Frozen Meal Co-op

me and dad circa 1985.

I come from a family (i.e., father) who gets excited about living on a tight budget. We purchased food, office supplies, and housewares in bulk; mom cooked dinner from scratch nearly every night; Dad recorded/cataloged movies off the satellite dish instead of renting/buying/theaters; we packed snacks and meals for road trips instead of stopping...

Of all the thrifty habits my family developed, my favorites by far are the frozen lunches in our deep freezer. For as long as I can remember my parents have had a deep freezer containing milk crates filled with ziploc bags of frozen soup and chili. To avoid the costly (for $ and health) habit of eating out for lunch, Mom would (and still does) make 1-2 big pots of soup a few times a month for him to take as lunch. Dad bags, labels, and freezes the bags flat and then "files" them in crates. At any given time there are 6-8 types of soup, chili, and pasta in their freezer. I've always planned to follow suit when I grow up and have a deep freezer. Now I'm excited about doing more than just soup.

My friend Jess just pass along the following story about a freezer meal group, and it has me daydreaming about all the freezer-friendly meals I could be making and sharing... (click the picture for the site)

anyone interested?

rising cost of good food

The New York Times published an interesting and inspiring article last week; Money is Tight and Junk food Beckons, that describes the extreme cost of eating fresh, healthy foods and a California couple who tried to eat for one month on less than $1 a day (their fascinating blog is here). They baked and cooked bulk grains and beans, supplemented their diet with orange Tang for vitamin C, and lost weight, energy, and a lot of time. Their blog doesn't inspire me to attempt a similar experiment. It does make me want to spend more time in the kitchen developing recipes that are fast, healthy, and more affordable than some of the really terrible things people are forced to sustain on because of time and money.

Michael Pollan (a NYTimes contributor and author of The Omnivore's Dilemma & In Defense of Food) wrote a great article several weeks ago, a letter to the next President of the United States asking them to make food policy a priority for the health, security, and economy of our country. He was interviewed on Fresh Air and makes a compelling argument for an overhaul of the way America grows and sells food. Definitely listen to the Fresh Air episode- it's really, really, great.

I'm going to make lots of soup this fall and winter. It's cheap (a 10lb bag of potatoes at Aldi is $2.50, a big can of crushed tomatoes $1!) and easy and comforting, and can feed two people for at least a week. One of the biggest challenges to writing about soup recipes will be documenting ingredients and quantities... so much of the seasoning and I do is in pinchfuls and shakes... it's hard to keep track of! I'm making split pea soup in the next day or two, will try to carefully record my steps, and will post the recipe if it's worth eating!