Meal Planning - get me started!

aldyn

In theory it all sounds so smart... plan your meals out in advance, you can do some prep work over the weekends when you have time, you can shop for the ingredients in advance, you eat more healthful meals because you're not just grabbing what is quick (and often not great for you)... yet I haven't managed to start doing this.

Can anyone share their tips for getting started?  Do you keep a big binder with go-to recipes?  Do you print out calendars to log in your meal plans?  Do you plan for leftovers (like you make chicken one night and then the next it becomes an ingredient ~ like chicken tacos or something ~ for the following night)?

We also belong to a CSA so I need to get better about planning to use what we get each week too...

Any help/tips/advice would be appreciated!

TCsbride

With two kiddos now, it's become impossible to get to the grocery store anymore, so I HAD to get better at meal planning. I've really got it down now and I shared some of my tips in my blog. Link is siggy if you are interested. I didn't have time, but I was going to give an example of my shopping trip this past week in my blog tonight.

andrealynn0707

All of the above is my answer ;P

Here is what I do:

I have "favorite" recipes I write down in a blank cookbook. I also have bookmarked recipes of things I want to try.

Every week, on Tuesday, I get the ads for the week at the grocery store. I look and see what is on sale. I also look for good deals or great looking produce at the Farmer's Market.

On Tuesday, I meal plan for the following week (Sunday-Saturday) based on what is on sale at the grocery store. This gives me an idea of things I need to find at the Farmer's Market (I ususally go on Saturdays).

If an ingredient in my "want to try" file is on sale, that will be on the list that week. If I can't find something I need at the Farmer's Market, I adjust the menu based on what looks good there.

For example, this week:

Sunday: we were OOT for dinner, so I had BBQ at the place we were at.

Monday: Breakfast for dinner. Eggs, pancakes, and bacon. (Got the eggs and bacon at the FM)

Tuesday: Chicken nuggets I made using b/s breasts from the grocery store, green beans from the FM

Wednesday: Crock pot- pot roast, with potatoes from the FM and carrots from my garden. Also bread from the FM.

Thursday: Stuffed bell peppers with peppers, corn, and onions from the FM, ground beef from the grocery store (on sale)

Friday: Home-made pizza with left over ground beef and extra peppers from above

Saturday: Fajitas: combo of steak (freezer from a BOGO) and chicken (on sale this week), plus tortillas, peppers, and onions from the FM

During the winter, things get a little more tricky, and we eat a lot of potatoes and pork and apples since I try to only buy in-season and (semi) local produce.

LittleFuller

You don't need to be fancy about it.  I have a binder with recipes (divided by type), but that's only b/c I love trying new recipies and I needed a way to organize everything.  I don't do the weekend prep thing, although that would be very handy.  I sit down on Sunday afternoon and decide what we're having for the next week, and make my grocery list from that menu.  I try to plan for bigger meals on Thursday/Friday so we can eat any leftovers for lunch on the weekends.  During the week, I take any leftovers for my lunch at work.  DH loves this system b/c he's such a kid and loves to look at the "menu" for the week.

yakigna

I'm dependent on the internet. I look at sale ads online on Saturday, make my list. Print off any coupons online from sites like couponmom.com

We go shopping on Sunday- sometimes up to 3 stores to get stuff that is on sale, including the FM

I look online for recipes that utilize sale ingredients and voila!?

?

HikerBride07

Also allrecipes.com has a search feature where you put in your ingredients you want to use an search for recipes using those.

megstriesagain

I hate specifically planning meals in advance because I hate being on a set schedule as such and hate feeling like I HAVE to eat something because it's on the list...so I just make sure to really stock up on "useful" foods at the store/farmer's market, and then try to make at least one or two things that will last almost all week.  For example, this week I cooked a whole lot of barley - made a huge salad out of most of it for DH and I to have as lunches, and put the rest in tupperware to use for a dinner or two sometime this week. And then everything else is just available in case I feel like cooking - and if I don't, there's barley salad.

 

So we almost always have on hand zucchini, salad greens, various kinds of cheese, tomatoes, various kinds of nuts, hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, spinach and chicken in the freezer, and pasta on the shelf.  So everything's ready to be made into whatever we want, big or small sizes, but I don't feel constrained by my set list.