When many people think of “preppers”, they think of those people with their caves in the woods and supplies buried where they think no one can find them . . we’ve talked about that before. My idea of preparedness is being prepared for whatever may come my way and we can each determine what “things” we think could be coming our way.
Saturday we had big plans all day. We were leaving fairly early on Saturday morning so we could get a little shopping in before meeting our friends in Brady for lunch. Those plans all changed when I woke up during the middle of the night with a kidney stone.
Several friends called to see if I needed anything . . no, didn’t need a thing. We had plenty of food, cooked and not cooked. A neighbor was going to the grocery store and she asked . . don’t you need anything? Nope, nothing! I had just made yogurt so we had fresh yogurt, we had all the meals in the jars that I had canned. We had leftovers from the chicken and rice I had made, we had leftover buffalo burgers so we were able to that and then I cooked a pot of rice one night and we had that with beef tips from a jar, for lunch today we’re having leftover rice with pork salsa verde from a jar. No mess, no meal planning . . just popping open jars and heating their contents and when I didn’t feel like cooking, we still had good home cooked meals.
Food for the Week
This is how I cook! On Monday, I go to one of the big freezers and pull out everything we need for the week. The big freezers are manual defrost so the less I open them, the less I have to defrost so if I can open them once a week instead of 2 or 3 or 4 times a week, that helps with the defrosting.
In the vacuum sealed bag is a pre-made meatloaf. I will bake that in the Nesco outside, serve it with baked potatoes, also baked in the Nesco or in the solar oven and we’re having fried eggplant also. That’s for tonight. There will be enough leftover that I will slice it, dip the slices in Panko and fry them and we will have fried meatloaf sandwiches for lunch one day this week.
There’s a flank steak there. I’ll put it on to marinate today and we’ll grill it tomorrow. We will have grilled zucchini and stuffed jalapeno peppers with it, and baked sweet potatoes, also done in either the Nesco outside or the solar oven.
There’s a pork roast from the hog we bought from the youth fair. That will go into the crockpot and we’ll have that Wednesday night. I have a 4:00 p.m. appointment with the eye doctor so dinner will be ready when we get home. I’ll open a jar of canned sweet potatoes that I canned when they were on sale, and heat up a jar of okra and tomatoes that I canned from last year’s garden.
Thursday night we’ll have tacos and enchiladas made with ground antelope. I’ll make borracho beans. Love those!
There will be leftover flank steak, pork roast and enchiladas for Friday, Saturday and Sunday so you can see that I’m not going to be doing a whole lot of cooking this week but we will be eating good meals at home. It’s all seems so easy with just a little planning ahead.
Sharon in Michigan says
First of all, I hope you’re feeling much better with all that’s going on with you right now. Secondly, I wish I were half as organized as you! Hang in there Judy 🙂
JudyL says
I should have posted in there . . I have an appointment with the urologist in the morning. I’m doing ok. I have pain pills and am taking them more than I wish was necessary. They make me so sleepy that I’m hardly staying awake at all but I guess when I have to choose being in pain or sleeping, I’ll take sleeping.
patti says
with our well stocked freezer and pantry, the only things i ever “need” to add are milk, eggs, and fresh produce. we have such a short growing season that early girl tomatoes and a sweet 100 bush are iin our small garden, so we are extremely limited in that area. i still have aabout 8 qts that i canned last year so should run out @ just about the right time.
in may we drove down to texas (northwest of ft. worth) and went thru wyoming. there were antelope everywhere and for some weird reason i’ve decided that i would probably like antelope and want to try it. my favorite game meat is buffalo followed by venison, i’ll eat elk but i can easily pass on it. the few people i’ve asked screw up their nose @ antelope, so i’m wondering your opinion on the taste since you obviously have it in your freezer. making it into tacos would make me wonder if you prefer it as a ‘carrier’ rather than straight, i sometimes do that with elk but would never waste buffalo as tacos or spaghetti. just curious, not sure how i would ever come upon an antelope supply.
and by the way, while in tx i made my sil take me to tractor supply because of you! i got a cute Tshirt with their name and some teddy’s root beer (my favorite). we have 2 similar stores here that i love so i get your affinity for trips there. a nice momento of our trip and reminds me of you and vince!
Freda Henderson says
I have been fixing bigger meals and freezing part of them cause I have shoulder replacement of my left shouder tomorrow morning and my husband cooks very little. None of the chicken and dumplings made the freezer. lol Hope you get relief from your kidney stone soon.
JudyL says
Freda: Good luck with your surgery. I’ll be thinking about you in the morning!
Katie Z says
I hope the pain lets up soon. I’ve never had a kidney stone, but I can only imagine it’s miserable!
I MUST get my pressure canner repaired (or get a new one). Not having cooked meat is my frequent hangup for quick, easy meals when I don’t feel well. Thank you for the kick in the pants.
Barbara says
That’s the kind of thing I think about when I think about being prepared…not just being prepared for disasters, but also being prepared for anything that might come up in every day life.
I don’t want to call on people to get things for me when it is a simple matter of doing it ahead of time myself.
I love having a well stocked freezer and some foods cooked and frozen ahead.
I keep thinking about getting back into canning (did it years ago when the hubs was alive and I loved it) not sure why I can’t get myself moving in that direction…I keep talking about it and I’m starting to bore myself…either do it or shut it!!
Hope you are feeling better soon!
JudyL says
It is hard to do it when it’s just one. Even with all the food I have ready to eat, when Vince is gone, I feel like going somewhere for dinner. Maybe it’s just being home alone 24/7 that makes me want to go out or even pick something up at a drive through.
When canning in pints, it’s perfect for the two of us or even just one. I opened a pint of pork salsa verde yesterday for lunch and Vince said he would rather have pulled pork since we still had homemade buns so I opened a pint of pork for him. He ate part of it and then today for lunch, we finished off the pulled pork and the pork salsa verde.
Tricia says
Boy, you really made me HUNGRY! I wish that I liked to cook (or had someone around like you who does!) and not just eat!
Glad you will be able to rest more this week and take care of yourself.
Susan says
I hope it doesn’t take long to pass. Ugh. One thing after another, but hey! You are prepared. =)
Gayle Bong says
You sure have had it rough lately. Hope things get back to normal soon
CookieE says
Hope you’re feeling better and that both conditions will quickly resolve themselves.
It’s the middle of fruit growing season here and I’m busy freezing, canning and dehydrating , along with everything else. Did what my husband calls “The Great Egg Dehydration Experiment”. It was successful in that I dehydrated eggs and ground them into a powder and stored in airtight containers. They’ll come in handy when rehydrated for omelets, mayo, baking, etc. if for some reason we can’t get out this winter.
Judy D in WA says
Sure hope you are feeling better soon. Glad you have such great food to get you through this easily.