An Introduction
As the school year gets into full swing and the unique challenges of pandemic life linger, meal planning and prepping is an important routine for many of us. With a million different approaches out there, we’ve learned some of yours and continue to be inspired by the way you approach planning your meals and using your baskets.
For many customers, figuring out how to use all the goods in your basket can be exciting, but sometimes overwhelming. We thought now would be a great time to revisit these ideas from a few Fresh Harvest customers. Below is a quick introduction and you can click the links to read their full post!
The Stocked Staples Strategy
Chelsea is an “accidental” food blogger. She somewhat stumbled upon her successful blog, The Naked Fig, while discovering her knack for cleverly combining ingredients quickly to make approachable, delicious meals. She gets excited about storing food, and has a “European style” of meal planning: look at your options the day of and supplement as needed (hence why “staples” are key)!
The Community Builder Strategy
Callie is an artist, a student, and a holder of several part time jobs plus an internship. While her schedule sounds crazy, she’s discovered that preparing food for herself and others brings a certain needed routine to her hectic life as a single person in Atlanta. She recently discovered a prep strategy that involves paying careful attention to basket customization options each week. She has found that the strategy fosters community, saves loads of money, and reduces waste. We call it the Community Building Method, and several of us at Fresh Harvest are actively participating in it already!
The “Cooking as a Traveling Professional” Strategy
Jewlz is an Industrial Engineer by training and by trade. She has a busy work schedule, traveling most weeks for at least one day. Despite all the travel, Jewlz loves cooking with her basket ingredients which are both simple and adventurous in nature. She does most of her planning after she gets her basket, and takes what she describes as a “backwards approach” to traditional meal planning by leaning less on recipes and focusing more on using all her ingredients.
The Low Waste Strategy
Casey and his wife Sara live a good chunk of their lives traveling the country in their Airstream with their two and half year old son and dog named Beans. Together, they’ve employed a strategy of immediate up front veggie prep in which their pre-cooked produce and by-products are used over and over throughout the week’s meals. They’ve found that this cuts subsequent prep time down to a minimum, making for quick and easy dishes throughout the week. Waste is also incredibly low in this method, which was inspired by Tamar Adler’s book An Everlasting Meal.
Our hope is that you resonate with at least one, and feel inspired and challenged by a few of these folks!
