S8 E5: Down and Dirty Meal Planning with Lisa Bass
For more great Instant Pot recipes, please visit InstantPotEasy.com
Down and Dirty Meal Planning with Lisa Bass In today’s episode, I’m thrilled to be chatting with a long-time friend, Lisa Bass.
I am still disgruntled about the tiny oven in my new stove. I went from electric to propane and didn’t notice how small the oven was. Four years later, I’m still not over my mistake. Love the stove top but… Gah!
I worked full time with my children and traveled 2 hours each day commute and yes they did after school activities as well. My top tip for saving money and time is batch cook, it just takes a little bit extra time to cook but will save you time and money. You are cooking anyway so just do little bit extra and portion up for work lunch, dinner / lunch for children. Most are working mums on low income use beans and pulses to add protein if you start young your children will never know the difference. Feed your children everything from a very young age vegetables, different meats, fish, herbs. If you don’t like them never show that too your children as they learn by example. Try something new every week ( do not make a issue of it = just serve it).
With the animals, weather and kids how do you plan to make the assembled meals!?
If you are interested in big batch cooking, check out the youtube channels for Jamerrill Stewart and She's in Her Apron, and Six Sister's Stuff. I love using my instant pot. Some of my favorite recipes I make in it are roasts (90 minutes, let it naturally release), add veggies and put on for 10 more minutes. Honey Garlic chicken using boneless skinless thighs takes very little time. Country style ribs (six sister's stuff) in the crock pot or instant pot. These take very little time to make and can be ready in less than an hour. I try to keep my pantry stocked with items that I use a lot of so that makes making dinner easier.
Breakfast for dinner and tacos… Oh I am so glad I’m not the only one! 😂
Thanks to both of you for the weekly inspiration
My husband and I are currently finishing our home and we haven’t finished the kitchen yet, so I’ve been cooking on only the grill and instant pot for a year and a half. So far I haven’t found anything I couldn’t make between the two! Biscuits and cornbread on the grill, cakes etc in the pot. And a cast iron griddle on the grill for eggs etc.
breakfast for dinner has always been my go to from scratch meal in a quick hurry, fried potatoes with scrambled eggs mixed in, topped with a slice of cheese, someone else buttering toast, it's done and good!!!
I watched this yesterday and had a dream last night I opened my oven and it was super tiny 😂 thank you gals this was a great video and I'm glad my oven was normal size when I woke up
I love making sourdough pizza, it is a go to when I don't want to cook. My meal "plan" technique is to make two list on my white board… One of casseroles in the freezer( I cook at least two if I am making it so eat one freeze one) and the other list is of meals I have the ingredients for. Then when I get home I work nights) and the house is off the jobs or school and we are having breakfast I just ask what we want for dinner and with having a list visible of the options makes the decisions easy. Then I take out or mix up what is needed for dinner. I also keep prepped things for them to grab and make their lunches in the fridge.
Couple of tips. If I am chopping celery and onions, I sometimes do bunch and freeze them (in two bags) They freeze really well and I can pull them out for so many things I'm making. I'm sure carrots would work as well, too. Another is to have a "soup bag" in the freezer. Any leftovers get put into that bag and then when I have "enough" I put the frozen lump into the instant pot with some boiling water and make soup. I don't have to season until the end because everything has already been seasoned. You gets lots of depth of flavor. And it really does make the best soup!
I would like to see a podcast with Becky from Acre Homestead….
Freezer prep for me, is making a ton of pizza dough and freezing it in portions; if I'm making a cake, I'll make 4 and freeze 3; if I'm making a Lasagna, I make
a couple and freeze one; when I make pizza sauce, I'll make a couple several litres and freeze them etc so the freezing happens as a matter of course.
Super glad to see you back! Been missing your episodes. Personally, meal planning can be difficult for me because of ADHD. It's so bad that…………………………Sorry, what was I saying? There was a squirrel… LOL! Anyway, I've found that the whiteboard method is the only way I can do it. If I can pay attention long enough to actually make a meal plan, then the whiteboard gives me the structure I need to go a week or two and efficiently use my food stores and not waste as much. Like Lisa said, having that meat thawed out is crucial to successful meal planning. And I just don't end up doing that without the whiteboard. But changing that whiteboard to match what food I have on hand every week is where I drop the ball. I need to find a wife who is organized. She can make the menu and I'll cook it! Anyway, glad to see you back and I'm looking forward to more videos.
Hello, I’m new from Lisa’s channel, can’t wait to watch ur videos.
This was great. Two of my favourite people. Thanks Jill this was awesome
Has anyone ever told you that you look just like Anne Dudek? Love the video.
I'm going to start my comment by saying, No offense intended at all, but how old are you ladies? I'm so freaking impressed to see young ladies compared to my old 50+ self really loving what you do. I cook but not like you ladies and my sons are grown so I'm learning to cook totally from scratch for one with a little leftover. I'm so impressed to see young women talking about these skills, implementing them, homeschooling and just taking charge of the direction their family life takes. Your children will grow up one day and realize how great they had it. Bless you ladies!
Loved this.
I really love cooking lettuce wraps in the instapot.
Thanks. 🥰
Love y'all both! Always so real and so inspiring!
Love the tacos lol!!! YEEEES all the variations 😜…..y'all need to try Indian fry bread for a Mexican stack type taco my kids LOVE IT!!
I too love Jill's cookbook. I make the. Mac n' cheese recipe almost weekly. You both are so great at what you do and such an inspiration to all women.
My problem is that everything tastes the same. My pattern is a protein, starch, veggie and gravy. For example beef stew, cottage pie and beef tips with noodles all tastes the same.
We partially pre-prepare base ingredients, i.e. frozen pre-browned ground beef or complete meals cooked and frozen.
What worked for us was to use the Excel spreadsheet we use for tracking our food storage and just add a tab for menus
Homestead systems are key to making things flow. Making sourdough starter everyday after lunch, brilliant.
I really enjoyed this talk. I learned a lot of things I am not a good menu planner, sometimes I plan two or three nights a week. The rest of the week I just wing it I don't have as many people as Lisa but everybody always seems to come up with that's not what I'm hungry for and sometimes not only them me too. I don't like it nearly as well but I do keep some Frozen cooked ground beef in the freezer as a meal starter. Has got me out of trouble a few times just a few minutes it saves and it takes no time to cook more and usually I add onions to it because I seem to add onions too most everything I cook. Had not been subscribed to Lisa will go over and do that right away.
Thanks Jill.
My mayo keeps about 2 weeks in the fridg
I have really enjoyed watching/listening both podcast! Jill, I miss you on YouTube, but I understand. You have to do what you enjoy. I don’t comment much at all, but this has been awesome!