01 Aug Pork Week Day 4: Meal Planning

There are many reasons to invest in a whole or half hog for your freezer. There’s the whole supporting a farmer and knowing where your meat comes from; which, is awesome. But, it’s also much more cost effective to purchase meat in bulk than buy cuts of pork individually.

That being said, it is only cost effective if you eat it.

And, eating from the freezer takes a little planning ahead because you can’t just get home from work and say, “Oh, I want pork chops for dinner.” Your pork chops are frozen solid.

Since marrying Adam (and moving to the country) six years ago, I have become a big fan of meal planning. It helped us save money, to have a plan for dinner and has prevented me from having to visit the grocery store– which isn’t terribly convenient thanks our proximity to town- multiple times a week.

In recent years, we have filled our freezer with pastured chicken, pork and beef that we raised or purchased from nearby farmers. I still meal plan, just with a little shift in mindset in order to make sure the meat I want to use is safely defrosted and that I use what is available (… and already paid for) in my freezer.

Here are some of my tips:

Stay Organized-

It’s not perfect in our personal freezer, but we do our best to keep each cut of meat organized. This way, we know how much bacon we have and when we need to go looking for bacon, we don’t have to dig around trying to find it.

Set Aside Time-

Menu planning takes me about 30-60 minutes each week. It sounds like a decent investment of my time, but it’s worth it. Think… if you spent 10 minutes every night trying to figure out what to do for dinner? There’s 50 minutes. (… and that’s just weeknights.)

Look at the Calendar-

When taking that hour to menu plan, I think about our week and bring along my work and personal calendars.  It’s great to know nights that we have more time to really cook or if I need to get something prepped fast.  It’s also really good to know if we have plans and we will be eating out.

Take Inventory Weekly-

Every menu planning session calls for little inventory of what I have in the refrigerator, pantry, freezer and garden.  These ingredients serve as a guide as I look up recipes I want to create so they are based on what is already on hand.

Have Recipes Handy-

It seems like recipes are everywhere.  Which, I for one, will not complain about. They are on Facebook, Instagram, at the grocery store, on packaging, in print media like magazines or the paper, we even have them at the market each week.  Saving recipes in a common spot, like Pinterest or taking photos or screen shots on your phone, is easy and helpful.  For planning and cooking!

Allow Enough Time to Defrost-

Many of us- or our mothers- have defrosted meat on the counter and we have lived to tell the tale; but, the safest way to defrost frozen meat is in your refrigerator, in a pan or on a plate, on the lowest level so it does not run the risk of leaking onto another item.

This means that it might take a day or two for a piece of meat to defrost. It all depends on the size of the package of meat. A Thanksgiving turkey might take five days. Bacon should be good over night.  A good rule of thumb is to allow for 24 hours for every 5 pounds.

Eat Up-

Freezer meat should be consumed within a year, so don’t wait!  Enjoy the convenience, economics and taste!  Once you get the hang of planning and having meat on hand, you won’t go back.