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goodgalpal
member
Meal planning- tell me how you do it
goodgalpal
member
I am interested in meal planning. I was doing it for a while but I fell off the wagon with school and my mom's health concerns and such.
What is your process/thinking when doing meal plans? Ex- do you wait until you get the sale ads and base it off of those? Do you just go by the foods you typically like? I am just looking for ways to make it easier for me and still get healthy foods (prefer affordable) but lately I've been SO BAD!
I have just been going to Whole foods once a week for meats and things, and then we go to Kroger to pick up odds and ends. Hubby went to Kroger last night and got milk, some pre-cut fruits, and who knows what else. He spent $60!!! And that was on top of our organic delivery (fruits/veggies). Ugh.
Anyway, I need to be able to get healthy quick foods and would prefer a lower price point, but will pay more for things that are organic, grass-fed, free range, etc.
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Re: Meal planning- tell me how you do it
I don't really shop sales. I know I should, but I don't enjoy it and it's not worth it to me, though we are going to one income in the spring so I may start then. I just make a monthly menu of what I want to eat for the month. We eat leftovers for lunch in general and I cook about 5 nights a week (will be more like 6 in the spring) so my menu is mostly dinners. I have a list of pantry staples that I can get at walmart and costco, these would also include sandwich makings and snack items that aren't produce. I do a big trip to these two stores once a month that includes everything I need for the month that doesn't go bad or can be frozen. Then each week I just do a quick trip to buy produce and milk and things like that. Since I buy in bulk at costco, I don't need to buy things like meat or cheese every month. It works really well because I don't have to worry about what to buy for dinner and although the monthly grocery list and trip takes awhile, the weekly trips and lists are very quick and we usually just stop off real quick on the way home from church.
ETA: Once every few months I "shop from the pantry" and use up anything we have on hand. Those months I may not make a big trip, but my weekly trips are a little bigger because I may have to buy a few extra things to make a recipe possible.
this exactly
I buy meat in bulk. As such, we always have beef, pork, chicken, etc, in the deep freeze. That way, I don't have to scrape around the sales each week. I just plan my meals around what is fresh. I try to balance the diet with a variety of meats and proteins. My goal right now is to include more high-protein meatless meals into our diet.
Now that I have my recipe blog up and running, I just browse through it, pick meals that sound yummy, and add them to my meal plan. Whatever isn't made from one week is carried over to the next.
Somehow, it seems as though just having the meals planned and the groceries on hand makes cooking each evening 1,000x easier.
IMHO, leftovers are like manna from heaven, sent by God himself. They're like a free, home-cooked dinner that I didn't have to cook! As such, I tend to make larger quantities so we can have multiple meals from one cooking session.
well i normally look in the fridge and cupboard to see what i have and what i can make from that, or make without having to buy a ton. then i plan based on that and what we haven't eaten recently. if we just had something i don't want to make it again straight away. so i normally go from there. i also try to do one meal a week from the freezer (I tend to make enough of lots of things to get us one dinner, one lunch and then a bag into the freezer for another meal later on) and one of eggs to save money.
eta: I do sometimes shop sales if something we buy regularly is on a 2/1 or 2/reduced sale. I also buy the meat with the $1 coupon because its one day from its sell by date and stick it in the freezer until the day I need to use it. I also try to make meals that will give me leftover ingredients for another meal - we're having a roast chicken tonight and we won't eat all of it so the leftover meat will become chicken and biscuits on Tuesday.
i have an excel list of recipes we like, and the ingredients are listed in columns to the side of it.
i'll go down and pick enough of them for a week, and then see what ingredients i don't currently have. I'll buy them, and then i'm set.