The Neverending Meal Plan: food crisis (part 2)

Sure, we had enough food to eat. Sure, we were saving money and not wasting leftovers. But when we were finished a fortnight's meal plan and groceries several days before shopping day, was eating leftover rice and mashed potatoes really the best thing for our family? 

Realising my mistake, I quickly apologised to my hubby and told him that shopping fortnightly was not as important as keeping fresh food in the fridge.

As mentioned in my post on the neverending meal plan, our recent trip to Japan really woke me up to our shopping habits. We live in a first world country where, if you so choose, you can have food practically thrown at you as you race through the drive-thru rushing off to continue your busy life. Our first drive-thru experience after getting back to Aus nearly gave me a heart attack it came out so fast! But after 10 minutes of driving, the food had gotten cold and was now a soggy mess, useless as leftovers. It made me appreciate once again how great it is to be able to buy fresh produce and safe-to-eat meat, the basic ingredients of countless incredible homemade meals. After a big shop at the markets I must say my chest puffed out a little comparing the contents now to the contents in our freezer at the time of the freedom for the freezer post.

Freezer early 2014 - contents include pizza, chopped onion, breads, meat and ravioli

Freezer early 2015 - contents include homemade stock, chopped onion, chopped carrots, breads, meat and dumplings

Okay, so it's not that clean, but the decor containers are still helping heaps. We are also using some resealable bags. Some might say it's not as environmentally friendly as reusable containers, but we reuse them too. I still smell like onions after chopping a whole bagful yesterday. 

The dumplings were a bit of a splurge as I visited my mum who just moved close to the Chinese food capital of the southside and DUMPLINGS ARE MY FAVOURITE!!! I have made them by hand before, but I'm still working on getting the pastry nice and thin.

I'm not gonna lie, there are also two slices of cake and some of my homework cupcakes hiding away too, but the cake was bought by Mr M's work for his birthday and the cupcakes are at least homemade.

Fridge early 2015 - contents include fruit, veggies, eggs, meats, bread, pancake batter and soft drink

Ahhhhhhhh. It feels so good to have fresh food in the fridge again. I even found a great fruit and veggie shop with 2 bags of onions or carrots for $3 (which is why I chopped a whole bag and now smell like onion).

It was hard to resist the temptation to reorganise the fridge, so I'll admit now I did hide my mum's mooncakes that accidentally came home with me after our Asian food shop.

This is yours truly officially declaring that I have yet to conquer less frequent shopping. Fresh food is a higher priority! And, the meal plan stays, so the budget is not even in danger of me spontaneously buying unwanted snack food!

I love hearing stories so post a comment below if you have some tips on shopping less or more or preparing meals ahead of time. If you have trouble commenting, let me know by sending me an email at amyzinglycreative@gmail.com

Well, I'm glad to finally say it: the food crisis is over! Now it's time to eat!