How to have healthy food around all the time

Something a recent post reminded me of is how good it is to always have soup or stew around, especially in wintertime. When this is the case it's very hard to go into the kitchen and think "I'm very hungry but there's nothing good to eat"!

A big soup, if brought to a boil once a day, can last for a week at least. (I haven't seen it go past that but it usually is gone by then.)

Beans or legumes are another good food to always have ready as they are very filling and give plenty of energy--they can be added with the soup/stew, after, or eaten by themselves. Fried beans or chickpeas with spices is a good snack that I like to make when there are beans around.

How do you make sure that there is always healthy, nutritious food for when you're hungry?

You've just reminded me to turn the heat on my perpetual pot of beans. Done.

Beans are the thing for me. You can add beans to lots of other things. You can add lots of other things to beans. The possibilities seem endless.

I've kept perpetual stew going for over a month having never been refrigerated and there are commercial joints that do so for years on end. Right now, it's chili that has enough sweet potato in it that some folks might balk at calling it chili. Anyway, we do the same thing keeping soup or stew around all winter, at least.

We also go through a pot of beans every week starting with a pound or pound and a half of dry beans. Sometimes that goes into the soup, sometimes it becomes a fresh chili or frijoles or beans-n-rice. Occasionally it's chikpeas and becomes hummus or curry instead.

We cook good food for all our meals and don't really seem to have a problem keeping that healthy. Our problem and it's true for everyone in my family is between meal snacks. I've been buying a lot of celery so that I have something crunchy to go after. If I cut it up on the weekend and put it in a tub of water in the fridge, it stays good all week.

think it ultimately comes down to things being convenient and available.
We don't buy convenience foods, so if I'm too lazy to make something, my snack is a piece of fruit (we keep plenty of fruit around) or a cucumber with miso.
I try to keep a lot of leftovers around, so I can have a flatbread with peanut butter or a bowl of rice with pickle or something like that.

My healthy strategy is basically just to not have unhealthy stuff in the house. If we want to eat crap, we go out to do it (and now do it so very rarely.... ice cream once in a while.)

I have this trouble so much.  I often rely on frozen vegetables, especially peas as they have protine, fibre, and vegetable goodness.  And lots of butter (fat helps us feel full).

Apples and cheese take about the same time to prepare.

But i confess, sometimes 3 minutes is too long or too much effort.  I need an easier snack that doesn't spoil quickly.

Stew sounds good.  I think I'll put on a pot when the chores are done.

Bump! Nettle soup is very tasty and good to have around. I’ve been having it with nettles, ramps, garlic leaves, dame’s rocket, wild sweet-cicely, miso, and beans.

I should probably have added more beans though.

And I’ve been considering starting a charity to get rid of my piles and piles of vegetables that I can’t help but gather…

M Ljin wrote:Bump! Nettle soup is very tasty and good to have around. I’ve been having it with nettles, ramps, garlic leaves, dame’s rocket, wild sweet-cicely, miso, and beans.

Nettles are a wildly invasive species here. Ten years of hand-to-hand combat. Still I'm willing to don my Viking helmet and welding gloves in a good cause.

But you can't just tell me "soup is nice." I need to know the recipe that will make mortal combat with nettles worthy of the risk. Eat the enemy!

I also rely on frozen veggies.

Soups and stews are an easy way to have healthy food.

Soup and stews are just a mix of good veggies that need no recipe.

It is the seasonings that bring soups and stews together.

https://permies.com/t/274883/good-Vegetable-Beef-Soup

https://permies.com/wiki/209710/Recipes-Permies-Index

There is a saying that a good soup is inherited.

In winter, I buy food once monthly so the fresh vegetables go into a soup or stew within days. I keep it vegetarian to ensure it's safe when boiled up daily on a rapid boil.

Once I'm sick of it, I will pile it into used containers and lock it away outdoors where animals can't get at it, and it doesn't need a freezer because it's cold enough outdoors in winter. All those containers go together labeled and dated.

So I tend to have a cruciferous based soup, a root veg soups, squash based soups, and I can pick and choose from these assorted popsicles and make a stew out of the soup bases, adding lentils or peas without having to go through the soaking required with beans, or, I add cooked frozen beans. Cooked meat gets added last if any.

I really enjoy salsa based food as well, so a favorite thing I do is slow cook meat in salsa before freezing which helps prevent freezer burn.

Before springtime I start sorting out what is going in the freezers.

I have discovered frozen baked peas in bone broth and beans baked in salsa that were 18 months old and still as good as the day they were frozen.

I always have nuts around: pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.  I also have (fresh) fruit or canned or frozen. I have been unsuccessful growing goji berries, but I LOVE them dried.  I discovered that I can mix some with cashews and unsweetened coconut flakes and even cocoa nibs.  This can be dangerous because it tastes so good that I eat beyond my hunger!

Cheese is a quick snack as are seaweed packs. I usually have a batch of yogurt around; sometimes I'll mix thawed fruit and sweetener into a whole quart at a time, although I find that this makes it "too convenient!"  I sometimes will settle for a cup of tea if I'm feeling disciplined.  

I always cook in bulk. I will make a batch of oatmeal that will last me the week.  Into it, I'll add coconut, almond slivers, cinnamon, monkfruit sweetener, chia and pumpkin seeds, raisins...whatever.  I discovered that having this cold is like having rice pudding.  I can add in milk or almond milk if I want and usually do when having it in the morning.  

This time of year, it's all about the asparagus.  I have a Revere frying pan that I put the stalks in and steam.  It holds about four large servings...again, leftovers. This morning's breakfast was poached eggs on a bed of asparagus!  Another discovery: eaten cold, asparagus is even sweeter, reminiscent of corn, so a few stalks make a good snack, too.

Here we relay a lot of homemade convenience foods. Because of my neuropathy, I never know if I will be able to cook or not, so I do a lot of prep-work on good days.
Here is a list of what I do.
- leftovers are always portioned out and frozen
- dehydrated or freeze dried soup cubes or powders makes for a fast snack that feels like a hug from home, and they are so easy to make.
- during the season I can, dehydrate and freeze dry fruits and berries
- freeze dried mixes for dips and homemade chips is something we all love
- gluten free baking mixes, makes fast and easy cookies, muffins, brownies, rolls and so much more
- homemade pudding mixes makes for a fast and easy snack
- homemade hot cocoa mix and homemade  instant lemonade are always a hit with the kids
- canned, frozen, dehydrated meals or meal ingredients helps too
- fermented vegetables also makes for a nice snack.

There are more, but these are what I remember as of now. We are also privileged in that our climate enables us to grow food year round, so often a snack is just a short walk away.
I did do one important thing, when I planned the food forest. We didn’t just pick fruit trees based on our preferences, but also on when they are ready for harvest. There are several reasons for that. I wanted us to have access to fresh fruit and or berries all year round. Right now only November and December isn’t covered, and those will be once my sapote trees starts to produce. I grow 4 types of raspberries,  8 different kinds of strawberries, 2 types of blueberries, Boisen berries and mulberries, which gives us access to berries most of the year. By doing this, more than half of what we produce gets eaten fresh, so I have a lot less food preservation work to do. It also prevent seasonal bottlenecks in food preservation, where you rush and work against the clock to get everything preserved before it goes bad.
Canned desserts like lemon curd, pie fillings and homemade candy are also stables in my pantries. Homemade granola bars and hot cereal mixes are also a stable.
In a way, our food production is centered around eating fresh and what’s in season, while minimizing the amount of work needed. I keep my root vegetables fresh by leaving them in the ground until I need them, and just adding more seeds so we don’t run out.
We did do a lot more preservation while the kids lived at home, but we don’t need that as much anymore.
I am running low on broth right now, so this weekend I am starting a large batch of that. We are also in the main egg production season, so I have pickled eggs in the fridge and egg muffins in the freezer. I freeze dry whole eggs, yolks and whites, and I salt cure egg yolks to use as a cheese substitute. Egg heavy breakfast dishes freezes very well, so those I am also making a lot of.

My favorite snacks:
Cheese
Nuts
Rice cake w cashew butter & honey (yum)
A handful of granola

Right now I’m enjoying frozen leftovers of yesterday’s smoothie w homegrown strawberries, banana, pineapple, yogurt & a teeny bit of grape juice

Love this conversation - especially about the soup - and yes, those moments where food needs to happen NOW instead of in an hour after cooking!!  My kids would complaint that there was nothing to eat in the kitchen, and when I showed them full cupboard and 'fridge, they would say 'That's not FOOD - those are INGREDIENTS!'

My go to quick eats tend to be
-- a glass of water with squeeze of lemon, and a few stems of parsley and a stem of mint, tiny pinch of salt, shaken together
    (often I just need more hydration / electrolyte boost instead of food to perk back up again)
--  a spoon full of nut butter (protein, fat, fuel)  maybe with whatever fruit is on hand, goes well with banana or apple
-- a slice of cheese with whatever pickles I have recently made (protein, fermented food)

I had completely forgotten about posting in this thread. When I reread the post I made, it made me laugh, because I am still preserving eggs. Because the temperatures outside have gone up, I can’t use my freeze dryer very much, this time of year because it doesn’t function very well in temperatures over 80F.
Instead I am making meals, and those are also great snacks. So far I have made a lot of egg muffins, scrambled eggs, Dutch babies, Japanese rolled omelets, frittatas and quiche. I will add a screen shot of my egg preservation.
We are getting green beans with almost every meal. Sugar snap peas, carrots and cucumbers directly from the garden is also a great snack.
Egg season is also finally over. Our chickens take a break once the hot season starts, and while they usually still lay a few eggs, we mostly depend on preserved eggs until February arrives.
We won’t run out of egg though, since we get between 2400 and 3000 eggs in a year.

Fried eggs are also a lovely quick food that only takes a few short minutes to prepare. I often eat them with kimchi, or break them up and add some greens.

We have two tiny bowls (custard cups) on the kitchen table all the time, one filled with chocolate chips, the other with dried fruit  - raisins, peaches, berries, etc.

I also make more toast in the morning than we need for breakfast. The extra pieces stay out until mid day when it gets nibbled up with nuts, cheese, peanut butter, jam, gravy (whatever is on hand) while we empty out the coffee pot.

For a more robust snack, there are always beans in the fridge, and usually some version of hash browns and/or fried rice.

I had completely forgotten about posting in this thread. When I reread the post I made, it made me laugh, because I am still preserving eggs.

Ulla - what you are doing is really impressive!!! As a newbie who has never heard of salted egg yolks before, would you share what you do to preserve them, and also the ways that you use them? They looked like little gems in the picture you posted earlier!

Kara Ann wrote:

I had completely forgotten about posting in this thread. When I reread the post I made, it made me laugh, because I am still preserving eggs.

Ulla - what you are doing is really impressive!!! As a newbie who has never heard of salted egg yolks before, would you share what you do to preserve them, and also the ways that you use them? They looked like little gems in the picture you posted earlier!

Salt cured eggs, is my goto substitute for Parmesan cheese, or cheese in general. I am allergic to dairy, and salt cured eggs are way cheaper, than buying dairy free cheese.
Here is how you make them:
Fill a container half way up, with fine salt. Use the bottom of an egg to make little indent in the salt.
Next you separate the eggs to remove the egg white. Then gently place the egg yolk in one of the indents you made. Continue doing this egg by egg, until the container is full. If an egg yolk breaks, either before or after you place it in the salt, it has to be tossed. If it’s right after placing the egg in the salt, remove all of the broken yolk with a spoon. Then add a bit of extra salt and create a new indent.
Once you container is full, with 1 and only 1 layer of egg yolks, you top up the container with salt, until the yolks are fully covered. Next they need to spend 5 to 12 days covered in the fridge to cure. The curing time, depends on how firm the egg is, and how salty you like your eggs, I leave mine for a week.
Once they are ready, take the yolk out, and either brush off the salt, or gently rinse and towel dry them. Now they can be hung on a string, by poking a needle with the string, through the egg yolk. Hand them in a cool space to finish drying completely. You can also use ann oven on its lowest setting, a dehydrator set on its lowest setting or a freeze dryer to finish drying any leftover moisture on the contact surface of the egg yolk.
Now the egg yolks are fully cured and ready to use. They can be sliced, or shredded before use. To get a bit more cheese flavor, you can add a little nutritional yeast to enhance the flavor.
You can reuse the salt up until the salt starts to liquefy, from the water drawn out of the yolks. I made around 50 this year.
The picture shared, was how they looked right after I cleaned off the salt.

Wow, this thread reads better than any cookbook I’ve read in a long time.  Brilliant in so many ways. It’s a privilege just to read, and re-read.  Thank you, all.   In an effort to feed the kids I replaced the spinach in Saag Paneer with nettles and soy bean cultured pressed paneer.  Keeps in the fridge, and I find kids coming back every other day.

I find quinoa to be an excellent quick food. You can dress it up with spices or eat it with olive oil and salt (my favorite). It’s a decent protein source for being a grain and overall a fairly healthy food. Paired with some fermented veggies and maybe some sliced cheese, it’s a full meal.

Ditto on David's comment that this thread of post reads so well!

THANK YOU Ulla for sharing this method for preserving egg yolks - this is great to have and I have saved it so I can try it.
When you are using these salted egg yolks (sliced or grated), are you adding them as a final garnish to items being served (no further cooking)? Or also as an ingredient into food that is going to be cooked?

Kara Ann wrote:Ditto on David's comment that this thread of post reads so well!

THANK YOU Ulla for sharing this method for preserving egg yolks - this is great to have and I have saved it so I can try it.
When you are using these salted egg yolks (sliced or grated), are you adding them as a final garnish to items being served (no further cooking)? Or also as an ingredient into food that is going to be cooked?

Since the salt kills off any bacteria, you can use it as you would cheese. Just to be on the save side, make sure to keep it dry.
I grind most of mine up. To use, I will add it to a white sauce for lasagna, or sprinkle it on top of my pasta or scrambled eggs. So you can both cook with it, or use it as is. You can also change the flavors, by mixing the salt with herbs, spices or things like mirin. It’s an ingredient often used in Asian cooking,

Another food I’d like to share is Ful Medames (there are many spellings). It’s an Arabic dish of cooked fava beans with a variety of added ingredients depending on the version you are preparing (Egyptian, Lebanese, Yemeni, etc). I typically fry up a few cloves of garlic, toss in two cans of fava beans drained of their liquid, and add some water or stock until it looks just a little soupy. I cook it down for ten minutes and then stir in some tahini. Topped with some parsley and olive oil, it is pure heaven to spoon onto some warm pita bread. This is a common breakfast food in the Levant and Northern Africa. You will find many good recipes and variations online.

Admittedly, it’s not a very permaculture dish for me as it relies on the import of ingredients from the Arab world until I can produce fava beans myself, but it is healthy and high in fiber and protein. Canned beans are a shortcut but can be high in sodium. I aspire to switch over to pre-cooking batches of dried fava beans for the week to cut down on the sodium.