Other Side of the River
Food Organization:
Refrigerator, Freezer, and Pantry
One of the biggest challenges for me is feeding everyone healthy food without spending a lot of money. We decided a long time ago that food was going to be a priority for our family. We want our kids to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, locally sourced meats and cheeses, whole grains, and limited processed food.
When I was a SAHM, this was much easier to do. I made the most adorable lunches in bento boxes, ground my own wheat berries for baked goods, and visited farmer's markets on the regular.
So when I went back to work full-time, I really needed to adjust my expectations. Our kids take hot lunch from school most days, I no longer grind any wheat berries, and I cannot remember the last time I was able to stroll through a farmer's market.
However, we still attempt to make healthy breakfasts and dinners daily. This becomes easier when I keep the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry clean and organized.
This process starts with a near empty refrigerator. I avoid wasting any food by ensuring we make as many meals as possible with the food we have before we go to the store.
When you are almost out of everything, you can go to the store without a list because you need everything! I look for sale items and am not afraid to stock up on any good deals because I know how to preserve most foods.
Once we have a full load of groceries, we unpack and organize everything. We have a pretty small kitchen when it comes to storage so we had to get creative with how we store things.
We store our serving trays, plates, cups, and bowls in a hutch. We also keep our water station on the hutch.
We store cookware on a shelf (that used to be a co-sleeper) and in the remaining cupboards of our kitchen.
The shelf was custom-made, the light came with the house, and the mug tree also gives us a place to store our tea.
I buy my kids "play food." It makes for great sensory play and keeps them busy!
We need to store things on top of the fridge. The baskets and containers make it look a little nicer.
This corner shelf is a game changer!
This shelf helps us see the oils when they are tucked behind the spices.
We have two chest freezers so we don't put much in this freezer.
We are running low on fruit, but this is looking pretty good!
After a fully stocked fridge of fresh food, I can decide what meals we could possibly make. I don't plan out what we eat on any specific day of the week because it really depends on my energy-level, cravings, and time. So a sample menu could look like this:
I can also get pretty creative with food. I hate wasting food, so I have learned to look at what I have and make something yummy from that. Some easy leftovers to make from the above menu would be fish sticks and sweet potato pancakes. Follow me on social media to see the cooking in action.
For the following week, I look at what is left in the refrigerator and pantry and make another menu. If we need anything special, I would make a list and run to the grocery store. At this time, I also notice anything that is about to go bad and find a way to use it up in one of the meals or preserve it.
I clean out the refrigerator and pantry every other week. I clean out the freezer just a few times a year. It really prevents us from wasting any food, so I highly recommend putting this chore on your radar.
