One of Michael Pollan’s many Food Rules that I love is “If you have the space, buy a freezer.” We took Pollan’s advice and bought a separate freezer (pictured below) that has allowed us to stock up on good sources of local meat as well as lots of other stuff. My three favorite things to store in our extra freezer are the following…
1. Ingredients that would otherwise go rancid
You see, just last year I was cooking with white flour (don’t remind me!) and that wonderful white, fluffy stuff could just sit on my pantry shelf for years and never spoil. In fact, that was one of the reasons so long ago that manufacturers started making white flour as opposed to the whole-wheat variety. It’s hard to beat that shelf life! It actually reminds me of one of Pollan’s other Food Rules “Eat only food that will eventually rot.” He also says “The more processed a food is, the longer the shelf life, and the less nutritious it typically is.” That just sounds so appetizing doesn’t it!?
So the moral of this story is that when you buy nutritious ingredients like whole-wheat flour and other whole grains it is best to store them in the freezer (or at least the fridge). The same goes for things like nuts and seeds. We even keep our unsweetened coconut, extra local goat cheese, homemade whole-wheat breadcrumbs, and extra loaves of sandwich bread in there, too.
2. Meat that we stock up on at the Farmer’s Market or our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm partnership
Anytime you find a good source for local, organic, grass-fed meat (you know, the whole nine yards) why not stock up?
3. Leftover homemade meals
Eating real food can sometimes require a lot of cooking, and who wants to spend hours in their kitchen making every last meal? That’s why I absolutely love the stock of homemade food I’ve worked to add to our freezer. Some of the things we’ve saved up include: whole-wheat pancakes, whole-wheat crepes, leftover soups, spaghetti sauce, cooked meat, homemade pasta dishes including ravioli, pesto, veggie burgers, applesauce, and pumpkin bread. Just tonight I was feeling a little lazy so I boiled some homemade whole-wheat butternut squash ravioli and 4 minutes later dinner was ready. Real food doesn’t get much easier than that!
More, more. I am agreeing with you on this one. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks for the perfect post. More beef info Here. I will be keeping an eye on this.
Reading your post it sems like you and your family are doing a modified version of ‘daniels fast’. my church is doing the same thing and it was hard at first to give up the sugary foods, ect but my son and i have been doing it for 2 weks now and we don’t miss the procesed, sugary foods at all. good luck and god bless
I’ve heard of that and have to agree that it is similar. Good for you guys making it 2 weeks so far…and good luck!!
You should have the spherical of applause for your post and much more particularly, your site in general. Very good quality material
Yep, its all about that residual passive income!
great post for us newbies just learning about passive income
I love this blog! Have you thought about canning though? If you got a pressure canner you could can your own refried beans, tomato sauce, apple sauce and your bumper crops of veggies and fruits each year. I got mine last year and just love it. It was worth every penny! You can also save all of the bones and such from your chickens and beef and make your own stock and then can that as well. So much cheaper than buying, not to mention you control everything that goes in!
Do you have a recipe on how to make the tomato sauce?? I am getting away from everything canned so I need to make my own tomato sauce, mushroom soup, chili beans, etc. I did the chili beans homemade and everyone seemed to like them
but I haven’t had much luck at finding out how to make the tomato sauce. How hard is it to can things? I use mason jars and put things in the fridge/freezer but would love to can and just put them in the pantry. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
Here are two recipes I’ve posted: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/07/19/recipe-homemade-spaghetti-sauce/ and http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/06/21/recipe-simple-spaghetti-plus-%E2%80%9Cthe-fresh-20%E2%80%9D-sponsor/
Looking for your chicken soup recipe
I think it is great that you are feeding your family a while food diet. Have you thought about what you store your food in and what it could leach into rigid food that you have spent so much time and money on? Not only is using plastic bad for your health, it is bad for the environment. I don’t care that the FDA says that food grade plastic is safe, tthey also say stand behind the use of bpa. Tin cans are also lined with the nasty stuff, along with the top of traditional canning lids. There are so many alternatives to plastic out there.
Quick Question: I am sloooowly making my way through your website (I introduced you to my Mom and she is WAAAY ahead of me), so the whole wheat flour (whole wheat white and whole wheat) should be stored in the freezer? Where is a good resource to determine which ingredients should be in the freezer and which ones are okay for the shelf?
Yes, all whole-grain flours should be kept in freezer or fridge. You can also keep nuts in the freezer so they have a longer shelf like. I don’t have a detailed guide so I hope that helps!
Was wondering if you had some of the reciepes for the raveoli that you speak of so often? I have made some in the past with my machine. I only had one receipe. Would like some new ones. Please post if possible.
I just have this one recipe…hope to add more! http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/09/01/recipe-butternut-squash-ravioli/
just discovered your website, and i’m really intrigued by the idea. i’m wanting to move toward real foods.
one exception i know of to your “eat things that rot” rule is actually un-ground whole wheat. That stuff literally lasts forever. Once you grind it, you have to eat it fast, but until it’s ground, it doesn’t go bad at all (as long as insects don’t find it).
We buy our wheat whole, and grind it as we use it. It’s working really well for us, as it means we don’t have to worry about storing our flour someplace. I usually grind about 2.5 cups of wheat berries to get around 3 cups of flour. So nice…