Meal Planning in a Small Town (or trying to)

I'll be honest. When I took a job in a tiny town I'd never been to, I didn't weigh all the factors. I hadn't thought about how there'd be no drive-thrus and no pizza delivery. The fact that stores aren't open 24/7 was unfathomable to me. So finding all of that to be reality was a bit of a shock.

My first year living here, I survived on tater tots and toaster strudels, but I'm proud to say I've grown a lot (nowhere to go but up ☺️). After my mom died, I made a new year's resolution to cook every week. My mom was an incredible cook/hostess, and it felt like the perfect way to connect with her and honor her in her absence. Boy, I learned a lot that year, especially in realizing how much planning is necessary to cook or bake regularly in a small town. I had to rely on neighbors for ingredients after the grocery store closed a lot.

A few things have made a huge difference for my kitchen survival. One is buying pantry items in bulk. I stock up on basics like foil and paper products with Boxed, which is like Costco or Sam's but online and without the membership fee. There are some things, like flour, noodles, and sugar, I have on autoship through thrive market. I'm still working on recognizing how frequently I need things (for example, at Christmas time, I didn't account for the extra baking I'd be doing and therefore additional flour I'd need), but it's nice to know I'm prepared for the potential crisis of a closed grocery store.

Another huge thing I learned that year after my mom died is the POWER of the FREEZER. Especially cooking for one at that time, I began freezing leftovers or preparing a second pan to freeze and cook later. I always feel like a champion when I can pull something from the freezer and have an easy meal. None of these ideas are original but a couple of freezer strategies I use:

• I'll freeze anything once. If it doesn't taste good after being frozen, I'll remember that for next time. So far I don't think I've found anything I wouldn't freeze again

• Freeze soup in muffin tins. Then pop them out of the tins and put them in a freezer-safe bag for easy, pre-portioned meals.

• Keep aluminum containers with lids on hand for freezing that extra dish. I've used these; they're pretty perfect for feeding 1-2 people.

• Label whatever you put in the freezer, including cooking instructions or any other notes. It's unpleasant to find mysterious things in the freezer you don't know what to do with.

Then, as far as actual planning goes, I use Google Keep (thanks to this blog) to map out what we'll eat for the week. This way, I can share it with Ben and also keep a record (while still archiving/hiding old menus) of what we've had. I can access it with both my phone and my computer, so if I need to pull up a recipe or make a quick note, I can (Recently I found a note to myself next to a recipe that said, "GROSS NEVER MAKE AGAIN," which was helpful and funny.). To make things even easier, I have a template in Google Keep that I just make a copy of with each new week. It's already "labeled" so that I can quickly see previous menus when needed.

Finding recipes that I like will forever be the bane of my existence. I use a lot of cookbooks, some favorites include From Freezer to Table and From Freezer to Cooker by Polly Conner and Rachel Tiemeyer, Half Baked Harvest cookbooks by Tieghan Gerard, and the Magnolia cookbooks by Joanna Gaines. My go-to websites for recipes are Mel's Kitchen Cafe and Budget Bytes. I would LOVE if you'd share your favorite go-tos in the comments! When deciding what I'm going to make, I start by thinking of what I have already. What can I pull from the freezer? What is about to expire or go bad in the fridge? What pantry items do I want to use up? And lastly, what on earth sounds good?

Once I've nailed down what I'm making, I use my All Out Of notepad to make my grocery list. This list rocks because it's already categorized with checkboxes, so that I can easily just check off things I need. Usually, the list hangs on my fridge, so as things run out, I can check them off too. The organization and ease of this notepad makes grocery shopping so much more enjoyable because everything is in order.

Lastly, I think it's important to note supporting local businesses. Living in a small town, prices can be higher. Sometimes those higher prices are worth it, especially knowing that your business allows that resource to be there in a pinch. I read once that if we all spent $50 a month supporting businesses in our community, that'd be enough to keep them afloat, so I try to maintain at least that much.

I'm no expert, but I'm proud of the things I've learned to do living where I do. In a blizzard, I can't just order a pizza, but I can make a pizza entirely from scratch and always have the necessary ingredients on hand. I make a lot of mistakes in the kitchen, but I'm no longer eating frozen waffles, which is pretty rad. In the winter, it can be especially challenging to stay motivated in the kitchen. Hopefully you can find some motivation or some new strategies in nourishing yourself and your family.

-J