You can "vacuum seal" your meat for super cheap with this handy tip: Place your meat (or whatever) in your ziplock bag. Do not seal the bag. Place bag in a pot of water to the very top. (Note: to not let water in the bag) Seal the bag while it is in the water. Done. The water pushes the air out of the bag for you. No need to suck in weird meat juices. 🤗
You really motivated me and my husband to pay off all of our debt. As of August 1st we have not eaten anything that we have't made ourselves, we haven't bought anything that wasn't essential and set a budget of $75 per week of groceries. It was hard at first but then when we saw how much money we saved it really felt amazing. Its the end of the first month and we have about 1k to put towards our 26k of debt which seems almost unbelievable. Thank you guys so much!
My FAVORITE all-purpose clearer is: 1.5 c water, .5 c rubbing alcohol, 1 tsp dish soap and 10-20 drops essential oils (optional). Put in a spray bottle (glass preferably, esp with essential oils), shake and use! It's amazing and even makes glass and windows streak free!
I grew up "SHELF COOKING" it was what most poor people did, and I still do it. I never thought of it as a new concept. But I am glad people are seeing it as more than just for the poor folks like us. My mom did a Left over night, a fend for your self night and 5 days a week we cooked for the family. My mom would set out everything that was left over from the fridge and put it on the table like a buffet. We served our selves if we were old enough. And on fend for yourself nights we could choose something we wanted to eat. Be it a bowl of cereal or eggs or left overs, it was our choice and we had to make it. We made every bit stretch by adding extra vegies, gravy, sauce, pasta or what not. We teach our children this method, but then again they don't know any different. I am glad that you are trying to get people into the groove of this type of life style. Hope it goes well.
My mom did the same thing. And we still do it. Not that we have to. But we do it to not be wasteful. Is a positive thing to teach kids, to bring into their adult life.
Thanks for all the tips. I just spent $150 for my family of 5 for the whole month and I have a $10-30 goal for milk/diapers/etc per week. Wish me luck this is my first time doing a full month. -Love from TX 😍 and thanks for donating. We we're fortunate enough to avoid the flooding for the most part.
I honestly can't even imagine having a husband who was on the same financial page as myself. You guys make such a great team. You are so lucky Jordan.🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Don’t give up on him or finances keep going and keep at it. My husband wasn’t on board at first either and it’s still a struggle but a lot better than where we were! God Bless
Thank you for the awesome video. TO GET OUT ALL THE AIR out of your freezer ziplocks you simply fill a bowl with water and dip your bag in there. The water will drive out the air and now you close the bag, pull it out of the water and voila: (nearly) vacuum sealed goods without any machine :)
I am so thrilled to have joined the challenge- I am also a subscriber of " Frugal Family Food", "Big Family Homestead" , " Freakin' Frugal" and have given you a shout-out on all those channels, fb pages & other channels - I am a middle aged woman, single, no family to depend on, and have gained so much great information from your channel- right now I am in school & in between jobs with $10.00 to my name ( seriously) but I know God has my back, and has supplied me with warm, intelligent, wonderful people such as the two of you to learn from- so I am not panicking- thanks to my pantry, refrigerator, freezer, and the local food bank I am well fed , working on being responsible with my choices, and using my resources respectfully. Thanks for your willing spirits to teach - keep doing it - hugs
I’m a little late but I’m from Texas and the Mormon church did so much for South East Texas during and after Harvey! I know your money went to some amazing things!
I appreciate your positives!! Positive changes with tangible options. We found a freezer chest that someone was getting rid of and put it in the garage (find neighborhood sales or big trash pickup days)- life changing! I remove air for freezer items by filling a side of the sink with water and lower the bag into the water until near the top and then seal it up. Slow and steady but knocks out all that extra air out.
Hey Jordan, the reason they say not to put potatoes in the fridge is because it changes the starch and makes them sweet. So if you like that flavour, go for it. Also, of course it's ok to keep potatoes for months! People forget that they can only be grown in summer, so the warehouses are storing them all year! Obviously, they have the perfect conditions for storing, but still!
Thanks!! I cut potatoes in small cubes and froze them, they didn't change the color. I used them for salad, soup, stew. I'm not sure how mashed potato will taste
Vegan/mostly plant-based mama here that can vouch for this method and it works. I also live in California 1 income and I have a 6 y/o. Thanks, Jordan and Bubba
My husband thinks he needs meat and potatoes with every meal. I was so sick of peeling boiling and mashing every night. I take one day every two weeks or so and make a large batch of mashed potatoes. I buy the foil pans from Dollar Tree and portion them out. My family thinks we are crazy to freeze our potatoes but it saves so much time.
We have cut back in our household on groceries by doing meatless dishes & having rice, potatoes, pasta, frozen veggies, soups, grilled cheese, oats etc... Thanks for the wonderful channel
Jordan, I want to personally thank you for having such a big heart. I am from Houston and have been extremely blessed to make it through Harvey with little to no damage.. but this is not the case for a big part of our city. It truly is devastating, but also empowering to see so many people band together and help one another. Thank you again!!
That mystery box challenge should be on Masterchef if it hasn't already, go into Coles and pick a random customer to use their pantry, or an ex contestants pantry and do a mystery box from it... like what Curtis stone did on some of the Coles promos.
As a Texan 400 miles away from the devastation, watching my friends and neighbors suffer and struggle I think that what you're doing is incredible and so thoughtful. We're all doing everything we can to help and to see people all over the US band together to help them recover, is just so heartwarming to see.
Jordan, u look amazing in this colour yellow!! Thanks as always you guys are so super helpful! I have cut my family's spending (3people) so much and our groceries are down to less than $100 (Aus dollars... about $80US) a week and I'm feeling so achieved and wonderful! Thank you!!
I just love how genuine you guys are. I grew up watching my Dad cook this way and thankfully it made an impact on how I run my household. Thanks you guys!!!
I am learning !I am learning !so much from your videos so is my daughter! we talk back and forth on the phone each day about what we saw !thank you and your husband and God bless you both ❤️🙏
I just saw this today. We are just getting back into an apartment (may 2018) of our own after losing our house in Harvey. Thanks for you kind heart regarding Harvey survivors. Living 30 miles from the coast, you never imagine a boat rescue from your front porch! The weather was horrid, but the people were awesome and continue to be. ,I'm taking your advice on food budget, but since we need to build reserves, I'm budgeting $5 extra weekly for stocking up. $55 a week for 2 weeks doable! Thanks for the nudge. Living with relatives, we were eating out, not cooking much and avoiding making a mess in someone else's space. I can't wait for my own kitchen again!! Our apartment even has a tiny pantry so no excuse! Plus we have nothing much in way of kitchen supplies, so it's all good! I'm excited to finally start over.
"you gotta eat leftovers that's part of being alive!!!" HAHAHAHA I LOVE IT!!! I'm going to tell my husband that the next time he says "I always forget about leftovers blah blah blaaaaaah"
My husband and I are empty nesters and retired. We like to cook. Cooking is a outlet for me. It's also one of my love languages. We have started buying reuseable restaurant containers from Sams or Amazon. We put our left overs in them. If we haven't eaten them in 2 or 3 days we label it and put it in the freezer. Don't freeze something you didn't really enjoy eating the first night. Just toss it. And dont make that again! Haha! It is nice to have good food in the freezer. Much better than buying frozen dinner! AND the electric pressure cooker is my best friend!
I've found since i stopped using the microwave everything taste SO much better... I'm excited to do this challenge! I was gong to kind of have this in the works since 3 weeks of Sept are crazy so this is prefect timing! We've been doing the envelope method now for 2 months and outta amazing thanks so much! This was the help we needed
And one more comment: if you donate to any Feeding America food bank (there's one in Houston) they can buy $5-10 worth of food for every $1 that's donated! I'm a big believer in donating cash to food pantries. Thanks so much for donating to Hurricane Harvey relief.
We just have a small fridge freezer but I have been doing your evenlope budget and shopping my kitchen/pantry closet for almost 2 1/2 months and I'm loving it. We're saving from our budget plan for a used freezer. :) thanks for the inspiration!!
Love all your videos! As far as getting the air out of a zip lock bag the best way I've found is to submerge the bag with the food you want frozen in it into a sink/bowl of water and seal it as the air comes out. It gets almost all the air out and I found it 2nd best to vacuum packing.
We cleaned out our pantry, collected everything past its best by date, and put it on a handy box. We're trying to use it up first-- ast least one item per meal. Almost all has still been good. This has been a tremendous money saver!
For left overs, one thing my husband and I do is we take all kinds of leftovers, preferably; some meat (bite size pieces), some veggies, and some kind of filler (rice, beans, potatoes, noodles, etc.) add some cheese, spices if desired, and mix it into a bowl. Take this, and scoop it up into a tortilla, wrap that into tin foil, freeze it. When you get enough, toss 'em in the oven and bake (350 for 20-40 min depending on your oven), burritos!!! You can also nuke them, but I prefer to bake them. We call 'em mystery burritos, cuz you never know what exactly is in them by the time you eat them. This is surprisingly versatile. Orange chicken left overs with the left over rice, and cheese is amazingly good. We have taken the bits left off a roast, mixed in left over beans from the Mexican dinner from a few nights ago with that left over fried rice from lunch, made only one or two burritos, still works. The beauty of it is, even if you only have enough left overs for one burrito, you get enough of them, they build up. I also keep around cans of beans (black, refried, etc.) just for the purpose of having filler, if I don't have enough in the fridge, but have enough meat to make many burritos (i.e. a roast).
I'm with Jordan, I can't recommend investing in a freezer & a vacuum sealer enough. Game changers! Also, I grew up on a farm & was always taught that unless something was obviously bad, it was perfectly good to eat (assuming it was stored properly). A lot of store/brand guidelines are based on profit, not consumer health. Remember, people were storing food safely before fridge/freezers. 😀
I love you two and I am head over heels jealous of the energy between the both of you!! 😂 My husband and I also have 5 kids.....I wish I had half the energy of just one of you!!! ❤️
Love you guys! Husband And I are on board too. Thank you for thinking of Texas. Our area was spared but just 20/30 minutes from is a disaster. My husband and I went out with our church of Christ disaster relief team and handed out supplies. Truly heartbreaking. People's lives out on the curb. Thank you for helping. Now Florida needs us too 💗💗💗💗
This may be common sense for some to use what you have first but for a young SAHM figuring it all out this has revolutionized how I grocery shop and cut my grocery bill significantly! Thank you for this tip!
I try to shelf cook at least 1 week/month. I spend close to or just under $400/month, glad to know i am on target! We clean with vinegar dawn and water. I make my own laundry detergent for aboit $20 bucks and it usually lasts a full year! My hubby loves leftovers! He puts them in a litle oven dealy at work and has is whole shop jealous! Lol! The kids and i eat leftovers for lunch too. I wrap everything in a tortilla and add ranch! They will eat it! Love this challenge!
Oh my goodness so this is amazing! I started watching these videos recently and just the other day I just decided to jump on the band wagon, drink the koolaid and just try not going to the grocery store this week. At first I was panicking because it had been a week and it was my grocery day and I wasn’t going to the store and I was panicking that we weren’t going to have enough food. Which was extra hard because my husband is very simple and as long as he has a lot of food and food with lots of meat in it then he’s happy. So I was really nervous that I wouldn’t have enough or my kids wouldn’t have enough food for snacks or their lunches. It’s only been like 2 days but already I have to start watching your productivity videos because I’m finding so many things to cook or bake with things that I otherwise would’ve thrown out, that the clock is chasing me as I scramble to make it all. Amazing! Thank you so much! P.S I made my kids a block schedule and am starting chore sticks. Wish me luck 🤞🙏
Ever since learning about shelf cooking I've continually tried using it and it totally helps with keeping to a budget and using things you already have. I love it!
Momma loves to Budget try different types of peanut butter!!! My 4 year old HATES peanut butter UNLESS it’s fresh honey roasted peanut butter!!! If they like peanuts at all... try a few!!!
first off let me just say thank you so much for thinking of Texas, my family and I love in Houston and its been completely devastating. We were not affected in our home but all of our friends and family have lost everything! Its amazing how the community/country has come together to help. Also I know there is a app or site where you can type what you have left in your pantry/freezer and it gives you meal ideas with recipes.... very convenient when you really don't have much and no inspiration!!! can't wait for STOCKTOBER!!!!!
Its amazing how well the community has come together , I've never seen anything like it!! Then Wednesday the clouds opened up and it was the prettiest day, cool and breezy like fall!
I'm so glad Houston is recovering so fast! I am still unable to get back home. All the roads are closed to my area. My husband is in the military and is flying back today so I'm so grateful that the airports opened up! The pictures of the planes were unbelievable. I'm so glad your home is okay. We are the fortunate ones.
We are blessed, my husband hauls potatoes and we get potatoes when ever we want them, no charge and they store the potatoes in a cellar that keeps them colder, so putting them in the fridge actually keeps them fresher longer.
My parents used to host leftovers "parties" for us as kids. they would hype it up big time, we were allowed to invite 1 "friend" (doll or stuffed animal) and we would eat the weeks leftovers! my mom would usually decorate the dining room with old birthday décor and sometimes she would put a birthday candle in our food and let us blow it out lol I still remember it fondly.
Smorgasborg Sunday when ny kids were little. It was fun. The fridge cleanup helped me a lot. I live alone now and want to do that for myself. It would give me a good day of rest and I'd get to taste good cooking again. I'm pretty good as a cook.
So literally as I was watching this video I paused it so I could go out to my freezer and get stuff out to thaw for dinner tonight. Opened up my freezer, and the light didn't come on. Dead freezer! 😥 lucky everything was still frozen and I didn't have a ton of stuff so I could move most of it to my indoor top freezer. I hope it isn't something serious because we just got that freezer like 3 years ago. I will not be happy. But I will still be trying out shelf cooking this month. Maybe I will need that extra money for a new freezer. I hope not though! I love your videos! You are so inspirational!
I'm so excited!!!! I'm a bit of a health nut. Not organic crazy or anything, but it's hard for me to say "hmmm, I only have beans and rice. I'll eat that" I feel like I gotta have the full balance, so I let a lot of things just sit in my pantry. This month I'm gonna do it! I'm pumped!
Love baba's philosophy about leftovers, my mom did a really good job as well in letting me know about starvation and that i was lucky... so i have no problem with leftover, but i do have a problem with people not eating leftovers. Love u guys 😉
You guys are adorable!!! I grew up in the countryside where we would keep the potatoes for months because no waste mentality and they keep very well in a dry and dark pantry. To me this is normal, not disgusting.
I just wanted to tell you how to store potatoes for MONTHS (even a full year!) We use sawdust! You get a big container (seriously any will do - we use a cardboard box!) put the dust in spread around the potatoes and they last sooooo long. We used to order huge Idaho baking potatoes as a fundraiser from Hillcrest high. Then head over to home Depot, Lowe's, or any place they cut wood and they had bags of saw dust you can get for free. But most root veggies will store like this for a LONG time. Carrots, onions. Etc. Make sure the saw dust is pure wood no synthetics. We just keep them in a cool-ish place that is dry. As much as you can don't let the potatoes touch. Two of the big potatoes would make enough mashed potatoes for my family of 4. This is all just for your info! Thanks for the great video. Challenge accepted! (Even though I am late to the party! Lol)
Thanks! I ave now started planning meals and cooking from the items in my pantry in fridge, and supplementing from the grocery store, instead of the other way around, and it makes so much sense!
Cool, dry, and dark are the cardinal rules for food storage. Refrigerators are modern root cellars. More controlled environment. Cold closets can store food, unless you live in a really humid climate. Then the rules are different. But you can store potatoes, onions, and apples this way. However there are better varieties that store longer than others. Good luck!!! #shelftember and #stocktober here we come!
If you scoop out baked potatoes, takes that mashed insides and mix with seasoning and canned salmon. Fry in a pan like a fritter. They make great Salmon cakes binder and saves you on eggs.
I make a huge batch of mashed potatoes and freeze in family size portions. Just pull one out when making dinner and microwave it. Awesome weekday time saver.
I love this so much!!! I don't know how much I can really stick to the challenge because 1) I just moved and don't have much of a stash; 2) my doc put me on a new (vegan) diet and 3) I JUST bought an old ammunition cabinet at the thrift store and I'm trying to build my can goods storage in it hahaha. BUT I am totally going to try to participate as much as I can. I do have a lot of dried beans that I can get creative with :)
Loved this video. I always feel like I’m constantly grocery shopping but now I look for things that I have in my pantry and fridge or freezer to cook something up! It’s saved us a lot of money on our grocery spending!
I have a small oven and it has only one shelf that I fill with potatoes and use a can in the middle to make another shelf and fill it with white potatoes or even sweet potatoes, when done I will eat and store the rest in refrigerator. I learned the best way to make the best hash browns is to use already baked potatoes & they are so quick, easy to grate & cook best as hash browns. Cold potatoes also become doggie treats, they love it.
Yes, my Instant Pot. 45 min on meat setting will make my chicken breasts pull apart tender. Then whipped up some white rice. Bam - lunch/dinner is done. Love this video. Yes, one day chicken and rice. Next day Chicken Quesadilla. Next day Chicken salad. You got it!
We are vegan and I think this is brilliant! $10/week would buy 20 pounds of potatoes and a few sweet potatoes and that should do the trick. You are so inspirational 👏🏻
what do you mean by this? vegan staples are some of the cheapest foods on the planet: rice, beans, chickpeas, lentils, potatoes. Makes budgeting incredibly simple!
Am from dallas and right now I can tell we are running out of gas here several gas stations around me are out and you'll be lucky to find a gas station with gas and it's packed thanks for mentioning Texas hope everything can go back to normal.
I love this... it is the way I was raised and the way we do things. However, the 100 per person per month doesn’t work with food construction or special diets. I am celiac so my entire pantry is gluten free. Our food budget is about double of what a “normal” person uses. All that said, my pantry system saves me so much money.
Potatoes are kept in cool rooms when they are harvested sometimes and also when kept for seeding. Fridge potatoes would be perfectly fine. Worked on a potato farm for just over a year.
Girlllll... I just placed an order for the microwaveable/ freezer-safe/ dishwasher-safe food containers you and Bubba use!! Hoping to use those along with some of my OWN shelf cooking!!
Morning from Portugal. What I usually do after meals, if I had cooked plain rice or pasta, chicken or meat instead of reheating in the microwave I would use a pan on the stove to add veggies and extra herbs to change the flavor of the meal. My family loves it
I love "planned leftovers." We'll have quesadillas one day so that a couple days later we can have fajita quesadillas for lunch or a quick dinner. Leftover meatballs and sauce from spaghetti becomes meatball sliders, or the meatballs with get broken up into crumbles and put on a homemade pizza. Leftover potatoes turn into potato pancakes. When I meal plan I specifically plan having leftover items so we can reuse in a new and different way.
It's ironic that during Hurricane Harvey in Houston we ended up shelf cooking since the stores were empty and it wasn't safe to go anywhere. We had plenty of food for the week of and had a plan in case the power went out. We were lucky enough to not have any flooding or issues at our house though.
My mom's leftover repurposes are still legendary. Leftover pot roast becomes barbeque beef sandwiches the next day. Leftover steak becomes quesadillas. Leftover chicken becomes breaded chicken strips or chicken nuggets for lunch. I still do some of these things as an adult. Take some pages out of your mom's book!
Thank you for motivating me to go through my 3 freezers in the garage and do inventory!!! How awesome of you to donate your money to Texas!!! I will try to do the same....What sweet hearts you have....
My mom froze strawberries and green beans. We couldn't eat them until snow fell. (In northern NYS). She also bought apples and potatoes in bulk and kept them in our unfinished basement. Kathy B.
Love all the advice! Validates a lot of what we do in our home already, but great tips on freezing spinach. I buy Costco spinach all the time and desperately try to eat it all and never finish the bag, close but never finish it.
+Kayti Thompson. LOVE the spelling of your name! yes, spinach gets watery when frozen. DIdn't know you could freeze it with paper towels and it absorbs. I don't buy paper towels though as they are terrible for the environment so I will have to research other ideas.
Aww thanks Cami! Yeah, paper towels are used sparingly in our house but that's wonderful you are so environmentally conscious. I hope you find what you are looking for with the paper towel replacement for the spinach freezing. 😊
Spinach spoils so fast because of how old it is in the store already. If you grow your own, it will stay fresh for a much longer time in the fridge. Super easy to grow.
You can "vacuum seal" your meat for super cheap with this handy tip:
Place your meat (or whatever) in your ziplock bag.
Do not seal the bag.
Place bag in a pot of water to the very top. (Note: to not let water in the bag)
Seal the bag while it is in the water.
Done.
The water pushes the air out of the bag for you. No need to suck in weird meat juices. 🤗
Lol. I just added this tip too.
You really motivated me and my husband to pay off all of our debt. As of August 1st we have not eaten anything that we have't made ourselves, we haven't bought anything that wasn't essential and set a budget of $75 per week of groceries. It was hard at first but then when we saw how much money we saved it really felt amazing. Its the end of the first month and we have about 1k to put towards our 26k of debt which seems almost unbelievable. Thank you guys so much!
Gabriela Droz Velasquez that's awesome! Keep it up 😊 this has inspired me to keep on track too!
Gabriela Droz Velasquez great job!!!
My FAVORITE all-purpose clearer is: 1.5 c water, .5 c rubbing alcohol, 1 tsp dish soap and 10-20 drops essential oils (optional). Put in a spray bottle (glass preferably, esp with essential oils), shake and use! It's amazing and even makes glass and windows streak free!
I grew up "SHELF COOKING" it was what most poor people did, and I still do it. I never thought of it as a new concept. But I am glad people are seeing it as more than just for the poor folks like us. My mom did a Left over night, a fend for your self night and 5 days a week we cooked for the family. My mom would set out everything that was left over from the fridge and put it on the table like a buffet. We served our selves if we were old enough. And on fend for yourself nights we could choose something we wanted to eat. Be it a bowl of cereal or eggs or left overs, it was our choice and we had to make it. We made every bit stretch by adding extra vegies, gravy, sauce, pasta or what not. We teach our children this method, but then again they don't know any different. I am glad that you are trying to get people into the groove of this type of life style. Hope it goes well.
Rebekah C LOVE this
My mom did the same thing. And we still do it. Not that we have to. But we do it to not be wasteful. Is a positive thing to teach kids, to bring into their adult life.
I do this!!!! My kids actually love it
Thanks for all the tips. I just spent $150 for my family of 5 for the whole month and I have a $10-30 goal for milk/diapers/etc per week. Wish me luck this is my first time doing a full month.
-Love from TX 😍 and thanks for donating. We we're fortunate enough to avoid the flooding for the most part.
I honestly can't even imagine having a husband who was on the same financial page as myself. You guys make such a great team. You are so lucky Jordan.🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Don’t give up on him or finances keep going and keep at it. My husband wasn’t on board at first either and it’s still a struggle but a lot better than where we were! God Bless
Thank you for the awesome video. TO GET OUT ALL THE AIR out of your freezer ziplocks you simply fill a bowl with water and dip your bag in there. The water will drive out the air and now you close the bag, pull it out of the water and voila: (nearly) vacuum sealed goods without any machine :)
Tiziana Braun Brilliant!
Great idea
Fridge is full, large chest freezer in garage is about 1/3-1/2 full..no reason I cannot accept this challenge!! Let's go!!
I am so thrilled to have joined the challenge- I am also a subscriber of " Frugal Family Food", "Big Family Homestead" , " Freakin' Frugal" and have given you a shout-out on all those channels, fb pages & other channels - I am a middle aged woman, single, no family to depend on, and have gained so much great information from your channel- right now I am in school & in between jobs with $10.00 to my name ( seriously) but I know God has my back, and has supplied me with warm, intelligent, wonderful people such as the two of you to learn from- so I am not panicking- thanks to my pantry, refrigerator, freezer, and the local food bank I am well fed , working on being responsible with my choices, and using my resources respectfully.
Thanks for your willing spirits to teach - keep doing it - hugs
I’m a little late but I’m from Texas and the Mormon church did so much for South East Texas during and after Harvey! I know your money went to some amazing things!
I appreciate your positives!! Positive changes with tangible options. We found a freezer chest that someone was getting rid of and put it in the garage (find neighborhood sales or big trash pickup days)- life changing! I remove air for freezer items by filling a side of the sink with water and lower the bag into the water until near the top and then seal it up. Slow and steady but knocks out all that extra air out.
Hey Jordan, the reason they say not to put potatoes in the fridge is because it changes the starch and makes them sweet. So if you like that flavour, go for it. Also, of course it's ok to keep potatoes for months! People forget that they can only be grown in summer, so the warehouses are storing them all year! Obviously, they have the perfect conditions for storing, but still!
Most leftovers taste best reheated the same way they were prepared, or in a cast iron skillet!
Thanks!! I cut potatoes in small cubes and froze them, they didn't change the color. I used them for salad, soup, stew. I'm not sure how mashed potato will taste
EmeryShae really eow
Jordan is seriously my life goal.
Vegan/mostly plant-based mama here that can vouch for this method and it works. I also live in California 1 income and I have a 6 y/o. Thanks, Jordan and Bubba
My husband thinks he needs meat and potatoes with every meal. I was so sick of peeling boiling and mashing every night. I take one day every two weeks or so and make a large batch of mashed potatoes. I buy the foil pans from Dollar Tree and portion them out. My family thinks we are crazy to freeze our potatoes but it saves so much time.
Stephanie Wilbanks I need to do this! Love it
Do you heat them in the oven or? I love this idea
We have cut back in our household on groceries by doing meatless dishes & having rice, potatoes, pasta, frozen veggies, soups, grilled cheese, oats etc... Thanks for the wonderful channel
Precious Lindsey-stroud honestly, meatless meals are not only good for your budget...but also for the animals! 😊
and the Planet!
Jordan, I want to personally thank you for having such a big heart. I am from Houston and have been extremely blessed to make it through Harvey with little to no damage.. but this is not the case for a big part of our city. It truly is devastating, but also empowering to see so many people band together and help one another. Thank you again!!
Right before the new paycheck comes in when there's like $10 in my account I look into my pantry and consider it a "mystery box challenge" dinner :)
Kangaruss sorted food style? 😂
Kangaruss I always called it the "The end of the week special " lol.
SIMPLE FOOD SIMPLE LIFE "Mom-aged" Special!!!!!
That mystery box challenge should be on Masterchef if it hasn't already, go into Coles and pick a random customer to use their pantry, or an ex contestants pantry and do a mystery box from it... like what Curtis stone did on some of the Coles promos.
Haha I love this. Its mystery box night for dinner lol
As a Texan 400 miles away from the devastation, watching my friends and neighbors suffer and struggle I think that what you're doing is incredible and so thoughtful. We're all doing everything we can to help and to see people all over the US band together to help them recover, is just so heartwarming to see.
Jordan, u look amazing in this colour yellow!! Thanks as always you guys are so super helpful! I have cut my family's spending (3people) so much and our groceries are down to less than $100 (Aus dollars... about $80US) a week and I'm feeling so achieved and wonderful! Thank you!!
I just love how genuine you guys are. I grew up watching my Dad cook this way and thankfully it made an impact on how I run my household. Thanks you guys!!!
So far I have only spent 90 cents since Friday!! THANK YOU, Jordan!
I am learning !I am learning !so much from your videos so is my daughter! we talk back and forth on the phone each day about what we saw !thank you and your husband and God bless you both ❤️🙏
I just saw this today. We are just getting back into an apartment (may 2018) of our own after losing our house in Harvey. Thanks for you kind heart regarding Harvey survivors. Living 30 miles from the coast, you never imagine a boat rescue from your front porch! The weather was horrid, but the people were awesome and continue to be. ,I'm taking your advice on food budget, but since we need to build reserves, I'm budgeting $5 extra weekly for stocking up. $55 a week for 2 weeks doable! Thanks for the nudge. Living with relatives, we were eating out, not cooking much and avoiding making a mess in someone else's space. I can't wait for my own kitchen again!! Our apartment even has a tiny pantry so no excuse! Plus we have nothing much in way of kitchen supplies, so it's all good! I'm excited to finally start over.
we did this last month because we were so behind on bills.. it is unreal the amount of money you save.
"you gotta eat leftovers that's part of being alive!!!" HAHAHAHA I LOVE IT!!! I'm going to tell my husband that the next time he says "I always forget about leftovers blah blah blaaaaaah"
My husband and I are empty nesters and retired. We like to cook. Cooking is a outlet for me. It's also one of my love languages. We have started buying reuseable restaurant containers from Sams or Amazon. We put our left overs in them. If we haven't eaten them in 2 or 3 days we label it and put it in the freezer. Don't freeze something you didn't really enjoy eating the first night. Just toss it. And dont make that again! Haha! It is nice to have good food in the freezer. Much better than buying frozen dinner! AND the electric pressure cooker is my best friend!
I've found since i stopped using the microwave everything taste SO much better... I'm excited to do this challenge! I was gong to kind of have this in the works since 3 weeks of Sept are crazy so this is prefect timing! We've been doing the envelope method now for 2 months and outta amazing thanks so much! This was the help we needed
If your leftovers are solid enough to wrap, plop em in a tortilla! We made Indian curry burritos and they were BOMB!!
Daniella Dipol One of my favorite ways to eat leftovers! I call them Brooklyn Burritos. (My name is Brooklyn)
A great way to use up leftover chilli too.
And one more comment: if you donate to any Feeding America food bank (there's one in Houston) they can buy $5-10 worth of food for every $1 that's donated! I'm a big believer in donating cash to food pantries. Thanks so much for donating to Hurricane Harvey relief.
We just have a small fridge freezer but I have been doing your evenlope budget and shopping my kitchen/pantry closet for almost 2 1/2 months and I'm loving it. We're saving from our budget plan for a used freezer. :) thanks for the inspiration!!
Love all your videos! As far as getting the air out of a zip lock bag the best way I've found is to submerge the bag with the food you want frozen in it into a sink/bowl of water and seal it as the air comes out. It gets almost all the air out and I found it 2nd best to vacuum packing.
I freeze mashed potatoes all the time! Make a huge batch and gallon freezer bag them. Total time saver too!
We cleaned out our pantry, collected everything past its best by date, and put it on a handy box. We're trying to use it up first-- ast least one item per meal. Almost all has still been good. This has been a tremendous money saver!
For left overs, one thing my husband and I do is we take all kinds of leftovers, preferably; some meat (bite size pieces), some veggies, and some kind of filler (rice, beans, potatoes, noodles, etc.) add some cheese, spices if desired, and mix it into a bowl. Take this, and scoop it up into a tortilla, wrap that into tin foil, freeze it. When you get enough, toss 'em in the oven and bake (350 for 20-40 min depending on your oven), burritos!!! You can also nuke them, but I prefer to bake them. We call 'em mystery burritos, cuz you never know what exactly is in them by the time you eat them. This is surprisingly versatile. Orange chicken left overs with the left over rice, and cheese is amazingly good. We have taken the bits left off a roast, mixed in left over beans from the Mexican dinner from a few nights ago with that left over fried rice from lunch, made only one or two burritos, still works. The beauty of it is, even if you only have enough left overs for one burrito, you get enough of them, they build up. I also keep around cans of beans (black, refried, etc.) just for the purpose of having filler, if I don't have enough in the fridge, but have enough meat to make many burritos (i.e. a roast).
Diana Mettlen wow, love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
I'm with Jordan, I can't recommend investing in a freezer & a vacuum sealer enough. Game changers! Also, I grew up on a farm & was always taught that unless something was obviously bad, it was perfectly good to eat (assuming it was stored properly). A lot of store/brand guidelines are based on profit, not consumer health. Remember, people were storing food safely before fridge/freezers. 😀
Bubba cracks me up! I love the leftover section:) My husband swears by the toaster oven he says it makes almost anything better.
I love you two and I am head over heels jealous of the energy between the both of you!! 😂 My husband and I also have 5 kids.....I wish I had half the energy of just one of you!!! ❤️
Love you guys! Husband And I are on board too. Thank you for thinking of Texas. Our area was spared but just 20/30 minutes from is a disaster. My husband and I went out with our church of Christ disaster relief team and handed out supplies. Truly heartbreaking. People's lives out on the curb. Thank you for helping. Now Florida needs us too 💗💗💗💗
Bless you and yours. You guys are so sweet and you truly walk in Gods light.
This may be common sense for some to use what you have first but for a young SAHM figuring it all out this has revolutionized how I grocery shop and cut my grocery bill significantly! Thank you for this tip!
I try to shelf cook at least 1 week/month. I spend close to or just under $400/month, glad to know i am on target! We clean with vinegar dawn and water. I make my own laundry detergent for aboit $20 bucks and it usually lasts a full year! My hubby loves leftovers! He puts them in a litle oven dealy at work and has is whole shop jealous! Lol! The kids and i eat leftovers for lunch too. I wrap everything in a tortilla and add ranch! They will eat it! Love this challenge!
We are moving in 8 weeks and have totally been using your shelf cooking to use up as much food as we can before moving! Awesome!
Oh my goodness so this is amazing!
I started watching these videos recently and just the other day I just decided to jump on the band wagon, drink the koolaid and just try not going to the grocery store this week.
At first I was panicking because it had been a week and it was my grocery day and I wasn’t going to the store and I was panicking that we weren’t going to have enough food. Which was extra hard because my husband is very simple and as long as he has a lot of food and food with lots of meat in it then he’s happy. So I was really nervous that I wouldn’t have enough or my kids wouldn’t have enough food for snacks or their lunches.
It’s only been like 2 days but already I have to start watching your productivity videos because I’m finding so many things to cook or bake with things that I otherwise would’ve thrown out, that the clock is chasing me as I scramble to make it all.
Amazing!
Thank you so much!
P.S I made my kids a block schedule and am starting chore sticks. Wish me luck 🤞🙏
Ever since learning about shelf cooking I've continually tried using it and it totally helps with keeping to a budget and using things you already have. I love it!
I admire you as a Mom, Wife and Woman. Thank you for your work that you do
Makes me wish my kids liked PB&J. Hear how simple it is to freeze and store. Love all your suggestions ❤️
Momma loves to Budget try different types of peanut butter!!! My 4 year old HATES peanut butter UNLESS it’s fresh honey roasted peanut butter!!! If they like peanuts at all... try a few!!!
This has changed my life! I never realized how much money I could have saved by opening my freezer and pantry! Thanks!
first off let me just say thank you so much for thinking of Texas, my family and I love in Houston and its been completely devastating. We were not affected in our home but all of our friends and family have lost everything! Its amazing how the community/country has come together to help. Also I know there is a app or site where you can type what you have left in your pantry/freezer and it gives you meal ideas with recipes.... very convenient when you really don't have much and no inspiration!!! can't wait for STOCKTOBER!!!!!
Ashley Bryant I'm from the same area and in the same boat! My home is okay but all my family lost everything. Wish I could do this!
Its amazing how well the community has come together , I've never seen anything like it!! Then Wednesday the clouds opened up and it was the prettiest day, cool and breezy like fall!
I'm so glad Houston is recovering so fast! I am still unable to get back home. All the roads are closed to my area. My husband is in the military and is flying back today so I'm so grateful that the airports opened up! The pictures of the planes were unbelievable. I'm so glad your home is okay. We are the fortunate ones.
oh that's great! hopefully you guys can make it on the roads somehow !
We are blessed, my husband hauls potatoes and we get potatoes when ever we want them, no charge and they store the potatoes in a cellar that keeps them colder, so putting them in the fridge actually keeps them fresher longer.
The freezer bags at Aldi are amazing.
My parents used to host leftovers "parties" for us as kids. they would hype it up big time, we were allowed to invite 1 "friend" (doll or stuffed animal) and we would eat the weeks leftovers! my mom would usually decorate the dining room with old birthday décor and sometimes she would put a birthday candle in our food and let us blow it out lol I still remember it fondly.
Smorgasborg Sunday when ny kids were little. It was fun. The fridge cleanup helped me a lot. I live alone now and want to do that for myself. It would give me a good day of rest and I'd get to taste good cooking again. I'm pretty good as a cook.
Helpful hint.... We use our steamer to reheat meats.... Works especially well with steak . keeps the meat tender
Smoothie: Spinach, blueberries, bananas, any type of milk, a little sugar -- Amazing! Best way to use up lots of spinach before it goes bad
So literally as I was watching this video I paused it so I could go out to my freezer and get stuff out to thaw for dinner tonight. Opened up my freezer, and the light didn't come on. Dead freezer! 😥 lucky everything was still frozen and I didn't have a ton of stuff so I could move most of it to my indoor top freezer. I hope it isn't something serious because we just got that freezer like 3 years ago. I will not be happy. But I will still be trying out shelf cooking this month. Maybe I will need that extra money for a new freezer. I hope not though! I love your videos! You are so inspirational!
I'm so excited!!!! I'm a bit of a health nut. Not organic crazy or anything, but it's hard for me to say "hmmm, I only have beans and rice. I'll eat that" I feel like I gotta have the full balance, so I let a lot of things just sit in my pantry. This month I'm gonna do it! I'm pumped!
Love baba's philosophy about leftovers, my mom did a really good job as well in letting me know about starvation and that i was lucky... so i have no problem with leftover, but i do have a problem with people not eating leftovers. Love u guys 😉
Yay for #shelftember and #stocktober!!! So fun!!!
You guys are adorable!!! I grew up in the countryside where we would keep the potatoes for months because no waste mentality and they keep very well in a dry and dark pantry. To me this is normal, not disgusting.
I just wanted to tell you how to store potatoes for MONTHS (even a full year!) We use sawdust! You get a big container (seriously any will do - we use a cardboard box!) put the dust in spread around the potatoes and they last sooooo long. We used to order huge Idaho baking potatoes as a fundraiser from Hillcrest high. Then head over to home Depot, Lowe's, or any place they cut wood and they had bags of saw dust you can get for free. But most root veggies will store like this for a LONG time. Carrots, onions. Etc. Make sure the saw dust is pure wood no synthetics. We just keep them in a cool-ish place that is dry. As much as you can don't let the potatoes touch. Two of the big potatoes would make enough mashed potatoes for my family of 4. This is all just for your info!
Thanks for the great video. Challenge accepted! (Even though I am late to the party! Lol)
Thanks! I ave now started planning meals and cooking from the items in my pantry in fridge, and supplementing from the grocery store, instead of the other way around, and it makes so much sense!
Cool, dry, and dark are the cardinal rules for food storage. Refrigerators are modern root cellars. More controlled environment. Cold closets can store food, unless you live in a really humid climate. Then the rules are different. But you can store potatoes, onions, and apples this way. However there are better varieties that store longer than others. Good luck!!! #shelftember and #stocktober here we come!
Omg, rice, beans, lentils, oats, wheat, seeds, nuts also store like this.
Such great ideas!! I wasn’t 100% no store bought stuff all month. But it TOTALLY changed the way I cook and shop.
If you scoop out baked potatoes, takes that mashed insides and mix with seasoning and canned salmon. Fry in a pan like a fritter. They make great Salmon cakes binder and saves you on eggs.
I love cooking large batches and having leftovers. I have food intolerances so it important that I'm not left with sandwiches at lunch time
Lindsay Taylor, I agree. There’s nothing better than a hearty lunch or quick convenient dinner of leftovers right from the freezer.
I just over the last couple of months started refrigerating my potatoes, and if anything they seem fresher, and have a much longer shelf life!❤
I make a huge batch of mashed potatoes and freeze in family size portions. Just pull one out when making dinner and microwave it. Awesome weekday time saver.
I love this so much!!! I don't know how much I can really stick to the challenge because 1) I just moved and don't have much of a stash; 2) my doc put me on a new (vegan) diet and 3) I JUST bought an old ammunition cabinet at the thrift store and I'm trying to build my can goods storage in it hahaha. BUT I am totally going to try to participate as much as I can. I do have a lot of dried beans that I can get creative with :)
Twice baked potatoes...I just fell in love
Loved this video. I always feel like I’m constantly grocery shopping but now I look for things that I have in my pantry and fridge or freezer to cook something up! It’s saved us a lot of money on our grocery spending!
I have a small oven and it has only one shelf that I fill with potatoes and use a can in the middle to make another shelf and fill it with white potatoes or even sweet potatoes, when done I will eat and store the rest in refrigerator. I learned the best way to make the best hash browns is to use already baked potatoes & they are so quick, easy to grate & cook best as hash browns. Cold potatoes also become doggie treats, they love it.
Yes, my Instant Pot. 45 min on meat setting will make my chicken breasts pull apart tender. Then whipped up some white rice. Bam - lunch/dinner is done. Love this video.
Yes, one day chicken and rice. Next day Chicken Quesadilla. Next day Chicken salad. You got it!
$25 a week is exactly how much my grocery budget is. I have been able to do this for the last 2 years. I love my stockpile 😊
We are vegan and I think this is brilliant! $10/week would buy 20 pounds of potatoes and a few sweet potatoes and that should do the trick. You are so inspirational 👏🏻
Erin Gigi Me, too!
Me 3
As a Vegan I see noway this could ever work? More power to you ladies tho
what do you mean by this? vegan staples are some of the cheapest foods on the planet: rice, beans, chickpeas, lentils, potatoes. Makes budgeting incredibly simple!
I'm vegan as well and this seems interesting but not sure it would really work. I love potatoes but...
Am from dallas and right now I can tell we are running out of gas here several gas stations around me are out and you'll be lucky to find a gas station with gas and it's packed thanks for mentioning Texas hope everything can go back to normal.
I love the idea of storing food under the bed. Ty! I was wondering where I was going to store food I was getting on clearance!
I love leftovers. I always eat them for breakfast. I make burritos in the George Forman Grill. 😋Delicious!
I love this... it is the way I was raised and the way we do things. However, the 100 per person per month doesn’t work with food construction or special diets. I am celiac so my entire pantry is gluten free. Our food budget is about double of what a “normal” person uses. All that said, my pantry system saves me so much money.
Potatoes are kept in cool rooms when they are harvested sometimes and also when kept for seeding. Fridge potatoes would be perfectly fine. Worked on a potato farm for just over a year.
Girlllll... I just placed an order for the microwaveable/ freezer-safe/ dishwasher-safe food containers you and Bubba use!! Hoping to use those along with some of my OWN shelf cooking!!
Thank you so much! I have been doing this for the past few weeks and have been saving about a third of money on our weekly groceries.
Bubba's leftover peptalk. 😂
Morning from Portugal. What I usually do after meals, if I had cooked plain rice or pasta, chicken or meat instead of reheating in the microwave I would use a pan on the stove to add veggies and extra herbs to change the flavor of the meal. My family loves it
This has changed my family’s life. I love shelf cooking!!
I love "planned leftovers." We'll have quesadillas one day so that a couple days later we can have fajita quesadillas for lunch or a quick dinner. Leftover meatballs and sauce from spaghetti becomes meatball sliders, or the meatballs with get broken up into crumbles and put on a homemade pizza. Leftover potatoes turn into potato pancakes. When I meal plan I specifically plan having leftover items so we can reuse in a new and different way.
It's ironic that during Hurricane Harvey in Houston we ended up shelf cooking since the stores were empty and it wasn't safe to go anywhere. We had plenty of food for the week of and had a plan in case the power went out. We were lucky enough to not have any flooding or issues at our house though.
I'm so doing this! Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a stocktober video with Bubba! Love you guys!
UA-camMama 100% or a video asap on that cuz I cleared out already and have nothing going forward lol
My mom's leftover repurposes are still legendary.
Leftover pot roast becomes barbeque beef sandwiches the next day.
Leftover steak becomes quesadillas.
Leftover chicken becomes breaded chicken strips or chicken nuggets for lunch.
I still do some of these things as an adult. Take some pages out of your mom's book!
i like #stocktober .... what about #shelftember!
Haha we just changed the hashtag to #Shelftember last night!! Great minds think alike!
I shelf cook one week a month almost every month and it has saved me so much money! 😊
I love shelf cooking! It saves so much time and money!
Love how down to earth Bubba is! You guys make a great team! #eatthatfooddontletitgotowaste! :P
It's like the ministry of food bringing it back to basics
This has been a really fun challenge. We are new to this, so we started implementing this month (in Feb), and it’s so fun!!!!
Shelf cooking! I am doing so much better at stocking up on things and doing the buy one now and 2 for later! Thanks Jordan and Bubba!
I really like ypir videos . Your attitude towards life makes me happy
Thank you for motivating me to go through my 3 freezers in the garage and do inventory!!! How awesome of you to donate your money to Texas!!! I will try to do the same....What sweet hearts you have....
My mom froze strawberries and green beans. We couldn't eat them until snow fell. (In northern NYS). She also bought apples and potatoes in bulk and kept them in our unfinished basement.
Kathy B.
Love all the advice! Validates a lot of what we do in our home already, but great tips on freezing spinach. I buy Costco spinach all the time and desperately try to eat it all and never finish the bag, close but never finish it.
+Kayti Thompson. LOVE the spelling of your name! yes, spinach gets watery when frozen. DIdn't know you could freeze it with paper towels and it absorbs. I don't buy paper towels though as they are terrible for the environment so I will have to research other ideas.
Aww thanks Cami! Yeah, paper towels are used sparingly in our house but that's wonderful you are so environmentally conscious. I hope you find what you are looking for with the paper towel replacement for the spinach freezing. 😊
Spinach spoils so fast because of how old it is in the store already. If you grow your own, it will stay fresh for a much longer time in the fridge. Super easy to grow.
I know I'm 3 years late, but my hubby adds Siracha to leftovers he doesn't really want and he loves it. Small siracha for his office is gold.