ONE STEP AHEAD OF CHAOS

I was looking around and found a lovely woman called JCK over at Motherscribe. She has the kind of busy life I have had for a long time, though now that the twins are in college, I am down to one teen and spoiled husband in the house.

She is looking for ideas about menu planning, shopping, last minute meals, etc. Plus, they are starting to cluck from all the chicken - actually, so are we, so I won't be much help on that one. But I have a penchant for planning and I will enjoy passing on some things have work for me. Not all of them will work for your family, but maybe it will give you your own inspiration.

My first topic is:

SHOPPING THE BIG BULK STORES

I have a second refrigerator in the garage. My husband is a Diet Coke addict and it is always full, so I do not feel guilty about the extra energy use. It has been an essential for me. If you don't have one, you will have to pick and choose some of these tips.

I usually do this trip once a month or so. I go to Costco when it opens - before the samples are out and the crowds clog the aisles.

The frozen hamburger is already in meal sized portions of 5- 1 lb. "chubs". Pop in the freezer. I also buy ground turkey which is in 1 lb packages.

Buy flank steak. It is relatively inexpensive, lean beef. It usually comes in 2-3 per package. The flank steaks should be laid out flat and put in freezer baggies and frozen. They thaw faster flat and take up very little space. You can also open the baggie and pour in a marinade, put in the frig and it will marinate as it thaws. Flank steak BBQ's in about 10 minutes. If you use it for a recipe, it usually needs to be sliced thin, do that when it is not fully thawed, it's much easier. Same with butterflying it.

I buy stew meat in the winter. Divide the package into 1-1.5 lb. baggies for the freezer. If I have time, I trim and cut the meat before I freeze it so that it is really ready to go when it is thawed. I am new to the slow cooker - but I understand that you can put the meat in frozen for stew, etc. So that would be a big time saver. Freeze flat like the flank steak.

Costco used to have bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts that were not individually packages. No more, at least in my location. If you can get those - this is what I do. Let them mostly defrost, pour off as much water as possible. Pour in about 1/2 cup of inexpensive Italian salad dressing (not one with a lot of flavor) and marinate 6 plus hours.

If you can only get the individually packaged ones, I defrost, open each damned little package and the follow the marinading directions above, only using a large dish. Cook all the breasts on the grill , cool and then individually freeze them on a cookie sheet and then bag them up for the freezer. In nice weather, I cook them at dinner and serve them for that meal and freeze the rest.

If it is the dead of winter and your grill is unusable, use a stove top grill or bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. The cooked chicken is good for salads, casseroles, quesadillas, pasta dishes, panini, etc. an way less expensive that buying pre-cooked chicken.

I also buy eggs in the 24 pack. I hard boil 6 or so for lunches, salads and snacks.

The rest of the stuff is up to the individual family tastes. I don't have a ton of pantry space and rarely buy canned goods or super sized boxes of cereal.

Next Monday - Menu planning and grocery shopping.