Great Grandma's Meal Plan | SIMPLE INGREDIENTS and NO STRESS!

I sat down and talked to my mom about how 3 generations of the women in my family meal planned, grocery shopped, and cooked for their families. Super insightful!
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Resources mentioned:
Rollkuchen - • Rollkuchen & Watermelo... (German/Russian Mennonite Recipe)
Zwieback - www.mennonitegi...
What We Should Learn from How Homemakers Used to Meal Plan (blog post) - raisingarrows....
In Defense of Food (book) - amzn.to/3qNRMkx
Scrap Saving (video) - • A Different Way to STO...

[@edefyinggravity]

My great grandparents on my dad's side all came off the boat from Italy in the beginning of the 20th century. To them, "salad" was a mixture of greens (whatever was in the garden or foraged) tossed with good olive oil, a little vinegar, and salt and pepper. In the winter, (no fresh greens available) they ate fermented vegetables that were stored in the cellar. It was what was eaten before the meat because it was thought to help digestion. (Old people were obsessed with digestion. Now we call it gut health. Nothing new under the sun, right? 😉) My grandmothers both had a weekly rotation of meals based on their weekly rhythm, though not a formal meal plan. Sundays were for "big meat" meals (roasted chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, ham, something super meat-heavy) followed by soup (fall/winter) or sandwiches (spring/summer) on Mondays. Mondays were wash day, so they were too worn out from doing all of the laundry to make a complicated meal. Soup was started in the morning and cooked all day. Sandwiches were served with sliced vegetables from the garden or seasonal fruit and cottage cheese. I can't remember how else my dad's mom had her routine other than fish on Fridays, but my mom's mom did a bean-based meal on Tuesdays, a casserole on Wednesdays (to use up all of the odds and ends before shopping day), Thursdays were the days she did her shopping and experimented with new recipes, Fridays were fish or eggs, and Saturday night was soup and bread in the winter or cold salads (macaroni salad, potato salad, etc), and fresh vegetables (corn on the cob, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, etc). It was all about not wasting, be it food, time, or energy.

[@AmyRaisingArrows]

Oooo! I love all this! It is just so fascinating to me how practical and simple food was to people who didn't have a million choices. We are blessed (and cursed) by the abundance for sure.

[@sunshynehill]

I love hearing how past generations did things. I think another myth about meal planning is that it lowers your grocery bill. It can if you are eating what is in season or on sale at the store but often we meal plan ignoring those things! Grocery bills are a source of stress for me and switching to eating more simply- buy the meat, fruits, and vegetables that are cheapest at the store that week and just create meals off of that- has caused us to reduce our bill AND now I know how to prepare cuts of meat that I never wouldve tried before :) thanks for sharing from your family! I benefited from this

[@AmyRaisingArrows]

Yes, that is totally true! Meal plans can be so full of ingredients that are expensive or hard to find or you will only use once that you don't end up saving money at all. Sounds like you have a great plan. (and I also LOVE learning about how past generations of homemakers did things - so inspiring!)

[@deannajunkin3696]

I always love your videos and podcasts about food. This one is spot on! Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers weren't wringing their hands over having complex, visually and nutritionally perfect meals. They did eat real food made from scratch with simple ingredients they had on hand seasonally. During this time of economic stress, I have been cooking this way and we are eating better than ever. I rarely buy processed and pre-packaged food now. It is more work, but it's not bad when you keep it simple!

[@AmyRaisingArrows]

Yes and yes! I still have to fight against the food police in my head, but simply getting rid of pre-packaged foods automatically makes better nutritional sense and allows me to stress less.

[@vickiemckinney1004]

My mom used to put fruit cocktail in jello.

[@heatherrogers9432]

Thank you for sharing! Very encouraging! The meals your grandparents had sounds a lot like how I was raised. Meat and potatoes! Unfortunately potatoes do not like me but I sure do like them. ☺️

[@AmyRaisingArrows]

You are so welcome! It was such a fun conversation I had with my mama!

[@user-cg4ch5dh5o]

Thank you!

[@abigailk402]

I really enjoyed this video!

[@AmyRaisingArrows]

I'm so glad!