You asked for suggestions, so I'll be honest: I think the idea of a "perpetual stew" is not a good one, and I don't understand the reason behind it. Why not start out with fresh ingredients every time? Make enough for a few meals, perhaps over a couple of days (refrigerating in between) and not risk overcooking things. About salt: I've found that Mrs. Dash is a good substitute.

I need an alternative to fast food, especially when I get home from work (long shifts) tired. Something convenient. On days I don't work I tend to eat when I feel like it. The point would be to have something ready immediately. It may not be workable but I have tested other hair brained ideas before, discarding most of them, but not all. Once in a while something works out remarkably well. I live by myself so nobody else's eating habits need be considered.

In the summer, I garden and eat right in the garden patch, augmenting my diet with a variety of fresh produce. Many of the varieties are chosen to be eaten fresh and never make it to the kitchen. I also keep cut melon around pretty much all year; so there is a balance.

OldDutch, the perpetual stew won't work. It will become a soggy mess. :) what you can do is what I do for lunches and breakfast... Cook a huge amount of food on your days off and after it is cool, place it in baggies and put it in the freezer.

I take huge roasts 5# or more and put them in a pot on the stove with an onion or dried onion flakes and simmer them for 4-6 hours. Afterwards I cut them up and cool them. Chicken is skin removed and de-boned. All are put in baggies in the freezer with a twist tie and labeled with a sharpie. Red colored P is for pork, B is beef, C is chicken.

I supplement beef or pork roast or chicken with bags of frozen vegetables. I have frozen spaghetti, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice, winter squash and all meats. When I want breakfast or lunch, I pull meat and vegetables out of the freezer and pop them in the microwave. I do cook dinner every day for myself and my husband, but if I lived alone, I would do this for dinner as well. It really is delicious, quick, and better than any fast food I have eaten!

I forgot to add that fried eggs over cooked frozen vegetables are amazing. There are blends of vegetables in bags called Oriental Blend, Japanese Stir Fry, and Italian blend that are excellent and never boring.

I have come to agree with you. So I have gone a different way, one much like you describe.

I get some three to 5 meals out of a major skillet full of various veggies, and some small amount of meat. I use the reuseable screw top small plastic containers and get a single serving in each and then as you suggest freeze them.

I also rely on the microwave. I do have a slow cooker and some recipes from my sister who uses hers a lot. But I more tend to rely on the nuker and a good skillet. Since I live by myself, once I get a good selection of vegetables in the pan, I end up with several meals.

BTW for potatoes I like the fingerlings, a couple or three or four nice ones getting about a minute in the microwave are done enough to slice or chunk up and can go right into the mix. I don't peel em either, just scrub em down real good, and by the time the initial onion(s) has sauteed, the potatoes are ready to go into the skillet for a little browning along with the mushrooms. I like to brown the green beans and the kernel corn, too, a bit before the liquid goes back in and the garlics get crushed.

I like my stews thick. Creamed corn or refried beans will either one thicken the skillet. If you are on a low salt diet like I am, there are quite a few low and no salt canned vegetables in small sized cans that allow quite a few different ones before the skillet gets full, and even some low salt condensed cream-of- soups. This week I think I will add some fresh Anaheim peppers and some fresh cauliflower to the early browning. I do not salt or pepper this either in cooking or in eating. I do like a bit of sweet and tangy BBQ sauce though, but that is about the only spice I use besides onions and plenty of garlic.

This all comes out different every batch I make, which is part of the fun of it.

You've got it down!!! Meals fit for a king!

I have never tried fingering potatoes. They sound perfect. We are to the point of downsizing in the garden. I just turned 65, and my back started acting up a bit, so I said enough heavy duty gardening. Three tomatoes, some onions, cukes and lettuce and the rest I buy frozen at the grocery store, or at Farmer's Market in the summer. My husband and I are both big meat and potato eaters, so dinners at our house are pretty big. A small amount of meat would never do. :) We, too, eat low salt... Me out of necessity, my husband not. I think it allows you to taste the "real taste" of the food and much prefer it. We both love stew!!!

Be sure to check the amount of salt in low salt cans. Sometimes it means less salt than original cans but is still pretty high in salt. I prefer to use frozen veggies except for green beans. Personally don't care for the taste of frozen beans.

The salt content is a very interesting read. I am not supposed to get more than 2000 mg a day of sodium; so I read the actual mg content rather than the percentage listed on the label, since that percentage is calculated using 2400 mg a day.

The local Cubs have a series of small sized house brand (Essential Everyday) canned vegetables with no salt added. I use those. There are other brands also available including no salt added canned tomatoes, and a few low salt condensed soups. I have long been a fan of one dish meals; so the skillet combos work out just fine for me. Once I get back in the garden, I will be snacking on fresh produce pretty regularly, but for the time being I get my salads from the Cub salad bar (I make up several at once), and my fruits from my special favorite Clementine oranges and the precut mixed melon. I simply cannot use up a three whole melons by myself without throwing out a whole lot; so I get the serving sized mixtures, with no waste. I have yet to figure out how to apply reusable containers for those things.

I like the smaller sized cans, since I can use the whole thing all at once, and still not get too far ahead of myself or my limited freezer space. One thing I miss is the canned chili, that I used to eat quite often. I also have a taste for sausages, which I have had to also curtail. Very few things have as much sodium as canned chili, even the supposedly lower salt versions are still way high, but I will splurge once in a while...

Rebecca,

I have known about fingerling potatoes for a long time, but only in the past few years have I decided to grow them and now pretty much limit myself to their use. They shine for hot German potato salad and for fried potatoes. I grew up with red Norlands and Kennebecs, but they are just too large for me to use just cooking for myself. A lot of supermarkets now carry them both in their organic section and in open stock. I prefer the Russian banana type at this point, and even get my planting stock from the organic food section, generally for planting I buy about March 1-15. Really nice is that it only takes about 1 minute in the microwave to have them ready to fry, even less, if you want them a bit firm. My own from last summer are just about done these days, shriveled and sprouting, but that is pretty decent since I just kept them in the kitchen in a dark bag, after digging and curing them.

OldDutch,

Fingerings sound fascinating. I am going to hunt them up when I go shopping again.

I don't grow potatoes, but I buy Viking at Farmer's Market in the fall... 200 pounds and keep them in the attached garage on the carpeted step next to the house covered with a blanket and a heavy coat. We have about 60 pounds left and they aren't shriveled or sprouting yet. If it gets to -20 for too many days in a row, I move them to my cool room downstairs, which stays at about 50 degrees. They sprout and get soft soon after that. Tomorrow night's dinner is hashbrowns and hamburgers... We will eat about 3-4 pounds of potatoes. :) We really are big eaters, but both of us are normal weight. We eat light all day and have a big dinner. It works for us.

Rebecca,

If you have a CUB near you, they carry the fingerlings, sometimes as organic, sometimes not depending on the store, whether franchise or not. That is where I get what I do not grow myself and my seed stock, too, right off the shelf in the organic section.

disclaimer: I work for SuperValu the parent of CUB, and I get a discount, but the main one I shop at was previously a Rainbow and that was were I shopped then, now it has been renamed to the Uptown CUB. Very little has actually changed with the buyout; so I still usually shop there. BTW the CUB on south Nicollet just north of Crosstown (a Jerry's franchise) generally carries more than one type of organic fingerling. That is the other CUB I shop at, depending on what other errands I have when I go shopping.