{"id":1065,"date":"2015-07-08T01:48:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T01:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2016-12-23T04:39:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T04:39:26","slug":"limited-time-scratch-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/?p=1065","title":{"rendered":"Limited Time & Scratch Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past few months have been crazier than I think I have ever known. It wasn’t my intention to post recipes so infrequently on Scratch Cooking with the Concord Country Cook<\/a>, but with this being our first season on our new farm, trying to balance everything has been quite the experience. \u00a0It’s silly, because I am usually home all day long. \u00a0But there is a large garden (about 2 acres) to weed, cultivate, harvest (and prepare for sale or prepare for storage) and maintain, farm animals that need to be fed, cleaned, turned out, brought in and maintained and endless projects (building more chicken coops, putting up new chicken pens, rototilling walking paths to lay down cardboard and wood chips, maintain our walking trail in the woods, building a duck house and permanent pen, build a permanent outdoor goat shelter, build a milking stand, build, build, build build….. \u00a0projects go on and on and on). \u00a0 My day starts with cooking a from scratch breakfast (usually something simple and sometimes I treat myself to something I prepare the night before so all I have to do is pop it in the oven – or I do something in the crockpot all night). \u00a0We have six children who need to be woken, dressed, help tend to animals and eat. \u00a0Usually my husband comes home after the kids have eaten and wants dinner (he works midnights, so he usually wants dinner when he comes home in the morning). \u00a0After getting him in bed and doing a quick attempt at cleaning, we are out the door to begin our day on the farm. \u00a0 I have to come in to prepare lunch, and then again for dinner. \u00a0If I don’t plan things right, I feel like I spend all day in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

While I love to cook, I tend to see cooking as more of a chore I would rather not have during the summer if I am preparing every meal three times a day without any prep done in advance. \u00a0 There are a few simple things I like to do to keep me out of the kitchen as much as possible during our busy season.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Plan Your Meals.\u00a0<\/strong>Even if it’s just the night before. \u00a0Write it down. \u00a0Keep a list on your fridge of new things you have opened that need to be used within a couple of days to inspire your meal planning and avoid waste. If I wake up in the morning and don’t have a plan for lunch and dinner, my day falls apart. \u00a0I obsess over these two meals and what I can make quickly based on what is already thawed and ready to go, but usually our meat isnt thawed unless I…..<\/li>\n
  2. Prepare The Night Before.\u00a0<\/strong>If you have to soak or cook beans, thaw meat, chop veggies, prepare a dressing, or throw ingredients in a crockpot to hang out in the fridge all night before cooking the next day, get it all done the night before. \u00a0The next morning will go so much smoother than if you do all of your meal prep then (or worse yet, right before you cook your meal). \u00a0I am a night owl because I have to wake my husband up to head into work when most people are already tucked in bed. \u00a0So as I wait to wake him up, I like to get a head start on the next days meals.<\/li>\n
  3. Do It In Bulk.\u00a0<\/strong>If you are making a ‘cream of’ soup for a recipe, make a few and freeze them. \u00a0Or make up a big master mix of the dry seasonings to make it easier to access the next time you need it. \u00a0If you already have the ingredients out to prepare an ingredient you use often, it makes sense to put a little extra time into preparing\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0now\u00a0<\/em>verses having to pull everything out again in the future and go through the whole process all over again.<\/li>\n
  4. Crockpot or Freezer Meals.\u00a0<\/strong>Everyone loves the crockpot. \u00a0Throw ingredients in, remember to turn it on, and your dinner is cooked when you come home in the evening. \u00a0We love the crockpot. \u00a0We also love cooking for the freezer – spending some time once a month or so preparing some meals that will be easy to pull right out of the freezer and heat up.<\/li>\n
  5. Try New Things.<\/strong> \u00a0New tastes and ingredient combinations can keep cooking interesting even when you least want to do it. \u00a0I find that if I am in a rut, usually I can keep myself pushing through by trying new recipes that we can add to the rotation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The past few months have been crazier than I think I have ever known. It wasn’t my intention to post recipes so infrequently on Scratch Cooking with the Concord Country Cook, but with this being our first season on our new farm, trying to balance everything has been quite the experience. It’s silly, because I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1066,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.k7farm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}