Avoiding Mother Hubbard Syndrome
I read a lot of news, and a piece that caught my eye lately was an article on people stocking their pantries with canned goods. Even as they buy seeds for their Recession Gardens, people who are nervous about possible layoffs are preparing to avoid Mother Hubbard Syndrome: the fear of "When she got there, the cupboard was bare, and so her poor dog had none." No one wants the dog or the kids or the family as a whole to go without, so they're buying foods that will last. If the family loses a paycheck unexpectedly, they'll still be able to feed themselves for a while if the pantry is full.
I'm not sure if we got caught up in the widespread Mother Hubbard Syndrome or just lost track of our grocery lists, but the freezer in the basement was so full we couldn't put another thing in it. I haven't been formally Meal Planning in the way of so many frugal bloggers, but this week it helped keep us on track and use up some of what's in the fridge and freezer. Sunday night I made a homemade pizza with spaghetti sauce, red and green peppers, & pepperoni from the freezer. Monday was teriyaki beef, Husband's Chinese noodles (I'll post his recipe soon), and steamed cauliflower. Tuesday: roaster chickens were on sale last weekend, so we bought one. No room in the freezer, so it goes on the menu ASAP. In the empty the freezer project, frozen veggies will join the chicken on the table. Leftovers will end up in soup -- soup to cook this week, as there's no room in the freezer for extra stock or meat scraps!
Next: there was a frozen container of tomato soup (from last fall's garden) that'll join leftover sloppy joe mix in a crockpot chili on Thursday.
Oops, missed a day. What to do today, Wednesday? Tacos! If we have any leftover meat, it can join the chili.
Friday? Friday we'll be on the road to pick up La Petite which makes it another good crockpot day: time for the leftover chicken to surface in a soup. We'll come home to the aroma of homemade soup and (if I'm on top of things) bread in the bread machine. What a great welcome for all of us!
It's a great feeling to feed my family and still have food to spare. Many families aren't so lucky. Please consider buying a little extra for your local pantry. Together, we can weather this recession by helping each other out.
Stumble It!
I'm not sure if we got caught up in the widespread Mother Hubbard Syndrome or just lost track of our grocery lists, but the freezer in the basement was so full we couldn't put another thing in it. I haven't been formally Meal Planning in the way of so many frugal bloggers, but this week it helped keep us on track and use up some of what's in the fridge and freezer. Sunday night I made a homemade pizza with spaghetti sauce, red and green peppers, & pepperoni from the freezer. Monday was teriyaki beef, Husband's Chinese noodles (I'll post his recipe soon), and steamed cauliflower. Tuesday: roaster chickens were on sale last weekend, so we bought one. No room in the freezer, so it goes on the menu ASAP. In the empty the freezer project, frozen veggies will join the chicken on the table. Leftovers will end up in soup -- soup to cook this week, as there's no room in the freezer for extra stock or meat scraps!
Next: there was a frozen container of tomato soup (from last fall's garden) that'll join leftover sloppy joe mix in a crockpot chili on Thursday.
Oops, missed a day. What to do today, Wednesday? Tacos! If we have any leftover meat, it can join the chili.
Friday? Friday we'll be on the road to pick up La Petite which makes it another good crockpot day: time for the leftover chicken to surface in a soup. We'll come home to the aroma of homemade soup and (if I'm on top of things) bread in the bread machine. What a great welcome for all of us!
It's a great feeling to feed my family and still have food to spare. Many families aren't so lucky. Please consider buying a little extra for your local pantry. Together, we can weather this recession by helping each other out.
Labels: it's the economy, kitchen stories
Stumble It!
posted @7:32 AM
3 Comments:
You sound like me. I've been cleaning out my pantry and found lots of canned goods that needed to be eaten, so have been planning meals around those. I recently read you should plan to have a two month supply of food at all times. I suppose I'll have to stock up again after ridding the pantry of all this stuff.
My pantry is getting a little sparse, so tomorrow I need to stock up, I really need a small freezer. Hope you have a nice Easter.
My freezer has not reached full capacity by a long shot, yet I do feel the need to make use of the things I put in it from the garden and from u-pick farms almost two years ago. So today I'm going to make lasagna using two packages of my ratatouille and home made ricotta.
I'm also going to make a quiche using some roasted frozen anchos.
Next up: must start using my frozen berries. Smoothies!!
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