Ep 218. How I Made 14 Freezer Meals: What Pantry Preparedness Actually Looks Like for Me

What does pantry preparedness actually look like when you’re not interested in stockpiling a year’s worth of food? This week, I’m taking you behind the scenes of what preparedness looks like in my own home—and it turns out it’s a lot less about filling shelves and a lot more about creating a food system that keeps moving. I recently bought food in bulk and spent about four hours preparing 14 freezer meals for busy school nights, sports, workdays, holidays, and all of those evenings when having dinner ready can keep us from spending money on takeout. But finding room for 14 new meals meant finally dealing with the tomatoes I’d been freezing from the garden all summer, so now those tomatoes are moving from the freezer to the canner and eventually onto my pantry shelves as enchilada sauce and barbecue sauce. In this episode, I’m also talking about how I decide what’s actually worth stocking up on at Costco, why a 20-pound bag of rice makes absolutely no sense for my family, how preparedness can save time as well as money, and why having the skills, supplies, and systems to handle the food you already have can be more valuable than simply accumulating more. My preparedness isn’t ever really “finished.” Summer is for growing, harvesting, eating fresh, and freezing. Fall is for preserving and stocking. Winter is for eating through what we’ve stored, making soups and stocks, and eventually looking ahead to what we want to grow again next year. It’s a constantly moving system—and I think that’s a much more practical way to think about preparedness for busy families.   https://thehomesteadchallenge.com/