Meal Planning While Moving to a New Home – Keep Checking In for New Ideas – Welcome to the site of Rosa the RD, Healthy Deconstructed LLC

Finally taking the leap into new home ownership, we have a big move planned.  I sold my previous home and ultimately decided on going with a new build for our future home.   While this is an exciting time, it is also a busy time and as with most moves there is the challenge to consume the food that is on hand to avoid waste as well as to avoid hauling food from one home to another. 

Photo by HiveBoxx on Unsplash

A habit that I acquired from living in blizzard territory was to have a variety of foods on hand that included staple food items because “you never know” how bad the weather is going to get and you wanted to be prepared.  I am harnessing my inner North Dakotan as I work to use up the food that I have on hand.  Ideally, this will mean that I will not have any perishables to move from one home to another.  I have about 90 days to use all the food in my refrigerator and to use as much as I need from the pantry.  I know that I won’t be able to use all of the food because there are foods in the pantry that are part of my emergency planning.  I will post more on planning an emergency food supply in the future.

What Does Not Change

• You want to start with using perishable foods or foods that you want to consume fresh.  I often refer to food storage recommendations from my local cooperative extension agency which provide guidelines on food storage for use at home.  These guidelines are not necessarily what would be used for commercial food production services.  You can access one such guide here.
• You want to know what foods you have stocked and this includes your spices.  With my last pantry cleaning and organization, I created an inventory of the food items that we have in our pantry.  I did enter these items into an Excel file but later put the inventory in a meal planning software that I subscribe to that will create shopping lists and monitor food costs.  Another strategy that is helpful is to organize your pantry in such a way that it is easy to view all your stock.  I like to keep items grouped by categories such as vegetables, fruits, starches, and proteins.
• You want to purge old food items.  It is ideal to do this when you are organizing and cleaning your food storage areas but even tossing old items during a spare moment helps keep the purging more manageable.
• You want the foods that you prepare to be nutritious and taste delicious.  While I will indulge in a bowl of beans with a side of toast, I do not plan on eating combinations of food that I do not find appealing.  Not everything we prepare will taste amazing but it should be reasonably edible and have a balance of nutrients.

What Does Change

• You will want to plan ahead so that you are only buying essentials during this time since you will have less time to consume whatever you buy.  I have participated in some no spending challenges where I create a list of the food items that are essential such as eggs, milk, and fresh produce.  During this time, there should not be grocery shopping trips with huge hauls to carry you through the next few months.  You may prefer fresh bean sprouts but if you have canned bean sprouts in your pantry, this is a great time to just use what you have on hand rather than buying more.
• You may want to be more creative in what meals you prepare in order to reduce purchases and focus on using foods from your existing food storage.  I came across a recipe for a great looking salad that uses quinoa.  The salad is an Asian fusion salad and I will be using brown rice in place of the quinoa because I currently do not have any quinoa in the pantry.  I also plan to make my own cashew or peanut dressing since I have the ingredients and I can just make enough for the meal rather than buy a jar of premade dressing.  I might even put together some peanut butter cookies and smoothies with the PB2 that I have in my emergency food supply.
• You may want to try those food items that you purchased but have not tried.  I once bought a sauce mix for making lettuce wraps.  I had the mix for over a year and the mix moved with me from one home to another.  It was not until after the move that I finally tried the mix and it was very good.  Even if you do not love something that is in your pantry or you have not tried it to know if you would purchase it again, give those items a try, keep them for emergencies (unless it should be tossed), or just give them away to someone who wants it.  If you have a jar of roasted red peppers or butter beans that you just do not know what to do with, ideas are only as far as an internet search or a call to a friend.  I have a mix for Chai turmeric lattes that is still fresh in its pack that I purchased a few months ago that I have not tried.  Latte hour is just a short time way for me today.

My List of Meals/Snacks (This is a list of some meal that I can prepare with the food that I have on hand.)

• Chicken and Pasta with a Basil Pesto
• Roasted Potato and Beef Chorizo
• Butternut Squash and Black Bean Red Chile Enchiladas
• Pico De Gallo with Breakfast Tacos
• Roasted Beef and Cheese Panini
• Potato and Pea Curry with Rice
• Chicken Vindaloo with Rice (The Vindaloo is already made and frozen but rice can be made fresh.)
• Deviled Eggs
• Greek Yogurt with Homemade Granola
• Smoothies such as my Anti-inflammatory Smoothie and Vitality Smoothie
• Margarita Pizza
• Carrot Ginger Soup
• Tuna Melt (I will need to make homemade bread but that is not a real sacrifice for me and it is a family favorite.)
• Cheese Toasties.
• Mixed Greens to Add as a Side to Any Meal or to Make and Entree Salad

This is a great list to get me started and to keep me motivated and to keep me from eating away from home.

 

source https://betterweightloss.info/meal-planning-while-moving-to-a-new-home-keep-checking-in-for-new-ideas-welcome-to-the-site-of-rosa-the-rd-healthy-deconstructed-llc/