Shelf Cooking

Last week, we had a friend over for lunch on Sunday and we ended up talking for the entire afternoon. We really enjoyed our time with our friend, but unfortunately, it meant I lost my day to do my weekly cooking preparation. 

I was too lazy to go grocery shopping after that so we ate an entire week of meals planned through shelf cooking. Shelf cooking is defined by cooking with ingredients you already have. For me, that means using frozen meats, frozen vegetables, canned vegetables, or refrigerator staples. I did go to the grocery store during the week to pick up some staples such as milk, eggs, and bread, but I actually didn't buy any other fresh vegetables to cook the dishes we ate throughout the week because I didn't need any.

The first week of shelf cooking, I made:

1. Pesto: dry pasta, pre-made pesto I make myself and save in jars in the fridge, olive oil, canned chicken (optional)

2. Chili: dry beans, canned tomatoes, onion, frozen ground beef, spices

3. Seafood omlettes: eggs, frozen mussels, frozen shrimp, spices

4. Asian vermicelli (very similar to 蚂蚁上树): mung bean noodles, frozen peas, frozen ground pork, eggs, frozen shrimp, sauces and seasoning

5. DIY lunchables: pepperoni, cheese cubes, crackers

6. Homemade pizza: pizza dough yeast, pepperoni, shredded cheese, spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning

This was my first time doing a full week of shelf cooking and it turned out great! This is a far cry from what you typically think of as last-minute meals: PBJ, instant noodles, canned soup. We did have an occasional meal here and there with supplemented frozen food such as frozen dumplings or frozen Cane's chicken (we buy a tailgate, freeze it, and reheat in 6-8 pieces at a time for a meal. They're delicious reheated when you reheat them properly!) But our shelf cooking week was quite successful. 

This is mainly possible due to keeping certain things on hand at all times. 

In the pantry, this includes things like pasta, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, dry beans, and dry Asian noodles. In the refrigerator, I stock items like cheese, pepperoni, or eggs. For the freezer, this includes almost anything: frozen meats, frozen seafood, frozen vegetables, I even keep frozen butter and sometimes frozen bread. Covid taught me a lot about how to freeze foods to save for later. 

There were a few fresher staples I used which included onions and potatoes. These are fresh vegetables which have a longer shelf life when stored properly. So this allowed me to use them in the dishes I mentioned above without having bought them specifically for this week's menu. I even made homemade French fries in the oven to go with our frozen Cane's!

If you've never tried shelf cooking before, or never shelf cooked for this long, I hope reading about my menu for the week has inspired you to be more creative even on weeks when you don't grocery shop :) 

Stay tuned, we're having another partial shelf cooking week! I'll be sharing how we did it a second week in a row while still cooking a variety of food!