About Claire: a Closer Look Part 2

My Challenges Creating the Self-Sufficient Kitchen

Eating Out

This is a struggle for me. It conflicts with at home cooking & saving money.

But ohhh man how we love to eat really good food away from home sometimes. What I really love about it is the convenience. Both fast & slower-ish food chains are everywhere now. And I lived in the city with access to any food you could want my entire life. The only exception is my college days where I was literally living in No Man’s Land, North Carolina.

So it’s been somewhat of an adjustment knocking that habit & early on in our marriage I think we overspent on food too frequently. There were many months where the amount spent dining out equaled the grocery budget.

And don’t even get me started on what happens around here in May. #BirthdaySeeaaasonnnn
It’s one long party all month long.

But now I’m trying to leverage my love of being in the kitchen to create food that helps us resist the urge to eat out a little more. It all just hinges on having really great recipes to choose from. I have a very small Rolodex of meals that I know by heart but that I’m building too.

The thing is living in the city close to so many options (& so many of your favorite cultural foods too) spoils you. I became numb in certain areas. There’s been many times I definitely gave in to the “Oh, it’s just $10,” or “It’s just tonight,” way of thinking a time or two before.

Air fried chicken wings with homemade garlic parmesan sauce (my husband’s favorite BWW’s meal) & creamy rice with bell peppers.

In the end, I get around this obstacle by finding, cooking or recreating meals we really love & enjoy eating out. We also try to set aside certain times in the month to eat out & having something to look forward to can curb that desire.

Impulsive Sales Shopping & Poor Planning

Another challenge I often put myself in is finding really great sales on certain food items & then buying in an amount that induces a preservation marathon.

This is how it all starts: Historically, our limiting factor was freezer or refrigerator space. Sometimes I’m also limited by the number of jars or storage space I have too. And I know this but it’s a bad combo when I have the food but not the cold space or jars to process it all at the same time. 

In my defense, my husband often eggs me on. “Pay once, cry once,” he says.
Or he’ll take me to these lovely markets where there’s always a sale on something on our prep list.
Then what am I supposed to do with that? I can’t resist it.

We’ll get 10, 20 maybe 100 pounds of the food knowing good & well I don’t have enough freezer space or refrigerator space to store it all at once. That means I immediately start processing it in batches working through it all.

If it’s a pantry item like rice or potatoes I have more leeway because I don’t need to put it in the cold storage spaces. But the real challenge is when I need those cold spaces.

There have been instances where our standard apartment fridge/freezer combo looks like a meat locker. Fifteen pound bags of beef bones waiting to get into my roaster oven to make bone broth. Previous batches cooling on the counter in a collection of crock pots, my 6 qt kitchen aid bowl & Dutch oven. Our freeze dryer loaded with at least a gallon & my husband laughing at the unrealness of it all as he prepares another 3 trays of bones to roast in the oven.

I’ve done this too many times to admit. Meanwhile my husband just shakes his head. Especially if at some point I tell him I need more jars. “Shenanigans,” he says.

Since our move to our first home in the midwest, I’m no longer limited to the space of a micro kitchen. Things seem to have gotten better! But despite finding a new warehouse style of store, I don’t buy as much on impulse anymore; I wait for the killer deals as opposed to the really good ones. And I’ve started planning my preservation activities more; this helps keep me balanced.

Maintaining Momentum

Finding a way to sustain my momentum with all the things in the kitchen is a challenge at times. That may seem hard to believe but there are times where I just genuinely don’t want to cook or wash dishes again. Or put in that level of effort to preserve more produce that requires you know, 35 minutes prep & then 75 minutes processing.

When this happens, I might skip that day. I’ll put it off until the next day or two days later. And admittedly, sometimes I’ve put things off too far & have lost food doing that. So getting to a point where I know myself was (& is) an ongoing discovery.

I believe if I pinpoint these lulls a little better, I can account for it in my meal planning process or my food preservation planning. Maybe I’ll find that I lose interest once a month or every 6 weeks after a really great run. If I track when those feelings happen then I can combat that better & remain engaged in our self-sufficient kitchen journey.

Working with Littles

Another struggle sometimes is managing my emotions when I’m a little overstimulated by the extra company of my two toddlers in the kitchen. Having them there while I work through things creates an extra layer of complexity.

What am I doing right now? What do I need to do next? Where did my spoon go? Is that the potato peeler? Why are they so quiet?

It can be full for sure so I try to be strategic about where I spend the bulk of my heavy kitchen activity time.

One tactic is working on delicate tasks around nap times or in the evening/weekends when my husband is home to keep them engaged. That is of course, they aren’t all right there in the kitchen with me!

I strongly encourage my family to be in the kitchen with me though when I’m there. But sometimes it’s not the safest place for littles with certain activities going on if I’m alone during the day. I’m not shy about pressure canning with them, but if there are a lot of knives & other sharp things out or time-sensitive activities happening, it’s not happening lemme just say that hello.

My babies are a great help to me in the kitchen & I love that I can share my joy with them through it. But sometimes they don’t listen well enough. And sometimes I’m not quick enough, focused enough or patient enough.

Mindset tho…

All of these challenges, especially those with my small people, refine my overall character. And that’s how I see them.

When strategic plays don’t work, I still have my mindset behaviors to rely on. Mindset truly matters in everything in life, not just the “big” things.

• It’s ok if something doesn’t happen at 2pm that can just as well be done at 7pm.
• Learning that rest is productive just as much as packaging away 3 more bags of dried beans.
• Giving grace.

Being in the kitchen teaches you so much from practical life skills like weighing & measuring to eternal aspects too like gratitude & discipline. It also cultivates patience in me which is something that I lack.

Coming head to head with a challenge is an opportunity to acknowledge what I’m up against. Then use the tools & resources or information that I’ve stored away to do something different than I did last time. I think you can do the same thing.

Being in the kitchen, being more self-sufficient, learning how to really get the most out of life with food is monumental. Every day, every activity & every experience is an opportunity to learn and grow. 

How my food preservation efforts have evolved

My approach to that is still fairly new because I only recently started preserving food at home. And by that I mean, taking whole unprocessed food as is & preserving it through some sort of change. So taking milk, making yogurt. Taking vegetables, canning them. Adding beans to a mylar bag & storing it.

Before I started doing all of this in 2020/2021 I was stocking up on food in the grocery store. WHICH, btw is a form of food preservation too if you’re doing it correctly!

Yes, that’s right.

Long-term or extended pantry storage is a form of food preservation. I just didn’t realize at the time I was doing it on a small level for probably four or five years before I actually did anything else. 

The way I see food preservation now is,

Related Post: Beginner’s Ultimate Guide to Preserving Food at Home This Year

It’s not just a “Oh this is nice to do,” or “I love collecting jars”.
No.
This is “if I don’t preserve food we may not eat next year.”

That’s the mindset I have but thankfully it’s not our reality. Partly because we have made great strides in managing our resources (money, food, space, etc.) over the years & started preserving food at home even as beginners. But that’s also because we still do use grocery stores, bulk stores, farmers markets, local farms, etc. when we need them.

We’re not totally self-sufficient. We don’t even grow much of our own at this point although that’s in the works. That’s another reason why food preservation is a must. We can’t continue to be as dependent on any one outlet or any one source of food; that’s extremely risky. 

So, I’ve gotten more serious about preserving food at home & took the initiative to read about a lot of different methods. Learn them, study them & when possible I even get to try them.

My husband is always scouting for new pieces of equipment to add to our kitchen collection & it’s always fun to see what we find when we go to our favorite thrift stores. I have a kitchen wish list like I’m sure many of you do but nothing is a necessity at this point. And since we have the ability to preserve food in several ways already, that’s a great start.

Here’s what this could mean for you…

You don’t need to preserve food by every single method under the sun because no one’s giving out badges hello. You can preserve food in only one way & that’s great.

As your skills & resources grow, I recommend preserving food in as many different ways as you can because there are pros and cons to every preservation method. And food storage diversity increases your self-reliance too. 

But at the root of all this, what you really need to be focusing on isn’t the how so much as the when. Don’t focus on how you’ll preserve 10 extra pounds of carrots. Focus on when you’ll do that.

I actually created a food preservation workbook to help you really think through the finer details like this too. Because no one told me these things; it’s what I didn’t pick up on until I began preserving my own food at home! So I’ll leave it here. 

Overall, my journey with food preservation & cooking from scratch is one that’s still on the upward climb. On a graph you’d see that I started at baseline/zero but now I’m in the growth phase – the part that’s trending upwards. Eventually I’ll get to a point where the growth isn’t so exponential but I’m committed to forever learning & definitely doing the thing for sure. 

The Role of Kitchen Organization

This area might be one of my weakest points in the kitchen. Yet, I’m improving by just trying things, looking around to get inspired by others and just executing. If it works then great! But if it doesn’t I try something different.

I know that being organized in the kitchen is one of the first dominos in a lot of other processes but sometimes things get a little chaotic in the back of my pantry. Certainly in my baking cabinet.

I’m also working on it though by sticking to organization tools that I really like to see. Because I’ll keep it neater if I see it versus hiding it behind a door or basket.

Right now kitchen organization isn’t my main focus though, I’ll just be real. It’s not as high a priority for me as learning to cook extremely comforting & nourishing meals we love & that will keep us from eating out. And it’s not as big a focus as preserving food to extend our food security blanket.

Although being organized in the kitchen is important, it’s the one that most often gets punted to the back burner these days. Some months I’m killing it! And then sometimes, I’m lagging but I’m always keeping an eye out for some tidbit that would help me streamline the process.

Well, that’s it for now. I have more to share about my successes & failures here in the kitchen. But for now, if any of this hits you too, just know that you can be self-sufficient too!

You’ve got this, lovely.