Know Your Family

I posted earlier that I finally got a chance to go through my pantry and cabinets to clean out and organize.  Today my task is the freezer and refrigerator.  Once that is done, I can start this whole cooking ahead and freezing plan.  In the meantime, I have been looking at recipes, etc to get some ideas of what I want to do.

There are so many great recipes for making things cheaper and healthier at home!  However, I have run into two dilemmas: 1. Many of the ideas are for large families, so we would end up wasting or getting really tired of that food, and 2. I have two VERY picky eaters on my hands.

Luckily, most recipes can easily be halved so that I don't end up with an entire freezer full of one dish.  Also, I talked to the managers at my local grocery stores and both Bi-Lo and Food Lion will discount each item rather than making you buy the entire 10 to get the 10 items for $10 price, etc.  Harris Teeter on the other hand requires that you get the full number advertised to get that price.

One thing I have noticed about my picky eaters is that they each have their own limits.  For both, I can sneak in some items they don't really like if it's chopped up small and mixed in with stuff they do like.  I have discovered that one of my picky eaters really doesn't like to eat a particular dish more than two times in a row- even if it's something he likes.  Knowing that can help me decide how much of a dish to put in the refrigerator and how much in the freezer as well as how much time to leave in between similar dishes.

In short, know your family.  Know their likes, their dislikes, and their limits.  You can experiment to discover these.  I experiment with my son a lot since what he decides he likes can change at any moment.  Then I can use this knowledge to help plan my buying, cooking and storing so that we can make the best use of our resources.