In my week in review post I mentioned the handy soup I pulled out of the freezer for instant homemade lunches.
How did I know it was in there? Well, it started way back in September when I made the soup. At that time, I checked off “canned bean soup” in the pantry list view when I put it in the freezer. I also added this notebook entry:
homemade bean and vegetable soup #made9.13.2016
from leftover “Late Summer Bean and Vegetable Soup” – recipe on blog post dated 9.4.2016 and roasted vegetables from “Friday” dinner on Week in Review post dated 9.16.2016, plus vegetable stock + fennel greens
qty: (2) 2-cup containers #freezer
Now I know this note may look insane to some (many? all?) of you. But I’ll get back to that in a moment.
Let’s get something out of the way first. Why did I use the label “canned bean soup”? Because that’s the closest match. Is it exact? No. It’s not canned soup, but who cares? I can put whatever information I want in the notebook—in case I need to know it’s not store-bought soup out of a can. (I also know because I never buy that.) The point is, it doesn’t matter whether the label is an exact fit. It matters that I can find it again when I’m searching my pantry list.
Now back to that note. I wrote an elaborate note. Partly because I have a blog and who knows what kind of details I might want to share with you. Details from September that I WILL NOT remember unless I make notes. So if I was using this just for myself, I would have written something like this:
homemade bean and vegetable soup #made9.13.2016
mixed with roasted green beans, fennel and tomatoes
qty: (2) 2-cup containers #freezer
Still, you don’t have to even do that much. If you only want to remember it’s in the freezer, then all you need is this:
homemade bean and vegetable soup #freezer
You can add quantities, dates and descriptions if they are useful to you. Or if you found a recipe you want to remember, your note might look like this:
Late Summer Bean and Vegetable Soup #freezer
http://blog.kitchenlister.com/2016/09/04/cranberry-beans-corn-tomatoes-recipe-for-a-summer-soup-medley-2/
The point is type whatever you want. That’s why we made it a free-form notebook. A key point to remember: Everything in the notebook is searchable. So after adding the note, I could type any of the following in the search box to retrieve it later:
- bean soup
- vegetable soup
- roast vegetables
- #freezer
- #made 2016
- Any combination of dates, such as:
- 9. 2016
- 9 2016
- 9. .2016
- 9.13.2016
These search terms are for my original note. This list is not exhaustive. To bring up “canned bean soup” I could type many other combinations. Here’s why any of the search terms listed above would work—matches shown in bold:
homemade bean and vegetable soup #made9.13.2016 from leftover “Late Summer Bean and Vegetable Soup” – recipe on blog post dated 9.4.2016 and roasted vegetables from “Friday” dinner on Week in Review post dated 9.16.2016, plus vegetable stock + fennel greens
qty: (2) 2-cup containers #freezer
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How do you use the notebook feature in kitchenlister? Or maybe you don’t? Either way, I’d love to know so leave me a comment about it.
The leftover bean soup referenced in this post was part of my Week in Review meals for March 27–31, 2017.