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Prepare Weekly Menu and Create Shopping List

We have to prepare our weekly menu and based on this menu we create our shopping list

WE HAVE TO UNDERLINE THAT WE BUY THINGS NOT TO DEPOSIT THEM OR TO WAIT FOR THEM TO BECOME NOT FOR USE

WE BUY THINGS WE NEED IN ORDER TO COOK FOR OUR FAMILY DURING THIS PERIOD THAT WE SHOULD REDUCE OUR VISITS TO THE STORES

THEREFORE WE NEED A LIST TO BE PREPARED BEFORE GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE AND BASED ON WHICH WE WILL MAKE OUR SHOPPING

Weekly Menu – How to prepare it

Depending on our family preferences and way of eating we can pre-decide the recipes we would like to prepare for the week.

Always we have to have in our mind 1-2 easy recipes that can be prepared on the spot and have the needed ingredients in our depository.

Proposed Generic Menu – Main Course

For the main course of each day of the week:

Snack and Sweets

We may need also to have some snacks during the week as well some sweets for breakfast and not only.

For this we have to have in our mind the fruits available for the season and our family’s preferences.

For snacks we may have: toast, cheese pies, spinach pies, croissants

For sweets we may have: apple cake, orange cake, banana bread, brownies, muffins.

What to buy, how to maintain, ideas for cooking

Pasta & Rice

Pasta typically is made using wheat flour but also rice flour or legumes, having egg or not, gluten free, …

There is a big number of different pasta shapes: spaghetti, penne, fusilli, rigatoni, farfalle, tagliatelle, cannelloni, lasagna,…

The same it is for the rice; white or brown, long or short, carolina, jasmine, basmati, …

Both pasta and rice can provide us with a variety of different meals.

Either can be cooked in very simple way combining pasta or rice with different type of sauce: white ones, like carbonara or red ones like napolitana, al arrabiata.

We can prepare also red sauce with meat, ragu / bologneze, or with mushrooms.

We can prepare soups using also rice and we can prepare pasta in the oven: cannelloni, lasagna, souffle.

Tomatoes juice / Ready-made sauces

Tomato juice of all different types and ready-made sauces, preferably in glass packing is a must if not summer. They are the basis for a lot of different recipes.

Flour

Having flour in your depository you can cook a huge variety of different things.

Buy the flour that suits to your family and habits and you are in a position to prepare:

1. Bread
2. Pizza
3. Cakes
4. Cookies
5. Pies
6. Pancakes

Yeast – Sourdough

During this period, it is preferable to have dry yeast however fresh one is also an option if we can find it. Fresh yeast has stronger flavor and provides our baked products with a reach taste.

For the recipes you may have just to have in mind that 8 gr of dry yeast corresponds to 25 gr of fresh one.

An excellent choice is of course the sourdough. But this means we have to make it, if we don’t have already. And, we have to consider that more time is needed during the preparation process since sourdough needs time to give the expected results. Despite all this the final product is much – much better; excellent taste, richer aroma, and it keeps fresh for more time.

Legumes

1. Beans
2. Peas
3. Chickpeas
4. Lentils

During this winter / spring season we can use deep freezer products as well the dry ones.

Fresh vegetables & Fruits

Here we have to be a bit careful. We don’t really want to buy big quantities and to let them for a long period just to be destroyed.

Vegetables and Fruits that are more resistant:

1. Dry onions
   (the basis for a lot of different recipes they have red sauce, together with garlic and carrots)
2. Garlic
3. Carrots
4. Cabbage (for salad and cooking)
5. Leek (for pies or cooking with rice)
6. Potatoes
7. Avocado
8. Peppers
   (green, red, yellow according to our taste and to the recipe we would like to prepare: stuffed peppers, shakshuka)
9. Lemons
10. Oranges
11. Apples
12. Pears
13. Bananas
    (excellent banana bread and muffins are prepared with the bananas that become well done)

Of course there is always the option of buying products from the deep freezer that during the winter / spring time is a very good option for preparing delicious dishes for our family.

Dry nuts and fruits

A perfect solution for a snack with a big variety in flavor and taste.

14. Almonds, nuts, Brazilian nuts, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, peanuts,…
15. Dates, figs, goji, raisins, plums, apricots,…

Coffee, Tea (different types per your taste)

Coffee and tea help us to drink more liquids during the day therefore they have to be available in our depository.

Diary products

Yoghurt; to be used simple or in combination with fruits or for preparing salty or sweet recipes.

Fresh milk but also Long-Life milk to be available in your depository.

Cheese is gold; we can have it simple with a piece of bread, to use it in a toast, to prepare a pie or a pizza. We can buy slices, prepare portions, and store them in the deep freezer having a label with the date and the type of the cheese on the bag.

Meat, poultry & Deli Meat products (Cold cuts)

We may buy any type of fresh meat and store it in the deep freezer.

However, we have to follow some basic principles:

We prepare the meat in portions in order to save place, to be easier to unfreeze and cook when needed.

We put labels on each piece in order to know what it is and also we add the date in order to be cooked on time.

Fish and Sea Food

Fresh fishes and sea food require us to go to the market on the day we want to cook them.

Of course we can follow the same approach like the one for the meat: to buy fresh products, to prepare portions, and to store them in our deep freezer always having labels with the date and the content of each bag.

However, we have as an alternative to use deep freezer products and to prepare delicious plates.

During this period, we can buy different kind of fishes available in the super markets as well shrimps, squids, cuttlefish (sepia), octopus.

Make the menu and the list with your family, work as a team, be safe, be good!

Hope my advice to be helpful.

Article by Periklis Giavasoglou. #HomemadebyPeriGiavas

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