When I make meatballs, I make extra. Every single time.
If I’m already mixing and rolling, I might as well make enough to put some away. They freeze beautifully, and I’m always happy to find them when I’m figuring out dinner another night.
It’s something I do often in my kitchen: make what we’re having now, then save a little for another day.
I don’t always set out to fill the freezer. Sometimes it starts with an ingredient that turns out to be more generous than expected. Like a whole cabbage, which, once you start cutting it, seems capable of providing approximately 5,478 meals, give or take.
Cooking a Little Extra While I’m Already At It
I used some recently for corned beef and cabbage (click here if you want to know how to make homemade corned beef), then turned the rest into stuffed cabbage rolls. By the time I was done, I had two bags of fully assembled rolls, cooked rice and all, ready for the freezer.
That’s a satisfying way to finish cooking.
They’ll be there when I start missing stuffed cabbage rolls—usually around St. Patrick’s Day, for some reason. I wonder if anyone else starts craving cabbage rolls around St. Patrick’s Day, or if that’s just me.
With meatballs, the decision to make extra is practically automatic. I’m already getting out the ingredients, mixing everything together, and rolling them. My three-year-old daughter usually helps, too. She loves rolling them in flour, quietly singing to herself about spiders.
She’s afraid of spiders, but apparently that doesn’t stop her from singing about them. It’s one of the many ways she makes my world brighter.
Making extra means more work now, certainly, but it also means I won’t be starting from the beginning next time. And I won’t have as many dishes to wash, either.
Next time, I tend to appreciate both of those things.
Some Soup for Now, Some for Later
Soup is another one. If I’ve made a big pot, I’ll freeze some rather than leave all of it in the refrigerator for us to keep working through. We can enjoy it now without eating it until nobody wants to see it again.
I did this recently with stuffed-pepper soup. And yes, I make a fair amount of stuffed vegetables. Meat, rice, and vegetables all together? Pure perfection.
For the soup, though, I left the rice out of the portion I froze. I didn’t want it turning mushy, so I’ll cook rice to add when we’re ready to eat it again.
A little finishing work later is fine with me. The vegetables are chopped, the ground beef is cooked, and the soup is already made.
Want a kitchen-friendly reference for freezing garden produce and food for another day? My freezer guide offers guidance to keep handy when you’re putting those extra portions away.
When Putting Food Aside is the Plan
Other times, I’m more deliberate about it. The last time I pressure-canned chicken soup, making some for later was the point.
Our family had butchered two cull hens, and we made three gallons of chicken broth as the base. We added vegetables from the garden glut and turned it into a delicious “everything but the kitchen sink” soup—the kind I know as Booyah.
Along with carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes, we added tomatoes and cabbage. If you’ve never tried cabbage in chicken soup, I recommend it. It’s delicious.
I lived near Green Bay, Wisconsin, for nine years, so Booyah has a place in my kitchen vocabulary. This batch came together in my six-gallon stockpot.
For the soup I canned, I left out noodles, dumplings, flour products, and rice. Those can wait until the day I’m actually preparing a meal.
We ate some for dinner, and I pressure-canned ten quarts for future meals and gifts for friends and family. I plan to talk about the process of pressure canning some day. Until then, enjoy looking at a quart of my canned soup.
Freezing a few portions and taking on a canning project aren’t the same amount of work. But I appreciate the result of both: food we enjoy, put aside for another day.
Preservation note: This is a kitchen story, not a canning recipe. For home-canned soup, follow the full National Center for Home Food Preservation instructions, including ingredient restrictions, preparation, jar filling, and processing requirements for your canner and elevation.
Dinner Doesn’t Always Need a Fresh Start
I enjoy cooking and eating homemade food, but that doesn’t mean I want every dinner to begin with a full set of ingredients and an empty pan—especially on days when I’m low on energy, busy doing something else, or out and about with the family.
Sometimes I want to open the freezer or pantry, find something I made, and have part of the work already done.
The meatballs still need gravy and mashed potatoes to become dinner. The soup needs reheating, and sometimes a fresh batch of rice or dumplings. But there’s a difference between finishing a meal and starting one, and I’m glad to have that option.
It’s also nice to have a little time between making something and eating it again. By then, I’m usually happy to see it.
Not a System, Just a Habit
I don’t have a freezer full of perfectly coordinated meals, and not everything I cook leaves enough to save.
Sometimes it’s planned. Sometimes it’s two bags of cabbage rolls because there was just that much cabbage.
A little extra today doesn’t have to mean a huge project. Sometimes it just means rolling a few more meatballs while my hands are already messy. Dinner for today, and a little for another day.
What do you always make extra of so you can put some away for another day?
If this sounds like your kind of kitchen habit, give this post a like and share it with someone who appreciates having a little dinner already done.
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