchi, sourkraut, etc) once a week or more, I don’t have to do much to prep and cook those dishes other than pull a jar out of the fridge.

For lunches I usually keep some fruit on hand, so it is easy to throw those and last night’s leftovers into my lunch the next day. I’ll also include a bit of whatever I last baked, and I try to also include a bit of cheese or some type of fat so I don’t get too hungry. If I need something fast and I don’t have much in my fridge, I’ll eat a Larabar. They are minimally processed and only include real, whole ingredients like “figs” and “coconut oil” so I count them as real food.

If I don’t plan, or if I fall off of my plan, it isn’t a big deal. Between fruit, frozen veggies, fermented foods, eggs, and dairy products, I always have a nutritious breakfast, lunch and dinner in minutes. Scramble a few eggs, or cheese and crackers for example. It’s that easy!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Tags: Basics, Real Food Wednesdays